Google Chrome, Calendar Apps Will Soon Drop Support for Outdated Android Smartphones

Google will soon stop providing updates for its Chrome browser on several smartphones that are running outdated versions of its Android operating system. The company will also discontinue updates for its Google Calendar app on these phones. If you have an older smartphone and want to continue receiving updates to the company’s browser and calendar apps — these usually add new features or security-related fixes — you will have to update your smartphone to a newer Android version or purchase a new handset.

According to a recently updated support article for Google’s Chrome browser spotted by 9to5Google, the search giant is expected to drop support for Chrome on devices that are running on Android 7.1 (Nougat) and older versions starting with version 120, which is expected to arrive in early 2024. ‘Chrome 120 will not support nor ship to users running Android Nougat,” the support page states.

Google says that Chrome 119 also includes a message to users on older smartphones, asking them to update to a newer version of Android. This means that if your smartphone isn’t running Android 8 (Oreo) or a newer version, you won’t receive an update to Chrome 120. This is expected to affect around 8 percent of Android smartphone owners that have Android Nougat and previous versions, as per Android usage statistics that surfaced in June.

As the minimum version supported by Google Chrome has been raised to Android 8, this means that sideloading the APK for Google Chrome 120 and later versions will not work on Android 7 and older versions. If you’ve been holding out on updating your phone to the latest available version, you will have to download and install it to continue receiving updates. For most users with older smartphones and no pending Android OS update.

Meanwhile, TheSpAndroid reports that Google is preparing a message for Google Calendar users running on Android 7.1 and older releases, informing them that support for their Android version has been dropped and asking them to update to a newer version of Google’s operating system. As a result, users will not be able to use Google Calendar 2023-46-0-581792699 and later versions, as per the report.