The Galaxy S22 lineup just crossed a threshold most users won’t notice until it matters. Samsung has quietly moved the S22, S22+, and S22 Ultra from monthly security patches to quarterly updates. It’s not a death sentence, but it’s the first real sign these phones are aging out.
Released in February 2022, the S22 series has held up well. It shipped with Android 12 and One UI 4.1, then climbed through four major OS updates to land on Android 16 and One UI 8.0. That’s where the OS journey ends. One UI 8.5 should still arrive later this year, assuming Samsung follows its usual pattern of pushing incremental updates to devices running the latest major release. But after that, the focus shifts entirely to security.
Quarterly updates mean patches arrive every three months or so, sometimes longer depending on what vulnerabilities surface. Samsung will likely keep this going through 2026, possibly into 2027 if nothing critical pops up. That’s still a decent runway, but the gaps between fixes grow wider with each passing month.
If you’re still using an S22, you’re fine for now. But by late 2025, it’s worth thinking ahead, especially if you rely on banking apps or handle sensitive data. The shift to quarterly support isn’t urgent, but it’s a reminder that even solid phones have expiration dates.
For context, the Galaxy S24 series now gets seven years of updates. The S22 was never promised that, but the contrast is hard to ignore.
