Samsung Surprises Galaxy Owners With Android Update Decision
Samsung's surprising u-turn
Samsung versus Google has not really been a thing yet — but watch this space. The two shared a stage at Samsung's Galaxy S25 flagship launch, a phone steeped in Google software and AI. But when it comes to Android upgrades and monthly security updates, the Korean giant plays second bat to Google's much smaller Pixel ecosystem.
That Samsung versus Google dynamic will play center stage as China flexes its muscles, with the threat that its and Android's (bar Samsung) leading OEMs will depart for a Google free alternative with Huawei. That would leave Android dominated by the Galaxy-maker while under the control of the Pixel-maker. You can see the problem.
Google has just assured that Samsung will launch Android 16 this summer. Hopefully a more seamless rollout than the Android 15 debacle, but still some months behind Pixel by the time it reaches users. As SammyFans laments, 'Android 16 stable version coming very soon, Samsung yet to start One UI 8 beta program.'
Against that backdrop, it's hard not to read anything into Samsung's surprising new update decision. 'Samsung Messages was going to die,' Android Authority says, 'but now big updates are coming!' While Phone Arena says the 'Google Messages rival is back from the dead and getting even better.'
This is a huge year for secure messaging. Cross-platform RCS is due an end-to-end encryption upgrade, bringing full content security to stock Android to iPhone messaging for the first time. While WhatsApp faces a furor after Meta forced its AI on users without an opt-out. As an aside, you can ditch Meta's AI from your chats — details here.
The new updates to Samsung Messages are just table-stake catch-ups to Google's own Messages apps: 'Live location sharing, birthday reminders, reactions, and more,' per Android Authority's latest APK teardown. But the significance is that there are any 'big updates' at all. A year ago, we saw confirmation that Samsung is 'going all in on Google Messages,' as it "stopped pre-installing Samsung Messages on [U.S]
'We thought Samsung Messages was being retired,' Tech Radar reports, 'but it could now get 4 new features to take on Google Messages… We feared the worst for Samsung Messages when the Galaxy S25 series launched without the app on board – Google Messages was preinstalled instead – but it seems Samsung Messages isn't actually going away, as a major batch of new updates have been spotted."
As I have pointed out, the news out of China is a game-changer for Samsung and Android. The Galaxy-maker needs to decide how it wants to operate in a world where it dominates but does not control. All other leading OEMs — including Apple and Google — would control their hardware and software stack. Samsung would suddenly be the outlier, despite selling more phones than anyone else. Something needs to give.
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