Samsung Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge owners in the United States are in for a small treat as the August security patch is now rolling out.
After the whole Stagefright scare, which affected millions of devices, as well as the more recent QuadRooter vulnerability that put 900 million Snapdragon-powered devices at risk, the importance of monthly security updates has become even more apparent.
Google is taking steps to ensure devices running its Android operating system stay safe and get regular patches for any potential vulnerabilities, so it's releasing monthly maintenance updates to keep them up to date. Google typically releases the patches at the beginning of each month, after which device manufacturers customize the updates and eventually release them to their devices.
Samsung, for its part, hasn't been very thorough when it comes to delivering the latest Android security patches to its devices worldwide, but at least U.S. owners of the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge are now getting the very latest patch.
The company already started rolling out the August security patch for its two flagship smartphones to fix various shortcomings, including the issue related to the SideSync application. Before the patch, activating the SideSync app before finishing the Setup Wizard stage left the device vulnerable to malware installation, but the update now ensures that SideSync can only be activated after completing the Setup Wizard.
Considering that this is a security update, the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow version number remains unchanged at this point — maintenance releases just add a few tweaks under the hood.
The security patch includes a number of patches from both Google and Samsung, as detailed in the changelog. Samsung started rolling out the August security patch over the air (OTA), which means that not all devices will get it at the same time. Nevertheless, it's highly recommended to install the update as soon as it becomes available.
As previously mentioned, the latest security patch is rolling out now for U.S. owners of the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, but Samsung makes no mention of a global release at this point. The patch should hit more devices worldwide in the near future, but it remains to be seen just when that will be.
For now, U.S. users can check whether the update is available for their device by accessing Settings > About Device > Software Update. If the security patch is available, tap Download Updates to get your phone up to date. If you'd rather not go through this process, you can simply wait until the system notification alerts you that the update is ready for download.
