Last Updated on April 10, 2017 by Mathew Diekhake
A up-to-the-minute over the air update is happening now across the United States for HTC One M7 owners subscribed to the Sprint carrier network. The new build is a fresh version of the existing Android 4.4.2 KitKat firmware with the 5.05.651.2 build number. Keep your eyes peeled on the system messages for it arriving as an alert. Additionally, if you think it might be waiting for you, head to the Settings > About Device > Software Updates > Check for Updates menu and see if it’s waiting.
The newfangled firmware version brings relief for known bugs in the previous build, Google security fine-tuning and general performance enhancements making it much more superior over the last build. We know 4.4.2 already for bringing in the predominant features for the chocolate KitKat software after the original jump up from Jelly Bean. With it came white status icons including the WiFi signal strength, battery charge icon and reception. In addition to the white bars to give an overall better KitKat feel, we have wireless printing from the cloud, landscape keyboard improvements for typing, new Emoji symbols, immersive mode and full screen album art available from the lock screen for exceptional design tweaks. However, as we wind down towards the latter stages of KitKat we didn’t see many features rolling. Furthermore, a new OpenSSL bug crept into the 4.4.3 KitKat that required fixing in the final stages with the number 4.4.4.
With that knowledge, some phone carrier networks determined they would not bother rolling out the final stages as traditional numbers and deploy smaller incremental updates on the same 4.4.2 Kitkat build that still carries much of what was coming in the final stages. That’s happened here today with the One M7 by HTC. However, not all changes are coming. We know a revamped phone dialer was part of the normal 4.4.4 KitKat update and it appears as though HTC are focusing on the Google security improvements here and not much else.
You should understand that Google released the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 smartphone and tablet yesterday and with it came the news for Android 5.0 Lollipop. Today, HTC announced their plans for updating both the M7 and M8 smartphones and we can tell you that it is within 3 months of when the official release code comes for Lollipop. That three-month period will fit both devices in with the new software. That means any time between now and the beginning of February will see the first M7’s installing Lollipop. However, remember that each phone carrier will roll theirs out separately so you’ll need to keep checking when that happens for Sprint. Since they are one of the larger networks we hope to see it towards the start of the eventual deployment phase.