Moto G starts receiving Android 4.4.2 KitKat update ahead of schedule

By Ketan Pratap | Updated: 20 December 2013 10:55 IST

Motorola has announced that its Moto G budget smartphone has started receiving the Android 4.4.2 KitKat update over-the-air (OTA).

Motorola at the launch of Moto G had revealed that the smartphone would be receiving a 'guaranteed' Android 4.4 KitKat update in January; however it seems the Google-owned Motorola has rolled out the update ahead of schedule.

Punit Soni, vice president of product management, Motorola Mobility, confirmed the news in a blog post, and stated that Moto G smartphones bought via the company's online store and Amazon US will receive the Android 4.4.2 KitKat update starting Thursday. The blog post also did not reveal the details of Android 4.4.2 update for other carriers and countries but said, "KitKat will come to other Moto G carriers and regions soon as well."

Motorola notes that the update brings the latest version of the Android OS (Android 4.4.2 KitKat) and also introduces new features, enhancements and bug fixes for the Moto G. Some of the new features include enhancements such as restyled status and navigation bars; new colour emoji support; new full-screen mode; enhanced phone dialler app; improved 'touch to focus' and new photo editing features in the default Gallery app.

(Also see: Moto G review)

Motorola has also added support for printing photos from Google Docs, Gmail, and other content on phone via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and hosted services like Google Cloud Print and HP ePrinters. The Android 4.4.2 update for Moto G also incorporates new Google Hangouts version that supports messages and MMS.

It's worth pointing out that the Android 4.4.2 update has been rolling out to Nexus devices, making the Moto G becomes the first non-Nexus device to get the update. In November, Motorola rolled out the Android 4.4 update for Moto X.

The Motorola Moto G features a 4.5-inch HD 'edge-to-edge' display with a resolution of 720x1280 pixels (translating to a pixel density of 329ppi) and boasts of a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 screen. Powered by a quad-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor coupled with an Adreno 305 GPU, the Moto G features 1GB of RAM. The Moto G sports a 5-megapixel rear camera along with an LED flash and also includes a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. The rear camera supports HD (720p) video recording.