Now this is nice. Hopefully 3rd party manufacturers can also provide a longer life span for the device.
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I’ll believe this in 7 years.
Every Pixel so far has been supported for as long or longer than it’s official support window. This isn’t a free chat app. It costs a lot and it comes with warranties and expectations for true spec sheets.
Also consider that the cost to do the maintenance updates has decreased due to extensive code refactoring and projects like Treble, Mainline, and the Generic Kernel Image. Major work in the platform has been focused on cutting these costs.
Very well aware. Currently writing a HAL to cross Treble. 🥲
Maybe so, but those windows have never been close to this long, so I’ll believe it when I see it.
And even beyond seven years free data harvesting too!
Speak for yourself, that’s 7 years of GrapheneOS support! What phone do you use which you think is squeaky clean?
There isn’t one. Maybe Fairphone 5 but even with custom ROMs, running Play Services as a sandboxed user app isn’t possible. And even vanilla iPhones can’t be as privacy oriented as GrapheneOS is.
Tbh, it’s Google. I can actually believe that they stick to their promises.
Ahem https://killedbygoogle.com/
Edit: my tone was tongue in cheek, I hope Google will keep its promise, but you know, they did us a Stadia after all.
The person you replied to is being downvoted, and yes, expecting support from Google is a meme, and Google deserves 100% of the negativity they’re receiving in this regard.
But, in their defense, they have always kept their word on keeping Pixels updated, and in some cases, have added on an additional year of support when not originally planned, including an extra full Android update for older devices.
So while they eventually kill every new software product they make, they’ve always kept their word on Pixel updates. I think the Pixel team has a lot more resources than the rest of Google, so I’m inclined to believe them for now, but I’ll be one of the first people grabbing a pitchfork if they don’t keep their word.
Not to mention a lot of their killed apps/services are old versions. Like angularJS was upgraded to Angular V2.
That’s like saying Mozilla is killing Firefox because they released version 120!
Also a lot of the services were “killed” to combine them into one service. The thing people have been begging Google to do for years, to merge apps and focus on one instead of 10 separate ones.
Or the fact there’s hardware on there, like Google “killing” Google Home Max. You mean releasing Google Next Max? The next version?
That website is garbage, and anyone that links it is just being dishonest.
I have always hated it for this, but hating on Google is so popular that you can use what’s basically a website full of lies (of omission?) and get upvotes
They even include rebrands as killed, like what even… and I’m not talking about Google Play music, that was actually killed. One example is tez, the Indian version of Google pay that got rebranded to (you can guess it easily) Google pay.
Didn’t they give stadia people their money back though?
100% refunded the cost of the starter kit and any games purchased. (Not sure if microtransactions were refunded too)
They even made it possible to convert your stadia controller to standard Bluetooth through a free update hosted by Google themselves.
I really enjoyed the tech and used mine quite a bit. I’m sad to see it gone, but they actually handled it in a respectable way.
To me they even refunded the months I paid for Ubisoft Subscription services I got on Stadia. Which doesn’t make sense as I did enjoy them and it’s a subscription… probably a mistake but I am not gonna complain.
They sent me 5 free ones also. Now I have 5 free Bluetooth controllers and 5 free Chromecast ultras.
I don’t remember ever getting a refund. Did you have to apply for it? Is it too late now if I didn’t?
Sure, but they’ve “done right” by customers when they can. I mean, I received a refund for everything I purchased on Stadia, for example.
I’m guessing here, but are any of those products on that website both purchasable AND given a guaranteed product support time? Or to make it more specific, has Google ever killed off a phone (Nexus and Pixel years, so 15 years total) prior to its end of support date?
I don’t believe they have. Stadia, a non-phone product, is the closest thing. Of course it’s not a phone and Google also didn’t give a eol date before its release. When it was killed they refunded any purchased games. So I guess the better question is would you be fine with getting a refund in the amount of your purchase of a Pixel 8/Pro if they didn’t hold up their end of the bargain?
I know some of the comments in the community are tongue-in-cheek, but if Google were to keep the prior support date or do what they did today by increasing them, folks still wouldn’t be happy.
You literally still have unlimited Google photos on a Pixel 1. They keep their promises for sure
And you can get it on Custom ROMs too.
/s…?
Just waiting for the EU mandate for replaceable batteries to kick in and we are golden
7 years updates plus 2 battery swaps will take a flagship phone right to the edge of how long you’d want to use it anyway.
I think, 7 years would be amazing, but also good enough. Or to put it differently, after 7 years you get into heavy diminishing returns, since almost all users will be moving on/have severely broken their phone before that.
I’ve had most of my phones until they where 5-6 years old (I used to buy used, so I had older phones even though I didn’t have them for quite that long). After that time, they usually fall apart anyway. (Two of my phones developed frequent random reboots around that time, one wore through the cable connecting both halves of the slider, and one killed died when I tried replacing the battery and accidentally cut through the screen cable).
I think you hit the nail on the head with diminishing returns. I’m usually on a 5-6 year usage period too. I can understand the battery swap helping out but my last few phones have felt so sluggish after 4+ years so I start looking at new phones around year 5. I have a Pixel 7 now and I’m going to wait until end of support and then we’ll see what the offerings are then!
What 11 year old phone is still getting manufacturer updates?
That’s the secret, it’s not.
If you’re not getting security updates then any savings may well be a false economy
battery swap helps a lot with sluggish phones if a factory reset doesnt help, phones will supposedly throttle down to save battery when it starts getting bad
Yeah, I notice this on my smartphone. Above 60% its super smooth. Below that there’s a dip in performance and smoothness.
When does that mandate kick in? Will it impact the Pixel 8?
No not the Pixel 8 otherwise it would have a back that you can open. Maybe the Pixel 9 but not likely, but definitely the Pixel 10 because the mandate kicks in somewhere in 2026 and the Pixel 10 would be coming out late 2025 so, that one is the most likely to have a replaceable battery. I have a Pixel 7 currently so I can wait til the Pixel 10
Start of an era for Android hopefully, especially with EU’s replaceable batteries law coming up. This is what OEMs should copy and not dumb shit done by Apple.
Wasnt the law that you could still build not replacable batteries because of water resistance?
I would love to have that option back again, since batteries are the main part why phones die right now.
Especially frustrating when Samsung already built phones with replaceable batteries AND water resistance. (The IP rating was lower though)
I hope there is a high rating limit, so they can’t just add “survises a droplet” as reason to not have a replaceable battery.
I guess there is also the problem with glas and how seemles everything should be. I remember that plastic cases were easy to open. Now we have to remove glue to get it open. I still dont understand with those glass backsides… i think nearly everyone uses a case.
I dont even care for that water resistance, as soon water gets in, there is no warranty for it. I think i saw that apple still puts some water sticker inside the phone, to see if water destroyed it.
I don’t think the stickers void warranty in Europe, they have to prove that the water damage caused that exact failure. So water resistance is actually nice in that sense, because it also means their product probably failed.
But to respond to the first part, it’s just planned obsolescence. Why design something that needs to be fixable, if you can, well, just not do that. You don’t have to design or test opening the case, how it feels to put the battery in. How durable the closing and opening is.
So many problems are just gone, like “does the back get loose and fall off if you open it too often?”
People underestimate how much cheaper it is to not have to worry about user operations and error, you cut out any need for usablitiy testing and design. They are just being cheap and trying to sell it as “cool design”.
Annnnnnnnnnnd Grapheneos…
Maybe they can reach 10 years now?
how so?
It was a joke/hope as they have managed to extend support further then google have done in past.
No Google pay/Wallet so no.
Haven’t picked up my wallet and cards in ages and my driving license is also on my phone…so no… Love the idea tho of Graphene but without NFC payment in my area it is a no-go.
I need android auto more.
Funny how Google make itself indispensable to suck your data.
OK fine, i don’t need it, but prefer the ability to use my car’s display as i like small phones.
If it wasn’t for wanting google chat for work on my phone I’d be using GrapheneOS on my Pixel 7 Pro.
Awesome. This should get the gears going for other manufacturers like Samsung unless they want to be left in the dust by Google and fairphone both.
Samsung moving to four years of OS updates, and 5 years of security updates, is what pushed Google to adopt this new policy, as Google only offered 3 years of OS updates beforehand. So Samsung will probably try match Google again.
Either way, the consumer wins! I like this
Meanwhile every other phone is on some old version of Android. The fuck is going on where every single Android phone can’t just upgrade to the latest? Why does the phone maker have to be the one to support the OS? It’s like relying on fucking Dell to update Windows on a Dell desktop, for example. Makes no goddamn sense. I should be able to download any new version of Android for my devices and install them.
The only alternative is fucking crApple, and I won’t go there. Fuck that pile of trash that you have to beg crApple to do any simple thing or have any simple customization. They control all their own phones and upgrade them, which solves that problem, but I want phones and tablets to work like a real computer. Is that so goddamn hard?
Corporatism my friend.
The issue is Qualcomm who makes the majority of SoCs for phones. Qualcomm, if I am not mistaken controls the support of the phone because the phone uses their chip.
Google is now pulling an Apple move and using their own Silicon (Samsung’s Silicone) to bypass using Qualcomm.
isn’t samsung silicon based on mtk/mali?
I’m no expert but Samsung chip is called exynos. Mali is GPU related and mtk is mediatek? A taiwanese company.
I think what’s happened is that unlike windows each manufacturer is given the source code to make their own unique version of Android that’s incompatible with anything else typically. So once the lifetime of the product has expired as intended that development ceases.
Google has tried to resolve this problem with their android security updates. But this isn’t a perfect solution either.
The manufacturer argues that it’s not profitable to maintain legacy devices as you’re incentivizing the customer to not buy the next model. So as consumers we are asking manufacturers to impact their own profits and capitalistic goals. This is unfortunately hopeless without a regulatory power to force that consumer interest.
The Android eco system is right fucking mess.
Every manufacturer seems to have a unique settings screen that doesn’t match anything else, so you search for how to do something on Android, and none of the settings you find exist on your phone.
And don’t even get me started on Android development…
inb4 google cancels pixels
Usually this is what they say before cancelling it 10 months later
This will be a great phone to flash custom roms or even Linux.
as long as you get the right one that can be flashed.
IME most pixels available on the secondary market are bootloader locked.
I buy from Google, so not an issue there.
You’re better off buying from them directly anyways.
IMO, the biggest headlines in the launch. 7 years is crazy timeline to support. But the phones have matured so much that it makes sense people would want to keep the phone for longer period of time
I like to think this is because all the regulation regarding parts and support coming from EU. Right to repair finally got some spotlight and we’re starting to see the results. Now just give me a phone with a replaceable battery and I might actually use it for 5 years. Oh, and with a headphone jack.
It is not, Fairphone already does this.
Fairphone is also not available in every country.
Still crazy I would say for Google. Their market size is lot larger, and they release new phone line-ups every year.
I had actually considered switching out of Samsung for my next phone. Looks like I might be going with Pixel. Still gonna be expensive, but if they follow through on this, might be worth it. Just need to see how well it handles some things.
the only thing I need is a samsung dex replacement
I’d say I’d need a stylus, but I’m looking at my current phone and I don’t use it. And I’m not paying $1800 for a fold.
And it’s been so long since I’ve gotten to use base android. I won’t miss Samsungs UI at all
Yeah, I got the note thinking the stylus would come in handy… but I never actually use it. The few times I’ve taken pictures I have, but I rarely use the camera. It’s one of the last things I’m worried about with a phone. I mostly just play emulators on the bus, social media, YouTube, and that’s about it. So as long as games run fine, I’m good. I can use just about anyone for that.
I’ve been a Pixel user (1, 3, 5, 7 Pro) and Fi customer for as long as it has been available and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.
They’ve cut a few features that I miss, like the rear fingerprint scanner. Being able to comfortably access the Quick Settings menu easily with one hand was awesome. They’re definitely relatively sturdy and sexy phones though!
Lol, I don’t believe Google for a second on this kind of shit
7 years honestly seems excessive but this is a good trend I suppose
How does it differ from buying a laptop at this point? The price is the same, the capabilities are similar, the form factor can be the same (Fold or tablets in general).
As long as the hardware can keep up with the software, and the manufacturer keeps building products, why should they ever end support? (a la Windows)
I don’t really know all the differences but phone OS upgrades need firmware updates as well, which will delay a lot of OS releases and cause old hardware to no longer have security support. I don’t think the OS layer is completely separate like it is with desktop computers.
I can understand that part, but not why providing such update timeline would be “excessive” or “crazy”, if there are ways to achieve it.
Laptop manufacturers do end support. The OS manufacturer isn’t the one who typically controls what hardware vendors will support. In this case Google is both so people tend to conflate the two, but there are plenty of laptops that are no longer supported by the manufacturer.
Computers tend to have user serviceable parts and to be much more tinker able, so it easier to not notice that dell isn’t supporting your laptop, you’re doing it yourself.
Lenovo didn’t update your laptop from windows 8 to Windows 11, you did. If the drivers went funky, you figured out how to fix them.
You can likewise side load your own OS onto the phone long after manufacturer support has ended.
Especially when you consider the lifespan of the battery. I’d like to see battery replacements get easier as well
Hopefully Google doesn’t end up cancelling Pixels before the seven are up!
I wouldn’t have any worry about that lol
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They don’t do that with their big products. Pixel is a flagship phone and one of the most popular phones on the market. Same reason why you don’t expect YouTube or Google search to drop off.
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Haha. I was just joking at Google’s expense.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The Google Pixel 8 and 8 Pro will be supported with seven years of “OS, security, and Feature Drop updates,” meaning buyers should be able to use them until 2030 before their software starts to become outdated.
It’s also a longer support period than what basically all of Google’s mainstream Android competitors are currently offering.
Google has the freedom to offer this longer support period thanks to using its own Tensor processor in the Pixel 8 series, which gives it more control over the hardware that’s gone into the phone compared to most of its Android competitors.
Apple, another manufacturer that also produces its own processors for its phones, offers similarly lengthy support periods.
But that assumes Google is still using the same annual release cadence for Android seven years from now, even before we get into its somewhat flaky history of ongoing support for other services and initiatives.
However, Fairphone has no plans to sell its fifth-generation device in the US and is also only committed to releasing five major Android OS updates.
The original article contains 473 words, the summary contains 174 words. Saved 63%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
As a guy with a OnePlus 7 Pro that has been waiting, I am waiting to see how reparable it is, and this might be the one I have been waiting for, I mean, I have been eying pixel since I got the OP7pro
I’m guessing this is the result of Google using their own hardware.
Because, if they’re using chips from other manufacturers, those chip manufacturers may not provide firmware updates or driver updates for extended periods
Also, it was very much needed. I hope they extend the support period for pixel 7 too
This is similar to Fairphone’s situation. For the Fairphone 5 they just use an IoT chip with long term support from Qualcomm enabling them to give at least 5 years of feature updates and 8 years of security patches.
