This year has been bad news after bad news if you still have a really old Android device. Android 7.1 and older versions lost support for Google Chrome and Google Calendar, which also means that WebView won’t get updated any further, and older Android 4.x versions have been cut off from Google Play updates. Google is now dropping support for Android Auto on phones running Android 7.0 and 7.1.

As per new evidence found in the code of the Android Auto app, the service is now deprecating support for several older devices, as it looks like the app is set to increase the minimum version to Android 8.0 Oreo. There are a couple of strings within the app that will be shown in alerts within the app as well as phone notifications, telling users that “to keep using Android Auto, update your phone to the latest version of Android.” The change isn’t live yet, and as of the time of writing, you can still use Android Auto on these older devices, but Google is doing the groundwork to remove support at any time. Android 7.1 Nougat and everything below that will be deprecated, and probably very soon.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Android 7.x is also the Android version that was dropped by Google Chrome and Google Calendar earlier this year, and this is certainly an active effort by Google to move users away from this old operating system into something that’s at least slightly newer. Android 7.x was released all the way back in 2016, and it’s over seven years old by this point. It’s not a great idea to keep using it, as chances are that it hasn’t received one security update in several years. The next major release, Android 8.0/8.1 Oreo from 2017, is also out of date and not secure, but Google is willing to continue supporting the devices stuck on that version for a bit longer.

If you have an Android phone or tablet still running Android 7.0 or 7.1, be sure to check if you have any pending updates that can upgrade you to a newer release.

Source: 9to5Google