How many years of support will Pixel 6 get?

One of the many questions people had to ask about the shiny new Google Pixel 6, which was announced this Tuesday, was how many years of software support the new phone will receive.

Now, there are several kinds of support when it comes to smartphones. There are the major software upgrades to the operating system, such as the brand new Android 12 which came out together with the Google Pixel 6, and is already available to download on these Pixel phones. Both Android phones and iOS devices receive these large-scale OS upgrades on a yearly basis.

Google has confirmed that the Pixel 6, just like older Pixel phones, will receive exactly 3 years of OS upgrades. This means that your new Pixel 6 will live to run Android 15 in 2024, as it already comes with Android 12 out of the box.

Then there are the smaller-scale security patches, which are released much more frequently than that, with a new patch coming out just about every month. Google will provide regular security updates to the Pixel 6 for a total of 5 years, which is two years longer than the major Android OS updates.

While 3 years of Android OS upgrades is certainly far less than what Apple is offering for the iPhone, rest assured that the shiny new (matte, actually) Pixel 6 won't become obsolete for a good 5 years at least, and probably well more than that! As long as they're routinely getting patched up on a security level, most smartphones are good far past their final operating system version update.

Interestingly enough, the wording of Google's announcement leaves the official support window somewhat open, as rather than saying "up to five years," it says security updates are to run until "at least" 2026. This leaves some room for hope Google could decide to continue supporting the Pixel 6 even beyond that. 

Again, while Apple does offer significantly longer software support than that for iPhones (although it lags behind in the repair department, but that's another story) 3 years of OS upgrades is fairly standard for most Android phones not made by Google—some even receive only two.

For the record, the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are the first phones to be sold running stock Android, as both the devices and the new Android version came out at the same time. And Android 12 can only be run on Google's Pixel device line for the time being, before it is released to other brand-bearing smartphones.

Google Pixel 6 Pro

$899

Buy at BestBuy

Google Pixel 6

$599 ⁹⁹

Buy at BestBuy