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BNHBTV July 25, 2023
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KitKat was released in October 2013 and will no longer receive updates after almost a decade.
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Play services will drop support for API levels 19 and 20, which includes the initial release of Android Wear.
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The decision to end support is due to the dwindling active device count on KitKat, which is below 1% as of July 2023.
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Google Play services powers various capabilities for app developers and first-party features, like Google Prompt 2-Step Verification and backup.
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The last time Google ended Play services support was in 2021 for Android Jelly Bean (API level 16-18).
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Continuing support for older Android versions requires significant developer and quality assurance resources.
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Google has introduced numerous innovative improvements and features for Android that are unavailable on KitKat.
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Users on KitKat will no longer receive new versions of Google Play services beyond release 23.30.99.
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Users are encouraged to update to a more recent Android version to continue receiving updates and access to new features.