When it comes to the most popular operating system for smartphones, without a doubt, Google‘s Android comes on top. While its competitor, iOS comes nowhere near the number of devices running Android, Apple is praised highly for providing the latest software version of its mobile OS at a much faster rate and a lot more devices.
According to a report published by Google in the month of May, only 10% of all Android devices ran Android Pie which was the latest version of Google’s mobile operating system at that point. In comparison, the last generation of iOS i.e iOS 12 runs on 88% of all the mobile devices sold by the company. 
Even though Google took several steps with Android 9 Pie to boost its adoption, it still holds the number two spot as Android Oreo is still the most popular Android version with a stake of 28%.
However, with the latest version of Android which is Android 10, Google is taking radical steps to maximise its adoption. The documents corresponding to the latest version of GMS (Google Mobile Services) has revealed that 31st January 2020 is the last date that Google will approve smartphones running Android 9 Pie. After that date, Google will only approve new devices running the latest Android version, Android 10.
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For devices that are not planned to get an Android 10 update, Google will continue to approve software builds based on Android 9 Pie for a few more months. However, this will stop after the launch of Android 11 which is expected to happen in the year 2020 with the exception of approving security patch updates for older versions.
Besides, the Go Edition of Android 8.1 Oreo will also continue to approved until October 31, 2019 which is 10 months more than the approval window closed for the standard Android 8.1 Oreo.
All in all, this seems like a notable step from Google which would make sure that consumers that buy Android devices get the latest software experience from the company.
(via)
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