Android 5.1.1 Update Tipped; Could Bring Fix for Memory Leak Issue

While handset OEMs are busy upgrading their smartphones to Android 5.0 Lollipop as well as the recently announced Android 5.1 Lollipop, an incremental update dubbed Android 5.1.1 has been spotted in the Android SDK Manager.

First reported by Android Police, Android SDK Platform 5.1.1 is available as an incremental Platform SDK update in the Android SDK Manager. With the update spotted here, we can expect the source code might land on Android Open Source Project (AOSP) soon, and factory images and OTA updates for Nexus devices be released thereafter.

Android 5.1.1 Lollipop is primarily anticipated to bring a fix for the memory leak issue, a bug that has plagued Android 5.0 Lollipop users and even haunted some users on Android 5.1 Lollipop.

To recall, the "Memory leak still present on Android 5.1" issue was reported on the AOSP issue tracker by some users in March and was thereafter marked as fixed internally by Google. However, at that point no time-frame for release was provided by the company.

The memory leak issue in Android 5.0 Lollipop was first reported back in November and only after the release of Android 5.0.1 update in early December did a Google project member in late-December mark the issue for 'Future Release'. Considering that some users who recently updated to Android 5.1 Lollipop are still reporting the issue, an update is still required to fix it. We can now expect the incremental update Android 5.1.1 to be released in the coming days or weeks and bring a fix for the issue.

Google had last month announced the Android 5.1 Lollipop update that introduced some new features such as support for multiple SIM cards, Device Protection and HD voice on compatible devices with the update.