Google reaffirms commitment to require 2 years of guaranteed Android updates for Android One devices

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Many would say that Google’s Android One program is an evolution of the company’s Google Play Edition series. Although, the Android One program in and of itself has also evolved over the years too. When it was first introduced, the idea was to give low-end budget phones a baseline to follow. This would allow them to not only offer a certain level of performance (thanks to a clean install of stock Android and minimum hardware requirements), but it would also allow them to get timely updates, which is something that the ultra-affordable Android smartphones have lacked.

However, this changed over the years as Google let up on the hardware requirements due to smartphone OEMs not being able to make enough money from the devices. Android Go has seemed to have filled that void with its slimmed down version of Android that can run on very low-end hardware much better than the standard install. This left Android One in a weird place though, so instead of it being used for low-end devices only, we have seen it used in the mid-range segment of the market.

The program was still focusing on timely updates though and its own landing page on the Android website explicitly said they would receive 2 full years of guaranteed updates. This type of guarantee is usually made for $600+ high-end devices, so having mid-range devices with a clean install of Android and a promise of two years of updates made them very enticing. However, a few days ago, Reddit user anshumanpati6 noticed the mention of the 2 years of updates had been removed from the landing page.

This was a big selling point for a lot of people, but the Android One program has evolved in the past so its initial discovery was conceivable. As this story made its way throughout the Android community, India Today received a response from Google who denies any changes are being made to the promise of updates. We have yet to see this official response reported on any other major publications so as of right now this should be considered a rumor.

“We confirm that our promise to provide 2 years of updates on Android One devices still stands and our website design does not impact the promise of this program.”

All we have to go on is what is on the official landing page for the Android One program, but this could simply be an update to the page itself. In any case, we’ll need to wait and see if Google officially responds to this issue or if they end up adding the part about the promised updates back to the Android One landing page.

We have personally reached out to Google to see if we can get additional confirmation about this topic. If we hear something official in response, we will be sure to update this article with their statement.