Android 12 Go edition

On September 27, 2021, Google will end account support for Android Gingerbread 2.3. 7 , which means you won’t be able to log into your Google account at all, rendering such devices more or less useless. This kind of obsolescence can be annoying, but it’s not necessarily devious.

A good rule of thumb is that a phone will no longer be supported if it’s two to three years old . This varies from company to company, however. Google’s older Pixel phones typically got three years of software updates, but it upped that to five years of guaranteed updates with the latest Pixel 6 and 6 Pro.

According to the researchers, Android devices that are no longer supported are at high risk, with the lack of an update to the operating system “potentially putting them at risk of data theft, ransom demands and a range of other malware attacks that could leave them facing bills for hundreds of pounds .”