[netcraft]

I am an ios user but have considered more and more switching to android - but stuff like this scares me away. I have heard many stories about phones not being updated or taking a very long time to update, including phones that were expected to be able to. How can you know which phone to pick that should get updates for at least 2 years if not longer?

[jusben1369]

It's really a non event. So much of what you need is no longer at the OS level but at the "Google Play" level if you will. iOS trains you to equate "great new stuff == OS upgrades" but Google has taken a very different route to ensure customers get the latest and greatest without worrying about OS fragmentation.

[binarycrusader]

It isn't a non-event; you may not get some (or any) security fixes because the vendor didn't provide the latest Android update.

Given how much many people depend on their phones and how much information they usually have on them, I think security is pretty important.

That's why I got a Nexus 5; I'm confident I'll continue to see updates for some time.

[zmmmmm]

This is the really important point. We've been protected so far by the fast evolution of phone hardware and the mass migration of people to smart phones. It's hard to perceive it but the game is now changing: we're into an iteration of phones now that the masses are purchasing that they may well hold onto for 5 years+. If security updates stop after 1.5 years, that's a terrifying mass of insecure phones holding everything from email accounts to bank details. Google can update a lot of things via the Play Store, but they can't patch kernel vulnerabilities or driver exploits.

Google really needs to include in their play store agreement some kind of requirement to ship critical security updates within a defined period of time. Yes, that's going to hurt - the maintenance burden of shipping an Android phone is going to rise dramatically if you inherit a burden of 5 years of updates. But then, critical security updates should be extremely incremental updates that rarely involve any functional changes to the user.

I'm not sure how the Android ecosystem is sustainable without something like this. At some point there will be an Android security apocalypse: an exploit that can't be fixed without a kernel update that affects hundreds of millions of legacy phones that have been abandoned by their makers.

[Touche]

I don't know why you feel confident, the old Nexuses stop getting updates too. They get them slightly longer than the average Android phone, but not by a lot.

[millstone]

Isn't Google Play only for Google's own software? It sounds like this strategy ensures that only Google can deliver the "latest and greatest," by limiting new capabilities to Google software and not making them available to any app developers.

[jusben1369]

Well the Google services are the "Core" services that you care about. Email, Browser, Google Now (all of the alert/notifications piece etc) Maps etc. So on an Android device once a month it seems like one of your major core apps is getting a meaningful overhaul. vs the Apple model where once a year or so you get a deluge of new goodies. And naturally other apps are always updating.

[millstone]

Then I guess there's been a big shift in Android's philosophy. Then Open Handset Alliance still says that "Android does not differentiate between the phone’s core applications and third-party applications." [1] But now it sounds like core applications get special treatment.

1: http://www.openhandsetalliance.com/android_overview.html

[NickNameNick]

Android, the operating system, doesn't care at all if you replace the dialler, or the home screen app, or any other app.

What did happen about a year ago is google moved some of the communication framework stuff from android proper, and rolled it into 'google play services' so that it can be updated independently of the version of android on your phone.

As a result, apps like hangouts, plus, maps, the dialer and others which rely on those frameworks can be updated to use the newest version of the framework without worrying about the whether your population of phones have been updated to android x.y, any phone that has the play store installed and updated should be running a recent version of play services.

[joshstrange]

I believe what they mean is 3rd-party apps have the same access to the phone that our (Google's) apps do. The core apps aren't getting special treatment, Google is just deciding to update them more often than some of the 3rd-party apps out there.

[farabove]

But this is only for google services, what if it's a big security hole on a OS level or if you are not using the google services?

[rayiner]

What's the end-result of that patchwork replacement in terms of stability and design consistency?

[Pxtl]

Ultimately? Nobody. Google has established that they just don't care that much about hardware-backwards-compatiblity with Android. They don't have the incentive to do so, for one thing - Apple has to think about the millions of iPhone 4 users when they push out a new version.

Google has to deal with a million different devices that are the same age as the iPhone 4, and their only "blessed" one, the GNex, doesn't exactly represent a large portion of their market... so they can't code up special tweaks and hacks for the OS to make it play nice on those the way Apple can do with the iPhone 4.

Until the break-neck pace of mobile development slows down or Google gets real traction with a Nexus phone, I don't expect this to change.

If 2 years of OS-level upgrades isn't enough, then Android isn't for you.

[fixedd]

I think you mean 18 months: https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/3468085?hl=en

[pjmlp]

Like everyone did before the iPhone came into scene, switch mobile when it is time to renew the contract or switch operator.

OEMs and network operators are just playing the same music they used to play with their proprietary mobile OSs.

Apple managed to work around that, but I doubt any other will be able to.

[heyheyhey]

> How can you know which phone to pick that should get updates for at least 2 years if not longer?

Pretty much impossible to predict. The safest bet is to either buy a Nexus phone (Nexus 4, 5, etc.) or maybe the GPE of a phone (S3, One, Moto X). Google stopped supporting the Galaxy Nexus so people were a bit miffed about that.

The good thing with Android is that even if your manufacturer/carrier decides to stop supporting your phone, you still have the opportunity to flash an updated ROM via third-party developers. Granted the performance probably won't be the best but at least you still have the option as opposed to iOS.

[bad_user]

I have a Galaxy S, first generation and CyanogenMod works really well on it.

Unfortunately it only has like 384 MB of RAM or something like that, so many apps are problematic on it (e.g. I've had problems with the mobile versions of Firefox and Chrome, which need at least 512 MB). I do understand why Samsung stopped supporting it after Android 2.3 though. The phone's specs just can't keep up. I can say the same thing about an iPhone 3GS that I've got lying around.

Now I have a Nexus 4 and I can say that the best Android to get is always the latest Nexus - good hardware specs at a good price and it's the reference. Even if Google stops supporting it, heck, if CyanogenMod still supports the first-gen Galaxy S, then you can bet that it will work on a reference Nexus phone for a long time.

[smackfu]

In a world where you replace your phone every two years, and you may get only one OS update in those two years for even a well supported phone, it's surprising how much people care about this. For tablets, I think it matters a bit more, since I think they'll have longer lifetimes.

[eropple]

I think you're right, but it's disappointing that that's the case; I think we've been at the "good enough" point for longer than we've realized. I recently dusted off my Galaxy Nexus and installed a Cyanogen build of 4.4 on it. After using it again, I prefer it to my prior Nexus 4 and Galaxy S3 and it isn't even close.

[TheLegace]

I cannot for the life of me understand why the Huawei Ascend P1 is faster than the newer Nexus 4. As soon as I upgrade Android to 4.4(Which was a huge hassle) the phone is perfect, it's thin and light and OLD and I just want to toss my stupid Nexus 4 away.

It has something to do with the screen latency and bunch of other factors.

[catinsocks]

The only ones I think you can bet on these days are the Google Play edition phones or even more so the Nexus line.

I've been using android for a while now but with the need for everyone to have their own UI on android and the lack of carrier updates I think if I can't get a Nexus phone for my next phone (would be a carrier issue) then I would probably go back to iOS.

[techwizrd]

I know it's become a trope to suggest Nexus devices for people worrying about OS upgrades, but any Google Play Edition phone should prevent you from having to worry about that. The issue is that most customers don't really care about OS upgrades, and until that changes, companies will have no reason to change.

[bruno2]

What should really scare you is the pathetic performance of Android. Apps like chrome and acrobat reader are a joke! Stay with iOS or do as myself and get a Surface 2, it's much better in performance than any Android tablet, including the overrated and buggy Nexus 7 2013.

[johnward]

I switched from iOS to android and I haven't really found any issues over the last year.

[johnward]

the only thing I'm pretty certain of is that phones from Google will be supported longer and you'll get the updates before any other manufacturer.

[farabove]

Wondering about the same.