Users of the original HTC One (M7) will not have to upgrade to the new One (M8) or worry about flashing any custom ROMs in order to use HTC’s new Sense 6 Android skin. HTC USA President Jason Mackenzie has announced that Sense 6 will roll out to the original HTC One by the end of May.
The update is only promised to HTC One users in Canada and the U.S. and was made through the company president’s twitter account.
No announcement has been made yet on HTC’s website, nor has an exact date been provided for the update to any version of the HTC One. This is understandable considering the difficulties that phone manufacturers can face in getting certification from the individual carriers. Luckily, HTC’s new commitment to keep their phones up to date comes with a tool to track the progress of updates to the specific versions of the phone.
In a follow up tweet by Jason Mackenzie, we are told to keep our eyes on the HTC Software Updates page. It is currently not displaying any Sense 6 update info, but we are told it will be updated soon.
This is an important update to the HTC One, as it should enable the use of the new Blinkfeed Launcher that HTC split out and uploaded to the Google Play Store a couple weeks ago. This would allow last year’s HTC One to take advantage of rapid updates in the future, independent of carrier certifications. Not to mention all the cool new features of Sense 6 – we showed off the new Blinkfeed in video, why don’t you check that out, just for fun.
One of the key questions I have about this update timeframe is whether or not Sense 6 on the HTC One will be accompanied by the Android 4.4.3 update that is expected soon, and is said to start rolling out to the Sprint Nexus 5 starting today? It certainly would be convenient to see both rolled into a single update, but we suspect it may take HTC a bit longer to get 4.4.3 through carrier certifications – good thing we have HTC’s updates site to keep us informed.
HTC One owners, is this a big deal to you – will this update change your mind about updating to the new One (M8)?
