Awesome isn’t it? My 2 year old lenovo tablet is already no longer supported.
That's not Google's/Android's fault, it's your device's manufacturer's fault. Nothing stopping Lenovo from releasing updates for 5-10 years if they want, they just want you to believe it's obsolete and hope you'll buy a new one from them. I mean, it's a Lenovo, what did you expect?
The ultimate proof it's manufacturer laziness is that custom ROMs like LineageOS have updates out before the manufacturer does, if ever. I have a Galaxy S7 working just fine on Android 13, upgrade all the way from Android 7. Still runs smoother than the OS it came with too.
It could fall on the chipmakers also. I'm only familiar with Qualcomm, but they provide the kernel and blobs to manufacturers.
The work required to extend the life of an abandoned platform can grow very fast once up stream drops support.
My lenovo laptop is also unsupported(it still receives software updates, I just pushed it off a table)
My wife keeps telling me she's feeling unsupported.
Did you push her off a table, too?
I was able to install Lineage on my Galaxy Tab S5e and it went from I think 11 (last supported version from Samsung) to 13. It's cool how these custom operating systems can bring fresh life to a so called old device.
Same with my pixel 2, it was stuck back on android 11, LineageOS has given it a new lease of life.
This is exactly why I do not buy android. I’ve been so close to switching from iOS so many times. But I keep my devices for a long time before upgrading. I always stop pushing through when I think about support for updates from the manufacturer.
There's a huge difference between brands when it comes to android. Samsung now provides four os upgrades and then security patches for a bit after that so that's 4+ years of support.
Fairphone has an even longer support time. I think it's 5 years? Maybe more, not quite sure.
Doesn’t samsung only offer this on their S series? I think their mid-tier phones get less updates and less frequent security updates.
Hmm I think they've started it on their A-series as well:
https://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-android-updates-1148888/
Thanks for the info. That was one of the big things on my list that can be checked off now.
When did that happened?
Looks like 4 months ago. https://endoflife.date/android
Isn't it currently the most used Android version?
According to this source, as of Jan 23, no. 10 is at 18.01%, which is beat by both 11 (23.15%) and 12 (25.29%). This is why you buy a phone with good support, and update your OS. They can't support everything forever. Progress happens, security changes, and they can't always backport the fixes, which also takes their talent away from evolving the OS. https://www.statista.com/statistics/921152/mobile-android-version-share-worldwide/
Personally, I get Pixels and install GrapheneOS. They get 5 years of support.
This is the way, although I wonder if Graphene OS utilises any of the ML capabilities the pixel devices are capable of, at least in terms of hardware
Afaik it does, but only if you use the official Google Camera aoo
I see
5 years of official support, typically custom ROMs keep it alive even longer, basically until it's too hard to keep fixing broken features.
They could keep it alive past five years if they really wanted, but that goes against the goal of the project: namely security. But five years is already longer than most manufacturers do, so it's nothing to turn your nose up at.
"GrapheneOS aims to provide reasonably private and secure devices. It cannot do that once device support code like firmware, kernel and vendor code is no longer actively maintained. Even if the community was prepared to take over maintenance of the open source code and to replace the rest, firmware would present a major issue, and the community has never been active or interested enough in device support to consider attempting this. Unlike many other platforms, GrapheneOS has a much higher minimum standard than simply having devices fully functional, as they also need to provide the expected level of security."
Is there anything you miss from Android while using GrapheneOS?
I miss the Google employees spying through my camera to see how I'm doing
32 bit app support is missing on the Pixel 7, so some older apps will NOT run. Like, at all. No recourse of action other than checking a different app.
The biggest thing for folks these days is there's no Android Auto support.
I don't miss Android Auto as I never used it on stock, but I get others do. I miss Google Wallet's tap-and-pay on the off chance I forget my wallet or not wanting to pull it out, but that's a convenience thing and it's not hard to pay with a physical card instead. That's really it for me, to be honest.
Lol this was an interesting ride from, "why don't my games work" to "turns out my phone OS is unsupported." Came across both of your threads independently.
lmao 😆
As far as I know, google doesn't have an official policy on how long they provide security updates, but it has pretty consistently been 3 years after release.
The only reason old versions are still in use is that most vendors release a phone, give it the bare minimum number of updates, then abandon it when next years shiny new model comes out.
Meanwhile, in 2023, iPhones from 2018 still get the latest iOS. And iPhones from 2015 are still getting security patches.
Once iOS gets side loading and Foss app stores pop up I will probably jump ship.
13 is the latest Android version. 10's been out of support since 12. And 14 is currently being previewed.
"unsupported" kinda means nothing in that context. 99% of Apps still will run without issues, you can use the latest Chromium and Firefox based browsers, Play Services are all up to date - so really there is nothing to worry about.
In my opinion Android 6 is the latest really "unsupported" version. With a good chunk of Apps not working anymore and the latest Chromium browsers not working anymore either.
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