The final farewell for LG's phone business:
Time is running out for people who are still using LG phones to download any remaining Android updates before their devices are fully retired. After closing its Android phone business back in 2021, Android Authority has spotted that LG is now preparing to shut down its update servers for good on June 30th, 2025, advising customers that software updates will be completely inaccessible after this date.
The end-of-service announcement was expected — when LG exited the smartphone industry, it promised existing customers that Velvet, Wing, and G- and V- series phones from 2019 or later would receive three years of Android updates from their year of release.
That means only security patches and upgrades to Android 12 or Android 13 are available, depending on the devices, but LG has left its update servers active for longer than the deadline it promised. Functioning LG phones should still work after the servers are shut down, but this serves as a final death knell, as they'll be unable to receive any future improvements or security fixes.
The LG Bridge PC software is also shutting down at the end of June, which is used to transfer files and contacts from LG phones, alongside support for updates, backups, and device restoration.
Perhaps if one is lucky, one can try an alternative OS for their LG phones.
Grab your official updates: Software, Firmware & Driver Downloads
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Monday May 05, @01:17PM
This is why we need passkeys, so we can create a central point of failure, that being the phones that by design do not receive security patches and every government and corporation out there has root on them.
Nothing bad could possibly happen from a design like that.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by mcgrew on Monday May 05, @03:25PM (1 child)
A couple of decades ago I had an LG phone, worst piece of shit electronics I've ever seen. The monochrome screen would reverse color, turn upside down, black out, or white out, or the print would all be backwards.
I sent it back under warranty, and when I got the new phone it was even worse!
LG can go piss up a rope. As far as I'm concerned they deserve bankruptcy.
Impeach Donald Palpatine and his sidekick Elon Vader
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Monday May 05, @03:34PM
I had one years ago, it had to be replaced like 4 times under warranty and I'd be without it for weeks waiting for the new one. It was by far the worst POS I've ever used. I'm not surprised they exited the market. this is really why companies shouldn't be allowed to limit coverage for replacements. I don't think any of them lasted 6 months.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Monday May 05, @05:48PM
I have a phone that doesn't require any updates.
Ask me about it sometime.
I'll be in my exhibit next to the dinosaurs...
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Monday May 05, @06:11PM
Each recent Android version added new hardware requirements with Android 16, which is expected to release next month, is being rumored to require Vulkan 1.4's Host Image Copy: https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-host-image-copy-3541523/ [androidauthority.com]
So, seeing how there's only a few models supporting it on the market [gpuinfo.org], it will be wiser to wait a few more weeks and pick a new model when that comes out or at least pick something from this list.
compiling...
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 06, @02:41AM
LineageOS, which supports eleven different models [lineageos.org] of LG phones.
POS or not, you can get Android 14 or 15 for those phones. Perhaps they won't be capable of running Android 16 [soylentnews.org], but until they break, who cares?