Google will stop supporting Android KitKat starting August onwards: Here's what this means

Google has announced that it will stop supporting Android KitKat in its new updates from August 2023. Android KitKat was first released in 2013 and will lose support just before its tenth anniversary. 

Explaining the rationality behind this move, Google said that it has introduced many new improvements and features for Android and many of these improvements are not available on KitKat. In addition to this, only one percent of total devices on Android KitKat are active currently.  

From August, Play Services will stop working with KitKat devices as Google will end support for Android 4.4 (API levels 19 & 20) in version 23.30.99 and later.

“The Android KitKat (KK) platform was first released ~10 years ago and since then, we’ve introduced many innovative improvements and features for Android, which are unavailable on KK. As of July 2023, the active device count on KK is below 1% as more and more users update to the latest Android versions,” Google said in a statement. 

“Therefore, we are no longer supporting KK in future releases of Google Play services. KK devices will not receive versions of the Play Services APK beyond 23.30.99”, Google adds. 

For the unversed, even when Android devices no longer get OS updates every month, Google Play services keep getting new versions for a long period of time as they provide many new features to app developers and Google’s own apps.

Back in 2013, Android added many important features in KitKat such as immersive full-screen mode, Hands-free Google Now with a Full-screen widget, Native printer support, Subtitles and closed captioning support in the video player, Better dialer with quick dial and smarter caller ID, Emoji on the Google keyboard, and a Google Now page on the home screen.

Google last stopped Play services support for Android Jelly Bean (API level 16-18) in 2021 and said that keeping support for old releases takes more time for developers and testers to work on new features that need special handling.

Meanwhile, mobile communication technology will soon have a big improvement as Android 14 will reportedly support SMS via satellite feature on mobile phones soon.

Based on a tweet by the Pixel #TeamPixel Twitter account, users will likely get satellite SMS support with Android 14 soon, reports Phone Arena.

“Satellite SMS, Android 14,” it tweeted.

Users will be able to use their devices to send and receive SMS messages once the update is released, even in regions where cellular coverage is limited or unavailable.