Qualcomm wants to bring longer Android support to more phones

More Android phones could soon provide longer lifetime support updates thanks to a new agreement between Qualcomm and Google. Qualcomm announced on Monday that “up to eight consecutive years of software and security updates” will be available to Android phones running on future Snapdragon 8 and Snapdragon 7-series chips. As Android specialist Mishall Rahman points out, the “eight consecutive years” is a little misleading here because Qualcomm includes the year on which a device is released. That means the device can be supported for eight years, but receive seven years of Android version upgrades — bringing more Android phones in line with the seven years of support provided on Google’s Pixel 8 and Pixel 9 lineup. Qualcomm mentioned its support expansion plans in October, which started with devices running on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform. That includes the Samsung Galaxy S25 series, Xiaomi 15 Series, OnePlus 13, and Asus ROG Phone 9. Today’s announcement extends tha ... Read full article.