PSA: Android KitKat will soon be deprecated in the Chromium code base
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Tommy Nyquist
Jan 14, 2020, 2:39:17 PM1/14/20
to chromium-dev, Sejal D'Souza, he...@chromium.org
Hi, fellow developers!
This is to give you a heads up on Android KitKat OS.
What?
We will be deprecating support for Android KitKat (API level 19 and 20) in the Chromium code base in Q2 2020.
Why?
KitKat OS was last updated in 2014, and is used by less than 4.7% of active Android Chrome users. Only half of those users are running an updated version of Chrome, so around 2.3% of our users will be impacted when we stop updating Chrome on Android devices running KitKat.
As KitKat users replace their devices, we’ve seen KitKat usage decrease in both the total number of users and the percentage of our total user base. If we compare KitKat users to the rest of Chrome, 1.9% of page loads and 3.3% of total time spent in Chrome happen on KitKat. If we only look at users who are still updating Chrome, those numbers are 1.3% of page loads and 1.9% of the time spent in Chrome.
We value our users and want to keep them safe on the web, but maintaining Chrome on operating systems that are no longer supported reduces our ability to move the rest of Chrome forward. As other apps have done, we have decided to deprecate KitKat now that 5 years have passed since its final update.
When?
Chrome M81 is the last release that will support Android KitKat. M82 will not be shipped to KitKat, but we will not start removing code yet as a contingency. M83 is the first release where we will update our minimum Android SDK version to Android Lollipop (API level 21) and start removing code. M81 will roll out to Chrome stable channel around March-April 2020.
Next Steps
--
The Chrome team at Google
This is to give you a heads up on Android KitKat OS.
What?
We will be deprecating support for Android KitKat (API level 19 and 20) in the Chromium code base in Q2 2020.
Why?
KitKat OS was last updated in 2014, and is used by less than 4.7% of active Android Chrome users. Only half of those users are running an updated version of Chrome, so around 2.3% of our users will be impacted when we stop updating Chrome on Android devices running KitKat.
As KitKat users replace their devices, we’ve seen KitKat usage decrease in both the total number of users and the percentage of our total user base. If we compare KitKat users to the rest of Chrome, 1.9% of page loads and 3.3% of total time spent in Chrome happen on KitKat. If we only look at users who are still updating Chrome, those numbers are 1.3% of page loads and 1.9% of the time spent in Chrome.
We value our users and want to keep them safe on the web, but maintaining Chrome on operating systems that are no longer supported reduces our ability to move the rest of Chrome forward. As other apps have done, we have decided to deprecate KitKat now that 5 years have passed since its final update.
When?
Chrome M81 is the last release that will support Android KitKat. M82 will not be shipped to KitKat, but we will not start removing code yet as a contingency. M83 is the first release where we will update our minimum Android SDK version to Android Lollipop (API level 21) and start removing code. M81 will roll out to Chrome stable channel around March-April 2020.
Next Steps
- Barring any unforeseen issues, we will send another PSA once the cleanup process can start. Meta cleanup tracking bug: crbug.com/1041930
- For things you know you want to clean up, please file bugs blocking the meta bug, but do not stop fixing Android KitKat bugs or start removing code / infrastructure yet.
- For questions or concerns, please reach out on this mail-thread.
--
The Chrome team at Google
Joe Medley
Apr 9, 2020, 2:20:57 PM4/9/20
to Chromium-dev, Tommy Nyquist, Sejal D'Souza, he...@chromium.org
Has this timeline changed because of recent events?
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