Samsung has enjoyed a very comfortable lead over the competition in the field of Android updates over the last few years. Samsung was good at updates from the very beginning of its journey making Android phones, as it used to release two major Android version updates for most devices, something that wasn't guaranteed by other manufacturers.
Samsung did take too long to release those updates in the first few years, but that's something the company eventually fixed. It still doesn't release big OS updates as quickly as some other manufacturers, but that becomes a non-issue when you take into account the insane number of phones Samsung has to support.
In 2019, Samsung made a huge leap with its software update policy by amending it to guarantee three major OS upgrades to all flagships and some mid-range phones, which brought its policy at par with Google and OnePlus, the only two Android phone makers who were known to provide three OS updates to almost all of their phones.
But, again, the fact that Samsung was promising that kind of support to more devices than anyone else made it stand out. And it didn't just stop there: two years later, Samsung announced that its flagships and select mid-range phones would get four Android OS updates and five years of security updates.
Some Chinese manufacturers followed suit, but people raised eyebrows when they realized that Google, the brand that develops the Android operating system, wasn't making any changes to its policy. Pixel phones both old and new would continue to get only three large Android updates, and that remains the case even today.
Google's improved update policy for Pixel phones could be a game changer
But today is also the day that Google might finally take charge and knock Samsung off the throne. Google's Pixel 8 series of phones are set to go official later today, and there are rumors that the Pixel 8, and presumably all future Pixels, will be eligible for seven years of updates! Yes, that's two more than Samsung, and nearly as much as Apple (though Apple has been known to update iPhones more than seven years later on some occasions).
For now, rumors don't say if these seven years will mean seven proper Android version updates, or if the final few years will only bring security enhancements and the odd bugfix or two. In our opinion Google would be better off limting major updates to five years and security updates for the remaining two. Four years of Android updates wouldn't be as impressive, but even extending support for security updates to seven years would give Google a solid lead.
Nothing has been officially announced yet so we will have to wait and see what Google's approach is going to be, or if the rumors are even true. If they are true, well, we hope Samsung will have a solid response. More updates might mean fewer new sales for phonemakers, but it's always a win for customers and that, ultimately, should be the end goal for every brand that sells Android smartphones.
