Changing Your Software In A Flash

Android P is the hot new software that just hit the market, and as such those ahead of the pack will be scrambling to get it on their phones.  This doesn’t mean that they have to go out and buy a phone with the newest software on it though.  By flashing your current phone you’re able to gain access to either the newest features on the market.  Or if you’re feeling nostalgic you can flash your phone to older versions as well.

The term “flashing” may be a new one to you, but if so don’t worry.  All it essentially means is that you’re loading a different version of software onto your operating system.  (Although you probably figured that out from the first paragraph).  So flashing forward can get you fancy new features, but why would you go backwards?  One reason might be to conserve battery power.  A newer version is bound to drain your battery faster, so the trade off may be worth it. 

WARNING:

Now here’s where I throw out the very important disclaimer.  Flashing your phone will erase all data from the device, and doing things wrong may brick your device. This means that if things are done incorrectly or get interrupted then you may render you phone unusable.  This is why its highly recommended to only flash a phone when its full charged.  If somehow the phone died mid process things could get tricky quickly.

That being said flashing can offer some really cool features, so if you’re careful and follow a guide to do it properly the results are worth it.  So how do you do it? There are a few things that you’ll need to make sure you have on your computer before starting the process, but overall the steps are simple.  In all flashing shouldn’t take you more than 30 minutes (and that’s moving slowly following a guide).  Google offers a step by step instructional guide on its docs page, but in order to follow this you’ll have to have the following tools:

-Android Debug Bride (ADB) and Fastboot

-A phone set to developer mode

-The correct image for the version you’re flashing to

Flashing can be a really cool experiment to undertake if you’ve never done it before and want to change how your phone works.  Just make sure you proceed with caution and charge your phone in advance.  If you really want to know more about it and get support on flashing/rooting your device Phonlab offers a course that covers just about every phone you can imagine!