Verizon's Moto Z Force Droid receives security update, but only to December 2017 level

Verizon subscribers toting Motorola's 2016 flagship phone, the Moto Z Force Droid, received an update earlier today. Was it the long awaited (and promised) update to Android 8.0? Not a chance. Moto Z Force Droid owners received an Android security update. And while a security update might be helpful to owners of the phone, today's update only took the Android security patch level to December 2017.

Since the January Android security update contains the patch protecting handsets from the Meltdown and Spectre exploits, the Moto Z Force Droid remains vulnerable to Spectre. The latter affects ARM processors like the ones found inside this handset. Meltdown negatively impacts devices that use Intel inside.

Unlike the Moto Z2 Force, the Moto Z Force Droid is an exclusive to Verizon. If you own the phone and receive a notification that the update has arrived, make sure that you are hooked up to a Wi-Fi connection, and have a fully charged battery, before starting the process of installing the security update.