Google has made a small but important update to the Android Developer site that brings the OTA images of the latest updates to Android Marshmallow for Nexus devices which can be downloaded. Before now, Google has had the full images of updates available for Nexus owners to update their devices but it required a full install and subsequent reset of their devices. Now developers and users who like to flash their devices manually can do just the OTA update instead of having to do a full reset of their device.
The update still requires that you do a side load of the update via the adb tool that is available from Google. Once you have that installed, you can use the adb sideload command to install the
Android Marshmallow
update. You still will have to do a bit of work to get the OTA installed on your device as you still have to use this tool, but it should be faster and will save users time from having to completely update their devices, reinstall apps from backup, etc.
The updating using the sideload method for OTAs is not new. Many Nexus owners have found sites that have the OTA available and simply use them to update their devices. Now it is officially sanctioned by Goggle essentially, so you have a bit more security by downloading them directly from Google instead of another source. It is unclear on how fast these updates will be released when a full update image is released. We won’t know until June when the next update happens but it is likely going to be at the same time.
For more information, be sure to check out the new OTA page on the Developer site. Currently images are available for all Nexus devices back to the Nexus 7(2013) model and the Pixel C tablet.
