Google has announced that it will soon stop updating Play Services on gadgets running the Android Jelly Bean operating system.
We are talking about all three versions of Android Jelly Bean: 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3 (API versions 16 through 18, respectively). Recall that Jelly Bean OS was announced 9 years ago – in 2021, and version 4.3 appeared in 2013. They now account for less than 1% of active devices, and Google is not sure if they are actually in use. And since older versions require a lot of processing, the company decided to lighten the burden on its development team.
The services will lose support after the release of the update 21.30.99, which is scheduled for the end of August.
Application developers are also advised to drop support for Jelly Bean and raise the minimum API level of their products to 19. And this is the Android KitKat operating system. Smartphones with Android Jelly Bean will still be able to install older versions of the app, but not newer versions.
