Google said it is withdrawing support for Android 2.3 "as part of our going efforts to keep our users safe," as older Android versions have become more susceptible to bugs or hackers.
HERE’S another good reason to junk your old smartphone: Google recently announced that it will no longer allow sign-in on GMail, Maps, YouTube and other Google apps for older Android phones starting Monday (September 27).
The new rules will affect devices with an "older" Android version up to Android 2.3.7 (also known as Android Gingerbread).
Android 2.3.7 was launched on December 2010 and is already considered as "ancient" by Google standards, after Android 12 was launched last February.
As of April 2020, statistics issued by Google indicate that only 0.2 percent of all Android devices accessing Google Play still run Gingerbread.
Zak Pollack, Community Manager on the official Android Help forum, earlier published an online article entitled "Sign-in on Android devices running Android 2.3.7 or lower will not be allowed starting September 27."
According to the article, those who try to use products and services like YouTube, Gmail, or Maps on devices loaded with Android 2.3.7 Gingerbread or older versions after September 27 should expect username or password errors.
Google said it is withdrawing support for the platform "as part of our going efforts to keep our users safe," as older Android versions have become more susceptible to bugs or hackers.
In February 2017, Google has already suspended Google Pay contactless payments from working on handsets running Android 2.3.
Users who don't want to ditch their old smartphones are advised to upgrade to Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) in order to keep their devices running, if possible.
However, not all devices are equipped with an upgrade capability, so for some users, the only thing left to do is just buy a new smartphone.
Tags: #technology, #Google, #smartphones, #Android, #Android2.3