Samsung flagships are usually among the last to receive major Android updates. Although the international versions of the Galaxy S9 and S9+ received the Android Pie update in late-December, it’s only now that the T-Mobile variant of the phone is starting to receive the OTA notification. The update began rolling out yesterday brings Samsung’s newest One UI skin over Android Pie. Not only this, but the firmware upgrade also includes support for RCS, the next generation of SMS/MMS. T-Mobile’s firmware release notes also mention support for Band 28 (700MHz) while roaming, general bug fixes and system improvements. Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ The Universal RCS Profile 1.0 brings support for read receipts, typing notifications, and sending large high-resolution images and large videos and files up to 100MB right out of the box using the default text messaging app. Group messaging also gains these features, however, all recipients must also support RCS in order for it to work. Long overdue, efforts to bring next-generation messaging to Android devices were taken up by Google a few years ago. It worked to get carriers and phone manufacturers around the world onboard the same platform that would define the future of messaging on Android phones. It’s worth noting that the Universal Profile 1.0 is designed to support cross-network compatibility as long as other carriers are ready to interconnect with T-Mobile. Head to T-Mobile’s RCS support page to see all supported phones. Source<doc-sep>Samsung has just begun rolling out a promised update for the Galaxy S9 and S9+ that brings them up to the latest version of Android 9 Pie, and switches everything over to Samsung’s new interface, One UI. It began earlier this week “just for Xfinity Mobile customers,” as Android Police noted, which made for very a limited rollout indeed for the US, though the update has been coming to international customers for over a month. US customers on other networks (or who have unlocked devices) will need to wait a bit longer. Samsung tells us that “the update for Galaxy S9, Galaxy S9+ and Galaxy Note9 will continue to roll out to other carrier providers in the coming days and weeks.” The Android OTA updates have begun to hit Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T customers, but S9 owners aren’t all seeing the updates at once. Earlier this January, Samsung posted a “Service Notice” in its Samsung Members app detailing its planned roadmap for releasing the software update, as SamMobile reported. Looking at the listed dates, the rollout for Galaxy phones is really coming in just under the wire. As of January 2nd, here’s what Samsung has told customers about updates for its most popular phones: Galaxy Note 9 (January 2019) Galaxy S9 and S9+ (January 2019) Galaxy Note 8 (February 2019) Galaxy S8 and S8+ (March 2019) Although Samsung Galaxy phones have consistently had some of the best hardware (and definitely the best screens) you could get on an Android phone, they have always had a reputation of lagging behind on getting the latest updates. Fair or not, that’s unlikely to change this year. However, the differences between particular Android versions have increasingly mattered less to consumers as the OS has matured. More important are the customizations each manufacturer brings to their lineups. Even Google’s Pixel phones aren’t really “Pure Android” — they’re Google’s take on Android. If you have a Samsung Galaxy phone and live in the US, sometime in the “coming days and weeks” you should be getting an update that shows you Samsung’s latest take on Android. The new One UI is specifically designed to make it easier to navigate content on a massive screen by making headers much larger and moving the buttons you actually need to press lower down on the screen. We’re also less than a month away from Samsung’s “Unpacked” event, which is on February 20th in San Francisco. There, we expect Samsung to discuss as many as five different phones: the Galaxy S10, S10+, a so-called “lite” version of the S10, its folding phone, and potentially even a 5G phone. Though it’s good that Samsung has begun its Android Pie rollout, the schedule is (as always) slower than customers want. And as always with Android, the surest way to get the latest software tends to be buying the latest phones. Presumably everything Samsung announces next month will come with Android 9 Pie and Samsung’s One UI. Update January 31st, 2019 10:20AM ET: Updated to reflect that Android OTA updates are now hitting Sprint and Verizon users. Update January 31st, 2019 6:06PM ET: AT&T users are starting to see the update as well.<doc-sep>
The latest carrier-locked Samsung device is now receiving the latest Android OS update with the T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ now seeing the Android Pie update rollout. This isn’t the only bonus of this update as it appears to have brought with it the RCS Universal Profile 1.0. This is the icing on the cake of that massive One UI overhaul that comes with the Android Pie update for Samsung smartphones. RCS has often been touted as the answer to iMessage on Android devices as it allows you to send and receive much larger media files, stickers, have proper group chats, read receipts and even typing notifications. RCS has been in the pipeline for some time but is expected to become more widely adopted once Android Q drops on devices within the next few months. [Update 3: The update should now be rolling out again to T-Mobile subscribers. Check your device System Updates section now.] [Update 1: T-Mobile has just announced that this update has been put on hold to resolve a few issues that have been found. We’ll let you know once we know more and when this Android Pie rollout resumes for T-Mobile Galaxy S9 and S9+ devices.] [Update 2: Our understanding is that this will work solely within the T-Mobile network due to the way that T-Mobile has implemented RCS outside of the Google Jibe hub. That means that at present it will not work with any carriers that support the new profile via this Jibe hub. That said, some carriers have committed to interconnecting their services potentially by the end of 2019.] As for build numbers, this T-Mobile Pie update comes as build G960USQU3CSAB for the Galaxy S9 and G965USQU3CSAB for the Galaxy S9+. They aren’t exactly small in size, with each update coming in at a pretty sizeable 1.9GB download. With the T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S9 update, almost all US users should be able to get a taste of Android Pie. If you are a T-Mobile subscriber, it’s worth checking your System Update section to download the update. More on Samsung: FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More. Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news: