The Pixel 8’s Best Feature Is One You Won’t Find on Any Other Android

Google’s new Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro come with some impressive new features . Audio Magic Eraser allows you to reduce distracting sounds such as wind, traffic and conversations in videos; Best Take combines the “best” faces from multiple group shots into one final product; and the Magic Editor uses artificial intelligence to quickly change the size and position of an object in a photo.

These are all exciting new features for anyone who buys one of these phones, but that’s not the most interesting thing: the best news about the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro is how long Google plans to support them.

Google will support Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro for seven years

As part of its Made by Google event , Google announced that it will support the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro with software updates for seven years. This means guaranteed updates until 2030. If you just spent $1,000 on the new Pixel 8 Pro, you might be thinking, “Well, yeah. I hope my phone lasts that long.” But, unfortunately, the truth is that this is a dramatic increase in software support compared to what we are used to – not only from Google, but from the entire Android smartphone market.

For example, last year’s Pixel 7 and 7 Pro have guaranteed software updates until 2025 . That’s only three years of support, or four major versions of Android. This is terrible, especially for the 7 Pro, which starts at $899. Essentially, you’re paying $300 a year. The same goes for the Pixel Fold, which is even worse since it starts at $1,799. That’s like paying $600 a year.

Not that other parts of the Android market are doing much better. Last year, Samsung announced it was increasing its software support guarantee to four years . Starting with the Galaxy S21, Samsung customers can expect their smartphones to run five major versions of OneUI (Samsung’s version of Android). OnePlus followed suit, but only for a select number of its flagship smartphones .

While the public may have accepted such things when smartphone technology was in its infancy, these days it is complete nonsense. Smartphones are powerful and have been for many years. Your iPhone 4S may have slowed down after years of updates, but the iPhone 12 can run iOS 17 like a champ. These devices can withstand updates for more than three or four years, depending on whether manufacturers want to support them for that long.

The silver lining here is the security updates: Most Android OEMs add at least one more year of security support in addition to software support, so users can continue to use their smartphones securely even after Android updates have dried up. Google and Samsung, for example, offer security updates for five years: Your Pixel 7 may not be running Android 17, but it will still receive security updates until Android 19 arrives.

Once again Google versus Apple.

Of course, the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro change all that. Your phone is now supported with software and security updates until 2030. Until now, this type of smartphone support has been the preserve of Apple, with Google claiming their crown: the company supported the 2017 iPhone 8, 8 Plus and X for five years, or the six major versions of iOS that ended support by the time iOS 17 was released. iPhone 6S received six years of software support or seven iterations of iOS before Apple ended support. Notably, all of these iPhones still receive security updates. Even the iPhone 5S, released in 2013, received a security update in January of this year.

If Apple wants to match Google on this issue, it needs to support the iPhone XS until at least 2025. If it wants to become the king of smartphone software support, it will have to extend that deadline to 2026. Time will tell if the XS supports iOS 18, iOS 19 or iOS 20.

In the meantime, we know where the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro are. Once you buy it, you can sit back and relax knowing that your smartphone will be supported until Spain, Portugal and Morocco take part in the FIFA World Cup . There will likely be missing features that Google supports exclusively for the Pixel 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15, but you’ll still see Android updates in the Settings app.