The Galaxy Nexus was the first device to run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich,[37] introducing a large number of new features and improvements.[38] Beginning from 11 July 2012, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean began rolling out to the GSM Galaxy Nexus as an over-the-air (OTA) update.[39] The 4.2 update began rolling out on 13 November 2012 to the GSM Galaxy Nexus Takju/Maguro variant (smartphones sold in the USA and directly supported by Google) as an (OTA) update. Google started rolling out the update to the international version (Yakju/Maguro) a week later. Towards the end of December, however, not all phones had received the update. On 19 March 2013 Verizon Wireless began updating OTA their CDMA Galaxy Nexus Mysid/Toro variant to Android 4.2.2.[40]
Android 4.3 Jelly Bean was released for GSM models on 24 July 2013,[41] and Sprint began OTA updates on 31 October 2013.[42]
Google has stated that the Galaxy Nexus will not receive Android 4.4 KitKat,[43] even after having 14,000 signatures requesting it.[44] New drivers may allow unofficial Android versions to be available for the device.[45]
Canonical's Ubuntu Touch operating system is also available and supported on the Galaxy Nexus.[46][47]