Samsung launched the Galaxy S9 series in 2018, running Android 8.0 Oreo. Despite the Korean giant not having a proper software update policy back then, it updated its 2018 flagships to Android 10 and One UI 2.5 in March 2020. The following year, the company moved these devices to a quarterly update schedule, meaning they would receive security patches once every three months instead of every 30 days. Now, four years after the Galaxy S9 series was first launched, the smartphone maker is dropping support for the lineup altogether. This means the phones won’t receive any further updates (via Droid-Life) and have reached their end of life in terms of software support.
The Galaxy S9 last received the March 2022 security patch. Additionally, the smartphone maker has dropped the Galaxy S10 lineup to the quarterly update schedule (via Droid-Life), so it will now receive security patches once every three months. This should continue for the next year before support for the S10 is completely dropped, just like the Galaxy S9 series today. The Galaxy Note9, which currently receives quarterly security updates, is next in line to be retired — its next security patch should be its last one. The company typically tends to move devices to a quarterly update cycle a year before ending support for them.
There are very few phones in the market that continue to regularly receive security patches two to three years after their launch, so Samsung supporting the Galaxy S9 series for four years after release is a big deal. The Korean smartphone maker’s current software policy is even better than before. It now promises four OS updates for its mid-range and premium devices and five years of security patches, besting even what Google promises for its Pixel lineup.
