Is my phone still getting security updates?

No, and this is where most write-ups are wrong. Apple maintains security-only branches for older iOS releases and patches them alongside the current one. Its most recent builds on those branches are iOS 18.7.10 for the iPhone XS, XS Max and XR; iOS 16.7.16 for the iPhone 8, 8 Plus and X; and iOS 15.8.8 for the iPhone 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus and SE (1st generation). What ends when your model leaves the compatibility list is new iOS versions and new features, not patching. Apple publishes no end date for the legacy branches either, so nobody can tell you how long yours will continue.

Pick your model above. The kind of answer you get depends on what your maker publishes, and there are three kinds. For a Motorola or a OnePlus it is simply stated: UK law requires a defined support period per model, so Motorola prints a start month and an end month, and OnePlus prints the end date on its own, and no working-out is needed. For a Pixel it is arithmetic: Google publishes both the support window and the on-sale date, so the end date and the months remaining are computable. For a Galaxy it is a live status: Samsung publishes which devices it is patching right now and how often. For an iPhone it is a record of what Apple has actually shipped, either on the current iOS or on one of the security-only branches it still maintains for older releases. You can confirm on the phone itself under Settings, Security and privacy, System and security update on Android, or Settings, General, Software Update on iOS.

It depends which Pixel, and this is where most answers go wrong. Google commits to seven years for the Pixel 8 and later, including the budget a-series, covering OS upgrades, security patches and feature drops. The Pixel 6 and 7 generations and the original Pixel Fold get five years, not seven. The Pixel 5a and earlier are listed by Google as no longer receiving updates at all. The clock runs from the date the model went on sale on the Google Store in the US, which Google also publishes, so an exact end date is arithmetic rather than an estimate.

Samsung answers this directly, which no other maker does: it publishes the list of devices it is patching right now, split into monthly and quarterly. Current flagships and foldables sit on the monthly list; older flagships and most of the A, M and F series sit on the quarterly one. A phone moves from monthly to quarterly as it ages and then off the list entirely, so the tier itself is an early warning. Samsung separately says it is extending support to up to seven years for Galaxy devices from January 2024, and notes that timing varies by market and carrier.

It is still supported, but on the slower tier. Samsung starts a phone on monthly patches and moves it to quarterly as it ages, before support ends altogether, so quarterly is roughly the second half of a device's supported life. The practical effect is that a newly-disclosed flaw may sit unpatched on your phone for up to three months rather than up to one.

At least five years from the date the model was first supplied, for the recent iPhones whose UK statements of compliance we read: the iPhone SE (3rd generation), iPhone 14, iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 each give a defined support period of a minimum of five years from the first supply date, which is 22 September 2023 for the iPhone 15. That is a floor, not an end date. None of those statements names an end month, and Apple also publishes which models run the current release, iOS 27. Any page quoting you a confident Apple end-date has inferred it. What is genuinely checkable is longer than most people assume, because dropping off the newest iOS is not the end of security updates. Apple keeps security-only branches running for older releases, most recently shipping iOS 18.7.10 for the iPhone XS, XS Max and XR; iOS 16.7.16 for the iPhone 8, 8 Plus and X; and iOS 15.8.8 for the iPhone 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus and SE (1st generation). An iPhone 6s that went on sale in 2015 received a security update in May 2026.

Xiaomi publishes the shortest commitment of any maker here and hedges it twice: it says it will typically maintain security updates for at least two years after a model first ships, and that it may support some models for three years or longer, subject to actual conditions. Note what is missing; there is no per-model end date anywhere Xiaomi publishes one, so this tool will not give you a Xiaomi countdown and no honest tool can. Adding two years to a release date would look like an answer and would not be one, because "typically" and "at least" are not a date. If you are choosing between a Redmi and a Motorola or a Pixel at a similar price, the difference in published support is the largest gap on this page: two years against four to five, or seven.

OnePlus publishes two answers, and most write-ups quote the smaller one. In prose it pledges a minimum of three years from launch for smartphones and tablets. In a table on the same page it lists a specific end date for each model, and most of them run far past that floor: the OnePlus 13, launched in January 2025, is listed to 7 January 2031, and the Nord 5 to 8 July 2031. Older models are already done: the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro ended on 1 April 2023. The table gives an end date and no start date, so what you get for a OnePlus here is a deadline rather than a window. OnePlus notes the page is for reference and that delivery can vary by region and model.

Motorola tells you outright, model by model, and in more detail than anyone else here. UK product security regulations require it to publish a defined support period for anything it sells there, so it files a signed statement per handset giving a start month and an end month. The moto g47, for example, is covered from April 2026 to April 2029. OnePlus files under the same law but publishes only the end date. The periods vary far more than people expect, and by model rather than by family: two years on the cheapest moto e and moto g handsets, three to four across most of the range, five on recent edge models, and six and a half on the motorola signature. Two years is genuinely short, so it is worth checking before buying a budget Motorola rather than after. Motorola does add that this information is not a commitment and that it may change the timing of any release.

The phone keeps working. What stops is the patching of newly discovered flaws, so risk accumulates rather than arriving all at once: every vulnerability found after your last patch stays open on your device permanently. The practical exposure is highest for anything handling money or identity: banking apps, email, password managers, two-factor codes. Some banking apps also begin refusing to run on unsupported OS versions, which is often what forces the upgrade in the end.

No; it starts at the device's release date. This is the single most common misunderstanding, and it matters most for budget phones bought late in their run: a model that launched three years ago has three years already spent, however new the handset in the box is. It is also why buying last year's flagship at a discount costs you a year of updates.

Manufacturer pages only, linked beside every answer and re-checked on a schedule: Google's Pixel update policy and its device availability table, Samsung's security update scope page, Apple's iOS compatibility and security releases pages and its UK Statements of Compliance for the recent iPhones we read, Motorola's individual UK Statements of Compliance (one signed document per model, which is where its start and end months come from), OnePlus's UK product security table, which is where its per-model end dates come from, and Xiaomi's security update policy. Nothing here is taken from another site's roundup or from a spec aggregator. Where a manufacturer publishes neither an end date nor a fixed window to count one from, we return none rather than estimating one, which is why an iPhone gives a status and a Pixel gives a countdown: Google states a fixed window from a published on-sale date, while Apple's UK statements for the recent iPhones we read give only a five-year minimum from first supply, and a minimum is not an end date. Where a manufacturer publishes two figures that disagree, we use the specific one: OnePlus pledges a three-year minimum in prose and then lists a later end date for almost every model, and the per-model date is the one you get.