Google pointed out that roughly 40% of Androids in circulation already not receiving key security updates. Since there are between two and a half and three billion Android phones in circulation, we are potentially talking about a billion phones that may be vulnerable to malware or other malicious software. And how to get out of it? If security and your privacy are very important to you, getting a new phone is the only solution.
In terms of performance, it is still sufficient, but the software is already against it. Samsung’s Galaxy S21 series will end its life cycle on Android 15, but relatively recently it’s already clear that no more security patches will arrive for the phones
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The main problem is that Google does not release security patches for phones running Android 12 or earlier. And even so, it depends on whether these patches are sent to mobile phones by their manufacturer or not. According to recently published statistics, we know that 57.9% of Androids are using Android 13 and above, the rest 42.1% of phones it is thus left to the mercy of malware and spyware. In addition, mobile threats tend to become more sophisticated over time.
Play Protect may not be enough
Users of older phones can rely on the security service Play Protect, which is used to detect malware and malicious software on Android. This feature is backward compatible up to Android 7, so even owners of very old models can still benefit from real-time scanning and app checks. However, in the case of more serious security flaws, key security updates will be missing.
The Play Protect protection barrier works from Android 7, but security patches are no longer released for phones with Android 12 and older
Google releases them regularly, but it depends on the manufacturers and their security rules how often – if at all – they send these updates to their phones. Google thus shifts the responsibility to the manufacturers, who base their security updates on the monthly fixes from Google (the so-called Android Security Bulletin) and add their own patches related to the environment, system applications or proprietary system components to them. However, the problem arises when phones lose support.
End of support for older phones
This is exactly what happened to Samsung’s “relatively new” Galaxy S21 series, which will no longer receive any security patches or update to a newer version of Android (it will remain on Android 15). Although Samsung offers seven years of software support today, the Galaxy S21 series has not yet fallen under the new rules. It is understandable that Samsung does not trumpet this information to the world – it has quietly removed these phones from the list of regularly updated devices. They may still be fully functional and have enough power, but the clock is already ticking on them due to missing patches.
Unfortunately, time cannot be stopped, and the Galaxy S21 FE and Galaxy S22 series have moved from monthly security updates to quarterly updates. This is also a harbinger of the fact that security updates will soon end for them as well – specifically in February of next year. And these phones shouldn’t expect another major system update either.
Details of security patches for selected brands:
On the above websites, you will find out which phones of the given brand receive security patches, or those that are no longer receiving patches. For some brands, you can also read about specific bug fixes in a given month.
So if your phone doesn’t have an available update to Android 13 or later, you really need to consider buying a new phone. From a security point of view, I would rather have a mid-range phone with long enough software support than an older flagship phone that can no longer be updated.
date:2026-02-10 06:23:00
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