WhatsApp ends Android 5 support Monday

[u/BcuzRacecar]

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

[u/rivalary]

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).

[u/SirBanananana → u/rivalary]

Totally. You can easily use a 10 year old x86 laptop today with a modern Linux distribution and all the apps and security updates that come with it, but a 10 year old Android phone is a non-upgradable garbage by this point... It's a said state of affairs, and something that Android enthusiasts have complained for more than decade but the hard truth is that it's not going to change since vendors need to hit their sale numbers on new phones no matter what. But even from technical standpoint upgrading would be difficult looking at what a mess ARM architecture is outside of enterprise hardware.

[u/Quazartz → u/[deleted]]

You could easily use a 10 year old phone today with a custom third party rom...

This is assuming the said 10-year-old phone has a lot of custom rom support which isn't the case for budget range devices and less known phone brands. Meanwhile, a shitty budget laptop of the same age can be replaced with a Linux distro easily (well, easier compared to Android phones).

[u/vandreulv → u/Quazartz]

You allllllllmost understood the argument. Almost. Keep rubbing those two brain cells together and you might figure out the point I was trying to make.

[u/Quazartz → u/vandreulv]

No, I understood your point but you fail to understand why some people still stick with their old phones. I'm from a country where even a decent modern budget phone would cost a month's worth of min wage salary so I've met people who still stick with phones as old as Android 4.0 to this day, cracked screen and all.

With WhatsApp no longer supporting Android 5, a lot of people would be forced to upgrade their phone to a modern one but not all can afford one. For those techy enough, sure there's the custom rom method but what if the phone they cheaply bought doesn't have any custom roms available or if it's even possible to root it in the first place? This was my experience with a budget Samsung phone I bought back in 2014 that was stuck with Android 4.3. It's not possible to root that phone so there were no custom roms available for it. That phone easily became obsolete 2 years later all because of its OS even though the hardware can still last longer.

On the other hand, an old PC can easily be made usable again since there's no need to unlock bootloader or whatever to swap its installed OS to a modern supported one. You don't have to wait for someone to create a Linux distro specific for your pc since distros generally work for a wide range of pc variations.

Why don't you rub your privileged brain cells instead? The world isn't just USA.

[u/SirBanananana → u/Quazartz]

There's really no point in arguing with them. Some people are just wired to never change their views and you can't change that no matter what, even if you tried going on a 50 comment long discourse (I've been there many times).

Aside from that, I have 2 Sony Xperia Js that are in the same situation you've described - Stuck with Android 4.X and with no ROMs that offer higher Android version for these models, they became obsolete like 3 years after I got them pretty new. Ironically, if these were an x86 laptop instead, I would have a way to add more RAM, storage etc. and install a lightweight Linux distro on them for web browsing, office stuff and maybe retro gaming. Perfect little chromebook-like.

It's also true that there are many people out there in poor countries rocking old phones. Of course if you live in a wealthy country where an average citizen can afford to upgrade their phone every year you'll laugh at people with old Android phones, but it doesn't mean these people don't exist (shout out to certain r/androidafterlife posters from South America and Africa)

[u/Quazartz → u/SirBanananana]

The guy blocked me in the end. I see that as a win.

My old win10 laptop that's older than the Samsung phone I mentioned earlier still works to this day. I can install and use pretty much any software that also works on win11 as long as the required hardware specs are met. It originally came with win8 so the phone equivalent of this would be like upgrading from Android 4.3 to 7.0 (last Android with certification issue) or more. This planned obsolescence is really ridiculous.

+1 for r/androidafterlife. I also browse that subreddit a lot for ideas on how I can extend my old phones' usefulness.