When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works

Home / News / Project Ara modular phone will let you swap components without having to switch it off

Project Ara modular phone will let you swap components without having to switch it off

All hardware modules bar the screen and CPU will be hot swappable, thanks to a modified version of Android L

Chalk up another interesting development in the story of Google’s upcoming Project Ara modular smartphone: it’ll allow you to remove and replace modules while it’s still switched on.

According to Google’s Paul Eremenko, you’ll be able to hot swap every component in a Project Ara phone except the display and the CPU. And you’ll even be able to do it while processes are running, thanks to Ara’s OS – a modified version of the upcoming Android L.

READ MORE: Google’s Project Ara modular phones coming in January 2015

Eremenko delivered a keynote presentation at the LCU14 conference in which he spoke at length about Project Ara’s development and its goals (you can see the entire 30-minute speech in the video embedded above), and touched on the hot swappable nature of the upcoming Ara modules. The modules, according to PhoneBloks, will be available to buy through a new, Google Play-style online store.

The first Project Ara products are expected to be on sale in the first quarter of 2015. We can’t wait.

[Source: PhoneBloks]

READ MORE: Google’s got a working Project Ara prototype

Profile image of Sam Kieldsen Sam Kieldsen Contributor

About

Tech journalism's answer to The Littlest Hobo, I've written for a host of titles and lived in three different countries in my 15 years-plus as a freelancer. But I've always come back home to Stuff eventually, where I specialise in writing about cameras, streaming services and being tragically addicted to Destiny.

Areas of expertise

Cameras, drones, video games, film and TV