While Samsung did a great job allowing users to update to Android 12 faster than usual, the company has still not added Android’s “Seamless Update” feature. With the feature, firmware updates are installed on a secondary petition even with the phone in use.
After the phone is rebooted, the secondary partition becomes the main one reducing the updating phone’s downtime to the time needed to reboot it; once the phone is rebooted, the changes from the update are made.
Samsung once again fails to include Android’s “Seamless Update” feature on its flagship phones
Google confusingly writes that the a/b partition is required to use GMS in Android 11 and later
In fact, Google first introduced “Seamless Update” in 2016 and it has appeared on every single Pixel handset since. The first Pixel phones also were released by Google in 2016.
Google confuses Android phone manufacturers about whether the a/b partition is required to use GSM
The CDD simply says that Android phone manufacturers “SHOULD support a/b system updates,” which is not as demanding as saying that Android phone manufacturers MUST support a/b system updates. By not using the “Seamless Update” feature on its flagship Galaxy phones, Samsung is forcing its customers to go without the use of their handsets while they are being updated.
Google’s actions are confusing
While being without a phone for a few minutes might not seem like a big deal to most well-adjusted people, it does prevent the updating device from making an emergency call. Well-adjusted or not, if your car has broken down in an area where even COVID is afraid to go and the sound of gunshots is getting closer, you would be cursing the lack of a/b partition support on your Galaxy S22 Ultra.
Still, we’re sure that Pixel users (and those with other brands of Android phones that use the “Seamless Update”) are happy to know that while in the process of downloading and installing an Android update, their device isn’t shut down until the update has been completed.
