The Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus were launched in April 2017. These phones were too old to have the latest feature-rich versions of Android for some time. However, Samsung has updated these devices with major security updates every quarter. That is now coming to an end, Samsung has announced.
This means that the Korean technology company will no longer release updates for the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus – even if hackers discover new security holes in the last version of the operating system on these phones.
Of course there is no guarantee that it will. If so, you might have a smartphone in your pocket – with banking apps, credit cards, personal text messages, family photos, and more – that will remain open to cyberattacks for the rest of its life. This is really not ideal.
The good news is that anyone who decides to trade in their Galaxy S8 for the latest flagship line of Samsung smartphones will be able to hold onto their new handset even longer.
When the Galaxy S8 hit the market in 2017, Samsung promised to bring out two major Android operating system upgrades for its most expensive phones. In fact, the Galaxy S8 series saw a surge to Android 8.0 in February 2018, before receiving its last major upgrade to Android 9.0 a year later. Since then, it has only received stability, performance, and security updates.
Samsung is now promising to update its flagship smartphones to three major Android operating system upgrades.
So if you buy a Galaxy S21 with Android 11 today, you’re guaranteed to get all the exciting new features from Android 12 later this year, as well as Android 13 and 14 (as they probably will be) called … unless Google decides to ditch the number branding and revert to the earlier dessert names. After that, these handsets will likely continue to receive quarterly security features before moving to a semi-annual release schedule.
Interestingly, these handsets will continue to receive software updates if you still have a Galaxy S8 Active or Galaxy S8 Lite in your pocket. The Galaxy S8 Active hit shelves about four months after the Galaxy S8 in August 2017 and will likely get one final update before it is also removed from those updates.
