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Google officially deprecates Android Gingerbread and Honeycomb with Play Services update

Google released its latest update to Play Services today, bringing it to version 10.2. It's an update that we've known about since November though, as it ends support for both Android 2.3.x Gingerbread and 3.x Honeycomb.

Of course, this doesn't mean that your device will stop working, but over time, you will see a drop in the amount of apps that are available for it. The new minimum API level is 14, which means that you'll need to be running Ice Cream Sandwich to use an app that's developed with SDK release 10.2.x or later.

The release notes don't even mention the deprecation of Honeycomb, which represents API levels 11 through 13. There's good reason for this though, as Google hasn't even listed it on its monthly usage breakdown in years, which means that less than 0.1% of Android users are running it.

Gingerbread, on the other hand, represents 1% of Android users, as of the latest usage report. Version 2.3.x included API levels 9 and 10, which was the previous baseline for Google Play Services.

Of course, if you're on any modern device, you have nothing to worry about for a long time. Even the new baseline Android version, 4.0.x Ice Cream Sandwich, includes just 1% of Android users, and then Jelly Bean still rocks 10.3%.

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