The Galaxy Note 7 recall is still officially ongoing in the US mostly thanks to the fact that a significant percentage of owners of Samsung’s latest phablet aren’t returning their potentially dangerous devices. Carriers are now turning to more direct means of communicating the importance of replacing the devices which shipped with faulty batteries to their customers. One such method was just adopted by Verizon as the US carrier started rolling out a Galaxy Note 7 update, version VRS2APHE earlier today.
What this update does is plaster warnings all over older Galaxy Note 7 models equipped with batteries that have a tendency to catch fire and explode while charging. If you happen to own one of those, you’ll see a “Safety Recall Notice” each time you plug in your phone to charge it or reboot the device. The warnings definitely aren’t subtle but subtle isn’t what Verizon was going for anyway considering the fact that the carrier customers’ safety is at risk. On the other hand, owners of newer, safe Samsung Galaxy Note 7 models will just see the green battery icon which indicates that the device in their hands isn’t faulty after they download and install the said update. The color of this icon actually sets a precedent in the Android OEM industry as Google has always insisted on the status bar’s icons being white but has decided to make an exception due to extraordinary circumstances surrounding the Galaxy Note 7 recall.
Verizon isn’t the first US carrier to turn to more aggressive methods of reaching out to their customers who purchased the older versions of the Galaxy Note 7 which came packaged with faulty batteries manufactured by Samsung SDI. In fact, it was just yesterday that Sprint’s CEO Marcelo Claure revealed that Sprint actually started texting and calling the owners of potentially dangerous Galaxy Note 7 models in order to urge them to replace their phones. As Claure put it, “consumers have a way of going about their business” and they either aren’t aware or don’t really care for ramifications of using faulty devices. Granted, there were only around 100 cases of Galaxy Note 7 batteries catching fire or exploding in the US so far, but 100 is still a 100 too many and there’s no doubt that number will keep increasing until all of the suspect hardware has been replaced.