Devices like the new Nexus 6P, pictured above, will no doubt see major versions of Android arrive for a couple of years yet, and even unofficial updates afterwards. That’s something that all Nexus devices have been able to enjoy for a long time now, but Google recently added another string to the Nexus bow. 2015 was a year that was full of security breaches and big software holes. Stagefright dominated the headlines for much of it. To see that nothing like that happens again, Google vowed to deliver monthly security updates to make sure that both the Android Open Source Project – where a lot of manufacturers get their code from – and Nexus devices don’t get hit by big exploits.
December’s monthly security updates have already hit the currently-supported list of Nexus devices, as well as more mainstream devices. We might have entered 2016 this month, but it’s just another month for the engineers at Google, as they’ve already started to roll out Security Updates for the month of January. As Android Police have noted, build MMB29S of Android 6.0.1 has been seen for both the Nexus 5 and Nexus 6 from Sprint and Verizon. Meanwhile on the tablet side of things, the Nexus 7 appears to be getting MMB29O. There’s no official word from Google as of writing, the Google Group that points to the Nexus Security Bulletins hasn’t been updated since December and there’s nothing new on source.android.com, either. It’s likely that the updates were sent to carriers and servers over the weekend and Google has yet to issue a release for the new software just yet.
Nevertheless, it’s reassuring to see that since these first started last Summer Google continues to be pushing forward with their plans to keep devices safe and secure with continuous updates. Factory Images aren’t live yet, either but those on Sprint and Verizon might be seeing updates hitting their devices pretty soon. We won’t know which vulnerabilities or holes have been plugged until the bulletin is live, which should be later today or early this week, even with CES 2016 going on.