Samsung Galaxy S21 still doesn’t support seamless Android updates
Recognition: David Imel / Android Authority
- Samsung Galaxy S21 owners have found that the phone still doesn’t support the seamless updates for Android.
- You must restart your phone every time you upgrade your system.
- It’s not certain why Samsung didn’t adopt the technology.
Don’t expect to silently update your Galaxy S21 in the background while you proceed with other tasks. 9to5Google, Brandon Lee and others have found that the new Samsung series of phones doesn’t support Android’s seamless updates, although evidence suggests that Google may require the feature to start with Android 11.
By leaving out seamless updates from Samsung, you can install Galaxy S21 patches the old-fashioned way of restarting your phone and rendering it inoperable for minutes. It might feel archaic, especially when Google rolled out the seamless update to Android 7.0 Nougat in 2016.
The company hasn’t explained why it isn’t using seamless updates for the Galaxy S21. We asked Samsung if they could elaborate on this.
Connected: Samsung has raised the bar for Android updates
Storage could play a role. Seamless updates in Android consume around 3 GB of storage space due to partitioning. Samsung may be reluctant to take advantage of this space, especially if the Galaxy S21 family doesn’t have support for microSD cards. The inconvenience can be worth it if it frees up valuable space for your apps and media.
This doesn’t stop Samsung from rolling out seamless updates in the future. We wouldn’t rely on it, however, and it’s not surprising if a change is only made when that 3GB of space becomes trivial for many users. For now, you need to find something else while your Galaxy device is installing patches – and timing those upgrades accordingly.
