Qualcomm Readies Chips for Android P

Android P is on the way, and Qualcomm has taken some important proactive measures to clear its path. The company has announced that it has worked directly with Google’s developers to ensure that its Qualcomm Snapdragon mobile chip platforms are fully prepared to support Android’s newest operating system.

In particular, the preparations focused on the software of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845, 660, and 636 chips, making them “production ready for OEMs” developing devices that will run on Android P, as Qualcomm Technologies product management director Mike Genewich put it in a statement announcing the efforts. Elaborating further, Qualcomm’s announcement said part of its aim is to “accelerate the availability of key new enhancements to consumers, such as multi-camera support, display cutout support, indoor navigation, HDR, among others.”

That also suggests mobile devices using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon silicon will be well-positioned to enable multimodal biometric authentication, with Android P featuring new API protocols to support such technologies as the range of biometric mechanisms used by various smartphones continues to extend.

There are already at least two smartphones currently in development that are poised to benefit from Qualcomm’s efforts, the company notes: The Xiaomi Mi MIX 2S and the OnePlus 6 will both be based on the Snapdragon 845 processor and Android P.