Google now gives 7 years of updates

[Technerd108]

Forums are amazing. How people can get upset about 7 years of support I truly don't understand.

Sure Google has killed off a lot of stuff, let the ecosystem be like the wild west, but it seems like they are finally starting to get it.

If they truly want to be a serious contender they have to be setting the standards.

People are saying that they will kill the updates before they deliver them? This is such a ridiculous idea?

It doesn't really cost Google much money to support these devices longer since they literally code Android. The only limit they had before was Qualcomm and other chip OEM's not supporting updates after 3 years. Now that Google is making their own chips they don't have that limit anymore.

Samsung is eventually going to push Qualcomm to extend their support window which eventually will push the entire industry forward in the right direction. Samsung is not going to stay behind in support for too long.

So all the haters of the Tensor chips Google has a long term plan that we are financing to eventual fruition. The fruits of Google's own chips are still a ways off to realize the full potential but this is but a taste. Better AI, long term support, and much more in the future.

 

[saudor]

Who keeps a phone for 7 years? 7 years is a long time from now. Lets see in 2030 how this one goes. They pushing for sales...that's all.

Still keeping my 8+, going on 6 years now. Does everything I need it to do. New phones just don't interest me anymore. If I need lots of power, I would not want to do it on such a tiny screen anyways. My phone is just a glorified relay as I do everything on a desktop or an iPad.

 

[fwmireault]

I think this is fantastic news, and I hope Apple will follow with a similar commitment. I do believe we are in a time where phone chips are powerful enough to support a few more OS updates. Not necessarily all the features from the latest OS, but at least broad OS support and security fixes. Battery can be replaced for cheap, so I don't think this is an excuse to stop OS updates after 5-6 years.

 

[Abazigal]

How people can get upset about 7 years of support I truly don't understand.

I am not upset. I am just deeply skeptical.

 

[WanderlustSoul]

I still keep my 7+ year old phones, even though they don't work anymore. I have fond memories of my iPhone 4S, iPhone 6, Motorola RZR Droid, HTC Nexus One, HTC One M8, LG V-30, and Essential PH-1, all of which are at least 6 years old.

 

[Torty]

I never sell my old phones cause I like to have a backup and I don’t like the hassle of selling especially for the little money I would have gotten.
So I still have and use the X as a secondary device. Right now am texting this on my X and what can I say… I can only repeat: it’s running iOS 16 perfectly. It would have deserved some more iOS updates. Same would be valid for the 8 which got the same SOC.
Hope we will see longer support from Apple too.

 

[mxrider88]

Google also knows how to write code, unlike at Apple...

 

[TurboJobo]

Honestly 7 years seems like a lot of wasted resources.
Who here do you know has an iPhone 7 for their daily and hopes to get updates?
The iphone 7 was a great phone but common 5 years should be the limit of updates.

 

[The Game 161]

it's great they are giving the option but same tensor for 7 years will struggle.

 

[Pandyone]

Forums are amazing. How people can get upset about 7 years of support I truly don't understand.

Sure Google has killed off a lot of stuff, let the ecosystem be like the wild west, but it seems like they are finally starting to get it.

Yes, but people seems to not know, or forgotten, about abandoned hardware. Like Pixel Slate tablet from 2018/2019. Sure it was ChromeOS, but it got canned after 8 months.

What if Google decides it didn’t sell enough devices (blame on moment 22) and then cancel the support or product, like Stadia?

 

[Torty]

It looks like the EU is behind it. A proposed law requires SW updates for 5 years and hardware replacement parts for 7 years.

EU verpflichtet Smartphone-Hersteller zu fünf Jahren Updates

Die neue Vorschrift soll Ende 2024 in Kraft treten und betrifft sowohl Sicherheitsaktualisierungen als auch funktionelle Updates. Ersatzteile müssen künftig sieben Jahre lang angeboten werden

www.derstandard.de

 

[wilee]

In favor of Google I can say they cancel only doomed projects, which they have a lot (majority of their projects, in fact everything conceived after 2008 was doomed) but Android is not one of them

so that I believe users are on the safe side here

 

[Fried_Gold]

What if Google decides it didn’t sell enough devices (blame on moment 22) and then cancel the support or product, like Stadia?

I got all my games and hardware refunded, so if Google want to refund my 8 Pro if they cancel it that's fine, I'll buy a different phone with the refund. 😂

 

[Pandyone]

I got all my games and hardware refunded, so if Google want to refund my 8 Pro if they cancel it that's fine, I'll buy a different phone with the refund. 😂

Haha that’s great of course, that they refunded for Stadia. I don’t think they would refund phones though 😉

When it comes to Google, I'd rather be skeptical and proven wrong than hopeful about their products at this point.

 

[GuruZac]

Google is now giving OS updates for 7 years with its Pixel according media. Will Apple follow? The X only got 5 major updates.

7 years of software updates for the Pixel 8 series

Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro will receive seven years of ongoing software support across Android OS, security and Feature Drops.

blog.google

Which is awesome, but, in 7 years, that hardware will be so out of date, it likely couldn’t run many of the features any way.

 

[GuruZac]

In the past several years processors really have jumped in performance quite a bit. Especially also the neural engine which Apple is relying on more more for new features.

The A12 had a 5 trillion ops per second engine. The A13 had a 6 trillion ops per second. The A14 (basis for M1) had a big jump to 11 trillion ops per second.

If I was a gambling man, I'd bet that the A14/M1 + devices are going to start a new age of support from Apple. Likely longer than the unspoken 5 years previous devices are getting because the SoC will be able to run new features at a reasonable performance level thanks to the more powerful hardware.

The A17 Pro just made another massive jump. 35 trillion operations per second, up from the A16’s 16 trillion operations per second.

 

[GuruZac]

Been an iPhone user since the 2G (just gave up the AT&T unlimited data plan that came with it earlier this year when I switched to t-mobile) and I think I will give the Pixels a hard look on my next upgrade cycle. 7 years commitment to security updates is huge I think, especially for non-enthusiasts who don't do hardware upgrade every year/other year.

Been an iPhone user since the 2G (just gave up the AT&T unlimited data plan that came with it earlier this year when I switched to t-mobile) and I think I will give the Pixels a hard look on my next upgrade cycle. 7 years commitment to security updates is huge I think, especially for non-enthusiasts who don't do hardware upgrade every year/other year.

But you already get that with iPhones, the iPhone 8 Plus was supported with full iOS updates for 5 years, with security updates to continue.

 

[Kottu]

I think Google is trying to move most heavy stuff in OS to the cloud. So the device don't need much power to handle things. When Apple is trying to make a professional camera which needs expertise with professional editing programs and separate hardwares, Google is giving you the option to upload to the cloud and let the AI do the job for you. It's a brilliant move. I am not impressed by the editing functions like moving objects, or having the perfect group photo as I don't like to make a false memory. (It's my opinion)

What Apple need is to make things easier for the customer. Years ago when people were taking photos and videos vertically, people even called it vertical video syndrom. Now all are doing it. Id it easy to create a vertical video from the normal format in Mac iMovie? When you record a video and want to share it via cloud, it becomes tiny for the receiver where for the sender it looks normal. SO, Apple should address these problems I guess. We all want to do the things faster and not everything we share are between iphones or through social media. And I still get pissed off by Siri. If I want her to play a song by certain artist, why the hell do I need to speak about radiostation? Why does Siri says that she can't find it in my play list? And even in 2023, if I ask Siri "which is worlds tallest building" in Swedish, she gives me suggestions from the web!!! May be in iPhone 15 Pro Max she give those suggestions 25% faster.

 

[Aoligei]

I will believe it when I see it. Google can promise you the moon and the stars. We will only know in hindsight whether they will actually live up to those promises or not.

I have owned every single generation of Pixel phone since the OG one. Google has delivered the software updates promises, there is no reason to not believe Google this time around.

Each generation of Pixel are running smoothly on its final ROM.

The best thing about Pixel compare with iPhone is custom ROM. With unlockable Bootloader, custom ROM can be installed. I am able to get Android 13 on Pixel 2XL! Take that iPhone.

Never trust Google...this can be an 5 years support and after that just some very minor OS upgrades because of the hardware weakness

There is no difference with iOS. Not all iOS 17 features are on iPhone XS or 11. Do you call XS and 11 weak hardware?

 

[PsykX]

Google is now giving OS updates for 7 years with its Pixel according media. Will Apple follow? The X only got 5 major updates.

7 years of software updates for the Pixel 8 series

Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro will receive seven years of ongoing software support across Android OS, security and Feature Drops.

blog.google

About time Google starts to do that too like Apple honestly.

My iPhone 6s was supported for major new features all the way from September 2015 to September 2022, and it's still rocking.

 

[Aoligei]

Haha that’s great of course, that they refunded for Stadia. I don’t think they would refund phones though 😉

When it comes to Google, I'd rather be skeptical and proven wrong than hopeful about their products at this point.

Google is making money on Pixel phones and market share is growing. Why would Google give up its phone business?

I mean, Google has been struggling selling phone is large volume up until Pixel 5, they should give up long time ago and yet they are still doing it.

 

[840quadra]

I think Google is trying to move most heavy stuff in OS to the cloud. So the device don't need much power to handle things. When Apple is trying to make a professional camera which needs expertise with professional editing programs and separate hardwares, Google is giving you the option to upload to the cloud and let the AI do the job for you. It's a brilliant move. I am not impressed by the editing functions like moving objects, or having the perfect group photo as I don't like to make a false memory. (It's my opinion)

What Apple need is to make things easier for the customer. Years ago when people were taking photos and videos vertically, people even called it vertical video syndrom. Now all are doing it. Id it easy to create a vertical video from the normal format in Mac iMovie? When you record a video and want to share it via cloud, it becomes tiny for the receiver where for the sender it looks normal. SO, Apple should address these problems I guess. We all want to do the things faster and not everything we share are between iphones or through social media. And I still get pissed off by Siri. If I want her to play a song by certain artist, why the hell do I need to speak about radiostation? Why does Siri says that she can't find it in my play list? And even in 2023, if I ask Siri "which is worlds tallest building" in Swedish, she gives me suggestions from the web!!! May be in iPhone 15 Pro Max she give those suggestions 25% faster.

Yeah I think you are correct in your understanding / expectation of what Google is trying to do.

While their devices now have decent processing power to do more on device functions, some of the others they introduced in this last keynote are a big "heck no" for me. I neither want, nor need for Google to upload videos to their datacenter for HDR enhancement. I want the camera the best video possible straight out of the device. If it needs to do an AI HDR enhancement, let me push a button and let the local processor do the work in the background on device.

Hopefully as Tensor advances, stuff like this can happen on device, but the cloud process is a big nope for me.

 

[kc9hzn]

I doubt many folks will hang on to a device for more than ~ 4-5 years, if that.

Google’s probably counting on that. They get to trumpet 7 year support (though that might mean that the phone ends up on something akin to Android Go by the end of that 7 year period, a bare minimum of support), but it’s not going to cost them much to maintain that support (again, see Android Go). Effectively, the promise is security updates, yes? Seems like a very easy thing to cheese and deliver the bare minimum.

 

[kc9hzn]

It looks like the EU is behind it. A proposed law requires SW updates for 5 years and hardware replacement parts for 7 years.

EU verpflichtet Smartphone-Hersteller zu fünf Jahren Updates

Die neue Vorschrift soll Ende 2024 in Kraft treten und betrifft sowohl Sicherheitsaktualisierungen als auch funktionelle Updates. Ersatzteile müssen künftig sieben Jahre lang angeboten werden

www.derstandard.de

That’s not going to do much (and probably will hurt Ericson and Nokia more than non-European firms, especially Google and Apple). And the cheap low end firms just aren’t gonna care. At most, it might mean that firms like Sony, Motorola, and Samsung put some version of Android Go on their phones after a certain point.

 

[jamezr]

it seems odd to why Google offering 7 years of software support offends so many Apple fans.....