When Nintendo usually releases a firmware update for the Nintendo Switch, it results in a change in the version number and, at the very least, a few changes that have been made confirmed via patch notes. For these updates to complete, the console must restart itself. However, this is not always the case for updates.
For example, Nintendo decided to release another update without a reboot tonight. They don’t require a console restart to download and generally don’t do anything significant to the firmware. In fact, Nintendo doesn’t even release patch notes for them. However, you can see a tweet below that relays what the rebootless update has changed.
