What shall I say? 
My FP1 has 1GB of RAM and works fine (although multitab browsing something is a horror.)
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@Patrick1: Hey, don’t get me wrong: I agree with you that this shouldn’t be necessary. But Wirth’s Law has been known since the early nineties and it’s still a thing anyway 
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Honestly, if I wasn’t a programmer myself who really intensively uses the browser I wouldn’t complain. While I can only hope that Firefox will get slimmer as Project Quantum progresses, that doesn’t help me much with the badly designed websites out there.
And the problem isn’t the speed, it’s that the swapping completely unloads apps, meaning that switching between them can restart apps. I’ve lost Google Maps routes halfway, having to type them in again, because I switched to the browser. I have to reload tabs on a bad connection in Firefox because I switch to a chat app. That kind of thing.
@Stefan: The thing is, this is not about us about being able to deal with it. This is about being able to convince people who are on the fence, who are only semi-willing to take a step back.
It’s like being a vegan for the sake of sustainability: great if someone who does this manages to do so, but making it easier to become a “flexitarian” who only eats meat on Friday will make it easier for the people who have trouble giving up eating meat every day, which is still a net win in sustainability (and an easier entrance into a no-meat diet). Telling them “well I’m managing to go full vegan” isn’t helping anyone.
If Fairphone would bring out a model that is, say 100 euros more expensive but has 8 GB of RAM, I bet it would sell like hot cakes (especially if they’re deviously evil enough to also offer 6GB version for exactly the same additional price).
Ideally, putting more RAM in newly bought Fairphones should also not put significantly more pressure on the resources that go into producing the modules - miniaturisation is a thing, and technology has changed in the last few years as well. The added costs would mainly be the RAM being more expensive, and developing the module - the latter of which may be significant, but still cheaper than developing a completely new phone.
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Ok, I got your point here. Such a system behavior surely spoils the user experience.
But it is hardly possible to estimate how much ram would suffice for everyone’s personal need. Delivering more ram again will induce many (bad) programmers and some users as well to make use of this grown recourse getting used of it taking it as their minimum base.
It´s just a matter of time when this limit will be reached again and individuals start to complain again in need of more. I rather think there also should come some regulations (again) just as we have them with power consumption of some goods.
The software market is quite open and freely accessible for software developers or someone wanting to become one. It does not seem to have regulations about well programmed software and bad inefficient software wasting amounts of resources. Sales numbers and user experience/feedback seem to have a slight influence at best.
I think that´s something were more regulations or standards should be introduced.
So if that´s Androids mechanism of memory management although being based on Linux I again have to repeat my opinion about Googles approach for this mobile OS being put together in a quick and thirty way.
For conventional computers I know mechanisms called memory allocation (table), stack etc. So instead of informing the user he´s running “out of memory” it seems to silently close apps without bothering the user.
This would satisfy your needs and some others may feel better with it. But many expectations for the FP3 rather lie on a more state-of-the-art SoC design and a lower price anyway. just one statement from a potential customer
Probably both conditions cannot be met with only one design. So this crux is to be solved by FP.
Upgradeable memory is possible since the early computer ages in 1980 (even my C-16 has reveiced one then). It´s still possible today, but some manufacturers of notebook mainboards has started to develop them with fixed soldered memory chips not upgradeable or replaceable easily anymore. https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/apollo-lake-super-thin-laptops-may-sport-soldered-memory/
It was a good thing to do so in the past to catch up with increasing demands, but the trend seems to shift. Maybe FP manages to be the first manufacturer having a mobile with upgradeable ram.
Btw. Entertaining and informative speech of Dan Ariely.
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That´s also an important point you mention. Just as with many computer users these days many don´t even know yet the difference between ram and storage memory. I think having such a far spread technology at hand, (and there are more around than human beings living) I should expect a minimum knowledge of what the users are actually dealing with every day.
If I watch young people quickly swiping and typing as wild on their display often knowing fairly well about the installed software, camera, display etc. I do wonder how come many give up quickly and drop their beloved handset for a new one if it does not operate that smooth anymore as they know it from the first day.
It´s not about each user needing to be a techie, but since handsets usually are not for free but paid for, users should at least know the minimum specs of it which I think should be the difference of installed system ram and storage capacity beside a few others.
Also salesmen should be trained better. Of what I have heard in the past from friends being advised by salesmen I wonder if there was anyone in charge of the sales department. That way customers may have to rely on their own experience or maybe listen to friends, colleagues who only can share their knowledge which may be deep or also just basic.
There are other channels to gather more information but they not necessarily go too deep into details and may already expect the reader to have a minimum level of knowledge.
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I really support these decisions and the upgrade plan 
What’s the best way we can follow progress and get involved in the development on the upgrade?
As a Fairphoner and developer, and finding it hard to track down all the open source material like the repositories of the Open Fairphone OS and the issue/bug/feature ticket tracking for those projects. Maybe they aren’t open? It would be nice to put a link to where all this stuff lives in the footer of the main site
Thanks again for this great post!
Luke
There is a beta program, but I’m not sure new beta testers are accepted atm. Here you can find the last call for testers. There is a link to a document to fill out. Maybe that will still get you in.
You can find that here: bugtracker.
As for the code, it’s only open for Fairphone Open and you can find it at code.fairphone.com.
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Thanks @paulakreuzer that’s really helpful, I really appreciate it.
I’m just getting familiar with this bug-tracking system, but I can’t find the tickets or tag related to the Andriod 7 project. If you know the ticket, would you mind pointing me in its direction?
Do you know if the activity here https://bugtracker.fairphone.com/project/fairphone-fairphone-os-android-6/ reflects the total development work on the software? or is there a parallel closed issue tracking system?
One last thing 
is the source code for the fairphone website fairphone.com open? I’d find it really useful to be able to make contributions/suggestions to that platform as well 
Thanks again! Also, no rush on answering all these questions if it’s taking you away from other work
Best wishes,
Luke
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Because that a public issue tracker and there is no public Android 7 version yet.
You need to apply for the beta program then you can report bugs in the beta section of this forum.
I don’t know if the developers have an additional issue tracking system.
I don’t think so.
Aha, thanks for that 
I don’t know if the developers have an additional issue tracking system.
Cool I’d be interested to know what Fairphone’s aims are around the transparency and community involvement in the development process. This isn’t a criticism, I’m just trying to express the questions that come into my head so that the organisation can get an idea of the interests and responses of customers/users/community members
Thanks for all your work @paulakreuzer
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Regarding the website: they use Wordpress.
One of the open source developers at Fairphonen is active in the Matrix/IRC chat. The links to that chatroom should be here: communityguide
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Any news about the Android 7 update?
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participants in de beta-program are testing android 7. The new version works very well! better battery, smooth, …
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great to hear! any estimate on when it will be available for the general public?
That sounds very motivating.
I think there are many users who want to know more about available bugs known from Marshmallow and if some will be fixed with this upgrade.
Like e.g. wifi battery drain bug; BT4.x compatibility issues with some devices etc. based on the bug tracker.
These should be addressed with such a major upgrade to calm down annoyed users and not loose them to conventional phones.
Maybe @Monica.Ciovica like to enlighten us with more information on this point what more we can expect here.
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I sure do agree.
Yet I guess, it needs a stable version first, before any reliable information can be given.
With regard to the battery drain, that’s a known weak spot of Android 6 in general. Some enhancements in that department therefore could be expected.
Good to see, that the beta version already shows the improvement.
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Hi Patrick, for now we don’t have any concrete information as the beta testing is still taking place. Once the final release is available, we will be able to pinpoint all the improvements. 
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No, because it wasn’t even announced yet.
And even if it was announced, nobody could say whether availability would be perhaps delayed in the end or not.
The announcement in the blog post / first post in this topic currently still stands:
“So, we’re excited to announce that nearly three years after the introduction of the Fairphone 2, we’re not releasing a new model just yet.”
Feel free to discuss here …
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Hi!
I’m so eager to buy a Fairphone 2, and my Samsung is slowly dying 
I’m waiting for the new version of Android. Any news? Do you maybe know is it a matter of one month or maybe three? Thanks!!
It will be released as soon as it is ready and certified by Google. I’d expect it to be there in September, maybe October.
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