Google to end support for Android devices running Ice Cream Sandwich

By Georgina Torbet December 9, 2018

Anyone with an old phone that is still running Android 4.0 may want to look into upgrading their device, as Google has announced that it will be ending support for this older version of Android.

Google announced on its Android Developers Blog that they will be deprecating support for Android 4.0, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS). The Google Play Store will no longer be updating apps beyond the Android Package Kit (APK) version 14.7.99. This change was announced primarily due to the age of ICS and its limited use now, with Google explaining: “The Android Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) platform is seven years old and the active device count has been below 1% for some time.“

This means that any Android 4.0 device will continue to work, as will the apps currently installed on it, but updates for apps are likely to require at least Android 4.1, also known as Jelly Bean. Developers will either have to maintain two versions of their app, one for Ice Cream Sandwich users and one for Jelly Bean and above users, or they will have to accept that their apps will no longer be supported on ICS. In practice, most developers who haven’t already dropped support for older Android devices won’t want to deal with two different versions of their Android apps and will likely end support for ICS and below.

Ice Cream Sandwich debuted in 2011 and most Android users have long since upgraded to a later version of the software. The latest version of the software that is generally available is Android 9.0, also known as Pie, which was released in August 2018. Somewhat confusingly, Android codenames do not always refer to new version numbers, so there have been seven code names between ICS and Pie even though there have only been five version numbers between them.

This change may only affect the 0.3 percent of Android users who are running ICS, but with nearly 2 billion Android devices out there this could mean up to 6 million devices will be affected. It’s likely that many of these devices are no longer in regular use though, and most are probably gathering dust in a drawer somewhere.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Georgina Torbet

Space Writer

Georgina is the Digital Trends space writer, covering human space exploration, planetary science, and cosmology. She…

Mobile

Google and Qualcomm are making Android updates faster, supporting them longer

galaxy s20 plus ultra fe buying guide late 2020 range screen

Apple's iPhones have long been lauded for their ability to support updates four or five years down the line, and it looks like Android phones are finally on their way to getting similar support. Google and Qualcomm have announced a new collaboration that will result in enhanced and prolonged chipset-level support for software updates, allowing Snapdragon-based phones to receive up to three updates (four versions of Android in total, including the version they ship with), and making it easier than ever for phone makers to build updates for their phones.

The new collaboration builds on Google's Project Treble system, which Google initiated in 2017 in an effort to make Android more modular, and as a result, easier to update. With Treble, phone makers can update the top-level interface of the phone, including any major changes to Android, without touching the low-level software that talks directly to the hardware. But that doesn't mean phone makers can just make changes irrespective of the low-level code — they still need to work with chipset makers, which means Qualcomm in most cases, on major updates.

Mobile

Expired temporary license for Huawei in U.S. endangers Google, Android support

huawei harmonyos interview peter gauden building full

The temporary license granted by the Trump administration to allow trade between certain U.S. companies and Huawei has expired, placing the Chinese company's Android-powered smartphones at risk.

The license, which expired on August 13, was meant to help telecommunications companies operating in the rural areas of the U.S. to replace Huawei equipment with devices from other suppliers. The expiration was confirmed by the Commerce Department in an email to The Washington Post.

Mobile

Google has made its own camera app for the cheapest Android phones you can buy

google android go camera app

There’s no need to worry anymore about slow, unacceptable camera experiences on the cheapest Android phones you can buy. Google has announced Camera Go, its own camera app for the Android Go Edition software, which is used on ultra-low-cost smartphones around the world. The first phone to use Camera Go is the Nokia 1.3, announced alongside the Nokia 8.3 5G on March 19. and it’s a significant step in making it, and phones just like it, way more usable every day.

If you haven’t heard of Android Go Edition, it’s a spin-off version of Android, much like Android One seen on some Motorola and Nokia phones. Except it’s for even more affordable devices, while Android One has graduated to be used on more mid-range hardware. We like Android Go, because it stops cheap Android phones from only running hopelessly out-of-date versions of Android, which makes them slow, unattractive, and potentially less secure.