Yesterday, Google started rolling out December 2020 security patch update to eligible Pixels. This update also brought a new set of Pixel Feature Drops. At the same time, the search giant also released the last-ever system update for Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, thus ending the software support for these smartphones.
Most smartphones in the world run Google’s Android operating system, however, the search giant’s phone business never took off. The company introduced the Pixel lineup of first-party smartphones as the spiritual successor to the Nexus initiative in 2016.
That said, the current-gen Pixel 5 has a couple of most-used features like ‘Now Playing’ and ‘Always-on Display’, both of which were introduced with the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. That’s not all, the Pixel 2 series of handsets were also the first Google devices to feature called ‘Active Edge’, a feature the company has abandoned for the Pixel 5.
Anyway, what we are trying to say is that despite being plagued with various hardware issues, the Pixel 2 and the Pixel 2 XL laid the foundation for many loved Pixel features.
Having said that, as promised, Google has supported these handsets for three years, which included three Android updates and three years of monthly security patches. The last update that is currently being pushed to users bumps up the security patch level to November 2020. One might be wondering why November and not December. That’s because Google delayed these phones’ last-ever system update to this month.
We hope that one day Google increases the support cycle from three years as Apple iPhones on average are eligible for five years of iOS updates.
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