Google Calendar Could Soon Stop Working On Older Android Devices

The Google Calendar is the most popular calendar app on Android with over 5 billion downloads. The app is often the default choice for users as it comes pre-installed on Android phones and seamlessly integrates with other Google apps such as Gmail and Meet.

The Google Calendar app could soon stop working on older Android devices. The upcoming version of the app is said to have increased the minimum system requirements, which means that Google will discontinue support for its calendar app on some dated phones.

Google Calendar App Will Now Require Android Oreo 8.0 and Above

AssembleDebug, a popular Android enthusiast on Twitter, noticed that Google is working on a new update for its calendar app. The latest version of the app listed by Google on APKMirror shows that the Calendar App will only be compatible with Android versions of Oreo 8.0 and above.

For reference, earlier versions of the app had a minimum version requirtement of Android 5.0 Lollipop. Google has added a new flag to the latest version of the calendar app, stating that older Android versions are no longer supported by the app.

Starting from the version 2023.46.0-581792699-release, the Google Calendar app will stop working on devices running Android Nougat and below. Although this version is not yet available on the Google Play Store, the company is soon expected to start rolling this update.

Android Oreo was released in 2017 by Google, and it became widespread on devices from 2018. Hence, most of the devices running Android Nougat and below were launched between 2015-2017, indicating that these phones have already become outdated.

However, data from Statcounter shows that over 6% of Android phones in the world are still running Android Nougat and below. Considering that there are over 3 billion active Android devices, this small percentage of users translates to 180 million smartphones.

The upcoming Calendar App update can affect thousands of Android users with older phones. However, this does not mean that Google is completely ending support for the app on older devices. Users can simply refuse to update the Calendar app to the latest version and continue using it for some more time, but Google could soon discontinue that as well.

Phones running Android Nougat or below have surely become outdated as of 2023, and its a good idea to consider an upgrade. However, one cannot ignore the fact that there’s a signifcant set of users who are not power users and do not upgrade their phones frequently.

It looks like Google has observed that users with older phones are not actively utilzing the calendar app. Hence, the company may have increased the minimum system requirements for the app. This allows Google to impolement better security in its app, and also release more features.

Dropping support for older version also makes it easy for app developers to maintain the app. So if you are an active user of the Google Calendar app but still have a phone running Android Nougat, its a good time to think of a phone upgrade.