Google Pixel 6 (Pro), Pixel 7 (Pro) and Pixel Fold to get five major Android updates instead of just three

The Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 9 and all other variations of these two models will be supplied with Android and security updates for seven years. The Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 series as well as the first-generation Pixel Fold, on the other hand, were expected to only receive three Android updates and five years of security patches, meaning that the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro were set to no longer receive feature updates from next summer when Android 16 is released.

Google has now updated the support page on its update plans for Pixel devices and now states that the aforementioned Pixel smartphones will receive a total of five operating system updates. This means that the Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 6a will continue to receive updates up to and including Android 17, while the Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 7a and Pixel Fold will receive updates up to and including Android 18 in 2027. The Google Pixel Tablet is excluded from this change, meaning that the device will only receive updates up to Android 16 as originally planned.

With this change, Google is giving users of older Pixel smartphones much more time to switch to a newer smartphone without having to forgo new Android features. It was already clear that update support would be extended when Google released the beta version of Android 16 for the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, even though the two smartphones were not supposed to receive the final version of the operating system. Although Android 16 will not launch for another six months, Pixel users can already look forward to new features thanks to the December Feature Drop.