In an announcement made today, Google has revealed its decision to discontinue support for Android 4.4 KitKat, an operating system that has been in existence for nearly a decade, effective from August.
Despite the cessation of monthly OS updates for Android devices, Google has continued to provide new iterations of Google Play services for a considerable period. These backend services empower app developers with a range of capabilities while also facilitating several first-party features, including Google Prompt 2-Step Verification and Backup.
Introduced approximately ten years ago, the Android KitKat (KK) platform has witnessed numerous innovative enhancements and features for Android, surpassing the capabilities of KK.
As of July 2023, the “active device count on KK is below 1%,” prompting Google to exclude future releases of Google Play services from extending support beyond version 23.30.99, which is scheduled for next month. It is noteworthy that KitKat, having been launched in October 2013 with its dessert-themed name, will soon mark the end of its support from Google just shy of a decade.
The specific API levels 19 and 20 are the focal points of Google Play services’ discontinuation of support. API level 20, in particular, catered to the initial release of Android Wear.
The last instance of Google terminating Play services support for a release was witnessed in 2021, with the case of Android Jelly Bean (API level 16-18). The decision was explained as a means to allocate sufficient developer and quality assurance resources to accommodate new features that require special handling over an extended period.