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For those who use Android phones, it is important to take note of an upcoming change in how some of the older models will work by next September. Unfortunately, a huge chunk of the secure web will be largely unusable for older Android devices, according to various Android related portals.
Android insiders are now saying that all Android phones that use versions prior to 7.1.1 Nougat will not trust the root certificate beginning in September 2021. This means that these older Android phones will be locked out of many websites that are more secure. Essentially, certain sites will stop working as soon as January 11th, 2021 and be fully unable to function by September 1st.
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There is supposed to be a workaround to this problem. Users can simply install Mozilla Firefox and that should help to remedy the issue for most websites, though there will still be some issues outside of the web. This is because Mozilla is open source and developers will continue to bring updates to their operating system for older phones.
This is not necessarily a new thing to happen because of developers dropping support with an older version or operating system. The changes will impact roughly 34 percent of all Android users who run 7.1 or older. One reason for this is because not all phones can be updated to newer versions, while some older Android devices have even been stuck without any updates at all since the time they were shipped.
This will apply to phones bought generally before 2016 or 2017. Anyone with a phone newer than that will likely not experience these problems, but users with older phones will want to use the Firefox workaround or simply buy a new phone.
Things are getting better though when it comes to Android phones receiving proper updates in a timely manner. Samsung and different producers of Android phones are saying they will be releasing three years worth of OS updates. This won’t help everyone, of course, with these older models.
Android phones make up a majority of smartphones in the marketplace with a roughly 86% share overall. There are roughly 1 billion Android phones on the market, and this update will surely impact that sizable 34 percent of these phones. Of course, many people might opt for a newer phone prior to the update, but the numbers certainly suggest that a lot of people will be effected and likely begin to experience more issues beginning in 2021.
This news comes right before a busy holiday season, and it gives Android users plenty of time to prepare for having a basically obsolete phone. Now might be the time to upgrade that old phone for a new one so that you do not experience any issues come next year.
