Samsung is reportedly making some changes to how it delivers software updates to its devices in different parts of Europe. These changes will likely improve the company’s software rollout even further and, quite possibly, make sideloading One UI updates a whole lot easier.

Over the last couple of years, Samsung has improved its software update situation quite dramatically. The company has gone from being among the worst OEMs (in terms of keeping devices up to date with the latest software and security updates) to one of the best. These days, it’s one of the first OEMs to ship the latest security patches and new Android OS upgrades, even though it maintains a much larger product portfolio when compared to other OEMs.

In addition, Samsung also leads the pack when it comes to longevity (barring the Pixel 6 series), offering up to three OS upgrades and four years of security updates for many of its devices. Despite that, Samsung’s update process still has one big issue: regional fragmentation. But, according to a recent report from Galaxy Club (via Android Police), Samsung aims to address this soon.

In case you’re not familiar with Samsung’s existing update process, here’s a quick refresher. Currently, One UI updates for all Samsung devices are regionally restricted. This means that the updates for the Galaxy Z Fold 3 or Galaxy Z Flip 3 in Korea aren’t the same as the updates for the same devices in the US, EU, or India. To make sure updates reach devices in the correct region, Samsung phones ship with a region-specific “CSC” code.

CSC code for the Indian variant of the Galaxy Z Flip 3 (INU)

Samsung does this to prevent the occasional buggy release from affecting a large number of devices across regions and, sometimes, due to regional software variations like onboarding experiences and preloaded apps. However, due to this practice, users in certain regions have to wait weeks (sometimes even months) to receive the same update. On top of that, Samsung also faces issues on the development front, as it has to test and release multiple versions of the same One UI update.

In an attempt to solve these issues and further streamline its software update process, Samsung is reportedly reducing the number of different CSC codes for some models in the European region. Galaxy Club notes that the 4G variant of the Galaxy A52 launched with fewer CSC variants, compared to other phones from the company. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 also followed this trend, and all European models of these three devices share the same CSC code. Thanks to this change, Galaxy A52, Galaxy Z Fold 3, and Galaxy Z Flip 3 users across Europe should receive software updates at the same time, irrespective of which European country they purchased the device from.

The publication further reveals that Samsung hasn’t completely implemented this change and carrier-branded phones in the Netherlands still have different CSCs. But this doesn’t seem to be the case in the UK. According to Android Police, carrier-branded Samsung phones in the UK share the same software builds as the unlocked models. This leads us to believe that the changes vary based on the carrier and country.

Galaxy Club further adds that Samsung’s 2022 product lineup, including the Galaxy A13, A33, A53, and the flagship Galaxy S22 series, are also being developed without regional CSC codes. We expect Samsung to extend this change to other upcoming models as well. Unfortunately, older models won’t get the same treatment.

At the moment, Samsung has not shared any official information about this change. But we hope the company will make an announcement during the upcoming Galaxy Unpacked event, where it will unveil the highly-anticipated Galaxy S22 lineup.

For more details on the matter, check out Galaxy Club’s post by following the link above.

XDA » News In-Depth » Samsung users in Europe might soon receive One UI updates much faster

A Literature and Linguistics graduate with a keen interest in everything Android. When not writing about tech, Pranob spends most of his time either playing League of Legends or lurking on Reddit.