As spotted by Droid Life, Samsung has quietly removed the Galaxy S9 and S9+ from its Security Updates list, signifying the end of its support cycle for both smartphone models. While this doesn’t make the S9 series immediately useless, it does mean that potential future security vulnerabilities won’t be addressed. But at the same time, both phones came out in 2018 and have since been surpassed by several other models. A 4-year lifespan for Samsung’s phones is fairly common, which Droid Life also points out. More recent smartphones like the Galaxy S22 and S22 Ultra have been given an extra year of promised support, for a total of five, but older phones are still stuck with four. But four years of updates is pretty decent for electronics—particularly smartphones—considering how, in those four years, available models advanced from the S9 up to the S22. While the lack of security updates from this point forward does push Galaxy S9 and S9+ users into getting a newer model, there are a couple of options available. You can, of course, trade-in your older phone to reduce the cost of a new model. Or you can hold onto your old phone even after getting a new one and use the outdated model as a standalone device for navigation or as a media viewer. Whatever you decide to do with your Galaxy S9 or S9+, now’s the time to figure it out, as Samsung’s security support for the series has ended.
