Essential Phone gets Android 9 Pie update already, on the day of Google's official release

Earlier today Google announced the official name of the latest version of its mobile operating system. At the same time, over-the-air updates to Android 9.0 Pie have started going out to devices supported by Google directly, namely Pixels.

In what feels like a record-breaking achievement, there's already an OEM also sending out this update to its devices - we're talking about Essential. If you own an Essential Phone check for an update notification, or if you don't see that go into Settings and trigger it manually.

Essential's been pretty fast with OS updates so far, but this is quite the accomplishment. Even if the company hasn't come out with a sequel to its original handset yet, at least it's doing that one justice by focusing its efforts on keeping it up-to-date when it comes to software.

Android Pie comes with adaptive battery and brightness, simpler navigation, as well as context-based recommended apps and actions. Like Google's, Essential's update also includes the August security patches.