For years, Google’s Pixel phones have had three years of updates, the longest service life on this side of the Android / iOS division. Now, Samsung has opened up limits, offering four years of security updates, surpassing Google’s Pixel phones in its own game.
One aspect where Android has always lagged behind iOS is updates, with iPhones getting up to six years of updates, while some Android phones are lucky to be two years old. In this area, the Google Pixel series has dominated, offering its phones three full years of updates, including monthly fixes and three major versions of Android. The original Google Pixel was gradually upgraded from Android 7.1 Nougat to Android 10 – an extension of the original promise to offer only two major updates.
For its part, Samsung hasn’t been far from reality lately, bringing two years of monthly updates and two major versions of Android, usually followed by a year of less frequent security updates to keep devices safe. Today, Samsung announced that its Galaxy devices – including Android phones and tablets from 2019 onwards – now promise a fourth year of security updates.
In doing so, Samsung launched the challenge, giving Galaxy phones more updates to Google’s Android operating system than Google itself. If Google is going to continue to allow features and software updates to be some of the factors driving the Pixel line, then they will need to respond to this challenge by giving Pixel phones at least another year of updates.
Fortunately, there has never been a better time for Google to implement something like this. At the end of last year, Google and Qualcomm unveiled a system to make phones easier to receive four years of updates, including three major Android updates, starting with phones that launch with Snapdragon 888 and Android 11. If the Pixel 5a, presumed to be arriving later this year, is released with a Snapdragon chip new enough, it could easily receive a full four-year upgrade plan.
But what about older Google pixels? The original Pixel and Pixel 2 have no longer received updates, and Pixel 3 is scheduled to receive the Android 12 update this fall as one of the last, followed by approximately two final security updates. This is confirmed by the Google Store – where you can still buy a refurbished Pixel 3 – just promising updates until October 2021. Meanwhile, the Galaxy S10, released just a few months after the Pixel 3 series, is now set to have at least updates occasional security updates in 2023.
With the Pixel series stagnating on camera prowess, allowing other OEMs to upgrade, and now Samsung leading the way for long-life Android devices, Google needs to step up its game if the Pixel series remains relevant in the future. The best way to do this would be to offer an additional year of security updates in the final update of a phone’s operating system, even if it is not on the same monthly schedule.
Better yet, for Google to win back its king crown for Android updates, it could offer a bedroom major update for Pixels and five years of security updates – for example, updating the Pixel 3 series to Android 13 next year followed by security updates in late 2023. If four years of updates are set to become the norm in Android, it’s Google’s responsibility to continue to push the boundaries in a way that encourages other companies to be better, as the Made by Google brand has always done.
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