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The Pixel 5's security update end of life is in two weeks[0]. This is a phone that launched October 2020. My iPhone XS which I bought in 2018 just got the iOS

The Pixel 5's security update end of life is in two weeks[0]. This is a phone that launched October 2020. My iPhone XS which I bought in 2018 just got the iOS 17 update and it's working pretty well. I want to be able to load whatever I want on my phone, but I also don't want to have to buy a new phone every couple years (or sooner! Looks like the 5a is still in production with security updates ending in 11 months) to get Android updates, or even security updates. [0]: https://endoflife.date/pixel https://endoflife.date/pixel

jkaplowitz 3y ago
The rumors are that the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro will launch with a promise of 7 years of updates, including not only security fixes and bug fixes but also feature drops. We’ll see what’s announces next month, but Google might be about to jump ahead of even the iPhone on this point. Disclosure: although I have worked for Google in the past, I haven’t worked for them in more than 8 years, never worked on Android or Pixel beyond internally testing pre-release Android OS versions, have never had anything to do with setting their lifecycle policies, have no inside information on these rumors, and am not speaking for Google here.
- rnk 3y ago
  I think a challenge of pixels and android in general is they don't seem to care about how well older hardware works with new os releases (or even some updates). I have an iphone se and it seems to work just fine after installing multiple os releases. Pixel type phones seem to struggle after a few os releases, as well as android in general. I should say I usually end up buying one generation behind cur on pixel. So on top of google's short timeframe to allow 'next os release' support, apple does a better job on keeping older gen phones working well across multiple os releases.
  - jkaplowitz 3y ago
    This is one of the first generations of Pixel phones, maybe the first, where Google has had sufficient top-to-bottom vertical control over everything from the CPU on up to plausibly make this kind of promise. Apple got there before Google did, but Google may have finally arrived there. Again, I have no inside info on this despite having worked for Google many years ago. We'll see what the announcement is on October 4.
- Aeolun 3y ago
  > The rumors are that the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro will launch with a promise of 7 years of updates I’m not sure promises by Google are worth anything at this point.
  - jefftk 3y ago
    I'm having trouble thinking of Google breaking any explicit promises like "Pixel 6 and later phones, including Fold, will get updates for at least 5 years from when the device first became available on the Google Store in the US"? What are you thinking about?
    - mhitza 3y ago
      The fact that it has a history of not following through and killing projects. Most recent being Stadia, in my memory, https://kagi.com/search?q=google+stadia+promise&r=no_region&sh=XsxsuPjN575HJ0Pyda9o7Q https://kagi.com/search?q=google+stadia+promise&r=no_region&...
      - jefftk 3y ago
        That seems pretty different from breaking an clearly worded promise?
        eitland 3y ago
        Another example: when free high quality (slightly downscaled) photo storage turned into paid after I had used it as backup of almost sll my photos during my android days? (To be fair, both Dropbox and OneDrive has done the same: offered free storage without specifying a time limit for jumping through some hoops, then IIRC: - in the Dropbox case: suddenly just introduce a time limit - in the OneDrive case just tell me one day that they didn't want to do this more and I need to take my data out quickly or pay to avoid losing it )
        Moldoteck 3y ago
        For google you were not forced to take your data, old data was not counting towards new limit
- sircastor 3y ago
  Yeah, my wife’s Pixel 3 came with unlimited photo storage too. It was a selling point… of course, that went away when it became inconvenient for Google.
  - HJain13 3y ago
    It was supported for exactly the amount of time promised; I don't see your point here?
    - skinkestek 3y ago
      I cannot remember them telling that unlimited photo storage wasn't unlimited? I was also burned, in my case by the "free forever" or something "high quality photo storage" (as opposed to full quality). I understand nothing is truly free, but I expect when a large scale company offers something for free they have thought it true and aren't planning from the start to weasel out once you have uploaded a few thousand images using their solution? Well, I have learned my lessons: I don't trust Google anymore. As some said it took a while to stop trusting Google because they had to burn through a mountain of goodwill, but here we are.
      - rickdeckard 3y ago
        On the first Pixel generation it was unlimited for the lifetime of the device, from Pixel 2 onwards it was unlimited storage for 3 years, in case of Pixel 3 which launched in Oct.2018 it was unlimited until 31st January 2022. I understand your frustration, but this was communicated by Google already at launch.
      - Moldoteck 3y ago
        Google specifically said what benefits you get with each pixel: unlimited original with first p, from 2 to 3 or 4, unlimited original for 3 years and unlimited compressed after, for p5 just unlimited compressed. Google didn't broke any of these claims
- evilduck 3y ago
  Google absolutely is not about to jump ahead of Apple until they make good on that promise. Call us back in 7 years.
- Moldoteck 3y ago
  Yeah, and also google did a poor job with lens coating on P7 so that lens flare is ruining any photo with too many light sources And the phone overheats with camera/video turned on for more than 15 mins, even 30fps 1080
matrix12 3y ago
Graphene OS.
- ajdude 3y ago
  At least when I looked into it, Graphene stops supporting pixels as soon as Google does.
  - nani8ot 3y ago
    GrapheneOS supports devices 1 year after they stop receiving updates by the OEM.[1] E.g. my Pixel 4a stopped receiving updates last month but will probably receive Android 14 updates until the next release. [1] https://grapheneos.org/faq#device-lifetime https://grapheneos.org/faq#device-lifetime
nouveaux 3y ago
Just spitballing here but it's possible that Android's openness is exactly why Google Pixel doesn't have better resources to have long term support. Some bean counters probably determined that Google doesn't make enough money to have teams supporting older Pixels. Samsung is taking a ton of profits from Pixel and the end result is piss poor Android support on Pixels. Guess what? Samsung doesn't care about long term Android support. They're in it to sell phones. It's better for Samsung if Android's ecosystem continues to drop older phones. At some point, Apple realized that long term support is a competitive advantage they can leverage. Due to their enormous profits, they can increase their support costs. With their closed ecosystem, Samsung can't come in and pull their shenanigans to undercut Apple. IMO, Android’s openness is exactly why the Android experience on older phones suck.
- TimeBearingDown 3y ago
  Samsung has pledged 4 years of OS updates and 5 years of security updates recently. I’d like to see 7-8 years of security updates, but it’s decent. https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_pledges_4_os_updates_5_years_of_patches_for_2021_and_2022_flagships-news-53070.php https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_pledges_4_os_updates_5_year...
- Moldoteck 3y ago
  Imo it's bs in the context where fairphone 5 will have 8y of os updates
  - vineyardmike 3y ago
    Pretty sure Samsung has sold more SKUs than fair phone has sold actual phones. It’s a pretty ridiculous comparison. Have they even been shipping phones for 8y?
    - Moldoteck 3y ago
      and what? Parent comment was saying google does not have resources, I gave an example of a company with much less resources but that can do this
Sylamore 3y ago
Ultimately it was the need to buy a new phone every couple of years even when I otherwise wouldn't need to that pushed me to Apple devices. I only this year had to replace my daughter's iPhone 7, but not because it wasn't supported as a 4 year old device. Granted it won't get iOS 16 or 17 but 15 is still supported.
rodgerd 3y ago
So you want everything like Android, but you want a magic wand that means you won't get exactly the same outcomes as Android.
sfg 3y ago
A closed system makes long-term support easier.
tinus_hn 3y ago
So you want Apple to not be able to earn money from you having the device, yet spend money on providing security updates for it.

jkaplowitz 3y ago

The rumors are that the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro will launch with a promise of 7 years of updates, including not only security fixes and bug fixes but also feature drops. We’ll see what’s announces next month, but Google might be about to jump ahead of even the iPhone on this point. Disclosure: although I have worked for Google in the past, I haven’t worked for them in more than 8 years, never worked on Android or Pixel beyond internally testing pre-release Android OS versions, have never had anything to do with setting their lifecycle policies, have no inside information on these rumors, and am not speaking for Google here.

rnk 3y ago
I think a challenge of pixels and android in general is they don't seem to care about how well older hardware works with new os releases (or even some updates). I have an iphone se and it seems to work just fine after installing multiple os releases. Pixel type phones seem to struggle after a few os releases, as well as android in general. I should say I usually end up buying one generation behind cur on pixel. So on top of google's short timeframe to allow 'next os release' support, apple does a better job on keeping older gen phones working well across multiple os releases.
- jkaplowitz 3y ago
  This is one of the first generations of Pixel phones, maybe the first, where Google has had sufficient top-to-bottom vertical control over everything from the CPU on up to plausibly make this kind of promise. Apple got there before Google did, but Google may have finally arrived there. Again, I have no inside info on this despite having worked for Google many years ago. We'll see what the announcement is on October 4.
Aeolun 3y ago
> The rumors are that the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro will launch with a promise of 7 years of updates I’m not sure promises by Google are worth anything at this point.
- jefftk 3y ago
  I'm having trouble thinking of Google breaking any explicit promises like "Pixel 6 and later phones, including Fold, will get updates for at least 5 years from when the device first became available on the Google Store in the US"? What are you thinking about?
  - mhitza 3y ago
    The fact that it has a history of not following through and killing projects. Most recent being Stadia, in my memory, https://kagi.com/search?q=google+stadia+promise&r=no_region&sh=XsxsuPjN575HJ0Pyda9o7Q https://kagi.com/search?q=google+stadia+promise&r=no_region&...
    - jefftk 3y ago
      That seems pretty different from breaking an clearly worded promise?
      - eitland 3y ago
        Another example: when free high quality (slightly downscaled) photo storage turned into paid after I had used it as backup of almost sll my photos during my android days? (To be fair, both Dropbox and OneDrive has done the same: offered free storage without specifying a time limit for jumping through some hoops, then IIRC: - in the Dropbox case: suddenly just introduce a time limit - in the OneDrive case just tell me one day that they didn't want to do this more and I need to take my data out quickly or pay to avoid losing it )
        Moldoteck 3y ago
        For google you were not forced to take your data, old data was not counting towards new limit
sircastor 3y ago
Yeah, my wife’s Pixel 3 came with unlimited photo storage too. It was a selling point… of course, that went away when it became inconvenient for Google.
- HJain13 3y ago
  It was supported for exactly the amount of time promised; I don't see your point here?
  - skinkestek 3y ago
    I cannot remember them telling that unlimited photo storage wasn't unlimited? I was also burned, in my case by the "free forever" or something "high quality photo storage" (as opposed to full quality). I understand nothing is truly free, but I expect when a large scale company offers something for free they have thought it true and aren't planning from the start to weasel out once you have uploaded a few thousand images using their solution? Well, I have learned my lessons: I don't trust Google anymore. As some said it took a while to stop trusting Google because they had to burn through a mountain of goodwill, but here we are.
    - rickdeckard 3y ago
      On the first Pixel generation it was unlimited for the lifetime of the device, from Pixel 2 onwards it was unlimited storage for 3 years, in case of Pixel 3 which launched in Oct.2018 it was unlimited until 31st January 2022. I understand your frustration, but this was communicated by Google already at launch.
    - Moldoteck 3y ago
      Google specifically said what benefits you get with each pixel: unlimited original with first p, from 2 to 3 or 4, unlimited original for 3 years and unlimited compressed after, for p5 just unlimited compressed. Google didn't broke any of these claims
evilduck 3y ago
Google absolutely is not about to jump ahead of Apple until they make good on that promise. Call us back in 7 years.
Moldoteck 3y ago
Yeah, and also google did a poor job with lens coating on P7 so that lens flare is ruining any photo with too many light sources And the phone overheats with camera/video turned on for more than 15 mins, even 30fps 1080

matrix12 3y ago

Graphene OS.

ajdude 3y ago
At least when I looked into it, Graphene stops supporting pixels as soon as Google does.
- nani8ot 3y ago
  GrapheneOS supports devices 1 year after they stop receiving updates by the OEM.[1] E.g. my Pixel 4a stopped receiving updates last month but will probably receive Android 14 updates until the next release. [1] https://grapheneos.org/faq#device-lifetime https://grapheneos.org/faq#device-lifetime

nouveaux 3y ago

Just spitballing here but it's possible that Android's openness is exactly why Google Pixel doesn't have better resources to have long term support. Some bean counters probably determined that Google doesn't make enough money to have teams supporting older Pixels. Samsung is taking a ton of profits from Pixel and the end result is piss poor Android support on Pixels. Guess what? Samsung doesn't care about long term Android support. They're in it to sell phones. It's better for Samsung if Android's ecosystem continues to drop older phones. At some point, Apple realized that long term support is a competitive advantage they can leverage. Due to their enormous profits, they can increase their support costs. With their closed ecosystem, Samsung can't come in and pull their shenanigans to undercut Apple. IMO, Android’s openness is exactly why the Android experience on older phones suck.

TimeBearingDown 3y ago
Samsung has pledged 4 years of OS updates and 5 years of security updates recently. I’d like to see 7-8 years of security updates, but it’s decent. https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_pledges_4_os_updates_5_years_of_patches_for_2021_and_2022_flagships-news-53070.php https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_pledges_4_os_updates_5_year...
Moldoteck 3y ago
Imo it's bs in the context where fairphone 5 will have 8y of os updates
- vineyardmike 3y ago
  Pretty sure Samsung has sold more SKUs than fair phone has sold actual phones. It’s a pretty ridiculous comparison. Have they even been shipping phones for 8y?
  - Moldoteck 3y ago
    and what? Parent comment was saying google does not have resources, I gave an example of a company with much less resources but that can do this

Sylamore 3y ago

Ultimately it was the need to buy a new phone every couple of years even when I otherwise wouldn't need to that pushed me to Apple devices. I only this year had to replace my daughter's iPhone 7, but not because it wasn't supported as a 4 year old device. Granted it won't get iOS 16 or 17 but 15 is still supported.

rodgerd 3y ago

So you want everything like Android, but you want a magic wand that means you won't get exactly the same outcomes as Android.

sfg 3y ago

A closed system makes long-term support easier.

tinus_hn 3y ago

So you want Apple to not be able to earn money from you having the device, yet spend money on providing security updates for it.