UPDATED 22:15 EDT / FEBRUARY 15 2016

NEWS

Samsung Galaxy S6 owners to get latest Android version just prior to S7 launch

As the launch of the Galaxy S7 grows closer, those who own Samsung Electronic. Co. Ltd.’s current flagship models, the Galaxy S6, and Galaxy S6 Edge, will not be entirely forgotten with the company announcing a rollout of Android Marshmallow 6.01.

The rollout, which is usually dependent on a Galaxy S6 or Galaxy S6 Edge owners’ carrier making it available, includes a new theme for the notification shade, better RAM management, improved performance and battery life, shutter speed control and RAW image support in the camera app, and more.

On of the biggest changes in Marshmallow is Google Now on Tap, a new feature that delivers the ability for Google Now to understand the context of what you are currently doing on your Android phone and serve up relevant content and links.

As explained by SiliconANGLE’s Collen Kriel back in October last year:

For example, if you a have an address in a message or email, Google Now on Tap can give you directions and a link to Street View to help you find your destination. Similarly, a reference to a movie will see Google Now on Tap deliver info from the IMDB app (if you have it installed), YouTube, Wikipedia, or other sources of info.

But wait…and wait…

The good news for owners of other Samsung devices is that the company has promised that Android Marshmallow “will soon follow suit,” but even if Samsung promptly made Marshmallow available, that may mean absolutely nothing to many users given the way Android updates are currently distributed.

If you’ve not read about this problem before, the shortest explanation is that the updates themselves are mostly not delivered directly by Samsung, but are delivered by phone carriers to users on their network.

The reason it works this way is that telcos like to custom skin and/or add their own apps to Android, so they decide when and which customers get an update, and that’s even if they decide to give their customers an update at all; I’m still waiting for Android Lollipop 5.0 on my Galaxy A7, a 12-month-old phone that Samsung offered an update for in May of last year.

Larger carriers will without doubt promptly make Android Marshmallow available for their customers, and there are already reports that T-Mobile has started to do so, but if you’re with a carrier that takes its time with updates and rollouts, you may yet be in for a long wait until you have access to it, unless of course you’re confident enough to install it yourself (manually) directly and not through the usual upgrade channels.

Image credit: yama2k/Flikcr/CC by 2.0

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