The Galaxy S9 series is joining the already sizable pool of Samsung smartphones running the very latest Android security update, starting with the international, Exynos 9810 models. Not bad for a lineup that's been pushing four as of two days ago. And not entirely unexpected, either, given how quickly these 2018 flagships adopted the first two security patches of the year.
Of course, this is just a new security patch level we're looking at here. From a feature-first perspective, the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ have been done for a while, by now. Though they have also adopted a wide variety of new capabilities and improvements all the way up to last year's release of One UI 2.5 based on Android 10.
Galaxy S9 stood the test of time better than most three-year-olds in the biz
Either way, the March 2021 Android security update has now officially started rolling out to both devices, identified by package version G96xFXXSFFUB3. You can expect it to reach your unit by the end of the month, and there's nothing stopping you from manually checking for it whenever you're feeling particularly impatient. To do so, go to Settings > Software update > Download and install. Give the phone a moment to check whether the deployment reached your particular corner of the world.
Alternatively, there's also the option of downloading full system images containing the new security patch – dated March 1st, 2021 – from our firmware archives; then manually flashing them to your Galaxy S9 and/or Galaxy S9+. Assuming you know what you're doing, but if you're still holding on to the Galaxy S9 in 2021, you probably do.
