Google announced the beginning of its Android 7.0 Nougat rollout yesterday, starting with its own Nexus devices - but not all of them. Only those devices supported during the Developer Preview phase - the Nexus 5X, 6P, 6, 9, Player and Pixel C (as well as the non-Nexus General Mobile 4G) - will be eligible to upgrade at first.
But while plenty more phones and tablets from manufacturers worldwide will be able to upgrade to Nougat in the weeks and months ahead, two devices from Google's Nexus family will be left behind.
The Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 (2013) weren't part of the Developer Preview program for Android 7.0, but some owners were still clinging to the hope that Google might give the devices one last hurrah, with a bump up to the latest version of the OS.
But the reality - as Google's own support site notes - is that the Nexus 7 (2013) was only in line to receive 'guaranteed Android version updates' until July 2015, while the cut-off for the Nexus 5 was October 2015. The same site also points out that Nexus devices are only guaranteed to receive monthly security updates "for the longer of 3 years from availability or 18 months from when the Google Store last sold the device".
That means that in addition to having ended OS updates for the two devices long ago, Google is also likely to stop releasing security patches for the Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 (2013) in the next few months.
The company is already preparing for the future of both its Nexus program and Android. Two new handsets, built by HTC, are expected to be unveiled in the next few weeks, while Android will transition to quarterly 'maintenance releases' between major updates.
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