Why do android phones just stop getting any updates

[Linus No Beard]

my phone has been stuck on android 7 for years now and android 12 is coming out with these new things that i wont get apple has this thing figured out why cant google

[Skiiwee29]

<-- Moved to Phones and Tablets -->

 

Please make sure to post in the correct subforum. 

[SignatureSigner]

2 minutes ago, Linus No Beard said:

my phone has been stuck on android 7 for years now and android 12 is coming out with these new things that i wont get apple has this thing figured out why cant google

Its partly not up to google. If I understand correctly its your cell phone manufacter that actually developes/verifies that the OS will work on your system and actually pushes it out to you.  Most phones (Android) get 2 feature updates and  a few more years of security patches. This is one of the areas where apple has done it right.

[Levent]

Because google doesnt force manufacturers to support their phones. Said manufacturers also release new phones every 3 days and its better for them to not support older devices in terms of sales.

[Linus No Beard]

Just now, Skiiwee29 said:

<-- Moved to Phones and Tablets -->

 

Please make sure to post in the correct subforum. 

did not see that one

[Linus No Beard]

Just now, Levent said:

Because google doesnt force manufacturers to support their phones. Said manufacturers also release new phones every 3 days and its better for them to not support older devices in terms of sales.

 

Just now, SignatureSigner said:

Its partly not up to google. If I understand correctly its your cell phone manufacter that actually developes/verifies that the OS will work on your system and actually pushes it out to you. 

so basically manufactures be greedy and google does not care

[Zando_]

Google does support their Pixels pretty solidly AFAIK. For all other androids it's down to each OEM, and they haven't seen that juice as worth the squeeze. 

Apple designs their own hardware and OS, only releases 2-3 phones per year that they need to develop for, and makes a good chunk of change off their cloud services, meaning they'd rather keep you on their platform paying for iCloud and what have you, than try and force you to upgrade phones and have you end up choosing another platform. 

[Levent]

Just now, Linus No Beard said:

 

so basically manufactures be greedy and google does not care

Its not like they dont care, its just that there is no action they can take against manufacturers who stop supporting phones after few updates. There is no contract or anything for Android. 

[jaslion]

3 minutes ago, Levent said:

Its not like they dont care, its just that there is no action they can take against manufacturers who stop supporting phones after few updates. There is no contract or anything for Android. 

Google is slowly forcing their way to bring required support but not fast enough in my opinion. You now get 3 versions when using qualcomm phones. BUT that only counts for android versions when the soc released and onwards so if a manufacturer uses a couple years old soc you will still be sol.

[Linus No Beard]

Just now, Levent said:

Its not like they dont care, its just that there is no action they can take against manufacturers who stop supporting phones after few updates. There is no contract or anything for Android. 

okay i would just think that google would have something like that in the contract for manufactures to use android i just think that if google cares A about its consumers and B about the environment like they say they would not want people to have to git rid of perfectly working phones over security and or other concerns 

[Eigenvektor]

16 minutes ago, Linus No Beard said:

so basically manufactures be greedy and google does not care

It's more like Google doesn't have the power to force the phone manufacturers to provide support. When they were new to market they had to do something to attract their interest instead of just developing (or continuing to use) their own OS. If Google tried to force their hand there's the risk those manufacturers will simply stop using Android altogether, which is not in Google's best interest.

 

The situation with updates is a bit more complicated. On the one hand the phone manufacturer has to have any interest to develop it, rather than sell a newer model. Most manufacturers don't use Android as is and instead include all kinds of modifications. These modifications have to be ported and tested on every new version.

 

You also have the issue of drivers. The manufacturer may depend on drivers for the SoC etc. and when the company that provides the SoC (e.g. Broadcom) stops supporting it, the manufacturer can't do much because they are in no position to develop their own drivers. Also happened with some older Google Nexus devices.

 

In addition, in case the phone is bought through a network provider as part of a contract, the provider often puts their own restrictions on updates (Think: No update until we have validated it works on our network). Which means it can take even more time until you get an update, if you ever do at all.

[Linus No Beard]

9 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

Please tell me how you have been adversely affected as a result of it

security and features

[Linus No Beard]

2 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

Was the security on your old phone actually compromised and you got a bad experience as a result of it?

 

And exactly what features are you looking to get that was added in Android 8-11?

i think you are missing the point of why i made this topic

[Commodus]

21 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

Was the security on your old phone actually compromised and you got a bad experience as a result of it?

 

And exactly what features are you looking to get that was added in Android 8-11?

People care about feature and security updates... I know you pretend they don't, but they do.

 

Can you please stop trying to butt into these threads like this? It's not helpful.

[Commodus]

20 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

They don't

I can't substantiate it

No one could

 

Whats wrong with asking people for the specific and tangible benefits that they seem to be looking for?

Because you're not actually answering the question, you're trying to force your views on others. And as you've just demonstrated, you're trying to tell someone they don't value things they obviously do.

 

If someone starts a thread wanting to know why they aren't getting newer OS versions, you address that question; you don't take a dump on their concerns and then tell them they don't actually believe OS updates matter. It's disrespectful and shows your posts are more about asserting your ego than being helpful. If I say I'm planning to go to the park and want to know if it'll rain, you're helping if you let me know whether it'll rain; you don't tell me that rain doesn't matter and that I don't mind if it rains.

[Linus No Beard]

22 hours ago, huilun02 said:

To address the OP's question directly, OS updates have always been pitched to consumers as being more desirable and necesssary than they really are. And then manufacturers limit updates to cheaper devices in an effort to get customers to buy newer ones. Network providers make it worse because, well, they are also in the business of providing phones and have an interest in locking customers with contracts.

you could of led with that

[darknessblade]

From what i know the only updates you get are security updates.

Which are often only done if major exploits have been found.

 

Though updating to a newer version is not always done by manufacturers.

 

I do know that the European government is planning to implement rules to force manufacturers to give at least  XXX years worth of updates.

 

This is done to prevent more E-waste from being made, as phones are still working perfectly, and should support newer versions of android, reducing the amount of E-waste, due people not buying a new phone every 2 years, as there are no updates anymore.

---------------

The other solution would be to ROOT your phone and use a custom rom, though then it depends on the community which version is given for your phone,

if you have a popular phone it will get quite a lot of updates, though if you have some obscure phone, the chance for a custom rom is quite slim

[GamerDude]

I've always thought that since Android devices are made by so many manufacturers (Samsung, Sony, Xiaomi, Oppo, etc) with varying hardware, OS update support ends after two to three OS updates. I know my Samsung Note 10+ and Fold 2 each has three OS update support with one more left for my Note 10+ and two more for my Fold 2.

 

As stated, OS update support may stop after a couple if OS updates due to perhaps phone makers wanting you to upgrade, but I believe to some extent, older phones may not be able to handle the new features that comes with a new OS update. What matter more to me is that security updates are kept up long after OS is not updated.

 

As for iPhones, the reason why Apple makes them work with newer OS is because they are the only maker of the phones, so they don't have to account for the various hardware used to make a phone (chipset, cpu, amount of RAM, etc).

 

Also, you don't find your Android devices, unlike it's competitor, surreptitiously slowing down even though it's said to support new OS, forcing you to upgrade your phone only to find that your phone maker has updated your firmware to purposely slow down your phone (to keep it running cool, which is a good thing, but had failed to announce it, leading many to mistakenly believe their phones obsolete, so they upgraded. Sounds familiar?

 

[Commodus]

1 hour ago, GamerDude said:

Also, you don't find your Android devices, unlike it's competitor, surreptitiously slowing down even though it's said to support new OS, forcing you to upgrade your phone only to find that your phone maker has updated your firmware to purposely slow down your phone (to keep it running cool, which is a good thing, but had failed to announce it, leading many to mistakenly believe their phones obsolete, so they upgraded. Sounds familiar?

That's not quite how things panned out.

 

Apple was throttling phones to prevent them from spontaneously shutting down as their batteries wore out and could no longer sustain peak power. I don't think there was anything malicious about it, but Apple didn't adequately communicate that and took a while to give users the choice.

 

I'd add that Apple has spent the past few years specifically optimizing iOS/iPadOS to improve performance on older devices... and that vendors like Samsung still have a reputation for OS updates that slow your phone down as little as a year later. Probably not intentional in those cases, but I wouldn't flee to Android expecting superior update performance.

[GamerDude]

Not an iPhone user like you, so I can't comment about the veracity of your statements, though it's a given that Apple has an easier time optimizing their OS since they control everything.

 

I have a Note 10+ and a Z Fold 2, both phones were recently updated to Android 11, but for the Note 10+, it's it's 2nd of three guaranteed updates. Still runs like a champ, I don't feel that it's been slowed down or lagging in any way, shape or form. With no new releases that would interest me (Fold 3 doesn't interest me as I don't have any need of the S-pen), I'd still be using both phones till next year and beyond.

[Donut417]

On 5/19/2021 at 8:01 AM, Linus No Beard said:

figured out why cant google

Because Android is open source. That means anyone and your mom can use it and modify it. Samsung, LG, Sony, HTC, etc, they dont use stock Android in most cases. Part of the reason is some of these phones have features that are not included in the Android OS. For example remember how older Samsung devices had SD card slots while their Google counterparts didnt? Thats because Samsung added in the functionality. 

 

Because of that this, Google doesn't control updates on devices that dont come directly from them. So when a new Android OS is released the device manufactures figure out what phones they are going to put it on and go to work modifying the OS in the way they need. 

 

Basically Google doesnt have the level of control of Apple and never will. Which means if you go Android you expect 2 years maybe 3 years of updates and you're done.