The Moto G had been the budget smartphone choice for everyone for 2013 and this carried on in 2014 too until its successor Moto G 2014 came around. And if you have a 2013 Moto G or a 2014 Moto G then you just might have an Android 5.0 Lollipop update waiting for you.
Motorola Announced the update on its official twitter page.
#Lollipop is rolling out in phases to #MotoG (2nd Gen) in US & #MotoG (1st & 2nd Gen) in India. Look for the notification on your device!
— Motorola Mobility (@Motorola) January 23, 2015
Motorola has announced that the roll-out has already begun and it will continue over the next few weeks. Now the Moto G has joined the list of smartphones to receive the official Android Lollipop update. Although Motorola hasn’t said when other markets and devices might see the update. Last week Luciano Carvalho, a software engineer at Motorola, revealed that Lollipop would come to 2014 and 2013 handsets “really soon.”
Motorola has also got a dedicated website for more information about your smartphone software upgrades.
As always, there are a couple of ways that you can check and apply this update. The first way is to simply wait for the OTA update notification to be pushed to your device. Your Moto G will check the servers every 24-48 hours to see if an update is available for you. Since Motorola is doing this in phases, it could take a week or two before your device is eligible for the update. However, you could also check manually to see if you can download and install the update.
When your phone is ready to update, you will see a notification on your phone that says “Software Update Available”. Tap the notification to start the download process. This should take a few minutes to complete and the phone will give you full instructions on what to do. If upgrade is not showing up on your Moto G then go to Settings>About Phone>System Updates and check for update, If the update is ready for your mobile, based on country you live, the dialogue prompt and ask you to allow to update your phone. Just select yes, and update your phone. The whole process would take 15-20 minutes. For the stability of the new upgrade, Some users might have facing problems and bugs with the new update. Among these problems, we find the already infamous memory leak bug and battery drain issues, which only became more widespread and complemented by other issues. But rather then these tiny problems which Google have already been aware of, Lollipop update fixes a lot of issues that previous versions might have had. This build also brings with it support for dual sim and this build is for the Asia retail model of Moto G 2013.
Here are the official change-log details of Android 5.0 Lollipop for Moto series devices:
| Material Design | You will quickly notice a whole new colorful look and feel to your device – from fluid animations to new application and system themes, colors and widgets. |
| Notifications UI & Priorities | In order to alert you to the most timely and relevant information, the format and behavior of notifications have evolved:Notifications will appear on the lock screen and are intelligently ranked by type and who sent them. You double-tap to open one, swipe left or right to clear one, or clear all notifications from the bottom of the list. You can set the priority and privacy of notifications for each application. Very high priority notifications will pop up briefly over other applications so that you can take action. When you dismiss a notification on one device it will be dismissed on your other Android devices, if they are connected to the Internet. You can also further tailor how notifications behave with the new Downtime and Ambient Display settings (see below). |
| New Interruptions & Downtime Settings | You can tailor how interruptions behave, choosing to allow all, none, or only priority interruptions. You can personalize what counts as a priority interruption (reminders, events, calls, messages) and even tailor them to be from only contacts you specify. The Downtime setting will allow only priority interruptions during the times and days that you specify. e.g. allow only priority interruptions on the weekend. |
| Recent Apps (Multi-tasking) | The redesigned Overview space (formerly called Recents) will include both applications and separate activities within those applications. For instance, each open tab in Chrome will also appear here along with recent applications; both your Gmail Inbox and a draft email message will appear as separate cards. This provides a consistent way to switch amongst tasks. |
| Ambient Display | While your phone’s display is off, Ambient Display can show notifications without turning on the full display. This will be triggered when a notification arrives. You will see notifications similar to that shown on the lock screen. You can turn this feature on in the Display menu in Settings, and note that it will increase the power consumption of your device. |
| Motorola Assist and Downtime | Motorola Assist integrates the new Downtime settings to control when you don’t want to be disturbed. Motorola Assist also now uses the new Interruptions settings so that you can customize exceptions, such as letting only people on your starred contacts list get through. |
| Flashlight | Lollipop includes a new flashlight option as part of Quick settings (swipe down with two fingers from the status bar to see it). |
| Share your Device | You can now set up multiple user accounts on your phone. Guest mode is enabled by default. You can give calling and text privileges to other users of your device, or restrict them as you like in the Users menu under Settings.Note that the personalized Motorola experiences (Motorola Assist, Motorola Connect) are for the owner account only.The Motorola Camera, Motorola Gallery, and Motorola FM Radio applications support multiple user accounts. |
| Pin a view/app | Screen pinning allows you to keep a specific app or screen in view. For example, you can ‘pin’ a game and your child will not be able to navigate anywhere else on your phone. |
| Battery | The Battery settings panel now shows an estimated projection for how much time you have left while discharging or charging. You can also enable a new battery saver mode that will save power by reducing performance and most background data operations to extend your battery life. |
| Smarter Internet Connections | With Android Lollipop, your phone will not connect to a Wi-Fi access point unless there is a verified Internet connection. This feature improves hand-offs between Wi-Fi and cellular connections, helping to maintain your video chat or voice-over-IP (VoIP) call as you switch. |
| Performance | Your phone now uses the new Android Runtime to help optimize application performance. After upgrading to Lollipop, your applications will undergo a one-time optimization process. Note that the optimization for ART requires more space. |
| Smart Lock (Trusted Devices) |
Android Lollipop adds native support for allowing trusted devices to keep your phone unlocked (such as your Moto 360, a Bluetooth car kit or headset, etc.). Smart Lock replaces the prior trusted device capability in your Motorola phone. Note that you will need to add your trusted devices back after the transition to Lollipop in the Security settings menu under Smart Lock. |
| Security | Encryption can now use a stronger 256-bit key to help protect your data. Note that the stronger key will only be used after you perform a factory reset on Android Lollipop. Otherwise encryption will continue to use 128-bit key. You can turn on encryption in the Security settings menu |
Well Motorola’s flagship device Moto X First Gen is still awaiting Lollipop update. We assume that Lollipop update for Moto X 2013 or 1st Gen will also be made available for download till mid February. Their is also a speculation that Motorola updated Moto G to Lollipop before updating its flagship device Moto X, that Motorola wants to test this biggest update on Moto G so that they can get rid of minor errors and bugs which will help them build bug free software and smooth experience for its flagship device Moto X. Lets see when Motorola starts pushing updates for Moto X 2013.
If you have received this Lollipop update then use the comments section to tell us how the update process went and if you are enjoying the new Lollipop update or not.