Category: Android Oreo

In an unexpected move, it looks like Samsung has pulled their Android Oreo update for the Samsung Galaxy S8 lineup.  The update to the latest version of Android began rolling out to beta testers in Europe last week but according to SamMobile, the build has been pulled from Samsung’s update servers.

The news likely means that a show stopping bug or other install issues was discovered after the limited rollout began, forcing the South Korean company to halt the updates to prepare a new build to address the issue.

After being in beta for just a few weeks, HMD Global has released the Android Oreo 8.1 update for the Nokia 8.  The news of the release came from the company’s Chief Product Officer, Juho Sarvikas, on Twitter:

We are rolling out #AndroidOreo 8.1 on #Nokia8 ! Get the sweetest Android to date #Nokia8 #Nokiamobile pic.twitter.com/3pRlNuPIpe

— Juho Sarvikas (@sarvikas) February 13, 2018

The news of the release was a bit of a surprise given that the open beta for the 8.1 build only started in late January.

After months of testing and teasing, the Android Oreo update for the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ are starting to roll out.  The update brings Samsung Experience 9, the company’s skin on top of Oreo, to the 2017 flagship devices and weighs in at 487MB.  Right now, it appears that the release has only happened on the unlocked variants of the phones in Europe.  No indication on if it has hit US users yet but it will likely be soon.  Also keep in mind that beta testers will be the first to get the update so if you did not participate, you have a bit longer to wait.

Public beta testing of the Oreo build on the Samsung Galaxy S8 lineup began last November with the beta period ending January 15th of this year.

Owners of the Nokia 8 will want to start checking for an update on the device today.  HMD Global, the parent company of Nokia, has released a new update that bringing the recently released February Android Security Update patch to the device.  The update is 86.9MB in size, so it is quite small and indicates that essentially it is the security patch a little else for the Nokia 8.

If you have a Nokia 8, you can check for the update by going to Settings>Other>Software Update on the phone.  It has just been released so it may take a day or two before it hits all devices.

The slow and somewhat painful adoption of Android Oreo continues but there are some highlights to point out in this month’s Android Distribution Report.  Google released the report today and it shows that the latest version of the Android platform, Oreo, was installed on 1.1% of the devices that hit the Google Play Store for the 7-day period ending February 5, 2018.  That’s up .4% from the January report but there isn’t much to applaud frankly.

Android Oreo has been out now six months and despite Google and manufactures releasing updates, the needle has hardly moved on adoption.  This is likely due to a couple of reasons.  First, manufactures are being painfully slow in getting the updates out themselves.  Two, lots of people are using devices that are over 2 years old and will not be updated.

Google has just released the February Android Security Update patches for the Pixel and Nexus lineup.  Traditionally, Google releases the patches on the Monday of the first full week of each month (barring a holiday falling on Monday) so today’s release was somewhat expected.

All told, the updates this month are pretty small when it comes to patching vulnerabilities within Android.  It does consist of two patches, one dated January 1 with the second dated the 5th.  Google devices will receive the second patch when the OTA updates are released.