Android 4.3 OTA update rolls out for HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4 Play Editions

Google has been on a roll in terms of announcements this month. Hot on the heels of the Android 4.3 OS launch last month, which was rolled out for Nexus devices, it now looks like the same is being pushed for other devices too, according to AnandTech.

Both the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Play Editions, which feature pure Android without Sense and TouchWiz respectively, have some users reporting an over-the-air Android 4.3 update. While the update has still not been sent out to all users, there are reports that the roll out has definitely begun, and details of the same are now popping up. It should be noted that this report comes immediately after both HTC and Samsung released the Android 4.3 kernel sources online. Thus, reports of the HTC One and S4 Google Editions not getting updates directly from Google seems validated.

Google is now rolling out the Android 4.3 update for the HTC One and S4 Play Editions (Image credit: AnandTech)

First off, the update shows up as build JWR66V. The Galaxy S4 version gets a larger update file of 180MB, while the HTC One version gets a 150MB update file. Some of the featured changes include larger icons on the widget panels, tethering via Bluetooth for the Galaxy S4 and the menu background being switched from black to a lighter gradient.

While there is not much difference between the Google Play Edition versions and their conventional counterparts in terms of benchmarks, the former does feel snappier in performance. The update, as mentioned earlier, is coming OTA and while many users haven’t received it yet, it seems like Google is living up to its word of quickly rolling out the update for its Google Edition smartphones. A quick recap for Android 4.3 shows that the latest OS version comes with enhancements, improved rendering and some changes for developers like On-screen GPU profiling.