Android Authority confirms that Google’s bug tracker has spotted the memory leak as “fixed internally, we do not currently have a timeline for public release”:

According to the issue tracker, the 5.1 memory leak has been fixed internally and has been given the status of “Future Release”, meaning that engineers have managed to cope with the problem and can patch it. It has not been indicated that when this fix will be made available to the public. Hopefully, we will see an Android 5.1.1, or similar, update appear in the near future to address the issue.

It points towards Android’s lack of a direct one-to-one route between the operating system coders at Google and the countless consumers relying on Android-powered handsets. Even after the detection of flaws, the fix is not stiffly accessible.

With a critical fix like this, there should be a much faster route open to Google. While the Nexus devices were able to recover the quick bug-fix issue of Android 5.0.1 in November, Android 5.0 is still trying to overcome the problem faced by consumer facing handsets some four months later.

The direct patch could not be applied to Android as its very nature averts it unlike the way Apple could apply to iOS, or even Microsoft to Windows Phone.

As discussed previously, any code changes have to steer a labyrinthine path from Google’s code base, through a manufacturer’s code base and testing, then to the networks and their own tests, before the consumer has the option to download the update.