The Pixel 6 won't die next year!

Pixel phones lose software support; there’s nothing special about that, but Android 16 was going to be a rather noteworthy occasion. It was going to mark the end of the Pixel 6’s software support. However, a new report from Google from just threw us for a loop. Google just announced extended support for the Pixel 6.

While phones losing support is nothing new, it would have been rather sad to see the Pixel 6 go. This phone was the start of a completely new era for the Pixel phone. It brought a radical design change that characterized the Pixel phone lineup for the next several generations. Also, it brought features like an in-display fingerprint scanner and powerful on-device voice dictation. It was a metamorphosis of the Pixel brand, and it really charted the route for success.

Google blessed the Pixel 6 with extended software support

With the launch of the Pixel 8, Google delivered some pretty welcomed news. The company started offering seven years of software updates to its phones. However, that only applied to the Pixel 8 and on. Phones that came before it were stuck on three years of software updates. Under that update policy, Android 15 would have been the Pixel 6’s last upgrade. This Tensor G1-powered device has withstood the test of time, and there are some people who still carry it around.

Google recently updated the Pixel 6 support page to say that both the Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 now have five years of updates rather than three. This means that the Pixel 6 will be supported until Android 17 and the Pixel 7 will press on until Android 18. So, if you own any of those phones, don’t post them on Swappa just yet!

The support page also gave us a little bit of bad news. It listed the Pixel Tablet, but that device is stuck on three years of updates. So, it will get Android 16, but that’s it. It’s unfortunate that Google isn’t extending the Pixel Tablet’s support. The company seems to have dropped the Pixel Tablet line, as we heard that it cancelled the Pixel Tablet 2.