A smartphone would be a high-tech paperweight without its operating system.
An operating system is software that allows smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices to run applications and programs.
(Software can be quickly defined as internal instructions that tell a computer or mobile device what to do.)
Two of the most popular operating systems for smartphones are Android and iOS.
A smartphone’s operating system will control how a device looks (in terms of aesthetics) and how it works (e.g. how, exactly, you can search your smartphone 🔎).
A software update is actually an operating system update
Security Updates
Many people are reluctant to update their phone’s software for a variety of reasons. But it is important to keep your phone’s software up to date because a software update will include security updates (which can help protect your smartphone from “viruses” and other forms of malware).
Things on my phone have changed since yesterday!
“Sally”
My most recent tech help appointment dealt with an Android smartphone whose functionality had changed considerably from one day to the next (things had to be done a different way now).
Sally also told me that her phone had also started behaving erratically (e.g. applications icons would arbitrarily move around and had even duplicated themselves).
As it turns out (after researching the user support forums for Sally’s smartphone), both of these issues derived from a recent software update.
A software update can be like interior decorating in that the house itself looks exactly the same on the outside but has changed considerably on the inside.
Bugs
The sudden erratic behavior of Sally’s phone after a software update can be attributed to “bugs”. That is parts of the software update were poorly designed and/or poorly implemented.
Quite often, these bugs are fixed with the next software update which could come at any time.
What to do in the meantime?
I suggested to Sally to be outcome focused when using her smartphone.
(And not to be especially concerned with why things suddenly look different and why she needs to do things a different way after a software update.)
For example, Sally could simply search or browse around her Android Smartphone’s text application when she wanted to send a text message.
And then use the text app mindfully, following visual cues within the app’s graphical user interface to accomplish her current task at hand.
Bridgeport Public Library Technology Help 