By Ask and you shall most definitely receive. We’ve been wondering about the status of HTC’s 2.1 update coming for their Sense-enabled Hero phones for a while now. They confirmed it was coming, but talks about a release window have been quiet. ThisAndroidLife pinged HTC and, to their surprise, received a response that gave us a pretty solid timeframe.
“Some of the phones in our Android line up including your Hero are due to receive an upgrade, and it is scheduled to be released starting at the end of April. Your phone should be upgraded Over-The-Air. You can expect a pop-up message on your phone when connected to the internet once it is ready. When the upgrade is ready, we will notify you via our website and on various social media networks including Twitter and Face book”
The end of April isn’t as descriptive as some of you might like, but at least it gives you a good idea of when to expect this (hint: it’s not mid-April). I guess a quick question can go a long way in giving an answer to thousands of people waiting to get up to speed with Android.
We’ll keep a close eye on HTC for when they do announce that the OTA will be available and we’ll notify you ASAP.
[Update]: For now, this only applies to European Heroes, but I suspect that – due to the phones being so similar – other regions won’t be far off, either.
Now all I’ve just got to wait another 3 months for t-mobile to customise it for their branded G2!!
And for htc tattoo?
@Antonio it’s reported that HTC said to expect updates to their other 1.5 Sense phones soon after.
FTA: “Edit – We should have mentioned that this was in relation to the European Hero.”
:(
Dear God please let my Eris get it too
Will this include Droid Eris as well?
“Some of the phones in our Android line up including your Hero are due to receive an upgrade, and it is scheduled to be released starting at the end of April.”
I don’t read that as Hero IS getting the update at the end of April, just that they will be starting with 2.1 updates, possibly other models not even the Hero, STARTING at the end of April.
…They may not even get around to the Hero for another month or two later.
Hero and Eris are very similar in systems, but the NETWORKs seem to be the issue when it comes to updates. Verizon is a bit ‘reluctant’ to upgrade the android systems. (DROID update was delayed? especially in lower range network areas) I love my Eris, preferred it greatly to the droid… but I purchased it with the ‘fake promise’ of upgrade to Droid level 2.0 soon from VERIZON staff, would have been ‘pissy’ with Droid purchase and 2.1 initiation so soon after as well though…but 2.0 is greatly improved over 1.5. Love Android in general, but will not be quick to jump for them again…too many changes to quickly outdate and feel ‘jipped’.
I’ll believe it when it happens. They said April 16. They said Android 1.6 before Christmas. htc already have Sense running on top of 2.1, as demonstrated with their latest handsets, so why the further wait?
My suspicion is that htc and the carriers both want to wait for the newer, more expensive phones to shift some units before they equip older models with up-to-date software. Am I a cynic?
i believed when i see it, i think the hero is getting updated after the htc evo is already out, and that is with a big if ever..
I’ve asked to HTC Russia “are you still willing to release the update for HTC Hero this friday (16th of April)?” and this answere was “yes, nothing changed yet.”….
Bloody hell… I’m really pissed off! A delay again, and on top of that, the least concrete rumor we ever had. Words like “phones”, “including”, “starting”, “should be.” What the hell is that!
@il_bulgaro and everyone else,
if you are even remotely interested in being able to install apps to your memory card instead of the SMALL system drive, then you will be able to get your 2.1 ROM for Hero as soon as this weekend… that is if this Russian story is true.
It will take a day or less for the guys who “cook” ROMs to unlock the Russian one and make it work worldwide (GMS first probably)
so worry not…
OH
and DO NOT INSTALL THE HTC VERSION FIRST!!!!!
I agree with Ben. Enough wait already. Rumors said it was supposed to be tomorrow and now I hear it is delayed once more. Really pisses me off.
I would take this with a pinch of salt. Hundreds of people have contacted HTC and have had responses with many different dates. I think it is still quite a way off. If they had finished it then it would have certainly been leaked by now.
It does make me think “should I just get an N1 or Desire” but then you are falling into their trap. Really doesn’t help the cause for Android when half the worlds Android users are stuck on inferior 1.5/1.5 roms just because vendors are so slow to release new versions.
yeah, i agree with ben. they want people buying newer, more expensive phones with 2.1/sense before they start upgrading older, lesser-specced phones.
or at least, they want the first exposure to 2.1/sense to be on the high-end phones.
And I wait for some news about my Sammy Moment update…
C’MON SPRINT!!! I can’t wait another 10 months until I can get an EVO!
With the Incredible (Android 2.1 & Sense UI) coming to Verizon….I don’t see an update to the Eris anytime soon…they’ll want people to pay the higher $$ to purchase the ‘newer’ phone…why pay $$$ for HTC Incredible when you can pay $ or $$ for an Eris with same features and similar capability?
Every day I regret purchasing the myTouch more and more… :(
The 2.1 update for Spanish Heros is officially scheduled for April 30th, according to Spanish website and.roid.es (link in Spanish):
http://and.roid.es/actualizaciones-2-1-htc-hero-confirmacion-oficial.html
OK, I think we can finally say that we will never get the update for the Hero. This just keeps going on. Every time we get to the date previously mentioned we just get a new one a month or a half into the future.
Again it’s another posting by a website that states it’s this date. No Wait! It’s going to be this date. No this is from a reliable source that says this date. Enough with spreading false information. As one other post says “I’ll believe it when I see it!” In fact, I received this from Sprint just 2 days ago.. “sprint Android users: We hear you re: 2.1 update; still on track for early Q2. Details as soon as avail. Many thanks for your continued patience.
4:34 PM Apr 13th via CoTweet” This FINALLY came out from Sprint because their own Forums where getting hammered with Ticked off customers who are upset with the fact there has been “NO COMMUNICATION” other then these vague posts or tweets. Maybe one day we will get the update but as of now I’m starting to doubt we ever will get one. Since I purchased the phone and was told by HTC and Sprint we were going to get update to 1.6, no 2.0, no scratch that we are going to 2.1. Well it’s now officially gotten so old that I don’t want to hear of another posted time frame unless someone has PROOF that the Update is going to be released on that date.
I cant even bare to look at my Samsung Galaxy anymore.
BUllshit this, these rumors are just that rumors this is really making me tired of waiting If my Hero is not updated next phone will be a nokia!
Still More Rumors! I feel you Cave Monkey this is bullshit!
Why does it take so long to release it when its already on a phone thats selling at the moment?? WTF!?….
Everyone really should just chill out. Is your life REALLY going to be that mush worse running 1.5 for another couple of weeks/month? And you know everyone would moan if they released it with bugs, issues or errors right?
Iknow this has all been a big dissappointment for alot of people. But the one thing I don’t see considering every post that “Confirmed” the previously believed release dates, all have one thing or another that could be faked. a simale tech support email to HTC could result in a believable signature of which anyone can copy and paste.
Although places like this site and many other reputable information and enthusiast site’s have tried their best to give the most correct information the story of the boy who cried WOLF is coming to mind. as HTC themselves have made no PUBLIC postings that are able to be pinned down at this time to confirm anything. I’m not going to get my hopes up anymore and will hope HTC do the right thing as i’ve been buying their phones for many years now. They really should keep their Loyal customers informed better on timelines.
Ive had it officially from HTC that 2.1 will come at the end of April. I’m not tied to any network