Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
Tl; DR
- Google no longer makes safety fixes on Android 12 or 12L, as the two operating systems have reached the end of life.
- This means that manufacturers of devices will owe backport safety fixes themselves if they wish to provide security updates to their Android 12 or 12L devices.
- Few manufacturers have the resources or the desire to do so, so if you still have an Android 12 or 12L device, it’s time to upgrade if you appreciate safety.
We spend a lot of time talking about the best Android phones and the latest Android version, but most people do not have the most recent devices with the most recent Android version. In fact, Google’s latest data has shown that the majority of users are still running Android 12 or earlier. Since most users do not have access to the latest Android version, Google Backports Security Patches with older versions so that users with older devices remain secure. However, Google does not maintain the management of older versions forever, and Android 12 is the next version that will lose the assistance.
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Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
The latest Android versions distribution statistics are almost a year old, but show that the old Android versions still have a huge share of the market.
Google published the Android security bulletin for April 2025 last week. The bulletin lists the safety vulnerabilities which are corrected in constructions with the level of security fix April 2025. It also specifies which Android versions have available fixes, and in particular, the fixes for Android 12 and 12L are missing.
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
The Android security bulletin for April 2025 shows that safety fixes for Android 12 and 12L are no longer available.
Although Google has not publicly confirmed why, Android authority May confirm that Google ended Android 12 and 12L support for March 31, 2025. According to a source, Google finished back-backports for Android 12 and 12L on March 31, 2025, the Android security bulletin for March 2025 being the last bulletin to list the fixes for these two versions.
For reference, Google published Android 12 on October 4, 2021 and Android 12L on March 7, 2022. This means that it is almost 3.5 years since the version of Android 12 and 3 years since the release of Android 12L. Google is generally safety backcores for 3.5 years after the version of a new Android version, therefore Android 12 and 12L reaching the end of life aligns on past versions. However, given the number of users who are still on these versions, it should be noted.
What happens next?
With the assistance of the end of Google, the peripheral manufacturers will have to lack safety fixes manually in backport if they wish to provide support for existing devices running Android 12 or 12L. This should not be a problem for large companies like Huawei, whose latest EMUI version is still based on Android 12, or for companies with prolonged support contracts, but that could be a problem for companies with fewer resources.
Robert Triggs / Android Authority
Although Huawei moves away from Android, his latest versions of Emui are always based on the open source version of Android 12.
However, companies that really care about the safety of their devices should provide regular upgrades to the Android OS version. Google engineers solve many bugs and safety problems that are not documented in the Android security bulletin and are therefore not covered with older versions. These security problems are not labeled because engineers do not even know that they are security vulnerabilities. This is why Google encourages companies to regularly upgrade the bone versions and the versions of the nucleus of their devices.
If you have a phone or tablet running Android 12 or 12L, it’s the right time to upgrade your device. Your device will always receive security updates for Google Apps and Project Mainline Modules, but it will probably no longer receive security updates that solve the basic problems of the Android operating system. In fact, he will probably not receive any more updates since Google has ended the approvals of new versions based on Android 12 some time ago. It is probably sure to reuse your old Android 12 device as a dedicated security camera or multimedia player, but I advise you to use it as the main device.
