Along with the announcement of its new flagship One smartphone, HTC earlier this month debuted its new Sense 5 overlay for Android that'll come preloaded on its new handset. Typically when a new version of any software is announced, users of the previous versions want to know if they'll get updated to the new version, and that's no different with Sense 5.
An HTC One X owner recently took to HTC's official Facebook page to ask if his device, which currently runs Sense 4, would be bumped up to Sense 5 at some point in the future. In response, HTC said that it plans to offer upgrades to "some of its existing devices" in the coming months, including the global flavors of the One X, One X+, One S and Butterfly. The company also noted, though, that some unnamed Sense 5 features that are made possible by the HTC One's hardware won't be included in the updates. HTC's full statement:
"HTC will be offering upgrades to some of its existing devices in the next few months, including global variants of HTC One X, One X+, One S and the HTC Butterfly. Also, note that some features enabled by the new HTC One hardware will not be available in the software updates."
It's worth noting that, in its response, HTC specifically said that the global flavors of devices like the One X and One S will be updated. There's no mention yet of the U.S. versions of those devices, so we'll just have to wait and see if owners of devices like the One X and One X+ on AT&T, One S on T-Mobile and DROID DNA on Verizon will get upgraded to Sense 5 as well. For those that are curious, the HTC One X and One S are still running Android 4.0 and Sense 4, while the One X+ and DROID DNA are both running Android 4.1 beneath Sense 4+.
While it's unclear which updates owners of the named HTC hardware will be getting as part of the Sense 5 update, it's still good to hear that HTC is planning to hook up owners of some of its previous devices with Sense 5 and at least some of its new features. As Android Central notes, HTC's new Flipboard-like newsfeed known as BlinkFeed will likely make the cut, and I wouldn't be surprised if the flat app icons and new font used in Sense 5 make the cut as well. For now we're stuck waiting for HTC to spill a few more Sense 5-flavored beans on its update plans, which likely won't happen until after the HTC One begins rolling out worldwide next month. Until we hear more, you can check out a video of Sense 5 in action on the HTC One below.