Android users actually do care about OS updates

What you need to know

• We asked our readers if they care about receiving new Android updates.
• Of the votes, more than 80% say they like to receive updates on their Android phones.
• A small percentage are okay with just receiving security patches.

With Android 13 in beta and the stable update on the horizon, we asked our readers if they care about receiving updates on their phones. We received nearly 7,000 responses, with more than 80% saying they "all the updates" on their phones. However, just 10% of voters say that they are fine if their phone only receives security patches.

One Twitter user, says that updates show that a company cares about the phones they sell to consumers:

While OPPO was singled out, their complaint sounds a lot like the Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders from Qualcomm, which was left without a single update for several months despite costing fans a whopping $1500. Of course, you won't get much better software support than Google and Samsung, and even Microsoft manages a pretty consistent update schedule with its latest Surface Duo 2.

On Facebook, one reader, Kevin Blanco, says they admittedly prefer security patches, as many launchers can do a good job at improving the look and feel of a phone without needing an OS upgrade.

"I won't deny it, I'm more interested in security updates than OS updates," they comment. "I mean with a good launcher such as Nova, Action or something else, you likely don't even think about what version of the OS you use as you're customized your phone and only notice those few times you go into Settings for something. A good launcher can allow you to mimic whatever version of the OS you care to."

While Motorola makes many of the best cheap Android phones and does not provide extensive software support, Blanco enjoys its phones and doesn't mind that they don't receive as many updates. This was also a common response among readers, who said that average consumers will generally not care about an Android update.

Another reader on Twitter also says they don't care about updates, as they can often mess things up: