Android 4.4 KitKat is truly dead, loses Play Services support

fne8w2ah@lemmy.world to Android@lemdro.id – 120 points –
Android 4.4 KitKat is truly dead, loses Play Services support
arstechnica.com
7

This author makes it sound like its impossible and unthinkable to use a phone without google spy services. Newsflash, its not.

One wonders if dropping Play Services support is enough to motivate a user who is already sufficiently determined to use a phone this outdated.

2 more...

Nearly 2 years ago (Sept. 27th 2021) they removed sign-in support for Android versions <= 2.3.7 and nearly 3 years ago (Sept. 20th 2020) they removed YouTube web app support for Android versions < 4.0.

The latter is kinda sad. That YouTube web app opened videos in the browser's video player and it didn't support Ads. Yep, you didn't even need Ad blocker.

Unfortunately I don't have the original screenshots, just this image I quickly put together for something, but it partially shows the simple (good) YouTube UI:
Image link for compatibility

When I made my first app, KitKat had just come out, and Google was one of the better companies out there.

Man, things have gone a long way down some rough paths

About time. That seems like an eternity compared to Apple products.

I started out with Apole products and left long ago. So maybe that changed.

I have good memories of using KitKat on my first gen Nexus 7 and my Galaxy S III. It was rock solid, especially in its stock form.