FP Security Updates need to be more frequent

This was exlained in length by FP…

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I think that without a paid SLA all these requests for fast updates, be it security or features, are pretty pointless. Yes, it would be awesome to get security updates for the phone as soon as a fix is available, but it’s not realistic, virtually nobody does that kind of thing, at least not publicly, and not for phones, not Google, not Apple.

Maintenance is costly and takes time to do properly. FP developers do not have unlimited resources like Google or Apple, and they are not located at the source, so it’s impossible to be as fast as e.g. Pixel (although the quality of those so called updates can be discussed, seems those device owners have been acting as free beta testers for Google…).

Recently, I was using Samsung Galaxy S10+, Samsung dumped it last Spring, after 4 years. I never got monthly updates from Samsung even when that device was new, much less a proper security update schedule (like FP does seem to have). The Samsung experience was more like quarterly or when they felt like updating something, but maybe that has gotten better with newer devices.

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True, which is why last year I finally bought me a FP instead of yet another Samsung Note.

There were/are perks in having a Samsung, like a better hardware (camera…) and things like that.
On the other hand the advantage of going Fairphone is supposed to be the better software support (as their website promised).
It’s a “hardware/software, chose one” kind of thing, and I’m fine with that. Except of course if you start getting the same rough-and-ready software support you’d get with Samsung, but without the high-end hardware. At which point you must assume you did something wrong. :open_mouth:

It may not be realistic to expect day 1 updates, but I think having some form of communication over what is causing the hold up is doable.

I’m a beta tester and I actually have the January 5 security update… But I have no idea why there is a delay.

Maybe there’s an issue with a major carrier or something. I dunno.

Whatever it is, I think they could take 5 minutes to tell us about it.

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Here’s an interesting read from 2022 about how updates work on Android.

https://medium.com/@Za_Raczke/how-android-updates-work-a-peek-behind-the-curtains-from-an-insider-1d8e1a48ec0b

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It’s this time of the month again… :roll_eyes:

Did anyone get any FP4 February Security updates?
My FP4 is still on “January 5, 2024”, and yet we’re at the end of March… :slightly_frowning_face:
Did I miss something, or are they late once again?

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Hi @KurtF, i got 1st March for Google services, but still 5th January for system.
I feel that this time it takes longuer than usual to get last mounth (minus one) update :confused:

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The monthly ground hog :wink:

The promises to deliver faster updates do not seem to have been put into practice so far. What a pity!

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It’s really extraordinary that no update has come yet. The month is over tomorrow for daytime service people. It would be the first time ever that Fairphone has not delivered an update in a month. Or have we now reached the point where updates only come every 3 months?

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Beta has been released this week. But we’re asked to not talk about details…

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No, if you read through the thread, it has already happened before, at least once IIIRC.
I agree that for a while the standard delay has been around a month: You got the security patches of last month around the 5th. But there have been slippages. :frowning_face:

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Unfortunately, I don’t know what an IIIRC is. In any case, I’ve never noticed it before. It wouldn’t be a problem if it were communicated transparently. But since someone from the BETA team has said that something is coming soon, everything is fine :).

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Play Services were updated today (just now) to March 1, 2024

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Don’t understand me wrong. FP wants beta testers to be as silent as possible because there can be various delays or even features that got into beta but were withdrawn for the stable release. So the fact that beta already has an update gives only a little information about when the stable channel will be updated. You can just be sure they’re working on it :wink:

And yes, I’d be much more glad if FP themselves would handle this type of communication with the community. But this has never worked for longer than a few weeks when a new employee was hired for this task.

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Hello,
I am allowing myself to tag @FrancescoSalvatore then. FP3 and FP5 are running on February updates so I guess this big camera update for FP4 has taken its toll.
However, it would be nice to get a few words from the company themselves.

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It’s “If I Recall Correctly” (IIRC), but written on a Dell with a rebounding keyboard… :laughing:

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Please note, APEX/Google Play system updates cover very very few of the actual issues in each monthly ASB:

I tallied them on my table and summarized them below:
2024 (so far): 38 issues, 1 fixed via Google Play system updates
2023: 275 issues, 24 fixed via Google Play system updates
2022: 207 issues, 14 fixed via Google Play system updates
2021: 193 issues, 19 fixed via Google Play system updates

while aftermarket systems cannot provide security updates to vendor components, they can still patch the system
other systems like CalyxOS (FP4/FP5) and my DivestOS (FP2/FP3/FP4) do this consistently on time for years:

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The fact that this is so accurate almost hurts. I get that they have other things to do during their work weeks but it’s not like writing a single post here takes a lot of time.

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Agree, although what does take a lot of time, is to get the official agreement from above on what to say…
You wouldn’t want to post something you thought inconsequential and get your head bitten off by your boss…
The issue is that when you post as a company employee you’re actually speaking on behalf of the company, with all the legal consequences it might entail.

Which is probably why they are so shy, although this is not a valid excuse: Companies need to communicate to keep their clients happy and (thus) gain new ones, and not only communicate through breathless marketing fluff.

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So, now it’s happened. It’s April and the monthly update was not distributed on time. I always ask myself the question, if the March update is delivered in April, will the April update still be rolled out in April?

Let’s hope that the next update will be rolled out quickly. I think it will be something more than just a security update.

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