How to Check If Your Phone Still Gets Security Updates

You can't tell whether a phone is still protected by looking at it — an end-of-life phone looks and feels identical to a supported one. The good news is that checking takes about two minutes, and this guide walks through it for both Android and iPhone, explains what the dates you find actually mean, and tells you what to do if your phone has already aged out.

What you're looking for

You want to know two things: which security patch level your phone is on (how recent the last fix was), and whether more patches are still coming. A phone stuck on a security patch from a year or two ago, with no new updates available, has almost certainly reached the end of its support.

On Android

Menu names vary a little by brand (Samsung, Pixel, Xiaomi and others each word it slightly differently), but the path is essentially the same:

1. Open Settings and tap Security & privacy (or Security, or System on some phones).
2. Look for Security update or Android security update. It will show a date — that's your current security patch level.
3. Tap it and choose Check for updates. If a new one appears, install it. If it's been many months and nothing ever appears, that's a strong sign support has ended.
4. To see your Android version, go to Settings → About phone → Android version.

A healthy, supported Android phone usually shows a security patch from within the last month or two. If yours is a year or more old and won't update, treat the phone as unprotected.

On iPhone

1. Open Settings → General → Software Update.
2. If an update is available, install it. If it says your software is up to date, that's good — but it doesn't tell you how much longer updates will keep coming.
3. Check which iOS version you're on under the same screen. If your iPhone is stuck on an iOS version that's two or more behind the latest and can't update, Apple has likely stopped supporting it.

Apple doesn't publish end-of-support dates, so “up to date” on an older iPhone can be ambiguous. For an estimate of how long a specific iPhone will keep getting updates, see our Apple update page, which explains Apple's roughly seven-year track record and five-year written minimum.

What the dates actually mean

Two dates get confused all the time:

• Security patch level is the date of the last fix your phone received. It tells you how current you are right now.
• End of support is the date the fixes stop— the one that defines the phone's real lifespan. Your settings screen shows you the first; it can't tell you the second.

That second date is exactly what we track. Rather than guessing from your patch level, you can look up any phone's end-of-support date directly.

Or just look it up here

If you'd rather skip the settings menus, search your phone on this site and you'll see its end-of-support date, how many months of safe use remain, and a Safe-to-Buy rating — no digging required. Browse by maker on the update tracker, or start from the Phone Finder if you want a recommendation rather than a lookup.

If your phone is already out of support

Don't panic, but do plan. An unsupported phone isn't safe for the long term, especially for banking and email. In the meantime: keep your apps updated, be cautious with links and downloads, and avoid using it for your most sensitive accounts. Then start looking at a replacement with a long runway ahead of it — our longest-supported phones and the best-phone rankings are the place to start, and the true cost of a cheap phone will help you avoid buying another short-lived one.