Google Pixel’s Unstoppable Android Updates Suddenly Stop
Has Android just changed?
Google rarely surprises Android users, especially those with its own Pixels. But that’s what has happened this month. The awkward optics of Pixel owners being first amongst equals compared to the vastly bigger Samsung user base has taken a sudden twist.
As I reported earlier in the month, Android’s July security update was not a security update at all. “There are no Android security patches in the July 2025 Android Security Bulletin,” Google said, with “no security patches” for Pixels either.
The disparity between Pixels and Samsungs was becoming a real thing. Google’s phones received Android 15 more than six months before recent Galaxy flagships, and then just as Samsung’s phones saw that upgrade, Pixels were already moving to Android 16.
But that same pattern has also been seen each month. A fast, efficient and “seamless” Pixel monthly security update versus the fragmented, labored Samsung equivalent.
But this month Samsung’s security update looked like business as usual, whereas Pixel’s was anything but. This is the first time in almost a decade — since August 2015 — that Android’s monthly security update has drawn such a blank.
The reality is somewhat different. There were Android updates for July making their way onto Pixel phones as part of an Android 16 update, but for users on older versions of the OS or with older devices, this doesn’t help.
There are now more than 1 billion Android devices that fall foul of Google’s cutting off security updates for Android 12 and older phones, and also from its tweaking its Play Integrity API to disfavor apps running on these unsupported versions of the OS. If you own a phone running Android 12 or older, you should really stump up for an upgrade.
Per Security Week, “this is the first month without security updates since Google started rolling out monthly Android fixes in August 2015, looking to make the mobile operating system safer for both users and vendors.” And that also feels like a “thing.”
But as for whether this is just a blip in the Samsung versus Pixel stakes, we’ll know soon enough. Google’s phone is racing ahead with Android 16 and new security and privacy features, while Samsung awaits its own rollout. It’s likely nothing has really changed.