By Ionut Arghire on December 18, 2020 Google this week announced an extended support period for Android 11 and later devices launching with Qualcomm System-on-Chip (SoC) models. Currently, devices receive support for a period of three years, which includes security patches, but moving forth users will enjoy one additional year of operating system and security updates. The move, the Internet search giant says, is meant to help vendors and users alike, and to ensure better continuity. It is also accompanied by a no-retroactivity principle being applied to both devices and SoCs (previously, SoC requirements were retroactive). “With this change, the SoC provider would be able to support Android with the same vendor implementations on their SoCs for device launches as well as upgrades,” Google says.