We're keeping smartphones for longer and longer, and because of that, users obviously want to ensure that their smartphones are updated for those longer periods of time as well. Hanging onto your phone for an extra six or eight months at a time mightn't sound like a lot, but if everyone did that, it would reduce the number of phones produced and sold. That's why companies are beginning to expand their software support, and at a recent roundtable event in London, OnePlus announced that it was going to bring four major platform updates to "selected devices" in 2023, along with five years of security updates.

As for what those selected devices are, the company neglected to confirm what they are. However, it would be reasonable to assume that, at the very least, it would be its flagships that would see the extended support window. In terms of timeliness, Gary Chen, Head of Operating System Product at OnePlus and OPPO, stated that they would be aiming for bi-monthly security updates for the devices that will get updates for this length of time. It wasn't clear how quickly platform updates would arrive on OnePlus smartphones.

OnePlus is now in a pretty interesting position in comparison to the rest of the competition. It's the same length of time that Samsung promises for its own selected devices, for example. In comparison to Google though, both Samsung and OnePlus come out on top, with the Android developer promising only three platform updates for Google Pixel devices along with five years of security updates. Even OPPO devices currently only get three major updates and four years of security patches.

Of course, while this is a good policy that gives OnePlus an edge over competitors, it's not quite as robust as one may have hoped. For starters, there's no guarantee how fast updates can and will be rolled out to OnePlus devices. If platform updates are several months delayed, that's still not great. As well, with security patches only being guaranteed every two months, that means you could miss out on crucial security patches for a month or longer at a time. It's unlikely, but it's something that people who want a device that gets frequent security updates will be looking for.

Nevertheless, it's a good improvement for fans of OnePlus and its products, and we'll be looking forward to hearing more about what devices to expect this for. This would mean that the OnePlus 11 series for example (assumedly part of this new update policy) will receive all the way to Android 17 before officially no longer being supported. It is unclear if it will apply to any currently available smartphones.