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Pixel phones have always generally been the best phones for the lifespan of Android OS updates, and it’s rumored to get even better with the Pixel 8. A new report from 9To5Google suggests Google is planning to improve the length of time it sends out updates to Pixel phones.
Android as a whole now has a standard of about three years. Anything beyond that is icing on the cake so-to-speak. And in general considered a bonus from the manufacturer if it goes longer than that. Samsung has potentially set what is hopefully going to be a trend. By promising four years of OS updates for its latest devices. Which it started in 2021, and even retroactively applied to its devices from 2019.
Google’s Pixel devices, what should be the posterchild for Android, updates included, are now being outlived by Samsung as far as new OS versions are concerned. But it seems Google is looking to rectify that. Google’s Tensor chips have been a big factor in helping the company accomplish this task. Even if it takes a couple more years to make it a standard.
The Pixel 8 series OS updates could go beyond what Samsung offers
There’s not a lot of detail here about Google’s plans. But the one piece of information that’s available is that the Pixel 8 might just get more OS updates than what Samsung promises. As Samsung promises OS updates for four years, that means Google could push things to five. And even one more year would be setting a good bar for other manufacturers.
Obviously, this has yet to be confirmed. And if it were to be confirmed, it would probably happen when Google unveils the Pixel 8. With that said, we may not hear anything official on this from Google until later in the Fall. When Google does its Pixel hardware event every year. Still, this is a big deal. Even if it just a rumor for now. Because one of Android’s biggest issues is that it has always lacked OS update longevity. And now it sounds like that might be changing.