If you have a phone running on Android 2.3.7 and below (why do you have that?) Google has probably already sent you an email telling you that your device will no longer be able to log in to Google services. That essentially means what you will be left with is a brick that can perform a few functions.
Owners of old Android devices will get password or username error messages when they try to use Google products and services like Maps, YouTube and Gmail, Google announced in a community blog post.
The ancient Androids apocalypse will begin September 27, essentially killing the core Android experience.
Old technology is risky
The Android OS is now majorly based in the cloud. The older versions had many apps and services tied to Google logins. If they stop working, most of your phone is useless.
Even though Android can update many core components without necessarily upgrading the entire system, Android 2.3.7 (Gingerbread) came out about a decade ago and is not so transposable.
The individual Google apps began getting updates through the Play Store, but signing in to Google was still a system-level service and is stuck in time. Any Google services wanting to authenticate sign-ins from those versions have to conform to 2011 security standards.
It’s time
Some of the risky steps taken when dealing with old technology include turning off 2FA (two-factor authentication) and enabling the less-secure “allow less-secure access” setting.
If you think about it, they deserve to die.
Too strong? Google shows active user base breakdowns for Android versions that show Gingerbread has so few users that it does not even make the list, accounting for less than 0.2% of active devices, behind 14 other versions.
15 hours ago
