Update [April 04, 2019]: As Verizon promised, the Android Pie update for the S8 and Note 8 handsets has gone live today, the April 4. We’re seeing users report the OTA update on their handsets. On Reddit, user om9503 reported the Pie OTA update for Galaxy S8, while user Maximum_Clutch has confirmed the update for the Galaxy Note 8.
After a long wait, Verizon has finally released Android 9 Pie for its Samsung Galaxy S8, S8+ and Note 8 handsets. Yes, the update gets you Samsung’s new custom skin called One UI, which features a major UI revamp from the South Korean mobile giant.
Verizon did take its own sweet time to catch up with its competitors when it comes to rolling out a major software update like Android 9 Pie for its users. Other major carriers in the US like AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile have already released Pie for these three handsets. T-Mobile has only updated the S8 and S8+, but the Note 8 is still in the waiting room.
Earlier today, Verizon also released Pie update for Moto Z3, which also brought along one certain crucial feature: support for 5G Moto Mod.
Thanks to Android Pie update, users of the S8 and Note 8 devices at Verizon can now look forward to using new features like Gesture Navigation, Digital Wellbeing, Adaptive Brightness, Adaptive Battery, Dark mode, App Actions, App Slices, easier screen rotation, improved DND mode, new Material design, etc.
The software version of the Android 9 Pie OTA is G950USQU5DSC1 for the S8, G955USQU5DSC1 for the S8 Plus, and N950USQU5DSC1 for the Note 8. The updates also get you March 2019 security patches. While Verizon’s software support pages for these devices show April 4th as the release date, the screengrab shared above is from someone using Xfinity Mobile, which runs on Verizon’s network.
Besides the S8 and Note 8 sets, the Gizmotablet is also receiving an update as version T387VKVRU1ASC1. It comes with the latest security patches and performance improvements.
We are seeing some users complain about the changes made in One UI (and Android 9 Pie) that they don’t like, but we think the good greatly overweighs the bad here, and thus, you should upgrade to Pie update for sure.
People have reported issues with One UI like battery drain, inability to hide navigation bar, using gestures, etc. but we think most of them are easily solvable or getting used to. The new UI is beautiful overall, and certainly, it’s not something you want to miss.
Note: This article has been updated to include the screenshot, info about Xfinity Mobile as well as to correct the mistake about T-Mobile Galaxy Note 8 update to Android 9 Pie. Thanks, xphyle!
