At last year’s I/O conference, Google announced Project Butter in Android 4.1. The oddly, yet aptly named Project Butter was a shot in the arm for Android’s performance and boy, did it work. Devices that were updated to Android 4.1 were noticeably smoother than those running Android 4.0 and the Butter has kept coming with subsequent releases of Jelly Bean. Android 4.3 added support for newer versions of OpenGL ES and generally updated core components of Android. Now, it looks Android might be getting even quicker in the future, thanks to the search giant’s most recent purchase.
According to French publication, L’Express, FlexyCore has been bought by Google for $23 Million. You might not have heard of FlexyCore, they’re the team behind the DroidBooster app that promised to bring high-end performance to all devices. We have no doubt that FlexyCore had something to do with Project Butter in the first place and now, the team is to become part of the Android team. In fact, a Google spokesman from France has said that the business is already integrated into the Android teams.
The 5-year old team that is FlexyCore have been in talks with Google concerning a purchase since about a year ago and the deal has just been closed. GigaOm have been told that the purchase has indeed gone through and they were given this brief statement: “The FlexyCore team has strong expertise in building software to optimize Android device performance, and we think they’d be a great fit with our team.”
Whether or not the FlexyCore team have had their hand in speeding up KitKat is unsure at this point but, if the team has already been working with Google, there’s a good chance. KitKat is set to be another smaller release, with more UI changes than Android 4.3 or 4.2. With more butter, KitKat could become one tasty treat for us all when it launches later this month with the Nexus 5.