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Just today my Galaxy s6 received the Android 7.0 update. I haven't installed it yet, though, because I'm concerned about space. Unfortunately the Galaxy s6 doesn't have external storage so I have to be very careful about managing my device. I have two questions:

1) How big is Android 7.0 for my phone?

2) Will Android 7.0 take up that amount in #1 PLUS what Android 6 takes up already, or will it replace what Android 6 takes up and hopefully leave me with very little decrease in storage?

Thank you!

Haley
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System updates are applied (typically) to the /system partition, which is not accessible to you or your applications but is reserved for the operating system. It will over-write your existing Android version and should not take up more user space (this space is already reserved for the operating system, it usually is from 512MB to 4GB of reserved space, regardless if it is all used or not, and it is not accessible to you as a user). The exception being it needs to download the update file before it can apply it which can be quite large, anywhere from 200MB to 2.5GB in some cases but this is temporary storage only and it is released after the update is complete.

It is also important to note that due to the change in runtime of Android from 6 (ART) to 7 (JIT) the amount of space needed for your applications and they compiled versions reduces, sometimes drastically. It is not uncommon when upgrading from Marshmallow to Nougat to gain a few gigabytes of storage space after it is completed.

acejavelin
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2) System updates overwrite /system/ - anything that's common in your current OS and the incoming update will be overwritten, instead of coexisting. However, major updates such as jumping between major Android versions usually introduce a number of added features that will result in either additional files (i.e. not in your current OS) or files that are larger than existing ones, so there will still be a noticeable change in free /system space.

I don't have a GS6 myself, so I can't speak for over-the-air (OTA) updates, but I checked the full updates listed on SamMobile, and Android 6.0.x packages are about 1.7GB in size, while Android 7.x are about 2.0GB, so there's approximately a 300MB increase.

Problem is - none of this above should really matter to you, since the changes happen in /system and will not affect your available internal storage or app installation space (/data). What you should care as a user is reserving enough space so that the OTA update can be downloaded to and stored on your device.

Andy Yan
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