Google will force OEMs to ship devices with an up-to-date version of Android, says leaked report

Google has been struggling to bring the Android platform together for its entire existence. Despite what many have cited as a chronic fragmentation problem, Android has overtaken themobile market, and now makes up the vast majority of new phones sold. As Android matures and becomes more entrenched, Google is increasingly exerting control to keep OEMs in line, and that might extend to some new restrictions on how OEMs can release phones. A leaked document reportedly reveals Google’s plan to enforce a minimum OS version on all new Android devices.

Putting some hard limits on Android versions is something fans of the platform have been hoping Google would do for years. For much of Android’s history, it wasn’t uncommon for device makers to release devices with versions of the platform that were a year or more old, usually with a vague promise to update them in the not too distant future. Sometimes they lived up to that promise, and other times not so much.

The document in question is reportedly from a notice sent out to Google’s OEM partners and makes it clear the company will no longer certify Android devices running older versions of the platform. How old? Well, it varies. Android 4.1 and older expired on February 1, so OEMs are working only with version 4.2 or newer now. Android 4.2 expires on April 24 of this year, and 4.3 is slated for sunsetting on July 31. This works out to nine months for an OEM to move on from an old version of the platform when its successor is announced. That should mean all devices are no more than two API versions behind the Nexus program.