John Paul M. Joaquin Tech 02.06.2023 05:Feb AM EST

Samsung’s Galaxy S23 Series Doesn’t Have Seamless Updates Feature

Samsung's upcoming phone series might launch without a much-desired feature.

Computer Base journalist Nicolas La Rocco recently revealed on his official Twitter account that the Galaxy S23 Ultra and, by extension, the entire Galaxy S23 series will still not have the much-awaited Seamless Updates feature.

Samsung is one of several smartphone brands that have yet to include the Seamless Updates feature on their phones, per 9to5Google.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Seamless Updates Details

La Rocco mentioned on his official Twitter account that Samsung's Galaxy S3 Ultra still doesn't support the Seamless Updates feature, more formally known as A/B partitions in the programming world.

According to Android Authority, Samsung has been avoiding this feature since 2016, when Google, through its Android 13 software update feature, required Samsung phones to feature Seamless Updates.

For those unaware, Samsung smartphones can't update the apps installed on them by themselves, requiring their user to initiate a reboot for the phone to update the apps installed on it - a time-consuming task, especially if the phone has more than a handful of apps installed.

Google's Seamless Updates takes away the user in the equation. Instead of having the user manually reboot their smartphone to update their apps, the phone will update them in the background and then apply them later in a later reboot.

Although this update method is slower than the regular (and manual) update method, it does provide a layer of safety for the update process, as Seamless Updates can be reverted if something goes wrong.

Samsung does have a good reason to skip out on Seamless Updates: the company has concerns with the Galaxy S23's storage due to the feature's tendency to eat up extra storage.

Interestingly, Samsung has been avoiding implementing the feature on its previous-gen flagship phones like the Galaxy S22 series - a fact that may have been influenced by Samsung's desire to not give its flagship phones with less than the storage it initially offers.

However, if that was the only problem preventing Samsung from implementing such a feature on its smartphones, users will wonder why it's still in place; Samsung is mostly avoiding offering its phones with 128GB storage.

Seamless Updates On The Way

Fortunately, Samsung may have a change of heart regarding the feature. The company is reportedly bringing Seamless Updates to its flagship phones with its One UI 6.0 update, which is due sometime in 2023, per Sam Mobile.

However, it is still unknown when will Samsung push its update, or if it will be available to future phones at all. Regardless, it is probable that Samsung Galaxy smartphone users will have to wait a bit more to acquire this much-desired feature for themselves.

It is possible that Samsung will soon stop offering its 128GB phone offering for a 256GB phone with Seamless Updates feature, per Android Police, but that is still debatable as of press time.