Google has updated its Compatibility Definition Document for Android making it a MUST for OEMs to properly support the native notification features of Nougat like Direct Reply, block notifications of an app from the panel itself, actionable buttons, and more.

It is mostly Chinese OEMs like Xiaomi, Huawei, and Oppo who fiddle around with the notification system and customise it according to their liking. With this move, Google is putting its foot down on such modifications from OEMs to ensure that the notification experience of Android remains consistent across devices.

Handheld device implementations MUST support the behaviors of updating, removing, replying to, and bundling notifications as described in this section.

Also, handheld device implementations MUST provide:

• The ability to control notifications directly in the notification shade.

• The visual affordance to trigger the control panel in the notification shade.

• The ability to BLOCK, MUTE and RESET notification preference from a package, both in the inline control panel as well as in the settings app.

The new rules under the CDD are applicable for devices under the Android 7.1 CTS. So, Android OEMs who launch their phones with Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box can continue to fiddle around with the notification system of the OS. (https://fujifilm-x.com)

Additionally, the updated CDD makes it optional for OEMs to support the new seamless updates feature that Google introduced with Android 7.1. Considering that this feature takes up more space, it is likely that OEMs will not be willing to implement it on their mid-range and budget devices.