I believe, Project Treble has nothing for end-users, it's an interface only for device vendors for implementing major os updates. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
As I checked a few pages on xda and android.com, understand project treble is a part of android os framework starting with Oreo. And I believe that HMD took advantage of Treble to publish Oreo Beta, being among the very few device manufacturers. (Although we haven't get the public release yet, beta was released only a week after I purchased my Nokia 8)
Your question still needs to be answered by moderators
Support for project Treble was/is not enabled in the Nokia 8 beta. Just to be sure, does your answer implicate that HMD/Nokia will specifically be adding support for the final version of Oreo, as Oreo can also be rolled out without Treble support?
Project Treble is not enabled in the Oreo Beta to the best of my knowledge, but from what Anna has said I take that as meaning it will be enabled in the official release. This for me is great news as it makes updates a lot easier to push.
After further reading on available resources, I realized that my own comments seemed little bit inaccurate to me. I've just run a test (piece of code on termux) on my nokia 8 w/oreo beta which shows it does not support project treble. After what Anna said about final release, I became more and more curious
Hi Henhoy, Just updated to public release. Regret, it is still not activated. [Checked my TA-1012 using terminal app with 'getprop ro.treble.enabled' command, which returned 'false'.]
There's been a lot of discussion around Treble and we wanted to clarify the situation. We're aware our previous message might have been a little unclear and we're sorry for any misunderstanding.
Nokia 8 was launched with Android 7.0 Nougat™ however we recently upgraded this device to Android 8.0 Oreo™. Unfortunately Google only supports Project Treble on phones launching on Android 8.0 Oreo™, not phones upgrading to their software.
HMD is fully committed to implementing Project Treble on all new Android Oreo products in the near future and we apologise for any disappointment this may cause.
While I appreciate your reply Anna, what you say is not entirely true. Google does support enabling Project Treble on phones that have been upgraded from Android 7.0 Nougat to Android 8.0 Oreo.
Both the Essential PH-1 and Huawei's Mate 9 and Honor 8 Pro have received support for Project Treble along with an update to Android 8.0 Oreo.
Google doesn't even allow devices launching with Android 8.0 Oreo to not support Project Treble, so that's not much of a commitment. Commitment would be to add support to HMD's existing devices.
Project Treble's main purpose seems to be to ease the distribution of updates. As Nokia was pretty quick with updates in the past, I don't know if Project Treble would lead to much improvement.
But Project Treble is also a major redesign of Android's architecture, and is expected to improve isolation between components and thus also overall security:
What I don't understand so far: If Project Treble is not enabled on the Nokia 8, does it benefit from the architectural changes and additional isolation nonetheless?
Its important for end user as said as critical parts can be updated easily and we recieve updates sooner than usual. Since the implementation of OS components and any change can be brought easily. It's that important that even crucial thing like OS Kernel it's can itself be updated like a simple app in play store.
Comments
Thanks for the clarification Dear Jeroom.
As I checked a few pages on xda and android.com, understand project treble is a part of android os framework starting with Oreo. And I believe that HMD took advantage of Treble to publish Oreo Beta, being among the very few device manufacturers. (Although we haven't get the public release yet, beta was released only a week after I purchased my Nokia 8)
Your question still needs to be answered by moderators
Hi Jeroom & Naufrago!
Yes, Treble is part of Android Oreo 8.0 and will be included in Nokia 8.
Have a great day!
Anna (Moderator)
Hi Anna,
Support for project Treble was/is not enabled in the Nokia 8 beta. Just to be sure, does your answer implicate that HMD/Nokia will specifically be adding support for the final version of Oreo, as Oreo can also be rolled out without Treble support?
Have a great day!
After further reading on available resources, I realized that my own comments seemed little bit inaccurate to me. I've just run a test (piece of code on termux) on my nokia 8 w/oreo beta which shows it does not support project treble. After what Anna said about final release, I became more and more curious
I am downloading the official one right now :-)
Would someone with the right knowledge, be kind and check if project treble is activated when they have installed the official version.
Treble is not in this official 8 oreo update sadly
Just updated to public release. Regret, it is still not activated. [Checked my TA-1012 using terminal app with 'getprop ro.treble.enabled' command, which returned 'false'.]
It was earlier mentioned that treble will be there in Oreo build.
Are we going to receive another OTA later that will enable treble or there will be no treble support at all?
I request moderators to clarify the situation as Anna's comment confirming treble is all over the Internet and it is creating confusion.
Treble support is pretty crucial for this device, so we all would love to have it included.
Thanks.
There's been a lot of discussion around Treble and we wanted to clarify the
situation. We're aware our previous message might have been a little
unclear and we're sorry for any misunderstanding.
Nokia 8 was launched with Android 7.0 Nougat™ however we recently
upgraded this device to Android 8.0 Oreo™. Unfortunately Google only
supports Project Treble on phones launching on Android 8.0 Oreo™, not phones
upgrading to their software.
HMD is fully committed to implementing Project Treble on all new Android
Oreo products in the near future and we apologise for any disappointment this
may cause.
As stated by Juho Sarvikas on Twitter:
Treble requires 2 conditions to be met:
1) Adapt to the new Vendor Interface implementation
2) Standalone Vendor partition to contain Vendor Implementation
Nokia 8 does not have separate Vendor partition in ROM space and the partitioning cannot be done OTA.
Link to the Tweet here.
Project Treble's main purpose seems to be to ease the distribution of updates. As Nokia was pretty quick with updates in the past, I don't know if Project Treble would lead to much improvement.
But Project Treble is also a major redesign of Android's architecture, and is expected to improve isolation between components and thus also overall security:
https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2017/07/shut-hal-up.html
What I don't understand so far: If Project Treble is not enabled on the Nokia 8, does it benefit from the architectural changes and additional isolation nonetheless?
Thank u @Anna
It cannot be done on the Nokia 8 Juho Sarvikas has already stated this and his comment regarding it has been posted by a number of people.