Skip to main content

Samsung clarifies that its extended ‘regular’ Android updates only arrive twice a year

If the past year has shown anything, it’s that Samsung is finally taking Android updates seriously, those both big and small. Now, we’re getting some clarification on Samsung’s long-term support, specifically the last year of Samsung Android update support.

As of this year, Samsung is offering four years of support to almost its entire library of Galaxy smartphones and tablets, something that virtually unprecedented on Android. However, that’s not four years of the support you see at launch. Rather, things drop off after year two, and then further for the fourth year.

It’s that fourth year that Samsung wasn’t very explicit about. Samsung’s official security update page only promised “regular” security updates for some devices. That could mean monthly, bi-monthly, yearly, or really anything in between. Now, as the folks over at Android Police spotted, Samsung has updated that page to clarify that these updates are bi-annual.

Two updates per year isn’t really anything to be happy about, but it’s definitely much better than nothing. Samsung doesn’t say when these two updates are supposed to arrive, but Samsung would take advantage of this most by providing the final update towards the end of that fourth year of support. Currently, around 35 devices are getting bi-annual updates, mostly including devices that launched in 2017 and 2018.

More on Samsung:

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Google — experts who break news about Google and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Google on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel