T-Mobile subscribers who also happen to own one of Samsung’s most recent flagships have an incoming update headed their way. Specifically, the updates are applied to the Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8 Plus, and the Galaxy Note 8. Happily enough, the same updates are reportedly being pushed to Verizon as well, as of this writing. That’s good news all around but it may be best not to get too excited yet. The updates in question are nothing huge and only include a new Android Security Patch level. With the update, the Galaxy S8 will be moved to the build number G950USQS3CRE2, while the Galaxy S8 Plus will be upgraded to the G955USQS3CRE2 version. The Galaxy Note 8, on the other hand, will land on the build number N950USQU4CRE1 and all three devices will now run the security patch dated May 1, 2018.
While that’s not too exciting of an update, it is an important one. So users will want to make sure their devices are charged and they have at least a little free storage before starting. The May Android Security Patch includes no fewer than 23 mandatory fixes that all Android certified OEMs need to get put in place and there are almost certainly a few Samsung-specific fixes included in the package as well. The latter of those won’t necessarily apply to every device in this particular group but it’s never a good idea to leave vulnerabilities alone for too long, in any case. Along with those are some optional updates that Samsung has most likely included – though there are no guarantees for that since they are, after all, optional. One of the more prominent of those applies unspecified improvements to Android’s underlying multitouch detection.
Owners of Samsung’s Galaxy S9 family of devices actually received the May Android Security Patch recently, as well. That included at least one Samsung-specific security enhancement tied in with Samsung Experience 9.0 – Samsung’s proprietary Android skin. So there’s a good chance that’s been implemented for the older Galaxy S8 series on top of everything else. The updates themselves, meanwhile, began rolling out on May 23. So users shouldn’t be too concerned if it hasn’t hit their devices just yet. To manually check for the update, users just need to navigate to the settings menu and scroll down to “Software update.” Selecting that option and then tapping “Check for updates” command will prompt the device to do so.