Android Nougat 7.1, released in 2016, is officially a seven-year-old version of Google’s mobile OS. While most apps still roll with it, Google’s getting picky. Case in point: Google Chromerecently bowed out at version 119 for Nougat. In the near future,Google Calendarmight be gearing up to join the club, as evidenced by a new flag in the latest app release.
A recent update to Calendar suggests that Google is planning to end the app’s support for Nougat. As discovered by AssembleDebug fromTheSpAndroid, the latest version of thecalendar app(v 2025-05-29-581792699-release) has a new flag called “UnsupportedOperatingSystem__enabled.” After AssembleDebug enabled the flag, a message pops up (pictured below) nudging you to upgrade to Android Oreo (8.0) or newer to keep the app going, assuming you’re rocking an older Android version.
Google hasn’t officially announced when it’ll stop supporting Calendar on older Android versions, but it makes sense from a security perspective. Older Android versions are more prone to attacks and data breaches, so Google suiting up in defense mode is a natural response. Plus, newer Android versions offer new features and improvements that older versions don’t have.
Apart from security risks, there are other reasons why apps stop supporting older Android versions. Keeping up with very old versions is time-consuming and costly. Older phones often lack the muscle (processors, RAM, graphics) to handle the latest app features, so newer apps are often optimized for modern devices. Running these apps on older phones can lead to slowdowns, crashes, and other headaches, forcing developers to end support.
Likewise, supporting older phones can be a financial drain for developers, especially when the number of people using them keeps dropping. The most logical business decision is, of course, to put your money where you see the most customers. And let’s not forget the testing nightmare. Making sure your app works on a million different phones is a lot of work. So, developers often choose to focus on the newer, more popular phones to make their lives easier.
Additionally, dealing with older OS versions can turn code into a hot mess. Supporting different versions of Android means writing different code for each, which can lead to a tangled mess of code that’s hard to maintain, creating extra work and stress for future app updates.
Google Calendar might just be the tip of the iceberg, and more Google apps are likely to drop support for older Android versions in the future. So, if you’re still clinging to an old Android device, it’s time to start thinking about an upgrade.
