Google is preparing to release two old Pixel phones! 5 years of update support will expire

The five-year software update support for the Google Pixel 6 series expires in October this year.

Google Pixel 6 series users should pay attention, the mobile phones in their hands are about to reach the "end of update". Google has released a regular update for Pixel in October 2026, and this is likely to be the last monthly update for Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro.

Is Pixel 6 really going to graduate?

Google has begun pushing the October update of Android 17, covering the Pixel 6 series and above. However, the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro were launched in October 2021. Although Google later extended the software update support period to 5 years, it will expire in October 2026.

Therefore, by the time the next wave of November updates are launched, Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro will theoretically have exceeded the officially promised support period. If Google does not announce an extension, this October version should be the last monthly update for these two phones. As for Pixel 6a, due to its late launch, the support period will not expire this month.

3 fixes focused on Pixel 8 and beyond

Although the Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 series are also on the update list, the three functional amendments announced by Google are mainly focused on models after the Pixel 8 series.

The first item is the virtual keyboard issue. The Pixel 8 to Pixel 11 series previously encountered a situation where the keyboard suddenly became unavailable when using the search input field. This update has been corrected.

The second item is the message anomaly of the Pixel 8 to Pixel 10 series. Some users may experience noise or distortion in their ringtones under certain VoIP network call situations, and Google will also address this this time.

The last item only affects the Pixel 11 series. After taking photos or videos previously, photos and videos may occasionally be saved in the wrong orientation. Upgrading can avoid this situation.

It is worth noting that Google does not list functional bug fixes directly for the Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 series this time, but the October update also includes security fixes, so eligible users are still recommended to update.

Google said that this update will be pushed out one after another in the next week. If the update notification has not popped up on your phone yet, don’t be too anxious. You can wait a few more days to see.