Wow, this didn't take long at all - the Android 2.3.4 update for the Samsung Nexus S that we were afraid would take a couple of weeks to surface, has already shown up and is ready to be flashed to your Nexus S running 2.3.3 (GRI40 or GRI54).

Just like before, manual update instructions couldn't be simpler, so why wait for your device to be updated OTA (who knows when that will happen) when you can do it all by yourself and get that Google Talk video and voice chat right here and now?

Note: If you don't have GRI40 (2.3.3) or GRI54 (also 2.3.3) and instead have GRH78 (2.3.1) or GRH78C (2.3.2), then head over here and install GRI40 first, then proceed below.

Note: According to several initial reports on Twitter, the update will work for both the i9020 (SAMOLED) and i9023 (SLCD) variants of the Nexus S.

Update 4/30/11: Those of you with GRI54 (another 2.3.3 variant) can now try to update to 2.3.4 as well - I've updated the instructions accordingly. This update was not confirmed as working or tested by me in any way, so it may not work at all. I've seen reports on the Internet that it doesn't go through for quite a few people.

Update 5/4/11: Since the previous GRI54 -> GRJ22 update didn't work for most people, a new update, which is actually the full GRJ22 ROM, should finally allow you to upgrade to 2.3.4. It is available here. Thanks, Peter and Bandis710!

Installation instructions:

  1. Download the update file GRJ22-from-GRI40 if you have GRI40 or the full GRJ22 ROM if you have GRI54 and rename it to update.zip (make sure it's named update.zip and not update.zip.zip if you're using Windows and have it set to hide file extensions).
  2. Move the file to your phone's /sdcard directory using your favorite method - the easiest way is probably mounting the phone as disk using a USB cable.
  3. Reboot your phone and when it starts booting back up, hold Volume Up + Power.
  4. Select Recovery.
  5. The phone will reboot into recovery but first it'll show an exclamation point and a triangle. At this point, mash the Power and Volume Up buttons a few times until the recovery screen shows up.
  6. Select Apply sdcard update.zip, which should start the update process.
  7. Reboot and enjoy Android 2.3.4.

Update: And here's what new in 2.3.4:

New feature: video chat in Google Talk
Previously only available to tablet users on Android 3.0, Google Talk with video and voice chat is now available on Android phones running 2.3.4 that have front-facing cameras, starting with Nexus S. For more information please see our blog post:
http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2011/04/video-chat-on-your-android-phone.html

Bug fixes for Nexus S & Nexus One

Source: Google via @0mie