The Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy S9 Plus will no longer receive any new software updates from Samsung. The two devices have finally reached their end of life after a solid run of five years.
The March 2022 security update will now be the last patch they receive. This move was marked by the South Korean company quietly removing the two devices from its mobile security updates page, officially marking the end of the road for the two phones in terms of official software support.
When they got their release back in 2018, Samsung promised four years of support for what were their flagship devices then. Five years down the line, they have decided to finally move on and focus on newer devices.
At the beginning of last year, the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus were dropped from receiving monthly security updates and got shifted to the quarterly update schedule, which was probably a sign that their end was near.
The two flagships got their launch running Android 8 out of the box and Samsung offered two OS upgrades in the years to follow up to Android 10 which arrived as part of One UI 2.5 back in 2020.
Samsung officially stopped at Android 10 but continued offering security updates until the end of March this year. However, for adventurous users, with a little creativity, you can get Android 11 and even Android 12 running on the S9 and S9 Plus.
However, take note though that you will need to unlock the bootloader, and also not all new features present in Android 11 and 12 will work flawlessly with your device. A few bugs here and there are part and parcel of running unofficial software on your Android device.
It goes without saying that you void your warranty by going down this route, and you also risk bricking your device should something go wrong during the installation of a custom ROM.
For those who do not want to tinker with their devices in this manner, it might now be time to ditch your S9 and S9 Plus for newer devices that will receive security patches for the next few years.
This is not to say that the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus have suddenly become useless and need to be disposed of. They will still function well, and without a vulnerability being discovered, should be safe to use for the next few years or so.
However, in this current time when viruses, malware, and other malicious programs are becoming too common, it is advisable to be on a platform that gets security updates.
Next up on the chopping block for Samsung is the Galaxy S10 Series, the immediate flagship that followed up the S9 Series in 2019. Similar to what happened to the S9, Samsung has now dropped the S10 from the monthly update schedule and moved it to the quarterly schedule.
Should the company stick to the same plan, the Galaxy S10 Series will therefore stop receiving security updates sometime in early 2023. By that time, the Galaxy S23, the Foldable 4 and probably a new Galaxy Note will have been released in their premium flagship segment.
