Old Androids about to lose support, here’s all about it

Google seems to be pushing people to upgrade or leave Android forever with this new update. Devices running on Android v2.3.7 or lower won’t...

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October 1, 2021

This post was first published at 'The Photonetix' before December 21, 2021. May possibly be outdated info and may not reflect our current editorial direction.

Old Androids about to lose support, here’s all about it


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Google seems to be pushing people to upgrade or leave Android forever with this new update. Devices running on Android v2.3.7 or lower won’t be able to access many Google apps and services, as Google has declared it will soon end support for devices including Android 1.0, 1.1, 1.5 Cupcake, 1.6 Donut, 2.0 Eclair, 2.2 Froyo, and 2.3 Gingerbread.

You will struggle to sign into apps such as Gmail, YouTube, Drive, and the Play Store (if you run Android v2.3.7 or lower) Google claims this is being done to protect user account privacy. 

If you’re using a device that will be affected, you should have already received an email from Google, and if possible, you will need to upgrade to Android 3.0 or higher.

What could happen after the google services stop working, a notification will appear (when you sign in) that suggests you have a “username or password error”, so it doesn’t seem that there’s much you can do past upgrading your system.


Which version of Android do I have?

See there’s are mostly tech savvy people reading this article right now but if you’re not one you could just follow these steps below noobs

  • Open your device’s Settings
  • Go to the Settings on your device
  • Tap the About Phone (could read “About Device”)
  • Click on the Android version, which should display your current version information
  • If that reads anything more than v2.3.7 YOU’RE ALL OKAY 


Now here’s why this is clickbait

Experts say this change will hurt people who still use old cell phones and cannot replace their devices at the moment, being unable to access the company’s core services is something that will definitely affect the experience of using the phone.

Android v10 running on Pixel 5

Statistics show that these ‘obsolete’ devices represent about 0.3% of the total, a figure that’s estimated to be about 9 million of the cell phones will no longer be able to connect to Google’s servers once support ends.

So with that out of the way, if you’re reading this on your phone while multitasking of any sort you’re most probably safe but if your phone’s pretty old, you should probably consider getting a new one.