Seven years after it launched Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, Google has decided to end the support for this operating system. It became official today when Google announced that would shut down Android 4.0, although they chose to do that several months ago.
The “death” of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will affect less than 1% of all the Android smartphones in the market, so this decision would not affect a high number of Android users. Maybe that’s why Google has decided that it was time to shut down support for such an old and unpopular version of its operating system for mobile devices. At its time, however, Android 4.0 was a significant change from the Android 3.0 series.
If you are one of the users that still have smartphones running Ice Cream Sandwich, you may wonder how this decision will affect you. Google’s move doesn’t mean that Android 4.0 phones will suddenly stop working, although they will most likely stop receiving updates to their apps.
Google Shuts Down Support For Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
From now on, Google Play Services will only be updated for devices with Android version 4.1 or higher. That means you won’t be able to update apps like Google Play, Maps or Music on devices running Android 4.0. Additionally, Google’s decision to shut down support for Android 4.0 also means that developers don’t have too many incentives to upgrade their apps on smartphones with Android 4.0.
One after another, the applications will stop receiving new versions, although technically it will be possible to update them for the developers, who, however, would not see as profitable the additional effort to develop updates for their apps for a version of Android that Google shut down.
In short, even if the device continues to work, it is cut off from any new developments, trapped in old versions of apps that have kept updating for those other, newer versions of Android.
