Qualcomm said in a statement that it had made a deal with Google to extend their Project Treble in order that more devices which were built on Qualcomm SoCs could run the latest Android versions.

Google's new releases normally make it to its Pixel phones fairly soon after they are announced. It is then left to the various OEMs who use Android on their devices — Samsung, OPPO, OnePlus and others — to pick up the new release, modify it as needed and provide updates to their users. Practically every OEM makes some modifications with hardly anyone using stock Android as the Pixel does. 

Sometimes this takes a long time — Samsung recently announced an Android 11 update three months after Google released it — and at times there may be no updates at all.

"These initiatives are designed to enable faster Android OS upgrades with fewer resources and a predictable software lifecycle for Snapdragon-based devices, which together are expected to result in more consumers with Snapdragon-based devices running the latest Android OS version," Qualcomm said.

David Burke, vice-president of Android engineering at Google, said the company continued to work closely with its technology partners to increase the freshness of the Android ecosystem.

"Through this collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies, we expect that Android users will have the latest OS upgrades and greater security on their devices,” he added.

Kedar Kondap, vice-president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, said: “We are excited to work with Google to extend our support for Android OS and security updates on future Snapdragon mobile platforms utilising the Project Treble enhancements.

"Through this collaboration, we expect accelerated Android OS upgrade on Snapdragon-based devices while providing a superior user experience for end users.”