I agree with the last paragraph in the article -- it's pretty crazy to see Google anointing this software update as special and rushing it out so much faster than normal Android updates.
I mean, I get it, this is a headline-grabbing issue and they need to act to keep a flagship phone on the market, and it's Google writing this patch rather than the phone manufacturer. But if it's okay to fast-track and skip some of the process for this patch, why not others?
There are two possible reasons for this. This most probably is a small patch. just disabling a feature and not removing it completely from the phone; as such, it would not affect drivers and such like other Android updates. The second reason is that it may be just an app update for Search if they have that well separated from the OS, which would mean that it would not change any of the bloatware carries and hardware makers put in.
I mean, I get it, this is a headline-grabbing issue and they need to act to keep a flagship phone on the market, and it's Google writing this patch rather than the phone manufacturer. But if it's okay to fast-track and skip some of the process for this patch, why not others?