S9, will there be an OTA A13 or higher release?

[Confused]

Hi,

Will there be an OTA A13 release for the S9?

Also in the future could this model run much never versions, say A16, or wouldn’t it be capable of that?

Just wanting to make plans for device replacement.

Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/OS the deGoogled mobile OS and online services

[Harrier]

You’re unlikely to get more than the following information, from the Weekly Developing and Testing post, as regards an OTA (official) A13 release for starlte.

@Manoj

A12 - /e/OS S - Support Ending

Effective Immediately:

• Support for A12 (/e/OS S) discontinued
• Official A12 builds are an exception. They will continue getting A12 builds until we are ready to migrated to A13 or higher
• This aligns with our policy of supporting three OS versions simultaneously
• All supported devices will be pushed to higher OS versions where possible

Even though there’s already a community A13 release for starlte, i remember reading on another post from @Manoj, that preparing an OTA (official) version of a release for a device involves additional work (e.g. firmware updates.) and since this device is maintained by the /e/ OS Build Team, rather than a dedicated maintainer, then it’ll be just one of many tasks on their list that has to be worked through.

With the IMS limitation of Samsung devices and the gradual switching off of 3G networks around the world, then unless you use your device for stuff other than calls, you’d be better off opting for device replacement now. The IMS limitation is extremely unlikely to be addressed in newer e/OS/ versions, even if the builds for newer versions don’t fail for the S9. Pixels and Sonys seem to be recommended often by e/OS/ users, in other threads i’ve seen on the forum.

[Arnaud]

and is it the same for star2lte ?

[kolkrabe]

Hi Confused,

there is a (A13) /e/OS e-3.1.1-t community build Infos über Samsung Galaxy S9 - starlte. And there is a lineageOS for microG 20.0 (A13) build (january 2025) starlte

[kolkrabe]

Hi Arnaud,

yes, search the two sources for star2lte.

[Confused]

Thank you for the comprehensive answer. I have 2 phones, one for work, one personal. Both were S9 running e/os, but I changed one to a Pixel 8 Pro running Graphene. That runs a version of Android 16 and is kept very up to date by Graphene. It is more restrictive than e/os and some apps I like don’t work as intended (AirMusic for one).

The S9 is a slimmer and I feels better in the hand and I think looks smarter with its wrap around screen, but I guess its time to retire it. I will just have to decide which os to put on its replacement.

[Harrier]

Yes, same applies to star2lte (S9+).

[kolkrabe]

I forgot, there is a third one https://iode.tech/ to keep your beloved S9 maybe several months longer.
There is a A13 rom dated 2025-09-05! (iode-4.25-20250905-starlte-ota.zip).
For non-experienced the installer, for experienced the

[Confused]

Many thanks . Shame to retire it, it has served me well. Longest I have kept and used any phone.