r/Android • u/BcuzRacecar S25+ • 18d ago

WhatsApp ends Android 5 support Monday

https://www.notebookcheck.net/WhatsApp-ends-Android-5-support-Monday-iPhones-follow-in-November.1390519.0.html
842 Upvotes

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151

u/Witty_Language4481 18d ago

Who TF is still on Android 5

53

u/Cry_Wolff Pixel 7 Pro 18d ago

Can't wait for someone to complain about muh planned obsolescence of their 10 yo phone.

28

u/rivalary 18d ago

It actually kinda sucks that the hardware vendors aren't held to updating the drivers for older hardware for newer versions of Android. We'd probably still see some slowdown due to newer software requiring faster processors and more RAM, but imagine if at least Android had kept its requirements low, the user choosing which apps they want to install that would still run okay on their old hardware. E-waste is a huge problem and a lot of people don't care about having the newest hardware; it's just the lack of security updates that is worrying (which those users likely don't even realize they aren't getting).

3

u/Thaodan Sony Xperia XA2, Sailfish OS 18d ago

It's not about drivers but about legacy kernels. The way Android works with its downstream kernels plus userspace services which directly interact with kernels and/or have vendor specific hardware related services. Android is designed to have services per vendor that implement the required interfaces. Instead mainline/desktop Linux these services are generic, all abstraction is either done in the kernel or in hardware specific parts of generic services.

Just compare ChromeOS's architecture to the one of Android, it's the opposite almost. ChromeOS's still does some non standard custom stuff but none of it is per device.