Google services will stop working on older Android smartphones

The Google Play Services library is available on all certified Android devices. It is required for the Google Play app store and dozens of APIs to be used by third-party applications. Google services are also used to add new features to older versions of Android, as was the case with Nearby Share added on Android 6.0+ devices. And so, soon old smartphones and tablets will stop receiving updates to this service. Google services will stop working on older Android smartphones.

The company announced in its blog that it will no longer update Google services on the Android Jelly Bean 4.1-4.3 operating system (API levels 16, 17 and 18). Google says it is making this decision because Jelly Bean is now used by less than 1% of active Android users. The final release for Jelly Bean devices will be version 21.30.99, due out in late August 2021.

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The current version is 21.24.18. Developers are advised to use API level 19 (Android 4.4 KitKat) to avoid problems. Developers can also compile several APKs, each containing a separate version of the Google Play Services library, if they need to support Jelly Bean-based devices.

Google LLC is an American multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-related services and products, which include online advertising technologies, a search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware.

Android is a mobile operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open source software, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.