We understand that most of the older versions of Android keep disappearing from the monthly user list – it’s normal, since they get replaced with the new releases. Just this week, Google Play Service has dropped its support for Android 4.0, called Ice Cream Sandwich.
Out of all the monthly active Android users, about 2 billion+, most of them presently run on Android 7.0 Nougat, with many others also using Android 6.0 Marshmallow and Android 8.0 Oreo. Those older versions keep continuing to lose their place when it comes to the distribution chart, and it seems that Ice Cream Sandwich has found its turn.
They dropped support for API levels 14 and 15
According to an Android Developers blog, Google Play Services just dropped support for API levels 14 and 15, which means the end of Android Ice Cream Sandwich. This actually means that the Play Store won’t update Play Service anymore, beyond the 14.7.99 version. This allows developers to move the minimum API level for their apps to Jelly Bean – 16.
It’s worth mentioning that The Android Ice Cream Sandwich is now seven years old and the active devices have been below 1% for a while now. As a consequence, they are deploring the support of ICS in the future releases of the Google Play services. Which means that, for those devices that run on ICS, Google Play Store will no longer update the Play Services APK, beyond 14.7.99 version.
Truth be told, we are talking about seven years, since Android Ice Cream Sandwich first made its appearance. It came together with Galaxy Nexus and it was one of the most changes of the design language as Google. Over time, it did not reach that popularity level anymore. In October, just 0.3% of the Android users were using devices that were running on Ice Cream Sandwich.
Agnes is a technical writer, being in touch with reports to come up with the latest tech leaks.