HTC is now rolling out the August Android Security Update on two of its latest smartphones, including the HTC 10 and the HTC A9. The announcement was made via Twitter by HTC Vice President of Product Management Mo Versi; the update has been approved for an August 15 release (starting yesterday), and should continue to expand its reaches to more and more units in the wild. However, as yet the Security Update is only available for the unlocked HTC A9 and HTC 10 variants.
Although HTC did bring the JuneSecurity Update to the unlocked HTC 10 flagship a couple of months ago, the Taiwanese smartphone maker skipped the month of July for unclear reasons, and is now releasing the July Android Security Update alongside the August update for both the HTC A9 and HTC 10, as long as they are the unlocked models. Carrier variants are a different story for HTC, and as some readers might recall, earlier in October 2015 the President of HTC USA, Jason Mackenzie, stated that carriers make monthly security updatesunrealistic given their time-consuming approval process. In any case, as yet there’s no word on when carrier variants will start receiving the latest Android Security Patch, but more details should emerge in the foreseeable future.
Owners of the unlocked HTC A9 or HTC 10 should receive an update notification any second now if they haven’t already but on the other hand and as is usually the case with OTA (over-the-air) software updates, it may take a few days before the software package reaches all the eligible units. In other words, the update notification could arrive earlier for some users than others. Otherwise, HTC A9 and HTC 10 owners can also attempt to trigger the process manually by heading down to the phone’s “Settings” menu, accessing the “About Device” section and verifying if a new software package can be queued for download. As for what the updates contain, much like their names suggest, “Android Security Updates” are designed to improve security on Android-powered smartphones, and as a result, there’s not much of a change log to reveal. All changes take place under the hood and consist of vulnerability patches, meaning that these updates should take top priority for any Android smartphone user wanting to access online services and content in a secure environment.