Samsung Android 4.4.4 KitKat Release News: Update Confirmed for Sprint Galaxy S5; Unofficial Port Available For Galaxy S3

Sprint Galaxy S5 users should be getting the latest Android update.
10/5/2014
Updated:
7/18/2015

Sprint Galaxy S5 users should be getting the latest Android update. 

Samsung recently updated its official website to show Android 4.4.4 KitKat support for the Sprint Galaxy S5.

At time of writing, Sprint has not officially announced or rolled out the update over-the-air yet. 

Android 4.4.4 KitKat is a small patch that fixes an OpenSSL security vulnerability, and also carries the various bug fixes in Android 4.4.3 KitKat for Android 4.4.2 KitKat. 

As most Samsung phones are still stuck on Android 4.4.2 KitKat, it is the Android 4.4.3 KitKat bug fixes that are perhaps most pertinent for Galaxy S5 users. 

Aside from the official Android fixes, the Sprint Samsung Galaxy S5 Android 4.4.4 KitKat update will improve the phone’s HD voice icon, international VoWiFi feature, and bring other Google security patches. 

In other news, while Samsung won’t be updating the Samsung Galaxy S3 to Android 4.4.4 KitKat outside of Korea, mobile software development community XDA Developers has decided to take matters in their own hands and produce an unofficial version of the software. 

XDA Developers complained about Samsung’s “pretty trivial” reason that they weren’t going to update the Galaxy S3 because they were having “issues with TouchWiz and is bloat-related heaviness.”

In contrast, XDA Senior Member arter97 and his team supposedly took “just a few hours to assemble quite a functional build.”

The port, which is available for international and Korean Galaxy S3 users, is not without its stability issues and bugs, but it is possibly the only way to go for Galaxy S3 users who want to run the most updated version of the Android OS. 

Users of the Android 4.4.4 KitKat Galaxy S3 port should note that having it on their phone will void their warranty, and that XDA Developers will not be responsible for any problems. 

Larry Ong is a New York-based journalist with Epoch Times. He writes about China and Hong Kong. He is also a graduate of the National University of Singapore, where he read history.
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