The Android producer Google introduced the A/B Seamless updates in 2016 to users for a better Android experience. This feature allows users to use their devices while installing updates in the background. While the Seamless Updates are available on Google Pixels, Samsung doesn’t release them for its devices. Here are the details about Seamless updates.
Seamless updates may come to Samsung with Android 13
Samsung preferred to install updates in the old way that blocks users to use their devices while updating. However, Google could mandate Samsung to turn on the Seamless Updates option with Android 13. According to the sources, new devices launching with Android 13 must support virtual A/B, which means they’ll support Seamless Updates.
Most Samsung users don’t prefer to update their phones daily because the device keeps them away from using it. If you are also a person who hits the “Install later” button on your notification, this feature will be excellent for you.
Mishaal Rahman explains this feature, “While virtual A/B requires significantly less storage than A/B, it still requires more storage than non-A/B devices, at least when applying OTA updates. Snapshotting each dynamic partition effectively means cloning the entire “super” partition, meaning multiple gigabytes of free space need to be available in the “user data” partition to hold those snapshots. This is likely why some of the OEMs that held off on adopting A/B also held off on adopting virtual A/B, and why Google decided not to go forward with requiring that devices launching with Android 11 or later use virtual A/B.”
While this feature has been available since Android 7, Samsung didn’t release it to its devices because the partition system has drawbacks, too. According to the announcements, it is only mandatory for phones with Android 13, which means it is possible not to see this until at least the Galaxy S23. What do you think about the Seamless Updates? Which Samsung device will be the first?