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These days android phones either get no updates or exclusively shitty updates that remove features, I wonder why people are starting to hate them
The law says they can't sell updates and they're not. Barely a loophole
So you don't get a newer (not better) OS version that runs slower on old hardware... but instead they patch the original OS for security vulnerabilities. Where's the issue?
this, i love LTS
One potential problem is apps could stop working if they target a more recent version of Android.
even Android 8 (2017) runs all the latest apps in 2026, it's totally fine.
New versions of chrome require Android 10 from what I understand. Presumably apps that are less essential will be more likely to remove support for older versions sooner.
EDIT: I'll also note here that even if an app "works," it may be with degraded functionality (where the missing functionality is increasingly important). For instance, passkey support in external password managers requires Android 14.
oops you're right, seems like they killed A8/9 with Chromium v139. damn :/
To my knowledge, has any Android API version been deprecated in under 5 years?
It doesn't require deprecation. It could just be an app updating to use new APIs.
I read something about google's play store requiring an API update every 2 years since late 2022, but i don't know specifics.
I'm not sure, but even if that's true, there are other stores available on slightly older versions (fdroid, obtainium, aurora). Note, however, that some newer versions of android will prevent app installation outside of their official play store (they tag it as "side loading, but it's actually just installation).
Edit. Spelling.
That's quite good to be honest
But, but.. what about AI ? Noooo
that's not a regulatory loophole, that's how it's supposed to be. The phone needs to be securely usable for 5 years. That means security updates, not OS updates.
It is a regulatory loophole. Read the quoted law in the article. No updates have to be provided.
what does the new shiny android version has that is worth it? nothing, security fixes is enough, I am tired of shit updates the fuck with everything by oems that have shit QA and provide little to none security updates and often quite late, LOOKING AT YOU SAMSUNG, I swear if i have to factory reset my phone AGAIN because an update fucked something up again
what does the new shiny android version has that is worth it?
oems that have shit QA
That's it in a nutshell. Recent Android versions added really nice features and APIs that app devs won't bother implementing for a while, because even for the small percentage of users running recent Android versions, OEMs always find clever ways to fuck up their implementation of said APIs.
Samsung is trash.
Yes, fuck them. Samsung does random popups of an app that asks you if you want to update to their new OS.
If you're in the middle of something and accidentally press the update button when it pops up without warning, your phone will reboot and start updating.
I see a lot of comments saying that it's a good thing but I feel like people needlessly hate new OS versions because of Windows versions and extrapolate it to Android too. Meanwhile, every new Android release is bringing a lot of great features, improving both privacy and security. Just to mention a few, we got:
-Private space
-better permission control
-Granular permissions for photo/video access in apps
-background apps restrictions
-a toggle to disable 2G
And probably a lot more.
Android ... improving privacy
Hate to break it to you, but google doesn't allow any privacy on their ad-serving os.
I would agree that some version jumps do offer material improvements in feature sets, but they also come with further erosion of your privacy.
They just copy GrapheneOS and take away features each release. Like soft-buttons instead of the silly swipe gestures? Gone (but they eventually brought back the option to enable.) Want to remove apps? They let you remove almost every one, then only disable some, then you can't even disable but you can use ADB to mask the app for your user account so it appears removed but is still present. Quick settings for Bluetooth, WiFi get harder to disable with each release because they love metadata too much. Want to do GPS only and turn off their WiFi/BT stalker? Apps that use their modern GPS API will bring an OS dialog up to re-enable Google Stalking EVERY TIME, and still not fall back to GPS. (Watch Duty is a good example of this.) Disk access, you used to be able to at least SEE most of the filesystem on-phone including app container storage. Then you could only see the root folders but not files. Then not even the folders. You can still via ADB, for now, and even that slowly becomes more limited. Bootloader unlock? Not on many phones shipping today at all.
Then with Android 16, Google isn't even shipping the binary blobs (hardware drivers) for the chips in Pixel anymore, Graphene has had to use kluges to get Pixel 10 support.
Google doesn't release good OS features every major release, they just keep taking away everything they can until they find the cross-over of forcibly extracting the most data users will tolerate while supporting the least freedom and features as possible.
With their new closer Apple alliance, I wouldn't be surprised if they cease phone/OS development in a few years. They seem to have no interest in making products worth buying anymore.
Business and governments don't want new major updates. They want the same thing they originally deployed with security updates.
Not only businesses and governments, me too.
This is because Motorola want it this way. Itβs not EU law that make them not provide os updates.
I'm ok with this. I don't need breaking updates. I need security fixes on a working OS.
That's a pretty big loophole. And it encourages manufacturers to stop providing security fixes altogether. The commission fucked up pretty bad on this one.
No, it's only a loophole if you cherry pick single sentences and omit the next part that further defines and restricts it.
See my other comment: https://feddit.org/comment/11272121
As soon as a security patch is published in AOSP, they have a deadline of four months to roll it out. Sox months for 'feature updates'.
Operating system updates: from the date of end of placement on the market to at least 5 years after that date, manufacturers, importers or authorised representatives shall, if they provide security updates, corrective updates or functionality updates to an operating system, make such updates available at no cost for all units of a product model with the same operating system;
The only thing this quoted law stipulates is that you provide any updates, if you released them, for at least 5 years after the phone stopped selling. So this law is completely pointless.
Wrong, keep reading. You only quoted (6)(a). Now go and read (6)(c):
(c) security updates or corrective updates mentioned under point (a) need to be available to the user at the latest 4 months after the public release of the source code of an update of the underlying operating system or, if the source code is not publicly released, after an update of the same operating system is released by the operating system provider or on any other product of the same brand;
As soon as a security patch is published in AOSP they now have 4 months to roll out an update.
Yes... and it also seems to me like (6) (d) would prevent Motorola's policy of only providing security updates:
(d) functionality updates mentioned under point (a) need to be available to the user at the latest 6 months after the public release of the source code of an update of the underlying operating system or, if the source code is not publicly released, after an update of the same operating system is released by the operating system provider or on any other product of the same brand;
But the language here is quite tricky... I'm not 100% sure that points (c) and (d) force a manufacturer to provide updates under point (a) if Google updates AOSP.
It seems like the regulations donβt actually force smartphone makers to offer software updates at all.
As far as I know, it was never supposed to. It's just supposed to force them to disclose exactly how disposable their trash is.