zlacker

This!

Why just announce it for new devices, why not announce existing devices will also get updates

Says someone with a perfectly good Pixel 4a that isn’t guaranteed updated after it’s three years old (which happened in Aug ‘23)

>>youngt+(OP)
It would be nice if they did that, but if you pay for 3 years of support, then you should only expect 3 years of support. Google is clear about this and haven't failed so far:

https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/4457705

>>celsoa+q3
"Clear" is pretty generous, I only discovered that support page one month ago when I saw someone mention that the Pixel 5 will end support this month. It is obviously not ever mentioned during the purchase process, and it's not proactively communicated to customers.

I bought a Pixel 5 less than 2.5 years ago, I didn't even consider the possibility that it could be EOL so early so I never sought out that page. I've never had another phone or laptop last such a short time.

>>burkam+Lb
Although I do think google will probably follow through with their support claim, at least in some technical way. I also believe you're completely correct about this point. It's a small sample, but I've told around 8 people over the years about the support life of various nexus and pixel phones specifically (in casual conversations with job interviewers, coworkers, and strangers about our phones). Zero people have already known about it. The most common reaction is that I am just mistaken, they would never do that.

>>usea+cs
It's very frustrating. The phone works perfectly well and probably will for years, and it would be incredibly wasteful to buy a new one now, but at some point it will be irresponsible to keep using a phone that hasn't gotten security updates in years. I would never have bought it if they advertised a 2.5 year lifetime (and obviously they knew that).

>>celsoa+q3
You may be right but it doesn’t make it any less shit than Google obsoletes perfectly good phones by not providing security updates for them

>>youngt+S21
Android took longer to catch iOS on full system updates, probably because it was hard to keep it up-to-date.

Google itself used to offer 3 years of support. The last 2 generations of Pixels have 5 years. This new phone is 7 years, which is in line with Apple's 6-7 years.

Parts of the system are also kept up-to-date via the app store. Apple released a system update not long ago for older iPhones just to fix a WebKit exploit... Google would release that as an app update, you wouldn't even have to restart the phone. Any Android running a 7 year old OS (Android 7) is still running the latest version of Chrome. On newer Android versions, parts of the system - from the media engine to the bluetooth stack - can also be updated via the store.

Are Android updates messier than iOS? Yes they are. But a lot of what's considered to be "system updates" on iOS are just app/module updates on Android. They happen in the background are keep on going for years after you get a full system update. They don't get any headlines though.

>>burkam+Lb
It's usually on the specs page, but I'm not going to defend the 3 years of support older Pixels had because it's bad. It was a problem on all Android brands (some haven't improved yet).

With this said, updates on Android are different from iOS updates. Things like the browser, camera, gallery, etc, are updated via the app store, so your Pixel 5 still runs the latest Chrome and will continue to do so for years. They can also update system components (media engine, bluetooth, etc) via Play Store updates. Many new features (covid app support, earthquake alerts, etc) are backported via the Play services. On iOS all this requires a system update, on Android it doesn't.

This new Pixel 8 has 7 years of support, which is in line with the 6 or 7 years iPhones get. At least from now on Pixels should be as good as iPhones.