When I dug deeper into what that meant, I came to a glaring conclusion: I needed a new phone.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n \t\t Android’s aggressive anti-theft features don’t actually stop thieves<\/p>\n Samsung is leaving my S22+ behind<\/p>\n 5 years of patches was the promise<\/p>\n When the Galaxy S22 lineup was released in 2022, Samsung promised four years of OS upgrades and up to five years of security patches.<\/p>\n Almost five years later, my Galaxy S22+ is nearing the end of its support. The phone received its last OS upgrade in October 2025.<\/p>\n Since then, it’s been stuck on One UI 8, running Android 16.<\/p>\n As if that wasn’t enough to make the phone feel old and left behind, Samsung halted the monthly security patches at the beginning of 2026.<\/p>\n Instead, it switched to a quarterly schedule. That too is set to end in February 2027, exactly five years after the phone’s release.<\/p>\n All this has me thinking: If the manufacturer is leaving the device behind, maybe it’s time I did the same.<\/p>\n An unsupported phone is not worth keeping<\/p>\n Because new security holes keep popping up all the time<\/p>\n No software is 100% secure. New vulnerabilities will keep being discovered.<\/p>\n It’s left to the manufacturer of the system to fix those bugs, ideally, before hackers can exploit them.<\/p>\n On a Galaxy phone, these fixes come as security patches from Samsung and Google.<\/p>\n For instance, Samsung’s October 2026 update for its flagships<\/a> fixed 45 vulnerabilities in Android and 27 more in Samsung’s software.<\/p>\n Sometimes these patches fix vulnerabilities that bad actors are exploiting.<\/p>\n A good example is LANDFALL spyware, which was being exploited around the middle of 2024.<\/p>\n It was found hidden in image files that appear to have been sent over WhatsApp. It used a hole in Samsung’s image software to get in.<\/p>\n When in, it could record calls, track the phone’s location, and pull photos, contacts, call history, and messages from the device, mostly without the user knowing.<\/p>\n Samsung fixed that hole in its April 2025 firmware update. But on a phone past its support, a fix like that would never arrive.<\/p>\n That’s why anyone, including me, would want to stop using a phone after its security patches end.<\/p>\n Google might not leave my S22+ just yet<\/p>\n But it only patches a small corner of the problem<\/p>\n My phone runs Android 16, which means it might continue receiving Play system updates from Google, even after Samsung’s patches end.<\/p>\n After all, the Galaxy S10 and S20, both past Samsung’s support, still got one in January 2026.<\/p>\n Even then, the patches would address only a small part of what needs covering in the phone.<\/p>\n That’s because Play system updates can’t change a phone’s kernel, the base software running its hardware.<\/p>\n They also can’t reach the drivers, which run parts like the camera and the modem, which connects to mobile networks.<\/p>\n To put things into perspective, Google’s October 2026 bulletin listed 25 Android security fixes, all in Android’s core.<\/p>\n Only 3 of them also came through Play system updates. The other 22, including all 7 rated Critical, didn’t.<\/p>\n That’s one month, not Google’s overall share. But it shows how little Google covers in a Galaxy phone.<\/p>\n My Galaxy phone’s risk only grows from here<\/p>\n And some apps may stop trusting it completely<\/p>\n Apart from Play system updates, Google offers Play Protect, which checks apps and phones for harmful behavior.<\/p>\n To a reasonable extent, it stops most app malware. But beyond that, it doesn’t offer any additional protection<\/a>. <\/p>\n Still, very few people get their phones hacked. Phishing is more common.<\/p>\n In that light, you might think you can avoid all the risks of using an end-of-support smartphone by being careful. But I strongly advise against that.<\/p>\n So, for me, when my phone’s patches end, I’ll immediately consider it a security risk and take the necessary steps to replace it with a newer, supported model.<\/p>\n This year’s Galaxy might likely be my next pick<\/p>\n Its 7-year promise still leaves me years of updates<\/p>\n Some people decide one morning they want the best phone, and they make it happen right there.<\/p>\n For me, flagship phones are too expensive to be impulse purchases, especially these days, with device prices shooting up like crazy.<\/p>\n That’s why I’ve started deciding ahead of time which model I’ll go for.<\/p>\n
\n ![\"Thief](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/thief-stealing-a-smartphone-from-someone-s-pocket-with-android-theft-protection-alerts.png\"\/)
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\n\t\t\tThe security features on my Android phone are broken, and Apple is already doing them better
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Image](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/security-generic-pixabay.jpeg\")
\n Credit:\u00a0Pixabay<\/p>\n![\"Google's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/google-g-logo-feature-01.jpg\"){kind=logo}
<\/p>\n![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/samsung-s22-close-up-camera.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/samsung-galaxy-s26-ultra.jpg\")
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