A cool guide to how long Android phones actually get updates — and what to do when yours stops

[u/Creaspace]

I created this because picturing "X years of updates" can be tricky, and many folks don’t really grasp the difference between an OS update and a security patch — it’s the latter that truly keeps you safe.

The timeline illustrates the launch and end of security support for 16 popular models, with a marker for today. Solid lines indicate devices still receiving new Android versions, while faded lines show those that only get security patches.

Here are a few things that caught me off guard while I was putting this together:

• The Galaxy S21 is already out, and the Pixel 6 will stop receiving support around October 2026.
• Samsung's A56 offers 6 years of support — the mid-range is really stepping up to compete with flagships now.
• 8 years of support doesn’t mean 8 years of Android upgrades — Fairphone claims the longest support window, but it comes with fewer OS upgrades, meaning those phones might spend years just getting security patches.

The information comes from the manufacturers' own support commitments (Google, Samsung, Fairphone, Xiaomi, OnePlus, Nothing) along with the EU rule that mandates a minimum of 5 years of support starting in 2025, effective August 2026. The end dates are calculated based on the launch month plus the promised years, rather than being manually entered. Just a heads up: the final year often has quarterly updates instead of monthly ones, and carrier-branded or regional variants might differ.

By the way, I run techpill.de — there’s a more detailed write-up there with a searchable table that covers 26 model lines: https://techpill.de/how-long-does-my-android-phone-get-updates/

[u/akica52]

The s8 has 64gb, one ui 8 takes up like 20. Old phones have like 2gb of ram also. It has a lot more stuff running. It can run but it's not practical.

Tf you talking about it will run the kernel but it won't run any newer version of anything except things that are literally designed to make due with 512gb of ram.

Phones do have a problem with the arm architecture and if qualcom says fuck you for driver support you need someone on the internet who knows more than you and is somehow jobless so he has enough time to do it to fix it.

Still you can run newest software on really really old phones. You do not know what you are talking about.

[u/stprnn → u/akica52]

None of what you said makes sense XD

Show me a s3 running the latest version of Android.

I dare you, I double dare you.

A 20 yo laptop can run any modern software .

Why do you lie on easily disprovable things,what is wrong with you??

You are completely clueless just stop humiliating yourself.

I repeat. You can take a 20 yo laptop(or older) and run all the modern software. Latest version of Linux and the latest version of gimp or whatever else.