Newsletter
Google has begun rolling out the first batch of Google System updates of the new year. The initial January 2023 release contains new developer features, Play Games improvements, and more. As usual, the company should add more changes to the release notes as the month progresses.
The January 2023 Google System updates are now rolling out
According to Google, the January 2023 Google System updates expands the range of users and use cases supported by the Play Games profile. This change will be available on both phones and PCs with Google Play services version 23.01, which rolled out last week. The same Play services version also adds support for Device Connectivity-related developer services. Google’s in-house developers as well as third-party Android developers can take advantage of this feature.
Additionally, Google Play Store version 33.5 released last week continues the company’s efforts of making apps and games more discoverable. You’ll see more apps and games that you might be interested in downloading on your phone. Speaking of downloading, Google has further optimized the process to enable faster and more reliable installation. This update also contains Play Protect improvements and various performance optimizations, bug fixes, and security, stability, and accessibility improvements for the Play Store.
As said earlier, Google is just getting started with the January 2023 Google System updates. It will continue to roll out more changes in the coming weeks. You don’t need to do anything to get these updates, though. The changes are installed automatically with the latest versions of the Play Store and Play services apps. You don’t have to manually install the new versions. However, it may take a few weeks for the updates to reach all Android users globally. Meanwhile, we will let you know when Google adds notable new changes to its release notes.
Google recently released this month’s security update
Google System updates are different from the monthly security updates that Android devices get. The latest security patch rolled out to the Pixel lineup and eligible Android products from other brands last week. It patches more than 60 vulnerabilities across nine Pixel smartphones — Pixel 4a, Pixel 4a 5G, Pixel 5, Pixel 5a, Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 6a, Pixel 7, and Pixel 7 Pro.
Other Android OEMs such as Samsung ship these updates with additional vulnerability patches specific to their respective devices. The January SMR (Security Maintenance Release) for Galaxy devices patches 20 such Galaxy-specific vulnerabilities, including flaws in NFC, Wi-Fi Service, Knox Service, Secure Folder, and more device components.