It is said that all things must come to an end. That is true, not only in life, but also in the latest beta program for Verizon Galaxy S7 and S7 edge customers. Samsung is making the following Nougat beta announcement in the Galaxy Beta app:
Dear Customers, Verizon will stay on the original software for the remainder of this trial. Beta trial users will be upgraded to the commercial N release when it is available early next year. Thanks, Galaxy Beta Program Team
What this means is that Verizon will no longer endorse the Galaxy Beta Program on the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, so customers who've been making the most of the program will either remain on their current beta version or exit the program completely and revert back to the current Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. Beta participants will get Nougat, but they'll have to wait until “early next year” Samsung says. No, Android Nougat won't arrive just in time for Christmas.
We don't know if this will be permanent for upcoming OS updates, but it certainly seems abrupt at this point and is discouraging to Samsung customers with Big Red and intrudes upon Samsung's own vision for its customer base.
Verizon has not only done this, but other past actions that make Big Red suspect when it comes to Samsung devices. In the Galaxy S5, Verizon customers were denied Download Booster until a later update added it back. On the Galaxy Note 5, Verizon customers were denied Samsung's Write On PDF feature until Verizon brought Marshmallow to the Note 5 back in March of this year (though Samsung did bring it to the Play Store even earlier). Even with the Galaxy Note 7, Samsung's 15GB Samsung Cloud storage was hidden from users who had to use an app shortcut to find it in their software.
Verizon Galaxy S7 and S7 edge customers, what do you think? Have you received the message yet? Planning to stay in the Galaxy Beta Program until Nougat lands, or revert back to Marshmallow?
