Flagship smartphones from OnePlus, Xiaomi, and extra may lastly match and even exceed the prolonged software program replace promise of Google and Samsung.
Snapdragon chip maker Qualcomm has issued a weblog publish revealing that it has labored carefully with Google to make it simpler for third celebration producers to supply prolonged software program assist.
Any more, units operating on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chip and Android 15 (or later) will be capable of supply as much as eight years of Android software program and safety updates.
Why is that this an enormous deal?
Qualcomm’s involvement ought to make it simpler for producers to “extra seamlessly replace the software program and safety on their units”.
With each Android OS and kernel upgrades, smartphone makers is not going to be required to make vital modifications or upgrades to code throughout this newly prolonged eight yr interval.
This new software program replace time-frame goes past Google’s personal seven yr promise for latest Pixel telephones together with the Pixel 8a and Pixel 9. It additionally exceeds Samsung’s comparable promise for the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE and Samsung Galaxy S25.
Qualcomm has introduced this, it says, to advertise “gadget longevity and sustainability”. Longer software program assist signifies that you’ll technically be capable of maintain onto your cellphone longer with out risking your safety or lacking out on key new options.
Qualcomm
What about future chip and cellphone assist?
Qualcomm additionally mentions that “Smartphones launching on new Snapdragon 8 and 7-series cellular platforms can even be eligible to obtain this prolonged assist.”
It additionally mentions that this collaboration with Google will cowl the following 5 generations of Qualcomm chips.
This implies that for the foreseeable future, no less than, telephones operating on Qualcomm’s flagship and mid-range chipsets will be capable of supply prolonged replace guarantees rather more readily.
What this doesn’t imply
This doesn’t assure that present telephones operating on the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip will lengthen their software program replace promise.
Don’t anticipate OnePlus or Xiaomi to introduced eight yr replace ensures for the OnePlus 13 and Xiaomi 15 respectively. Presumably it’s fairly doable, however such a transfer would nonetheless require further work from stated producers, who’ve already laid out their replace insurance policies for his or her early-2025 units.
Nor does this essentially imply that each subsequent Snapdragon 8 Elite gadget will include an eight yr replace promise.
As Qualcomm itself notes, it’s nonetheless incumbent on smartphone OEMs (aka producers) to implement such prolonged updates. Qualcomm has simply made it simpler to take action.