Google is putting the final nail in Android 4.4 KitKat's coffin | Hacker News Reader

Google is putting the final nail in Android 4.4 KitKat's coffin

androidpolice.com

32 pointsredbell9 comments

Android 4.4 KitKat was the first and only version of Android I ran as my phone OS. I ran it on an HTC One M7. I really liked the OS, the comparison with XP feels right as it was super solid and supported for such a long time. I had a folder full of custom ROMs, TWRP, unlock .bins, splash screens, notes, tools, and backups. The phone was great hardware except for the "purple camera photos" bug that was never fixed.

I'll miss it. It's difficult to delete the folder today even though I know I'll never use it again.

You might be sitting on quite a good archive of resources for the M7, I'd be surprised if everything in your folder is still avaliable to download.

It's a good point and part of why I don't want to delete it even though it's taking up a few GB. I would love to share the usable parts! Thanks for helping me decision-make.

I looked up the last Android phone I owned: a Galaxy Nexus (2011), which shipped with 4.0, and stopped receiving OS updates after 4.3. Which is pretty much why I stopped using Android.

I think Google is doing a better job of supporting their own brand of phones these days, but it remains unfortunate for Android app developers that you have to either target a ~5 year old OS or cut off millions of users.

The Galaxy Nexus didn't even get one year of updates! I also had that phone, what a clusterfuck it was, I remember that when you took it out the box it had an animation when opening the app drawer and it was laggy. Just like that, out of the box, it couldn't keep 60 fps. That's the standard of quality that Google keeps.

I bought a Pixel 2 and it had three years of updates. As you can see, they have come a long way [laugh track]

Part of the problem was that Android 5 was an awful release. It was slow and buggy compared to 4.4, many internals had been newly rewritten. Folks were better off sticking with 4.4.

I still consider 4.4 to be the best version of Android.

KitKat was so good that I'm still rocking it on a NoteⅣ for offline maps and music in my car even though there are newer official updates available from Smasnug: https://i.imgur.com/AhYJSYP.jpg

The newest version of Musicolet still supports it! https://krosbits.in/musicolet/

that is actually insanely cool!

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