Will my device receive the update to Android 4.4?

[Golfdriver97]

If the Galaxy S3 doesn't receive an official update to 4.4 from Samsung (and therefore your only option would be through the custom ROM development community), it's more than likely because Samsung is choosing to end upgrade support for the device at 4.3. It wouldn't surprise me, given the Galaxy S4 and recently-announced Note and Gear products coming out. They'll likely still push out any relevant security fixes (for example, like this) and such. Even flagship devices inevitably get put on the backburner, so to speak.

Patrick, I also question if a stock S3 will get 4.4.

Sent from a SlimROM S3.

 

[Golfdriver97]

But why can't S3 get 4.4? Is it because we have slower really processor or 1GB Ram (International version)? Or only Snapdragon processors will see the update?
I thought if S2 could receive the Jelly Bean update after a while prolonged wait then why can't S3 users see 4.4....

Sent from my GSIII

I am more inclined to believe that it has to do with having people upgrade devices. If every Android device could run up to KitKat, would people want to upgrade? A fair amount wouldn't. Devices are planned to be obsolete.
This is where rooting and flashing ROMs comes into play.

Sent from a SlimROM S3.

 

[Targon]

Way way way back, six to eight months ago, the word was that the S3 would be getting Key Lime Pie. Now, that was before 4.3 showed up. It should be noted(no pun intended with the Note series being available) that Jelly Bean was a huge deal because of Google Now. The S3 and Note 2, plus S4 will see 4.3 because it is needed for compatibility with the Galaxy Gear. Even AT&T and Verizon may push out updates sooner if it means the Gear sells well.

So, what will KitKat really bring to the table? We don't know, but a big issue with these new versions is device drivers. If KitKat comes out of the gate with good driver support, or if drivers are easily implemented, then we MAY see updates. Just think, if a new Android version for old devices helps with sales of accessories, it MAY be pushed out. Will Samsung offer something that REQUIRES KitKat? That is the thing that will drive Samsung to release the new update.

 

[chirag05]

I am more inclined to believe that it has to do with having people upgrade devices. If every Android device could run up to KitKat, would people want to upgrade? A fair amount wouldn't. Devices are planned to be obsolete.
This is where rooting and flashing ROMs comes into play.

Sent from a SlimROM S3.

Has Samsung officially announced that it would end up S3 update with Android 4.3???
Oh man.... I have zero idea about Rooting and Flashing. When I read these two words on the forum I generally avoid it. All I know is it overclocks the same processor and makes it able to do some things which it wasn't capable before. Am I right? Or any suitable link provided Wil be appreciable.

Sent from my GSIII

 

[Scott Kenyon]

Has Samsung officially announced that it would end up S3 update with Android 4.3???
Oh man.... I have zero idea about Rooting and Flashing. When I read these two words on the forum I generally avoid it. All I know is it overclocks the same processor and makes it able to do some things which it wasn't capable before. Am I right? Or any suitable link provided Wil be appreciable.

Sent from my GSIII

I believe so, but don't have a source. Just recall reading it somewhere.

 

[Sicily1918]

Has Samsung officially announced that it would end up S3 update with Android 4.3???

Samsung said the S3 would get Key Lime Pie/Android 5.0 (now "Kit Kat" v4.4) -- now, that was before the surprise Android 4.3 release -- but I would hope Samsung is savvy enough to know that a good subset of its users will remember that promise.

Oh man.... I have zero idea about Rooting and Flashing. When I read these two words on the forum I generally avoid it. All I know is it overclocks the same processor and makes it able to do some things which it wasn't capable before. Am I right? Or any suitable link provided Wil be appreciable.

Sent from my GSIII

Flashing custom ROMs can let you do all sorts of crazy stuff, however, if you're in similar shoes to my own, you want a ROM that works close to the level of the OEM stuff (I rely on my phone for business -- I can't have it not receive calls or fail to connect to Data or whatnot). For that, probably one of the absolute best ROMs you can get are CyanogenMod (I'd be on it now, but I have a Nexus 4 and I want the latest OS as soon as it comes out) stable ROMs. It's basically plain Android with a number of excellent added features but no bloatware. I didn't install a custom kernel that lets you overclock or anything -- I wanted a stable JB experience, and I got it.

Do a little research on the following sites:
CyanogenMod | Android Community Rom based on Jelly Bean
How to Root U.S. and Canada Galaxy S3 AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint/US Ceullar! [Fail-Proof][Noob-Proof] | Galaxy S3 Root

For my requirements, I only needed to go to the above two (followed up by Android, Windows Phone, and Windows Mobile Development News, Information, and Howtos - XDA Developers for more in-depth stuff). Basically, I followed the instructions to get the custom recovery installed (from galaxys3root.com), copied the latest stable Cyanogen ROM as well as Gapps to a spare SD card I had, booted into recovery, wiped cache, flashed ROM, flashed Gapps (all in all it takes maybe 10 minutes) and I was done -- suddenly my S2 ran JB4.2.2 better than the S3 runs 4.1x with carrier bloat -- and the cool thing is you can do OTA updates through Cyanogen... figure, given their schedules, you shouldn't be more than maybe 3 or 4 months behind the latest Android version.

 

[chirag05]

Do a little research on the following sites:
CyanogenMod | Android Community Rom based on Jelly Bean
How to Root U.S. and Canada Galaxy S3 AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint/US Ceullar! [Fail-Proof][Noob-Proof] | Galaxy S3 Root

For my requirements, I only needed to go to the above two (followed up by Android, Windows Phone, and Windows Mobile Development News, Information, and Howtos - XDA Developers for more in-depth stuff). Basically, I followed the instructions to get the custom recovery installed (from galaxys3root.com), copied the latest stable Cyanogen ROM as well as Gapps to a spare SD card I had, booted into recovery, wiped cache, flashed ROM, flashed Gapps (all in all it takes maybe 10 minutes) and I was done -- suddenly my S2 ran JB4.2.2 better than the S3 runs 4.1x with carrier bloat -- and the cool thing is you can do OTA updates through Cyanogen... figure, given their schedules, you shouldn't be more than maybe 3 or 4 months behind the latest Android version.

All thia stuff went over my head. ROM, BLOATWARE, CUSTOM ROM etc. I will check out the above links if they can help. So, it is still unclear whether or not Samsung S3 will receive Kit Kat .

Sent from my GSIII

 

[Scott Kenyon]

All thia stuff went over my head. ROM, BLOATWARE, CUSTOM ROM etc. I will check out the above links if they can help. So, it is still unclear whether or not Samsung S3 will receive Kit Kat .

Sent from my GSIII

A ROM is custom firmware. It's akin to installing a different version of Windows on your PC. These ROMs are user made Android-based operating systems that have added or removed features, or a higher version of Android than the device is supported for.
Bloatware is all that carrier junk that nobody ever uses. Verizon/Att Navigator for example. We all use Google Maps because it's better, but sure enough the carrier saddles us with the junk app we cannot remove. That is called bloatware.
Hopefully you have a better understanding of the terms. There's a lot to learn about Android, feel free to ask any questions you need answered.

 

[chirag05]

A ROM is custom firmware. It's akin to installing a different version of Windows on your PC. These ROMs are user made Android-based operating systems that have added or removed features, or a higher version of Android than the device is supported for.
Bloatware is all that carrier junk that nobody ever uses. Verizon/Att Navigator for example. We all use Google Maps because it's better, but sure enough the carrier saddles us with the junk app we cannot remove. That is called bloatware.
Hopefully you have a better understanding of the terms. There's a lot to learn about Android, feel free to ask any questions you need answered.

Thanks Scott for the detailed understanding of terms. So does using custom firmware void the phones warranty?
Is thr phone more prone to viruses and unsafe after installing custom ROM?
Where I can learn all this stuff about? Some video may be if you know on YouTube. I would appreciate that.

Sent from my GSIII

 

[stockandroidguy]

Of course all Nexii should be getting back to the Gnex. I would be shocked if the Gnex didn't get an OFFICIAL 4.4 update. When there was speculation of the 5.0 (then KLP) it was rumored that it would be compatible on Older phones. (IE Nexus S). Now if google can seriously pull that off even with older non nexus devices the that would be awesome for a lot of the mainstream public that have older devices. Especially if Google is able to introduce TRIM. I 'm sure it's a huge longshot and most of the Mass population wouldn't care but it would still be awesome.

 

[vicshalls]

I am not the big geek but i do follow what is going on. It seems to me that an os does not hit phones until almost a year after it is announced. So the way i see it any phone that came out in 2013 might see 4.4 but anything 2012 or later wont see a thing. you want to for sure have the new os then a new phone every year is the way to go. we all seem to jump ahead and are not satisfied with what we get. i for one am just glad that i have a phone that works for once. no lag no issues when i ask it to do something it does it. so unless they figure out a way for the phones to use the restroom for me then i think i am good with the phone i have now. i will take the new os when it comes but really no point it sitting around waiting.

 

[East56]

I wish my S2 would but I highly doubt that. It doesn't have Jellybean yet and probably never will.

 

[Sicily1918]

I wish my S2 would but I highly doubt that. It doesn't have Jellybean yet and probably never will.

My S2 got JB 4.1.2 back in March or April (T-Mo T989 version). Of course, once I Cyanogened it, I was at 4.2.2 and happy, but whatever

 

[Hungerdunger]

Well, I think pure Nexi (plural of nexus???) should be getting it very soon.

If you're going to be pedantic about it, Nexus is actually a fourth declension Latin noun and as such the plural would also be Nexus. Don't ask me how the Romans ever managed with complications like that. But then they never had mobile phones - just abacuses. Or should that be abaci???

 

[Golfdriver97]

If you're going to be pedantic about it, Nexus is actually a fourth declension Latin noun and as such the plural would also be Nexus. Don't ask me how the Romans ever managed with complications like that. But then they never had mobile phones - just abacuses. Or should that be abaci???

Lol....I was just poking fun at the numerous ways the English language is messed up about plurals.

 

[Va1ha11a]

You may want to change the name of this thread to "Will my device Officially receive the update to Android 4.4?" Lol

 

[Ph0nix]

Ugh, time to get a nexus phone.

 

[DrewDT]

My BlackBerry Tour was a flagship, I can't wait for it to get some KitKat love.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Targon]

A big factor, as I have mentioned, is the driver support for the new OS version. From what I have seen from Samsung, they have skipped 4.2.2 for devices that will eventually get 4.4, and have or are releasing 4.3 for now for devices that WILL get 4.4 at some point. The S3 is a 2012 phone, so will get whatever version of Android comes out in 2013 at some point(carriers may delay it by months). The S2 on the other hand is a 2011 phone, so will get 4.2.2 and that's it, end of updates. Basically, if you buy a FLAGSHIP, you should expect to see updates during a 2-year contract is my thinking.

The S3 itself did come in 1GB and 2GB versions, so we may see the update for the 2GB version rather than 1GB version as a POSSIBILITY, but 4.4 may very well make better use of resources, so may run just fine on the 1GB version. Basically, can the phone HANDLE the update without problems is a key aspect, and any device maker has to be really careful not to reduce functionality of a device just to release an update. Will KitKat be an improvement for phones with only 512MB of RAM? If yes, they the device maker MAY put in the effort to put 4.4 on even older devices, while a slow-down might be delayed until the update can be stripped down to work well in an older or mid range device, and THAT extra effort may make the device maker say "no" to that update.

So, I again say that the S3 should get 4.4, but that will be the end. Again, this goes on the track record of Samsung having released Jelly Bean to the Galaxy S2 and other devices that many would have expected would not get the update.

Another thought on 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3 is that you also have the whole, "What does this update actually add?" question. 4.2.2 vs. 4.1.2 on a TouchWiz device without a custom firmware(I hate people using ROM for firmware since it isn't accurate) adds WHAT? 4.3 at the least adds Bluetooth LE, which opens up the door for a LOT of Bluetooth devices that require Bluetooth LE, including the Polar heart rate monitors which currently are not supported on Android due to the battery running out quickly without the LE stuff.

Samsung and the other device makers were probably told NOT to say ANYTHING about 4.4/KitKat until the official release of 4.4 at this point, and it is entirely possible the device makers have 4.4 already and are working on firmware for their devices so they will have them ready sooner, rather than later.

 

[Pollster]

Ugh, time to get a nexus phone.

Every year.
If you got last year's Nexus, you'll get this year's Android. Nexus from two years ago? Well, I guess this signals a change in my position from earlier in the thread.

So sad that with 4.3,Google seems to have lost interest in all but their current Nexus.