Article refrains from drawing conclusions, instead presenting the data. Android is doing better at moving users to newer versions, but the overwhelming majority of users don’t have the current Android OS version nor the previous version, combined.
That’s what you get when you require users to get a new device in order to run newer software. I would gladly run the newest version, if I could just update my os, but since I can’t, I will be running this old version for as long as I have to…
The issue is how hardware manufacturers treat Android. Most 3rd party manufacturers take months if not years to update their under the hood BS to the latest Android, and they end support after 2 years. All the more reason to go with Pixel devices.
Also carriers they often take forever to update too
Here in Canada, carrier updates are a thing of 10 years ago
I wish Google could force them to upstream their device drivers into Linux mainline they you wouldn’t need their shitty OEM kernels
Samsung is also good at updating most of their smartphones to the latest version of android.
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Google and flagship variants of Samsung are only ones offering 7 years of support. There is technically Fairphone but it’s not available in multiple countries. In my country, even the so called budget Pixel 8a currently retails beyond what most consumers would ever splurge on a device. There is only Samsung in the proper mid range segment that offers 4 years of OS upgrades. Chinese OEMs that often dominate the market won’t give you anything over two.
Software support is expensive. If you can’t afford a €400-€500 phone, you’ll end up with the models where every cost cutting measure is applied. Nobody is paying for seven years of support on a phone that’s normally sold for €100 because they can’t afford anything better.
Samsung is doing five years of support (four Android version updates) for a phone released for €300 half a year ago. If you buy a Samsung Galaxy A25 5G for about €190 now, you’ll still get almost 4½ of upstream support and three Android version upgrades. I don’t think expecting more than that is reasonable.
Xiaomi is doing four years of support on a phone released for €240. I think the price/support for Xiaomi scales quite well compared to Samsung, so Chinese phones aren’t universally bad either. However, Xiaomi’s OS is shit so I wouldn’t want to be stuck with that for four years.
If you go even cheaper than that, you get HMD(“Nokia”)'s 2 upgrades/3 years of security updates program. Not much, but you can’t expect much for a phone retailing at €140. I’m surprised they can even cover the cost of materials on those things, let alone OS development.
My biggest gripe is the lack of security updates, to be honest. They’re a lot less work to implement, and most patches come straight from Google. Even mid range phones should at least get those as long as they’re available. It’s not like there’s a kernel upgrade necessary to patch a bug in the Android Java internals. I can live with not getting Android 15, but at least patch the damn Android framework bugs! The exception to that is, of course, driver support from companies like Qualcomm, who do offer maintenance contracts, but usually at a price that cost-cutting brands aren’t willing to invest in, because that keeps prices nice and low.
I think we’ve been spoiled by getting Windows for free for so long. It makes sense for macOS software to be free if you look at those prices, but after Microsoft abused their market dominance to force Windows everywhere (rather than having the consumer buy Windows for €100), people just expect software to be maintained for free. If you’re not willing to spend money on the software, you’ll need to pay that money upfront by buying a device with a support lifetime that matches your expectations.
(for American readers: prices mentioned include 21% VAT)
I wasn’t spoiled by Windows. I was spoiled by Android’s relative, Linux. :p
I love Linux, but it has the same problems. The Android equivalent of Linux on the desktop is custom ROMs, which often support hardware longer than the manufacturer did, just like on Windows. Linux on the desktop is free because manufacturers put in the work for free, which is why a lot of cheapo Chinese hardware often has issues with working well on Linux, as they don’t do that.
Someone could make a universal Linux for Android, bring it out as a GSI for everyone to flash, but nobody is putting in the effort to make that possible. Instead, people work on their own little tweaked branches for specific devices, because that’s a lot easier than unifying everything into a dynamic, universal system. They’re all tiny projects, often done by a group where each device gets one or two maintainers who do the work in their free time, all for free, just like Linux!
Attempts at bringing a third party OS to phones have been made (Ubuntu Touch) and are still being made (PostmarketOS, Ubuntu Touch (the non-canonical fork), Jolla’s Sailfish), but they’re even less popular than Linux on the desktop. There are also very few developers behind it compared to free operating systems like Linux or one of the BSDs. But, sadly, running Linux on a phone is like running Linux on the desktop in the early 2000s: it mostly works, if your hardware happens to be supported.
I was positively surprised to see that nix mobile distros(if one could call that) were easily swappable. Something as simple as putting in a different image on microSD card and flashing it. But there were so many issues from screen issues to unoptimized apps to even call quality problems. It has a long way to go.
Google has always met their promises when it came to software
That’s cloud services. I’m well aware of those.
Check the Pixel support pages on the Wayback machine for the amount of updates they promised versus the amount of updates they delivered, they’ve never broken those. They did imply that they might publish more updates, but never promised more than they delivered.
In some cases, they promised two years after release, which was a year and a half when people in countries outside the US got their hands on them, but they were very clear upfront about how long the phones received support. Anyone who cares about software support on their Pixels can look up what support they’ll receive before purchasing the devices.
Ironically because they advertised google photos with the pixel and free backups, to this day, the OG pixels get free full quality backups
Android 12 was very noticeable lol. Basically a UI revamp. Although probably only applies to stock.
Meanwhile my 2018 model iPhone is running the newest iOS 18 beta… As much as I love android it seems like to get the best software support you pretty much have to be buying a pixel (or installing custom ROMs)
I’m still on android 12 (galaxy S10 from 2019). Why replace an OLED premium phone that’s still lasting me all day with its battery with 6+ hours screen time and no scratches? And I don’t even use battery protection options. Only a few months ago I had to enable battery saving mode, which I didn’t use before at all.
If your phone has stopped getting security updates, then that is a big issue. Even if the phone is working fine. People are using their phones for banking, paying stuff, email, saving personal photos, etc. You dont want people hacking into your phone and an unpatched phone is an insecure phone.
Which is why samsung/google(and apple before them), have started offering 7 years of OS support. Modern phone hardware, especially flagship tier one, can last for a long time. Other than the battery degrading, the rest of the phone is still powerful enough for everything.
Hey you guys are not wrong. I just can’t convince myself to buy a new 800 bucks phone for no real reason other than security updates. My ISP phone contract is just 5 bucks a month.
Buy a cheaper phone.
There are loads of good cheaper new phones.
You can also get great used deals if you want.
I’ve never read of anyone having their phone hacked, I reckon it’s just an excuse to frighten you into buying a new phone.
Think about it. The people most likely to have an old, unpatched phone are the ones least likely to have anything in their bank accounts lol 😂
Well if you haven’t heard of it then it surely hasn’t happened and is no threat at all!
Unfortunately it’s not the kind of thing you can Google, because you’ll just get SEO results so I’m still Nun the Wiser
Just use a custom rom.
There is no reason. Android 12 is not that different from 15 IMHO because the number and depth of the changes has dropped off significantly in resent years. Android is a mature OS that does what most users want it to do.
As time goes on you’ll be exposed to more and more security vulnerabilities with no patches.
Nothing wrong with running an old phone but you should unlock it and put Lineage OS on or similar.
Yea fun thing about Samsung, they fucking hate you, they fucking hate me, their customers and anyone trying to get near their bootloader.
-Sent from Galaxy S23U
Verizon too
Funny thing about that…I have Verizon and the S23U. Nothing I can do but pay
They should only be able to choose one of “lock device down against any low level changes” and “stop supporting device”. If they want to end support (which was frankly not so great in the first place), they should be forced to open up the device.
It should come with an unlocked boot loader and you should have to pay extra to keep it locked.
Isn’t that just a US problem?
No I think it’s a Verizon problem lol
Then my banking app would stop working, it doesn’t work on rooted phones.
This is tricky. Luckily mine works on custom ROMs so I’ve not had to fool safetynet for a while.
Does it still trip if you install a custom ROM and relock the bootloader, without rooting? I know there used to be packages to hide you had root and keep safetynet
Unfortunately it still trips, because even though it’s a locked bootloader, it’s not a ROM that’s signed by Google, and therefore does not pass SafetyNet, unless you use things like Magisk Hide, Zygisk Next with Shamiko, and stuff like that, but for that you’d almost certainly need to root and unlock the bootloader again. It’s a cat and mouse game.
If you don’t install any random apks and are not of any big business or banking manager or defence. Then you are ok. Nobody wants to hack you.
Tell Nokia to release android 13 or 14 for my device and I’ll gladly run it.
Yeah, unlike Windows this isn’t a user choice. It comes down to manufacturer support. I don’t know what you do to make this better, especially in the context of newer Android updates being lighter on major user-facing features.
I’m also unclear on the exact technical details but there’s probably a reason that lineageos and the other free androids out there are not easily installable but have to be customised to each device.
I’m pretty sure that reason is mostly manufacturers being dicks about this. So it could probably be fixed by mandating some kind of interoperability. OTOH the governments are probably happy that not more people are using degoogled devices
Whose mandate? Are you going to make a law saying you can’t customize Google’s base Android?
It’s an open source OS, manufacturers offer crappy support because they want customizations and proprietary software but don’t want to have to spend a bunch of engineering time to keep pace with Google’s reference spec. Samsung does, but that’s because they’re the literal largest phone manufacturer on the planet.
But Google can’t be out there saying you don’t get to use Android code if you don’t offer timely support for a decade. There’s a reason years of security updates are now a declared selling point, the only force to drive it is market pressure. At most you could regulate that you HAVE to support swapping OSs on phones, but you can’t just target that at Android and not Apple, and Apple would buy themselves a nuke to fight against that one.
I read it as a law that the bootloader has to be unlockable so that the phone can be serviced by the end user past the manufacturers end of support
What Android version did your phone come with? I have a Nokia G20 that I use as a spare phone. It shipped with Android 11 and updated till 13.
I believe it shipped with 10 and I’m currently sitting on 12. Last security updates are from December 2023 so I’ll probably have to switch sooner than later…
It’s a Nokia 5.4
Edit: to be fair that’s not too bad compared to other android vendors. It’s actually pretty good. But being the cleanest pig in the mudpit isn’t really the goal I want to achieve. I’d rather be actually clean.
HMD is now retiring Nokia branding for its own series of smartphones. They are launching the Crest lineup which, while in the same price range as the 5.4 or G20, doesn’t offer any claimed Android upgrades.
The worst OEM I encountered was a company called Techno. Fantastic hardware for the price, but they delivered not a single Android upgrade, only security updates. Ironically, they even make foldables which are obviously much more expensive. I won’t be surprised though if even they received Aryabhatta’s number of upgrades.
Techno makes smartphones which have good hardware specs, marred by bad software support. For the equivalent Samsung or Nothing phone you would be paying a higher price.
I won’t be surprised though if even they received Aryabhatta’s number of upgrades.
Lol, I had to google just to make sure it meant zero.
Well I guess it’s time to go Fairphone then. It’s way more expensive than I’d like but honestly I’m so done replacing my phone because of software issues and not because the hardware wasn’t serviceable anymore
I was more intrigued with their earbuds, called Fairbuds. It has user replaceable batteries for both individual buds and the case. While people may ultimately get one or the other reason to upgrade their phone ultimately, most folks just chuck out their wireless earphones because the charging capacity has been seriously reduced.
I’d really like someone to do an in-depth, but easy to understand, investigation into how much monthly system security updates and version upgrades actually contribute to the overall security of Android post-Mainline. There are so many different opinions about this online but very few are actually backed up by evidence. I genuinely don’t give a shit about running behind on Android versions now from a features perspective, there is so little difference between them for my use case, but it does concern me that so many manufacturers are still miles behind on security patches and that newer versions of Android may contain significant security improvements. I’m not sure if that’s actually a relevant concern though or if I’m being overly paranoid. How much does the user’s behaviour contribute to security versus the policies of the manufacturer? I have so many questions about this topic but it never seems to get any detailed coverage beyond “bigger number is better”.
Improvement is definitely happening in the form of closing reported or discovered security holes, but in terms of security architecture and updating the design to be more resistant to unknown bugs? Android hasn’t changed much in the past few years.
d really like someone to do an in-depth, but easy to understand, investigation into how much monthly system security updates and version upgrades actually contribute to the overall security of Android post-Mainline.
Quite curious too
While the new features may not matter to you, it makes devices much harder to develop for. This is one reason why Android versions of apps are worse compared to the same app on iOS.
But like you, security updates are very important to me. If I were ever going to switch to Android, I’d only consider getting a pixel. And I won’t consider that until it has a native desktop mode so I can essentially use it as my pc.
Are they worse? This seems outdated, but then, I haven’t used an iOS phone as a daily driver, so maybe there’s some magic making the iOS version of Google Maps so much better? I mean, it is true that it’s harder to make Android apps, but a lot of that has to do with displays being arbitrary aspect ratios and resolutions across dozens of devices, more than anything else, at least if you’re focusing on mainstream devices.
On the other issue, why not go Samsung? They are matching Google’s “7 years of updates” thing and they DO have a pretty solid native desktop mode. I don’t use Samsung devices these days for other reasons, but if that’s the bar, I think they’re meeting it.
Yeah, not just worse quality but also some apps don’t come to Android until months later.
Linus from tech tips has complained that the Android version of YouTube is missing features that iOS has.
Another commenter mentioned that someone did a switch to Android challenge and Instagram was missing features.
A chatgpt competitor has had an app for iOS for months and Android just got it, I think something similar happened with chatgpt.
It’s not just arbitrary screen size, it’s about with wide variety of specs that need to be supported. Your app needs to work on a crappy modern Android with a slow cpu and limited ram as well as the flagship stuff, its easier for the devs to make a one size fits all app instead of expanding how some features only work on some phones and keep track of all that.
Additionally, newer versions of Android will have better and more capable apis. But if only 12% of people are on the latest version of Android, then coding the app to use those apis would either break the app on old version of Android or they would have to have code for doing a task an old I efficient way and a newer better way. So they just do it the I efficient way.
Man, this is only tangentially related, but I’ve slowly drifted away from the garbage app economy over the years, huh? That paragraph literally had me going “Oh, right, people use Instagram on their phones and stuff”, for different things like three or four times. No bearing to your point, but I will give myself some props.
Anyway, yeah, I’m not gonna stand here and say that iOS doesn’t make more sense as a starting point, both due to their hardware and software consolidation AND their US-centric nature that tends to make it a more profitable first stop (although that margin has narrowed) or that full legacy Android support isn’t more technically challenging. I think you’re overrepresenting the memory issue, though. You’d be hard pressed to find a dirt cheap Android phone with less than what? 4/6 Gigs of RAM? For mobile apps that will condition how fast things load and how many background apps get held before being flushed, but it’s not gonna be a massive challenge to make something run. And if it is, you should get that under control regardless.
About the rest of that list, I do think it’s interesting how half-remembered it is. For a while Instagram photos “just looked better” to the point of it becoming a meme, but that hasn’t been a thing on major Android phones for a couple of iterations, so it shouldn’t matter to anybody buying a new phone today even if you’re on Instagram (don’t be on Instagram). I don’t know about the “chatGPT” or “chatGPT competitors”. Gemini, Copilot, ChatGPT and Perplexity have all been on Android for a while, not sure if it was all day one, but it was all certainly timely and available when I wanted to check it out. As for the LTT thing, I’m guessing from a google search, but was that about pop-up video being free on iPhone but part of the subscription on Android? Wasn’t that a regional thing? In any case it wasn’t a lack of support, it seems it was a guideline compliance thing. Not that I use the default Youtube app, but I’m guessing the Youtube guy wouldn’t point that out.
All of the minutia aside, I will say that as an Android user it’s been a long time since I went “wow, I wish that very useful app/feature/implementation” was available on my phone. I think the only things that came close to that were a couple of Apple Arcade exclusives I wish I could have purchased outright. It’s no question that there is an extra demand for coverage and support on Android, but at this point the market is large enough and the processes well understood enough that this is a development issue, not an end user issue. By and large, mobile apps you want and hear about are available right away and work just fine across devices.
This is one reason why Android versions of apps are worse compared to the same app on iOS.
I watched a random video recently where an iPhone user tried to use an Android phone (a Z Flip 5) for a week and was surprised by how significant some of the differences between apps were. Like Instagram had entire features completely missing on Android that really annoyed her. Having never used Instagram, I had no idea feature parity was still that bad between the two operating systems when it came to mainstream apps like that. However, it’s understandable I’d be so out of the loop because basically all my apps for the last few years have been FOSS and exclusive to Android and no one I know owns an iPhone so there has been no direct comparison for me to make.
Not a heavy user but AFAIK android has always been a second class citizen for Instagram. There used to be issues with different screen aspect ratios, resolutions, and scaling in general. Not sure if it’s fixed on more exotic hardware (e.g. foldables), tablets are still kinda broken I believe. What do you expect if they can’t be arsed to make the app simply scalable for different screens?
We’re there any other apps that didn’t have feature parity?
Just switched from an iPhone 12 to a Pixel 8 and did not really notice any degradation in quality. I did miss native outlook.com support but other than that I only noticed that I can now use Firefox with real extensions. Everything else was on par.
Android is great because of the foss apps. iOS doesn’t really have that. I think it’s due to no side loading and having to pay an annual fee to be a dev and needing to have a Mac to compile for iOS.
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For what it’s worth, Sony Xperia phones have a microsd card slot and headphone jack, and I just replaced the battery in my xperia 1 III about a month ago. Best phone ever.
P.S. Sony’s commitment to OS and security updates still sucks though. I think on the new 1 VI it’s three OS upgrades and 4 years security updates. Sony always has to find a way to ruin good hardware.
Okay, can these percentages be aligned to the number of Android devices in active use that support the OS?
Because I would hazard a guess that some 70% of people do not have an android phone that even supports updating to the new OS.
I think that’s the point of what these statistics mean. This is an indictment on manufacturers not pushing the latest OS updates more than people not accepting the latest OS updates when they’re available.
Just wait until they find out about windows 10
