Samsung is Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 On July 10, using Android’s development tools, it was discovered that the new foldable device does not support seamless updates.
It’s been almost a decade since Google introduced the seamless update feature to Android and its Pixel smartphones, and in 2024, Samsung has finally brought the feature to one of its phones.
To my surprise, Galaxy A55And for months, A-series phones have been the only ones to get seamless updates, and it looks like that won’t change with the Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6.
What is Seamless Updates and how does it work?
Phones that support the Seamless Update feature have two system/boot partitions: while a new update is being installed on one partition, you can continue to use your phone uninterrupted on the other partition.
With a normal (non-seamless) update, the installation process requires users to reboot their phone and wait for the update to complete, preventing them from using their phone in any way, including making emergency calls, for a few minutes.
Seamless updates allow new firmware to be installed in the background without interrupting the user. This way, when new firmware is applied, the user only needs to reboot their phone once and doesn’t have to wait for long progress bars.
The story continues after the video…
Depending on how often you install updates on your phone, seamless updates may or may not seem like an important feature to you, but it’s a quality-of-life improvement, especially for devices that receive monthly security updates, which is true for most new mid-range and high-end Galaxy phones.
The Fold 6 and Flip 6 don’t appear to support seamless updates
Unfortunately, the Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 don’t support seamless updates, at least in our early testing.However, the way to test if seamless updates are supported is apparently a bit unreliable, and the only way to know for sure is when the new foldable devices get their first software updates.
The Galaxy A55, which supports seamless updates, will show a split progress bar while the update is downloading and installing, while devices that don’t support seamless updates will only have a single progress bar. If you compare the two in the image below, you’ll see seamless on the left and traditional on the right.
If the Fold 6 and Flip 6 don’t support seamless updates out of the box, it can’t be changed later: the system on which this update is installed requires two system partitions, and adding support to a phone that doesn’t support seamless updates would require repartitioning the existing system partition, potentially causing a host of issues that Samsung isn’t willing to risk.
The Fold 6 and Flip 6’s seven-year updates will likely be installed the old-fashioned way.
Samsung’s decision to omit seamless updates for its new flagship products may be because the software that runs on its flagship Galaxy smartphones and tablets tends to take up a lot of space — almost twice as much — than on mid-range and budget devices.
for example, The full Galaxy A55 firmware is around 8GB in sizeMeanwhile, the firmware for the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy S24 Ultra is Approximately 14GB and 16GB Download Each.
Still, the Fold 6 and Flip 6 Covered by 7 years of OS and security upgradesIt’s a bit disappointing that all these upgrades are installed the old-fashioned way.
Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 launch on July 24
The new foldable device Android 14 and One UI 6.1.1and also comes with new Galaxy AI features. It’ll be available on July 24th, but you’ll get a bonus if you pre-order early.
