Android phones don’t last forever, and neither does the software they rely upon. If you’re rocking a phone that’s using Android 8 or older, and you also use Android Auto as your car’s navigation and entertainment platform, you might be in for a nasty shock. Google is reportedly enforcing a minimum phone OS requirement for the first time.
9to5Google reports that users on phones running operating system builds older than Android 9.0 (which debuted in late 2018) are seeing errors when they try to access Android Auto in their car. This requirement was announced this summer, but apparently the grace period has ended. At least one user with an LG V30 from 2017 got a nasty surprise when trying to use the system, a pop-up that reads “This phone no longer supports Android Auto.”
The message said the phone needed the latest version of Android…which might have been a particularly stinging instruction, since the V30 is so long past software support that its manufacturer isn’t even making smartphones anymore.
According to StatCounter, just over 4 percent of Android users worldwide are on a build older than Android 9.0. Of course not all of those users will own cars, and among those who do, not all of them will be compatible with Android Auto or even want to use it.
Both Google and Samsung are pledging longer software support for new devices, attempting to compete with Apple’s best-in-class support for aging phones. But this is a pretty good reminder that the longer you hold on to your phone, the more software is going to act up.