The Pixel 10 will have faster startup performance thanks to this Android change

Thanks to some early leaks, we know what most phones in the Google Pixel 10 series will look like. We’re still months away from the launch of the Pixel 10 series, though, so there’s a lot we still don’t know when it comes to the new Pixel-only features they’ll have. While I don’t have any information to share on new Pixel software features, I did spot evidence that the Pixel 10 series will feature faster startup performance.

While I was browsing the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) code review last week, I spotted a code change that explicitly references the Pixel 10. In the description for the code change titled “Parallel Module Loading: Add performance mode,” a Google engineer says the change was tested on a Pixel 10, resulting in a 30% reduction in “loading time.”

It’s rare — but not totally unheard of — to see explicit references to unreleased hardware in AOSP; as far as I know, this is the first public mention of the Pixel 10 outside of leaks, though it’s not like we didn’t already know it existed.

The change was also tested on a Pixel Fold, though, which means it isn’t specific to next-generation hardware. Instead, it’ll impact all Android-based devices once it makes its way to Android’s open source codebase, likely in a quarterly release of Android 16. That’s because it impacts a key part of the bootup process shared by all Android devices.

Without getting too technical, Google is making a change that speeds up an early part of the Android OS’s multi-stage initialization process. The stage in question happens after the Linux kernel is loaded, and it sets up the basic environment necessary for later stages of the boot process to take place. During this stage, Android loads essential kernel modules, which are pieces of code that extend the kernel’s functionality and which can be loaded and unloaded on demand. The change that Google is proposing tweaks how Android loads these modules to remove a bottleneck that previously existed, resulting in a noticeable improvement in module loading times.

Of course, since this change only impacts one part of the bootup process, it means the 30% reduction in loading time doesn’t translate to a 30% speedup in boot times. We don’t know exactly how much this change translates to improved startup times, assuming it’s even noticeable by the end user. In any case, it’s still interesting to peel the curtain back on these behind-the-scenes changes, as Google makes a ton of them every Android release but rarely if ever publicizes them.