Moto G17 may not receive any Android updates as Motorola cites lack of EU requirements

Officially announced just last week, the mid-range Motorola Moto G17 offers hardly any upgrades over the Moto G15 (approx. $130 on Amazon) apart from a higher-resolution 32 MP front-facing camera. Motorola has even retained the ageing MediaTek Helio G81 Extreme and ships the G17 with Android 15, which was released in summer 2024.

Motorola UK promises only two years of security patches but not a single major Android update. Likewise, the phone’s German product page offers no information on update support. The European Union requires manufacturers to provide at least five years of updates from a phone’s launch date. Speaking to media outlet After Dawn, Motorola stated that, based on its interpretation of the regulation, a smartphone’s operating system must receive security and feature updates, but major OS upgrades aren’t mandatory. This indirectly confirms that no Android 16 upgrade is planned for the Moto G17 in Europe either.

Whilst this update policy may not violate any regulations, Motorola has fallen far behind many competitors in software support. For instance, the similarly affordable Samsung Galaxy A17 (approx. $180 on Amazon) is guaranteed six Android updates. Even Chinese smartphone makers tend to offer significantly longer support. As an example, Xiaomi promises four years of OS updates for its Redmi Note 15.