Google today announced a new effort to make it easier for Android manufacturers to update their devices.

Called Project Treble, Google’s new effort aims to separate the custom lower-level software from device makers and silicon manufacturers from the core Android OS framework. Manufacturers must currently update that lower-level software with each new Android OS framework release, but that won’t be the case with Treble.

Project Treble will utilize a new vendor interface to separate the core Android OS framework and lower-level vendor software. Because the device-specific software will be separated from the core Android OS framework, OEMs should be able to just plug in the updated Android OS framework and leave their custom software alone, which should save them time and hopefully lead to faster updates.

Here’s what Google has to say about Project Treble:

“The core concept is to separate the vendor implementation - the device-specific, lower-level software written in large part by the silicon manufacturers - from the Android OS Framework. This is achieved by the introduction of a new vendor interface between the Android OS framework and the vendor implementation. The new vendor interface is validated by a Vendor Test Suite (VTS), analogous to the CTS, to ensure forward compatibility of the vendor implementation.”

Project Treble will be included with all new devices that launch with Android O. The new architecture is already on Google Pixel phones running the Android O Developer Preview, so there are already phones out there running Project Treble.

This is a major update to the low-level Android architecture. It’s good to see Google making such a big change, though, because despite the company’s past efforts to speed up software updates, some devices are still slow to receive Android OS updates. We’ll have to wait and see if Project Treble actually makes a difference, but what we’ve heard so far sounds promising.