Developer Ethan Yonker, popularly known as "Dees_Troy" of the Team Win Recovery Project hints about the possibility of a dual boot capability for the upcoming Pixel devices. Looking into the Nougat source code, Google has introduced significant changes which are associated with a system partition layout.
Yonker has pointed out that since every partition has two copies, the probability that developers will be able to hijack the second set for a dual boot capability is likely to happen. This scenario allows a user to boot stock on the Nougat with an added option to boot a custom ROM with features that are unavailable on the existing OS.
Dees_Troy further adds that seamless updates can actually work with the dual operating systems. The update feature on the Nougat is, unfortunately, available only to devices with the pre-installed OS.
With regards to its technical background, partitions are portions of storage on a hard disk, SSD or eMMC/UFC for smartphones that have been set aside for a specific purpose or data so that they would appear as if they were another separate storage. Originally, the android system has very few partitions in a regular installation. When Nougat entered the picture, new devices have duplicate partitions for system-related files.
Before Nougat, a firmware update requires users to wait for the update while the system installs new downloaded records in order to make sure that apps don't accidentally utilize a file that is being updated.
During the process of receiving seamless updates, an android device must have two system partitions. One active division houses the current files and the inactive part will be used to install a new update. When the process is completed, the system restarts and the inactive partition becomes the active one having the latest updates. The previously active division now becomes inactive. The entire approach makes the refurbishment process faster and safer. If something goes wrong, the device still has a backup. Moreover, time is reduced when the gadget becomes unusable during the update.
