Google Play Store no longer supports Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
The information is official. Google, via a message on its blog, announced the end of support for the Google Play Store for smartphones and tablets running Android Ice Cream Sandwich. In other words, the owners of such devices will no longer be able to update their applications.
It's not really a surprise. After seven years of good and loyal service, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is leaving the Play Store. With this change, all users of devices using Android 4 will no longer be able to receive any updates from applications installed from the Play Store that require the latest versions of Google Play Services (version 14.7.99).
According to Google, Ice Cream Sandwich is currently being used on only 0.3% of active Android devices (smartphones and tablets combined). This decision by the Mountain View firm officially ends this version of Android launched on October 19, 2011 with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.
If you are still in this minority, you may have some concerns. To continue to use old devices, it is possible to update the smartphone with LineageOS for example. If you are an application developer, however, there is good news. Google has asked them to target APIs at level 16 and above.
Do you still use a smartphone under Android Ice Cream Sandwich? Let us know.
Source: Android Developers Blog
This is a bit of a nightmare for car owners that used Android to control it's, well, lets face it, every-damn-thing.
I've got a 2015 Honda CR-V with this issue, and I'd love to find a workaround to ditch the godawful Garmin mapping for Google Maps, but the Play store no longer works on it, nor does the browser for trying to get to the Play store that way.
I understand that software will turn "legacy" at some point, but to effectively cripple something built into a car is a bit naughty - at least give us some way of side-loading the last versions of the most popular software for each version !
It amuses me to keep using an old LG phone with Android G, rocking 256MB of internal storage, running offline maps as the sat/nav in my car (which of course saves battery cycles and strain from the dash charger on the regular phone). A few weeks ago had to hard reset the LG, and getting the required (old, tiny, brilliantly coded and efficient) APKs for apps I use on it, I wanted a file manager and a couple of other apps from Google Play Store. (Android G has unfettered microSD app installation and functionality, so nearly everything works from there.)
The Gingerbread hard reset reinstalled the tiny old "Market" (remember that?) app which actually worked to get what I needed from the Play Store library. Google then tried to update old Market to (bloated, demanding, cartoonish) Play Store / Services which would have bricked the phone again - slammed that door shut fast. It's running nicely as before. I'd guess there are still more Android G users holding out than the unpopular Android I.
my 2011 moto atrix 4g also used as offline gps navigator. it ttok a while to load but it works using navdroid. i tried to wipe everything coz everything runs slow and now i couldnt even access playstore.