The latest update for the 2017 Galaxy flagships is rolling out with firmware version G95xFXXUCDUK1. The new software package, of course, doesn’t bring any new features or user-facing changes. But it does introduce a fairly recent security patch. The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ are getting updated to the November 2021 SMR (security maintenance release). Last month’s SMR contains fixes for several dozen security and privacy issues from Samsung and Google. So if you’re one of the presumably very few people still rocking the 2017 Galaxy flagship, you might want to install the new OTA (over the air) update as soon as it’s available to make the phone more secure. As of this writing, the latest software update for the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ is rolling out to users in France. We expect the rollout to reach other markets in the coming days. You should receive a notification once the update becomes available for your unit. You can also manually check for updates from the Software update menu in your phone’s Settings app.
Samsung promises four years of security updates to every Galaxy smartphone
Samsung’s software support policy is one of the best in the Android world. Well, if it wasn’t a few years ago, it surely is now. The Korean behemoth offers a minimum of two years of Android OS updates to every Galaxy smartphone. Flagship models, as well as some Galaxy A series mid-rangers, receive an additional year of Android OS updates. On top of that, the company promises four years of security updates to every Galaxy smartphone and tablet. The frequency of those updates varies depending on the model as well as the time elapsed since its launch. But the company will seed at least two security updates in a year for up to four years from launch. Now, with surprising updates like this to almost five-year-old phones, Samsung is further making a case for itself. The Galaxy Note 8 also recently completed four years in the market and was dropped from the company’s software support list. It remains to be seen whether the S Pen wielding phablet will get new updates in the future.
