Surface Duo’s October update explained: What’s fixed and improved

Windows Central goes deeper on Microsoft’s first system update for Surface Duo.

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Earlier this week, Microsoft pushed thefirst monthly updatefor its newSurface Duodual-screen Android device. The software refresh delivers the latest Android security patch just one day after its release by Google, signaling a swift commitment to keeping Surface Duo protected. But besides the security patch, there are also numerous drivers, fixes, and patches delivered too. That’s a good thing as many reviews have noted the Duo’s software needs some work.

Microsoft recently took the time to explain to Windows Central what exactly it fixed with this October update and some other bits about what comes next.

Surface Duo October update

Surface Duo’s hardware is widely praised as revolutionary or a feat of modern engineering. But the Android OS, which Microsoft is being very careful tonotfork and customize too heavily, is a bit green. None of that is surprising, but as Microsoft says, they are learning a lot from users – what the company calls “the first contact” – now that the public is using it daily.

While Microsoftdid postits official October changelog for Surface Duo, a practice that will continue going forward, that post did lack details on what was improved. In my conversation with those that worked on the update, more information came forward about what users can expect:

Improves Facebook Messenger single-screen experience / Facebook chat bubbles

One of the most specific bugs fixed in the update was an issue around what Microsoft calls “floaties” and it focuses on Facebook Messenger. The problem was these floating elements would span both displays regardless of the posture chose by the user. So, if Surface Duo was in phone mode (single display), a user could not interact with messages.

That is now fixed.

Improves call stability and experience

Before this update, some users complained that Surface Duo frequently dropped calls or accidentally hung up on people. Users tried to trace the issue to specific carriers or assumed Surface Duo was a lousy phone with poor reception. This problem was an issue that Microsoft did not see during its pre-release testing but became obvious once Surface Duo got into “large volumes of real-world customers.”

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The glitch’s cause arose when some “transient noise” hit the hall-effect sensor, which detects when Surface Duo is opened or closed, resulting in some calls being disconnected inadvertently.

Microsoft implemented some algorithms to solve this problem.

Improves touch stability

One of the most common complaintsfrom reviewersand owners of Surface Duo was related to touch. Some issues were related to the device waking up (or being unlocked), the touch display not responding, users could not answer a phone call, interacting with the UI, etc.

Improvements in all these areas were implemented by updating the touch driver from 4.302.139.0 to 4.305.139.0.

Improves device stability

Like the previous touch example, this fix is more global and addresses the general usage of Surface Duo.

Reviewers and some users complained that the display wallpaper would randomly disappear or that general system responsiveness was sluggish with the device waking and unlocking. Another example would be one of the displays that would turn off (or not turn on) during use.

The October update is supposed to address all those bugs too.

“Fit and finish”

This final category is small, but it addresses the ongoing effort to update and refine the software experience on Surface Duo continuously. These particular examples include:

November and beyond

Microsoft wouldn’t provide any information about what comes next for Surface Duo, but there are a few things that we can share for users that are relevant about future updates, including:

The good news is that many users on Reddit and other forums report that this update addresses many of the significant concerns and issues they were experiencing. It is also evident that Microsoft plans to stick to very regular updates for Surface Duo to continue to improve things, add new features, and fix issues reported by users as the device gets into more hands.

The more exciting topic is app updates that embrace dual screens and what new features Microsoft can bring to Surface Duo in the future. On the first point, there has not been any movement from first or even third-party apps adopting dual-screen spanning functionality as laid out inMicrosoft’s SDK. The other point regarding new features is trickier. Microsoft is careful not to fork its builds of Android, and instead, it works within the system so that any changes go upstream to the proper Android dev branch. That means a slower path to feature delivery but one that “breaks” fewer Android protocols resulting in these swifter monthly updates.

Microsoft has a clear roadmap, at least internally, for Surface Duo. How it evolves the product over the next year will be a story we continue to follow. This first update is at least a step in the right direction.

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Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer,podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.