Google is quietly dropping support for older Android versions across some of its most popular apps, making it even harder to hold onto aging smartphones.

The biggest change affects YouTube, which now requires Android 10 or later for new app updates and features. If your phone is still running Android 9 Pie, the YouTube app won’t disappear, but it will stop receiving future updates.

The Google app has seen an even bigger jump. It now requires Android 11 or newer, skipping Android 10 entirely. This means users on Android 10 or older will remain on older versions of the app without access to future features and improvements. It remains to be seen how this change affects the many Android TV users on older versions, some as old as Android 8.0.

Meanwhile, Gmail now requires at least Android 7.0 Nougat, effectively ending updates for devices running Android 6 Marshmallow. This comes after Google confirmed that Android Marshmallow devices will no longer be supported on Google Play services.

For many people, these changes are more significant than they might seem. It’s common to find older Android phones still serving as daily drivers, backup devices or family hand-me-downs. While these phones won’t suddenly become unusable, they’ll slowly start missing out on new features, bug fixes, and security improvements.

If your device is affected, there’s no immediate need to panic. Your existing apps should continue working for some time, but compatibility issues will become more common as Google and other developers continue raising their minimum Android requirements.

I’d take this as another reminder that software support matters just as much as hardware. A phone that still works perfectly can quickly feel outdated once essential apps stop receiving updates. Here’s a quick breakdown of the new minimum requirements: