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The Galaxy S21 series is the latest entrant to Samsung‘s August 2023 security update party. The Korean firm has released the latest security patch for its 2021 flagships in Latin America. A wider rollout covering the phones in more markets, including the US, should follow soon.
The August SMR (Security Maintenance Release) for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+, and Galaxy S21 Ultra comes with the firmware build number G99*BXXS9EWH1 in Latin America. As of this writing, we can confirm the availability of the update in Guatemala and Trinidad and Tobago. Samsung will gradually expand the rollout to more countries in the region as well as the rest of the world.
Don’t expect anything big here, though. The update doesn’t bring any new features or improvements to your Galaxy S21 handset. As confirmed by Samsung’s official changelog, this update is all about the latest security patch. The company has already revealed that the August SMR patches as many as 86 vulnerabilities. At least three of those were “critical” flaws, while the vast majority of the remaining patches were classified as “high-severity” issues by Samsung and Google.
If you’re using a Galaxy S21 phone, these security fixes will be available to you shortly. Samsung has also released the August SMR for the Galaxy S23, Galaxy S22, Galaxy S20, Galaxy Note 20, all recent foldables, and a few Galaxy A series mid-range smartphones. As you’d expect, the rollout for most of these phones is limited to select markets at the moment. However, it’s just a matter of time before the updates reach eligible units globally.
As usual, you will get a notification once the OTA (over the air) rollout hits your Galaxy smartphone. Simply tap on the notification and follow the on-screen instructions to update your phone to the latest security patch. Alternatively, you can go to the Settings app, tap on Software update, and then on Download and install to manually check for new updates. Note that updates are released in batches and may not show up for everyone at the same time.
The Galaxy S21 series will get the Android 14-based One UI 6.0 update
Samsung launched the Galaxy S21 trio in early 2021 with Android 11 onboard. The company has since pushed Android 12 and Android 13 to the devices. The phones will get Android 14 as well. The Korean firm recently released the One UI 6.0 beta update for the Galaxy S23 series, with its One UI 6.0 custom software. It will push the stable version later this year. The Galaxy S21 series should also get the One UI 6.0 update before the end of 2023.