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Google Play Services Drops Support For Android Ice Cream Sandwich (venturebeat.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the seven-years-later dept.

Google is pulling support for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich more than seven years after it was first introduced. The company announced in a blog post that Google Play services will no longer provide updates for the APIs (14 and 15) used by applications running on ICS. VentureBeat reports: Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), as Android 4.0 to 4.0.4 is more affectionately known, was a landmark operating system in many ways, ushering in a whole new set of interface guidelines -- with a more minimalist design, not to mention groundbreaking features such as near-field communication (NFC), lockscreen support for camera and music controls, and facial recognition smarts for unlocking devices.

App developers who currently offer minimum support of API level 16 (Android 4.1 Jelly Bean) and over won't have to do anything as a result of these changes. However, if their apps currently support API level 14 or 15, they will encounter a build error when updating to a newer SDK version. Google is now recommending that all developers target API level 16 as the bare minimum, which means those still using Ice Cream Sandwich on their Android device won't even see the app update in Google Play, let alone be able to download it.

36 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. That seems like a fair amount of time... by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Insightful

    To me seven years seems like a good amount of time to keep something supported.

    I think Apple still supports the App Store even for older devices (they can download the last version of apps that support the version of iOS they are on), but not entirely sure if that goes all the way back down the full line at this point.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:That seems like a fair amount of time... by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      I think Apple still supports the App Store even for older devices

      I know that iOS 11 was a change that broke a lot of apps, but I don't know if iOS 10 devices could find the old versions. iOS 11 (and 12) are supported on 5 year old devices... which is when Apple switched to 64-bit CPUs. Also, the breaking change is making the apps 64-bit (iOS 10 would show warnings on 32-bit apps but still run them).

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    2. Re:That seems like a fair amount of time... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The issue is that Android doesn't have OS updates. When Microsoft stops supporting XP or Vista, I can just go and install Windows10. For most hardware there is no way to upgrade Android to a new version. Furthermore, cheap Android hardware generally come with older versions of Android, you can still get hardware with Android 4.4 on it today, so for most hardware it's far less than 7 years.

    3. Re:That seems like a fair amount of time... by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      To me seven years seems like a good amount of time to keep something supported.

      I think Apple still supports the App Store even for older devices (they can download the last version of apps that support the version of iOS they are on), but not entirely sure if that goes all the way back down the full line at this point.

      It's a plus and minus.

      It's a plus in that ICS devices were supported for so long. It's a minus in that ICS devices were still around that long. But I think it's basically because until recently, ICS formed a not-insignificant group of users. All this for an OS released around 2011 or so?

      iOS is a bit different - the App Store generally only goes back maybe 2-3 iOS versions, which cover pretty much 99.9% of active devices out there. New iOS versions are generally at 50% without a couple of months of release (usually you have Android out at least 2 or 3 versions back to be at that level - so at least 2 years?)

    4. Re:That seems like a fair amount of time... by epine · · Score: 1

      It's a minus in that ICS devices were still around that long.

      Captain Landfill FTW.

      I asked before purchase if my Galaxy S II would support the forthcoming Jelly Bean (4.1) and the kiosk staff lied, straight up. It never did.

      Merely, one supposes, because my carrier (Telus) couldn't be bothered. Not a single technical issue that I'm aware of—they just didn't want to run an update cycle and then have to deal with the small number of customers (probably less than 1%) who experienced a sour patch. On that assumption, it works out to one additional, annoying support call per $30,000 worth of hardware sold. Sounds cheap to me. On the flip side, that program might have interfered with all that shiny hardware's eager landfill destiny.

      My old phone still basically does its original job, just fine.

      So now to faff around with a rootkit upgrade (is that even a thing any more?) or faff around trying to find something new that doesn't blow goats in some new, horrific, surprising way (aka randomly removing analog audio jacks, and other eye-popping poop in the pool that mainly traces back to a certain turtleneck's turtle head).

    5. Re:That seems like a fair amount of time... by rickb928 · · Score: 1

      This whole 'perfectly good working hardware' is tired. I can still whip up 486-class PCs, but why would I expect them to be useful today? Ignore security, HTML has gone past anything that old OS would have ever had.

      My G1 is from the 4.0 era, but while it still works, I need better software. And memory is just so much more useful today, we have Android features that just need better hardware.

      But, BUT the real problem is that there is no real manufacturer support for older revs, because it costs money, and isn't profitable.

      TFB.

      --
      deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
    6. Re:That seems like a fair amount of time... by someoneOtherThanMe · · Score: 1

      It's NOT seven years. You have to start counting when most of the phones with 4.0 are either upgradeable or stop being sold. I bought my first Android phone in April 2011, an LG Optimus One P500. It was on 2.2, upgradeable to 2.3.

  2. Looks like it's time by bobstreo · · Score: 1

    to run down to Wal-Mart and pick up a new $50 10 inch tablet. /s

    I still have and use the Android 2.1 tablet I bought I have no idea how long ago. It's mostly for reading books on. It also has OSM on it with GPS, so I can download a ton of maps and use it when I'm traveling.

  3. Yes I wonder how many devices still in use? by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    It's just very unfortunate that most devices only receive security updates to the OS for a small portion of that time

    That's a great point, it would be really interesting to know how many Android devices of that vintage are still in use even after such a long period with no manufacturer updates.

    I'll bet the number is surprisingly high as there aren't many technical reasons a seven year old phone would not still function, even if the OS it had was rather old... I have an Android phone still from back around that era, may have to fire it up and see what it does when powered up and what works.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Yes I wonder how many devices still in use? by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

      Might even be useful as a security camera, if the right app is available.

      Hmm, probably terrible insecure but in the right location who cares, good idea...

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    2. Re:Yes I wonder how many devices still in use? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      That's an easy one to answer: Ice Cream Sandwich is in use by 0.3% of Android devices: https://developer.android.com/...

      --
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      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    3. Re:Yes I wonder how many devices still in use? by tsqr · · Score: 1

      it would be really interesting to know how many Android devices of that vintage are still in use even after such a long period

      Would it be interesting enough to read TFA? According to official Android figures, Ice Cream Sandwich is running on just 0.3 percent of devices, but given that well over 2 billion devices are running Android, as many as 7 million people could be impacted by these changes.

    4. Re:Yes I wonder how many devices still in use? by tsqr · · Score: 1

      That's an easy one to answer: Ice Cream Sandwich is in use by 0.3% of Android devices: https://developer.android.com/...

      Even easier to answer if you'd just, you know, read TFA.

  4. Nice sentence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Now there's a headline that would have been completely incomprehensible sense 30 years ago.

  5. That seems like a fair amount of open. by Ostracus · · Score: 1

    Is it? Linux is suppose to be legendary for supporting ancient hardware. Something about being open I suspect.

    --
    Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
    1. Re:That seems like a fair amount of open. by tepples · · Score: 1

      Linux, yes. Google Play Services, not so much. The latter is proprietary.

    2. Re:That seems like a fair amount of open. by msauve · · Score: 1

      Android ICS: 7 years (security updates: ha ha, when's the last time you got one?)
      Debian Linux "Long Term Support" (Wheezy): 5 years (2013-2018, to end of security updates)
      Windows 7: (released 10/2009, security updates to 1/2020), a bit more than 10 years.
      MacOS: it's a mess. They don't really offer ongoing support for an OS version, but upgrades to newer versions. And, running those depends on what hardware you have. Near as I can tell, the current 10.14 (Mohave) version only runs on hardware from mid-2012. So, a bit over 6 years.

      I have issues with Windows, but will freely admit that they do a better job of long term support than the alternatives. But overall, they're in the same ballpark.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    3. Re:That seems like a fair amount of open. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I don't know you picked Debian, when you could have also picked Gentoo or one of the other distributions that has infinite support (rolling updates). For traditional systems CentOS and Redhat provide 10 year support.

      But even this is a bit unfair comparison, because when the support for my Ubuntu stops, I can simply just update to new version of Ubuntu for free and the support continues. It is pretty much like normal update, except whole system gets updated in one go, including the repo URLs where new updates are downloaded.

  6. Re: I can tell by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    No, you're just running Android. Get a Windows 10 tablet if you want something functional that "just works".

  7. Re:why can't phones get updates? by Shikaku · · Score: 3, Informative

    This one's easy but you're not gonna like the answer. The drivers aren't open, usually ever, so you're fucked because only the manufacturer could update or supply the newer versions. Also the RAM usage and feature creep is very high on later Android versions, so for example anything not 4.4 requires 2GB or a lot more RAM. If you need such a feature, get a device that supports LineageOS, which fixes the problems you just outlined. The device support is kind of limited however: https://download.lineageos.org...

  8. Re:I can tell by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Use F-Droid instead, there are lot of great apps available there. Also check XDA Devs and see if someone has made an updated ROM for your tablet.

    These are options that you would never have using Apple or Microsoft products.

  9. They came for the ice cream sandwiches by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    They came for the ice cream sandwiches, but I said nothing for I was not an ice cream sandwich.
    Then they came for the jelly beans (4.2.2), and I said nothing because the chat apps no longer supported my phone.

  10. Windows 10: 18 months. Red Hat: 10 years by raymorris · · Score: 1

    Indeed Microsoft *was* forced to provide security updates for Windows 7 when nobody wanted to downgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8 or 10.

    If you do go to Windows 10, MMicrosoft says your new OS will be supported for 18 months.
    https://support.microsoft.com/...

    Redhat provides security updates directly from them for at least 10 years.
    https://access.redhat.com/arti...
    After 10 years, updates would be from upstream.
    One could back port Linux security patches for 20 years if you needed to. Ten years from Red Hat is probably enough.

  11. Unless they are being used by raymorris · · Score: 1

    > are still in use even after such a long period with no manufacturer updates. ...
    > there aren't many technical reasons a seven year old phone would not still function

    People tend carry their phones with them everywhere they go. With more than seven years of *use* I'd expect an unfortunate drop onto concrete, tile, or water is pretty likely.

    Sitting in a drawer as opposed to in use, sure, other than the battery. A working battery for a seven-year-old phone may be difficult.

    1. Re:Unless they are being used by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      My phone is a 6310. It does need a new battery, but otherwise, I'm still using it. It does what I need it to just fine.

      The problem here is that the way google does things android very often isn't upgradable, while the hardware ought to be fine yet. Sure, I get that you made a new shiny! thing and no longer want to "support" the old shiny! thing, but the issue is completely arbitrary, entirely software-based, and with proper organisation could just up and vanish. But that's not how google works. So it's entirely because google are shitting you that you have to shell out for new hardware.

      So the end result is that users get shut out and have to fork out quite a lot to "stay in the ecosystem". Long term it means that android devices are poor man's iDevices. The same shitty deal, only less shiny! but a crappier user experience.

      It means that there are really no viable OSes in "mobile"; all you get is a hit-or-miss "experience" from a fly-by-night vendor ("couldn't even cook up their own OS!"), and pretty soon you'll be forced to buy a new phone just to be allowed to keep playing.

      On the desktop the situation is different, but there, too, for entirely different reasons, there's no viable OS available, you'll have to assemble something yourself from scratch to keep the most eggregious bullshit out. Servers, likewise. To me it's becoming increasingly clear that "the industry" is going to have to grow up and come up with something we can actually build upon, and pretty soon, too. Nobody wants houses that collapse on their own in seven years.

    2. Re:Unless they are being used by epine · · Score: 1

      A working battery for a seven-year-old phone may be difficult.

      No.

      My phone is seven years old, on its original battery. I haven't beaten the crap out of it. (Turns out, there's life after the club scene.)

      My original battery only became a PITA a few months ago after accidentally discharging it to 0%.

      And even so, this problem exists mainly because I have crap signal strength at home (metal isolation between suites works wonders to suppress unwanted noise, but also makes for a decent Faraday cage). Most of my calls from home involve maximum Rx power (a little less if it's nice out, and I can sit in rear patio, which is still situated at an inconvenient angle, right at the midpoint between my two local towers, one of which primarily serves a small but busy international airport which happens to be situated right beside a podunk marine airport, whose substantial bay forms the third side of my cell-phone coverage triangle, which would give me a sweet direct signal, if off-shore cell towers were all the rage).

      I'm pretty sure my carrier gives me a bigger signal boost outside of the heavy usage window (from what I've read, more power for me means fewer concurrent customers in total). All my bars disappear when I'm indoors on a rainy day during mid-week office hours. Thirty character text messages take over a minute to send, if they send at all. (My wife's iPhone generally manages to maintain enough of a connection to function, but even her phone sometimes drops calls, especially on rainy days.)

      I have no problem with this geriatric battery lasting for as long as I ever leave the house. But indoors, for longer calls, I usually plug it into a supplemental portable battery, and sit on the comfortable couch right beside the best window. Can't wander into the kitchen though, call loss rate is over 90%.

      Works for me, though I'm sure many would trade up for a better cell phone signal, and more not-so-muffled sex noises from adjoining suites.

      Additionally, my battery is replaceable, which I was thinking of doing, except that this phone is seven years old, which means it's about to explode for no particular hardware reason, as it just did today.

  12. Re: why can't phones get updates? by astrofurter · · Score: 1

    "why is google so shit at everything?"

    Because they have utter contempt for their users/products?

  13. Re:why can't phones get updates? by swillden · · Score: 1

    The drivers aren't open, usually ever, so you're fucked because only the manufacturer could update or supply the newer versions.

    If you get a device that launched with Oreo or Pie, this shouldn't be a problem. Those devices must support project Treble, which imposes a well-defined hardware abstraction layer between vendor space (those drivers you mention) and the system (everything above). It should then be possible to install any newer system image on the device, leaving the vendor partition unchanged, and it should work. For some number of releases, at least; at some point new systems will stop supporting old HALs.

    Note that this assumes your device has an unlockable bootloader. If the bootloader can't be unlocked then you can only install OEM system images, so as soon as your device maker stops providing updates, you're done. Don't buy an Android device whose bootloader you can't unlock.

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  14. Support is NOT the problem by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    The question is not about support or no support. The question is on removing access for apps that work fine on certain platforms. API levels in Android are not backwards compatible so these apps will disappear from the Play Store for anyone with an older OS. Next time they factory reset their phones they will find the Play Store no longer loads any of their apps.

  15. This wouldn't be such bullshit if... by ckatko · · Score: 2

    This wouldn't be such bullshit if you could actually CHOOSE to upgrade your operating system the way you can upgrade Windows or Linux to the newest (or at least much newer) versions.

    I've got a Samsung S5 with Android 5... how long before they kill off my only phone? A $650 (no contract) flagship phone. I dare you to find a 2014 laptop that cost SIX-HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS that can't run any new applications because "it's too old."

    Imagine if Windows made any application compiled on an OS earlier than Windows 10, not supported. Not because of a missing feature (like their arbitrary disabling of DirectX ~11/12 on Windows 7)... not because of hardware specs... no, just a complete cutoff based on version number. No 7zip. No VLC. No Chrome. Unless it's recompiled with a "new enough" SDK. All those Steam games that weren't compiled in 2018 because the developer moved on? Gone. Got that great 2017 game? Too bad, it's still not 2018. Battlefield 1 is officially legacy.

    If that happened, there would be rioting on the streets and Steve Ballmer and Nadella would be forced to dig their own graves with boxed sets of Microsoft Dynamics NAV as shovels.

    WTF are you supposed to do when your CARRIER arbitrarily decides to not offer updates to a phone that costs over half a grand?

    1. Re:This wouldn't be such bullshit if... by Voyager529 · · Score: 1

      I wish I had mod points right now, because I 100% agree.

      Even if the locked bootloaders were a thing for the first few months and then an unlocking tool was provided so LineageOS and other aftermarket ROMs were able to be installed for those who wished to do so, it certainly should be possible to utilize hardware until it simply can't function anymore, rather than because OEMs stopped caring.

      There was a guy who, just because he could, got Windows XP running on a Pentium 1, clocked down to 8MHz (https://www.winhistory.de/more/386/xpmini.htm.en). It wasn't of much practical use, obviously, but it was only possible because there were no artificial limitations preventing it. It would be nice if mobile device OEMs would start thinking like that, but the disposable mentality seems to make the answer, "meh, just replace it" the way to deal with these issues.

    2. Re:This wouldn't be such bullshit if... by trampel · · Score: 1

      That's why for me "unlocked bootloader" and "community support" are key aspects when selecting a new phone.

      FWIW, I used a Samsung S5 running LineageOS 14 (Android 8.1) this October to replace my dying Nexus 5, and it was a pretty good experience (OLED screen, replaceable battery, wireless charging).

  16. Get a grip. by aleph · · Score: 1

    Look at the dashboard.

    ICS is 0.3% of current devices checking in. Gingerbread is 0.2%

    Half a percentage point is a very very small number, and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of those were emulators, at that.

    I wouldn't worry about Android 5+ just yet, as one poster was. Lamentably, 5.0 still has 3.5% of the market, 5.1 over 14%.

    https://developer.android.com/...

    1. Re:Get a grip. by theCoder · · Score: 1

      It's hard to say how big a number it is because I don't know the denominator. Though in 2017, this number was 2 billion. 0.2% of 2 billion is 4 million devices. 0.3% is 6 million devices. In total, that is 10 million active devices. That's more than the number of people who live in New York City. It doesn't sound like a "very very small number" to me.

      --
      "Save the whales, feed the hungry, free the mallocs" -- author unknown
  17. Android LTS by sebrk · · Score: 1

    Tell me is there any Android device that has received updates more than possibly 1 or 2 years? All I see are these pump and dump devices that Samsung et al throw out there and then simply stop caring.

    1. Re:Android LTS by rickb928 · · Score: 1

      My Nexus 7/2013 tablet shipped with Jelly Bean (just escaped ICS) and got updates from 2013 to 2015. Then I got thirdf-party updates to Nougat.

      Sadly, this tablet had serious hardware issues, from touch panel to general display to WiFi problems. Sad, it was superb in every other way. But it drove me to a Surface Pro 3 which is just what I want. Oh, actually, I want a 6, but...

      --
      deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.