Google Drops Software Support for Pixel 4a Just 3 Years After Its Release | Hacker News Reader

Google Drops Software Support for Pixel 4a Just 3 Years After Its Release

wccftech.com

36 pointsgrecy12 comments

This is exactly as advertised since release, and Google has already (two years ago) changed to promising 5 years of security updates for Pixel phones.

https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/4457705

iOS in comparison gets both security and OS updates for 5

Apple makes no claims about how long devices are supported for.

Some devices get more than others.

Every flagship iPhone since 2011 has gotten at least five years of OS updates and security updates after that.

Unfortunate - I didn't know till today. I had been wondering why I hadn't receive an update for September yet.

CalyxOS has decent Pixel 4a support, in my experience. I bought my 4a last December specifically because it was supported (and the right price on Ebay). Install was pretty straightforward, and they don't have as stringent a support cycle as GrapheneOS, although I did not try installing that one.

So is there an F-Droid like service to update the OS? Can it be done manually?

I'm guessing the answer is mostly no, since GrapheneOS was the most Pixel-friendly AOSP project I knew of, and they're also "buy a new phone, n00b" https://grapheneos.org/faq#legacy-devices

https://doc.e.foundation/devices and https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/#google both list quite a few of them, but unknown if it's that they are currently available but once the blobs get locked it'll be the same story: unsupported

And, of course, going with "community" distros also nuke Play services and thus almost certainly will not allow Google Pay or other niceties

>and they're also "buy a new phone, n00b"

That's uncharitable wording. They're more like "Our main goal is providing a secure OS for your device. We can't promise that, if your device no longer receives firmware updates." GrapheneOS is quite principled in not compromising the device security, and I think it should be respected (maybe it's not the OS for you, but it's OK, because there are alternatives).

Due to the goal of the project, GrapheneOS can only support relatively new devices.

That's not the same thing for eos or lineageos.

Yeah wouldn't lineageOS be a great option for those on pixel 4a? I'm on 4xl, so I'll need to start exploring this soon :D have wanted to do so anyways...

I don't have the XL, just the 4a, but CalyxOS has been working great for a little over 10 months now.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com