The last Google Play Edition smartphone has vanished from the Play Store

By Killian Bell

The day pure Android fans have been dreading is finally here; the last remaining Google Play Edition smartphone — the HTC One M8 — has been removed from the Play Store, almost certainly confirming the end of Google’s program. The only pure Android smartphones you can buy from the search giant now are its own Nexus handsets.

We all had high hopes for the GPE program, which finally gave us the ability to purchase flagship devices from the likes of Samsung, HTC, and Motorola with pure Android ROMs pre-installed. But less than two years after it was launched, it looks like the program has met its end.

Google has slowly been removing GPE devices from the Play Store — the Moto G was the last to get the boot earlier this month — and it seems highly unlikely at this point that we’ll see anymore. The company hasn’t provided us with any official updates, but we can only assume that GPE devices didn’t turn out to be as popular as anticipated.

If you already have a GPE device, you should still see future Android updates — at least for the time being — but the only way to get pure Android on third-party devices now would be to buy them stock and flash unofficial ROMs yourself.

Ugh.