Beginning with the update to Chrome version 120, Google will no longer support devices running Android Nougat. This move alienates millions of devices from new features and security updates that Google bundles with every Chrome update.
According to Chrome Enterprise and Education release notes page, the last version of Chrome that supports Android Nougat is Chrome 119. To get the update to Chrome v120, you must upgrade your phone to Android 8 Oreo and above. Chrome 120 is currently in the experimental pre-beta Canary channel with no word of when it will roll out to the stable channel.
Millions of Android users could be exposed to security and privacy issues
Android Nougat came out in 2016, which makes it 7 years old. Despite the age, recent stats revealed that at least 3.2% of the over 3.7 billion Android devices today are running Android Nougat. The percentage might seem insignificant, but it’s actually about 120 million devices that will be left exposed to security and privacy threats due to using an old and outdated web browser to access the internet.
This might seem like Google forcing people to upgrade to newer devices, but it’s actually not the case. Supporting a 7-year-old OS is just not feasible for any software developer, not just Google even with how monied the company is. After all, even the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro only get up to 7 years of OS updates, so this bodes relatively well with Google providing Chrome support for at least 7 years for all Android devices.
