Google has reached an agreement with smartphone chip maker Qualcomm to provide up to four years of support for upgrading Android devices.
This will effectively eliminate the problem of getting a typical two-year update support for Android devices; a great frustration for people who like to keep their phones for as long as possible.
The bottom line is that future Android phones will be able to support up to four years of security and software updates.
“These initiatives are designed to enable faster updates of the Android operating system with fewer resources and a predictable software life cycle for Snapdragon-based devices, which together will result in more consumers with Snapdragon-based devices.” running the latest version of the Android operating system, ”Qualcomm explained.
The actual duplication of support for updates you can usually expect from Android devices is provided by “Project Treble”. This collaboration between Google and Qualcomm is essentially an agreement to make the Android software part fully compatible with older components for up to three generations of Android.
Therefore, you’re likely to use a lot more of your phone before it can no longer receive Android updates and start having compatibility issues and security risks. We hope it will also mean that you get big Android updates faster throughout the year.
This could put Android phones on a more even playing field with Apple iPhones, which typically get software support for up to five years. That’s probably why you’re more likely to see more people using older iPhones than older Android phones.
There are some warnings for Project Treble. First, it will only apply to phones with Qualcomm chipsets; granted a lot of Android phones use Snapdragon chips.
But that leaves Samsung phones running Exynos. While they like Samsung’s flagship phones Galaxy S20 FE now have software support that extends over two years, mid-range Galaxy phones do not.
The second warning is that this new update initiative will only start with phones that have Snapdragon 888 and will launch with Android 11, such as the future Samsung Galaxy S21 and probably OnePlus 9. That means older, even impressive phones OnePlus 8T with Snapdragon 865, it will be left on the side of the road.
The final issue is that adding additional support is at the discretion of each manufacturer. We can assume that since Google is involved, you’ll be able to use the Pixel 6 for a long time, but we’ll have to see if other Android phone manufacturers get on board or decide they don’t want to bother.
With that in mind, 2021 might be a good time to update your Android phone if you plan to have a phone that lasts a few years. Be sure to check again the best android phones list in the new year, because we will signal the phones that are worth upgrading to.