All change for Galaxy S24
Samsung has now confirmed (kind of) when owners of its Galaxy S24 flagship will see their phones upgraded to One UI 7 and Android 15. This is a major next step in better matching Apple’s iPhone with “enhanced security and privacy in the age of AI,” Samsung says, and will finally narrow the gap that has emerged to Google’s Pixel.
Android 15 brings a raft of security and privacy updates, including scam call defense and live threat detection, and Samsung goes further with a lockdown on sideloading and new network and physical connection defenses. This is especially timely given recent forensic attacks on Android devices. Samsung is also expanding its Knox Matrix ecosystem to provide a walled garden that’s harder to break out of, again just like Apple.
The delays in releasing One UI 7 have been described as “tortuous” and a potential “disaster” for the company, but it now looks like for the Galaxy S24 at least, this is just six weeks away. Samsung just says the “official update of One UI 7 will be available within April,” but this tallies with an earlier leak suggesting April 18th is likely the specific date the release will begin.
Amusingly, the company had seemed to quash that rumor, which contradicted expectations set by Samsung for a Q1 release — meaning before the end of March. But just days later, April has been confirmed. The bad news is that this means it’s some five months later than the newer Pixels getting the same upgrade.
Perhaps the saving grace is what happens next. As I’ve commented before, the Android 15 delays mean this release is bumping up against Android 16 which is already in beta. It will be critical that Samsung doesn’t repeat the experience for flagship owners. And on that note, it is now being suggested that it may skip One UI 7 updates in favor of a move to Android 16 and One UI 8 that is much closer to Pixels.
As for the One UI 7 upgrade, users will need to adjust to tighter restrictions. “To protect against malicious apps from sideloading, One UI 7’s new Safe Install system works alongside Auto Blocker to send a warning when a user attempts to download from an unauthorized source, alerting them of security risks.” This comes on top of Samsung’s Maximum Restrictions default and Google’s own Android lockdown on sideloading,
Meanwhile, Samsung owners need to install the March security update as soon as it’s available. This brings at least one fix for an Android zero-day vulnerability that is being actively exploited in the wild. The new bad news is that there’d another fix for another exploited vulnerability, and that update might also be delayed for Samsungs.
Google’s latest Android security upgrades have also been confirmed this week, with message scam detection now set for release. It had looked as if Pixel was widening the gap to Samsung, with early access to features and the long wait for One UI 7, and flagship owners will be delighted if that’s now addressed with One UI 8. We do need to see a tighter alignment on security updates as well, though, if Android is going to narrow the gap to iPhone when it comes to faster lockdowns in the future.
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