Seamless Updates aren’t a given on your phones

Seamless Update functionality has been around on Android for years now, letting a system update install in the background and then asking users to simply reboot to apply the update.

Some companies like Samsung still don’t support Seamless Updates, though. But it emerged last week that Google will enforce a key change that could lead to this update method being mandatory on Android. So with all that in mind, we thought it would be a good idea to ask readers whether their phones supported Seamless Updates in the first place. Here’s how you answered the survey.

Does your phone support Seamless Updates?

Results

Over 2,500 votes were tallied to date, and it turns out that the single most popular option was “I don’t know” (40.35%). We’re guessing that some respondents who voted this way simply aren’t familiar with the concept of Seamless Updates in the first place. Furthermore, system updates aren’t something you’ll deal with every day, so we wouldn’t be surprised if some people simply forgot what update method their phones use.

Otherwise, 31.4% of surveyed readers said their phones don’t have Seamless Updates. It’s not a surprise to see so many respondents choosing this option as Samsung is the top smartphone brand globally and it hasn’t embraced this update method just yet.

Finally, 28.26% of polled readers said their phones did indeed support Seamless Updates. At least one reader noted in the comments that they had a OnePlus phone that supported the feature. But it stands to reason that others who voted for this option had phones from the likes of Google, Xiaomi, and/or other brands.

Comments

• M Hector: The seamless update approach seems useful, especially because it is possible to toggle back to the previous working partition. But also, correctly or incorrectly, it gets everyone thinking about letting Google manage OS updates directly, like do Microsoft and Apple. This was a major selling point for me for the Windows phone, and is also very attractive with the iPhone.
• Bobby: Doesn’t matter what Google does, as long as the companies like Xiaomi, oppo OnePlus don’t share Google’s vision it’ll be fragmented forever. Heck even the pixels get three is updates. Only Samsung is offering 4. I get security updates on my 20months old s21ultra faster than the Google security every month. In my eyes only Samsung and Google are the real Android players that want to innovate. Rest all are in for business. It’s a shame that Apple is providing 6 os updates and Android barey gets three.
• Cryio: OnePlus has seamless updates, lol. Everyone else I see has that awful stuck in BIOS screen when upgrading and then tons of “optimizing apps, 1 out of 500” when the phone boots up. I have neither of those problems on my OnePlus.
• disqus_d1b9jeAcZN: What an excellent change! We will save so much time installing all those system updates we consistently receive. Jokes aside, it’s good to strive to be better, but I’ve never thought for even a moment that I was spending much time being interrupted because of an update. I wouldn’t have started the update unless I had downtime.