Google Chrome for Android is dropping support for Android 4.1-4.3 Jelly Bean

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Android apps generally have a long shelf life. While most apps these days require Android 5.0+, it’s not uncommon to see apps that still support Android 4.1-4.3 Jelly Bean. One such app is Google Chrome, which is an immensely popular app that is used on all sorts of devices. Soon, however, Chrome will no longer support Android Jelly Bean.

The current minimum API level for Chrome is Android 4.1. According to a recent commit, it will soon be bumped up to Android 4.4. KitKat. This may not seem like a big deal to most of the people who follow tech news. They’re on the cutting edge, always updating to the latest Android version. But not everyone that uses a smartphone is able to do this.

Last time we checked in with the Android distribution numbers, Android 4.1-4.3 still accounted for 3.5% of users. With over 1 Billion Android users, that’s still a lot of people. A relatively small change like this can have a major impact. We don’t have an exact timeline for this switch, but it should be sometime soon. So long Jelly Bean.