The company has recently tweeted that they have started rolling out a software update to the Essential Phone with the build number NMJ88C. According to the company, this is expected to deal with the Spectre and Meltdown flaws and should patch it up. The update should be live and if you don’t see it yet, not to worry as you can try fetching it manually by going to Settings > About > System updates.
We're rolling out a software update (build NMJ88C) with the January security patches and fixes for the Spectre and Meltdown security flaws.
— Essential (@essential) January 5, 2018
Also in the same Twitter post, users were asking the company regarding the status of the Android 8.0 Oreo update for the phone, in which Essential replied saying that they are getting close to a release. For those unfamiliar, the Essential Phone is the first phone released under Essential, a relatively new company that was formed in part by former Google exec and Android’s co-founder Andy Rubin.
While the phone might have had grand intentions at the start, it did not exactly launch to a huge success, but perhaps Essential has learnt from their first attempt and the second Essential Phone will be much better received.