Sprint has released the Android 5.0 Lollipop update to owners of the Sprint Spark version of Samsung's Galaxy S4 smartphone.

Google's latest version for its mobile operating system will be rolled out through an over-the-air update.

The corresponding support page on Sprint's website for the Galaxy S4 Spark LTE version currently does not list the file size of the update for users to determine how much free space they should first clear up on their smartphone before downloading it. However, the version number of the Android 5.0 Lollipop update is listed as version L720TVPUCOD1.

The update to the Galaxy S4 Spark LTE version also includes the addition of support for Sprint's Factory Reset Protection feature, in addition to installing Android 5.0 Lollipop.

Similar to all other patches for smartphones that are rolled out through over-the-air updates, it might be several days before certain users receive the notification that their Galaxy S4 Spark LTE smartphone is ready to download and install the Android 5.0 Lollipop update.

Samsung officially started releasing the update to Android 5.0 Lollipop for the Galaxy S4 back in February, beginning with a specific international version of the smartphone in Russia.

However, it was not until April 7 that a carrier in the United States, specifically AT&T, released Android 5.0 Lollipop to Galaxy S4 users as an update to Android 5.0.1 Lollipop. AT&T beat out rivals Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint in getting out Android 5.0 Lollipop for the Galaxy S4.

The Android 5.0 Lollipop update then weighed in at a whopping 1GB but was a huge update for the smartphone, which initially shipped with the outdated Android Jelly Bean. The first visible change expected to be noticed with the update is the transition to Material Design, Google's own visual design language for Android, with other changes to performance, such as increased stability and longer battery life.

Samsung worked hard to push out the Android 5.0 Lollipop update to as many devices as possible before the company unveiled its new flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge, at the Mobile World Congress in March. The Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge will ship with Android 5.0 Lollipop pre-installed.

Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns | Flickr