Every month, Google publishes the Android Security Bulletin: a list of security holes found in Android and fixed in that month's update. Pixel phones get the fixes directly from Google. Other phones get them when, and if, their maker ships an update.
That "if" matters. A phone that no longer gets updates keeps working fine, which is exactly the problem: nothing tells you it has stopped being protected.
Read your phone's security patch level
Every Android phone shows the date of the last security update it installed:
- Open Settings.
- Tap About phone, then Android version (on some phones, look under Security or Security & privacy instead).
- Find Android security update or Security patch level. It's a date, such as 5 September 2026.
Google's help page on checking your Android version shows where it lives; menus differ slightly between makers.
How to read it:
- Within the last two or three months: you're fine. Many makers ship monthly or quarterly.
- More than six months old: check for an update (Settings → System → Software updates, or Software update on Samsung phones). If none is offered, your phone may be out of support.
- More than a year old: treat the phone as no longer receiving security fixes.
You may also see Google Play system update in the same place. That's a separate channel through which Google updates parts of Android on most phones, even when the maker is slow. It helps, but it doesn't replace the monthly security update.
How long phones are supported
It depends on the maker and the model, and the promises have improved a lot:
- Google promises seven years of OS and security updates for the Pixel 8 and later. Its support page lists the end date for every Pixel.
- Samsung promises seven years of security updates starting with the Galaxy S24 series, with shorter periods on many cheaper models.
- Many budget phones from other makers get two or three years, or less.
Check the maker's support page before you buy, and count from the phone's launch date, not from the day you bought it.
When updates have stopped
- Plan a replacement for anything you use for banking, work or email.
- Until then, keep apps updated from the Play Store, keep Google Play Protect on, and install apps only from the Play Store.
- Don't use the old phone for your two-factor codes or passkeys if you can move them to a supported device.
- Before you sell or give it away, sign out of your accounts and reset it to factory settings.
This address used to carry a 2018 news report about the January 2018 Android security update for Pixel and Nexus phones. This is a new article on the same subject, written in October 2026.
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