EU Proposes 5 Years Android Updates for Smartphone

The EU is working on a law that would make smartphone makers provide at least three years of major updates and five years of security patches on all Android devices.

Recent reports shows that legislators in EU are planning to get Android smartphone makers, Samsung and some Chinese brands to commit to 5 years of regular, but more importantly, timely updates.

The Android ecosystem, for long, has been notoriously difficult to live with, especially because of the manner in which most manufacturers deal with Android updates. Some manufacturers offer two or at best three years of updates, whereas some major ones, make no official commitment to updates at all, and sell devices with outdated Android versions, with no option to update them.

A draft regulation currently on the table in the EU looks to establish “ecodesign requirements for mobile phones, cordless phones, and slate tablets.” The inspiration for the regulation comes from the speed at which smartphones and similar devices are left behind by buyers, which can often lead to e-waste.

The draft proposes to establish a minimum term for software updates. For an Android phone, this would apparently be three years of major updates and five years of security patches.

Samsung offers four years of major updates and five years of security patches but mostly on their higher-end devices. Everything else from Samsungs, often gets shorter support lifetimes and less frequent updates. OnePlus on the other hand, pretty much pushes out only one major update per device.

EU has been taking on the tech industry in an effort to curb e-waste, and get smartphone brands and manufacturers to ensure that their devices have a longer and much more sustainable life.

Just last week, a report surfaced that revealed that legislators in the EU are going to pass a law under which smartphone manufacturers would be required to make at least 15 key spare parts available for five years from the launch of a phone so that the devices are not junked within a few years after being purchased, just because some part of it malfunctioned. Lawmakers in the EU, have had enough of Big Tech’s shenanigans and greenwashing.

What is even more interesting about the repair proposal that the EU will be discussing, is the way it will be dealing with batteries. The draft offers manufacturers a choice to either meet strict standards for battery longevity or bring back easily replaceable batteries as many older Android phones offered.

September 06, 2022