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Google officially suspends support for Android Lollipop after a decade

https://www.androidcentral.com/apps-software/google-stops-supporting-android-lollipop-handsets

This means there will be no more official updates, as the Lollipop-running devices account for less than one percent of the total.

Google officially suspends support for Android Lollipop after a decade

Google will discontinue official support for Android Lollipop OS, which debuted with Nexus 6.
Also known as Android 5.0, it was widely popular for introducing Material You to Android devices.
The said OS will no longer receive Google Play Updates, citing that less than one percent of active devices are running it.

7 comments

9tr6gyp3

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This headline is absolutely atrocious. It makes it sound like Android Lollipop itself was still being supported, but that support ended around 7 years ago.

It should be "Google Play services updates for Android Lollipop end"

TheDuffmaster

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Back then it was called "Material Design", and it was glorious 👴🗣️☁️

GissaMittJobb

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Also known as Android 5.0, it was widely popular for introducing Material You to Android devices.

This is incorrect - Android 5 came with Material Design, of which Material You is an evolution (arguably it could also be called Material Design 3). Material You did not exist back then.

0x0

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less than one percent of active devices are running it.

Are there any other sources for this number? 'Cos most devices i deal with are in the jelly bean - lollipop range.

Even if, a company such as Google could perfectly well keep maintaining older devices, but then they wouldn't be able to sell Pixels and boast how eco-friendly they are.

huginn

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Yeah but also vulnerabilities in older android remain unpatchable.

EG: Strandhogg 2.0 can't be patched - you just have to set min SDK 28.

0x0

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I'm sorry, what? Setting min SDK is, itself, a patch. I'm sure Google could backport that patch if they so desired. It's not Spectre, it's a software vulnerability.

There's no technical reason not to provide security backports to software. This is intentional.

huginn

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You can't modify activity intent apis on older versions of Android to fix intentjacking is my understanding. It fundamentally breaks the versions.

In theory they could've supported down to sdk26 afaik. Android Sec is ancillary to my main day to day.