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Old Android phones are breaking today, so get ready to play tech support for your elderly relatives
You can no longer sign into Gingerbread devices with your Google account
If you're reading Android Police, it's safe to say you're a tech-savvy person. You might even be the person your friends turn to for smartphone recommendations. Not everyone keeps up-to-date with the latest technology, though, so if you know someone still rocking a smartphone running Android 2.3.7, tell them it's time to buy a new device.
Your ancient Android Gingerbread phone is about to become even more useless
Google account sign-ins will be blocked in September
When was the last time you thought about your old Gingerbread phone? Google launched Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to the public nearly ten years ago, ushering in the days of its Tron-inspired Holo UI, but some legendary Android devices — including the Moto Droid X, HTC Evo 4G, and Samsung's original Galaxy S — never made the jump. If you're still holding onto a phone running Gingerbread, it's about to get a whole lot harder to use with Google services.
The day has come. We knew it was upon us, we prepared for it, we stocked supplies just in case it brought on the apocalypse, and now all we can do is brace ourselves for impact. Tomorrow, WhatsApp will stop working on devices running Android 2.3.7. Your collector Galaxy S, Desire HD, Nexus One, Droid X2, and other phones from that era will sadly become a little less useful from then on.
Google has provided updated numbers on what versions of Android are out there in the world, and again Nougat is showing a respectable, though not impressive rise. Nougat has increased by 2% across both versions, which is a bit weaker than last month's 2.4% rise. Some older versions of Android saw larger than expected decreases, but Nougat has still fallen behind the pace set by Marshmallow last year.
As a side effect of the version fragmentation that Android suffers from, even the latest apps tend to support Android versions a few years old. For example, most of Google's apps nowadays have a minimum requirement of Android 4.1 or 4.2. If you're still stuck on 2.3 Gingerbread, at least you'll get to keep using WhatsApp.
Google has updated the developer dashboard for May, giving us an overview of the Android device ecosystem. Nougat continues to inch upward at a respectable rate—it's now over 7% of devices. However, there's some strange stuff at the bottom of the heap. Gingerbread and Lollipop both saw small increases in usage share this month because math is weird.
Show of hands: how many Android Police readers are still using Android 2.3 or lower on a phone or tablet? According to the latest distribution numbers, it's under one in twenty of Android users worldwide - the rest have upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) or later. (We don't talk about the whole Honeycomb thing anymore.) That being the case, it's understandable why the developers of SwiftKey have decided to stop supporting those older machines with the latest beta version of the custom keyboard app.
Welcome back to another week of the Android Police Podcast. To catch us live on Hangouts On Air every Thursday at 5:30PM PST (subject to change as per the calendar widget below), just head over to androidpolice.com/podcast. For the unedited video show, click here. As always, we'll take your questions at 530-HELLO-AP and also at our email address: podcast at androidpolice dot com.
The developer dashboard has been updated, and there's some big movement this month. In the post holiday window, KitKat is up a healthy 5.2% and Gingerbread drops another 1.3%. One thing you won't see on the chart is Lollipop. Android 5.0 still hasn't hit the 0.1% threshold to be included in the data, just like last month.
It's that time again! Google has updated the developer dashboard with new platform distribution numbers, showing the current state of Android version distribution among devices that have recently checked in to the Play Store.
Remember the BlueStacks App Player? It's been around for a pretty long time now. How long? Until just recently, the software that allowed users to run Android inside of Windows was powered by Gingerbread. Now the emulation software is making the leap to Ice Cream Sandwich, and while it's still two years behind the times, at least it looks somewhat modern. Well, until more devices make the transition to KitKat, that is.
As we're still basking in the afterglow of a big Android announcement, Google is back to the same old stuff. The developer dashboard has been updated with the freshest Android distribution numbers. This time Jelly Bean has hit a milestone just as it became the "old" version of Android.
Google Updates Platform Distribution Numbers – Jelly Bean On One-Third Of Devices, Gingerbread Still Hanging On With 36.5%
Google has updated the developer dashboard with new platform distribution numbers, and they show a nice uptick for Google's latest and greatest. Jelly
Google has updated the developer dashboard with new platform distribution numbers, and they show a nice uptick for Google's latest and greatest. Jelly Bean (versions 4.1 and 4.2) have reached 33% of active Android devices, or roughly one-third of the market. Gingerbread, however, continues its slow slide downward while remaining stubbornly high.
Google Updates Platform Distribution Numbers – Gingerbread Down To 38.5%, Jelly Bean Up To 28.4%
As usual Google has updated monthly platform distribution numbers for Android in its developer dashboard. The numbers, based on devices accessing the
As usual Google has updated monthly platform distribution numbers for Android in its developer dashboard. The numbers, based on devices accessing the Play Store over the last 14 days (ending May 1st), tell developers which versions of Android are most prevalent, and which are on the decline.
Verizon is just not letting up on the updates. Which is kind of a crazy thing to say about the carrier. Today's is an oddity, though, as the Droid Charge will be getting a mild upgrade. Yes, really. It's not a huge change, though. Unfortunately, it's not Jelly Bean (or even Ice Cream Sandwich), but it does bring a couple of the features from those platforms, including face unlock and a photo editor.
A few weeks ago, Motorola started pushing a soak test update for the Atrix 4G to members of its "feedback network." Naturally, everyone ran wild with speculation – could this be Ice Cream Sandwich? Never mind that Motorola had already made it pretty clear that the first dual-core handset would be officially be stuck on Gingerbread until its dying day. We were all hoping that the company had a change of heart. And it made sense – after all, why would they send out a soak test for an incremental update?
A few days ago, we were treated to a lovely look at what Tasker, the highly-customizable Android automation app, could look like if it got a nice facelift. Unfortunately, this was done by the Android team and was not representative of any real work being done by the developer. As it turns out, though, the developer behind said application is working on a holo conversion. There are quite a few obstacles to deal with in the meantime:
With the end of another month comes a fresh batch of Android platform distribution numbers. Like clockwork, Google has once again updated their numbers, showing Gingerbread's cold, withered hand still holding almost 51% of the pie (though it's down from 54.2% in October), with Jelly Bean making gains to 6.7%, up 4% from last month.
Once again and right on time, Google has released Platform Distribution numbers for Android, this time for the month of October. The numbers still show Gingerbread holding on at just over 54%, but Jelly Bean is gaining a little more ground at 2.7%, up 0.9% over the previous month.