Using an Ancient Phone? Google will kill it very soon.

Google has begun sending emails to owners of older Android devices, informing them that it is time to say goodbye.

Beginning September 27, devices running Android 2.3.7 and below will be unable to check in to Google services, thus eliminating a large chunk of the on-rails Android experience. “If you login into your device after September 27, you may encounter username or password problems when trying to access Google products and services like Gmail, YouTube, and Maps,” Google says in an official community post.

One of the most cloud-based operating systems ever is Android. Many included applications and services, especially in previous versions were connected to your Google login, and if that stopped working, a significant portion of your phone was bricked. While Android can now update many key components without requiring a complete system update, Android 2.3.7 Gingerbread, launched ten years ago, was not as modular.

Individual Google apps began to be updated via the Android Market/Play Store, but Google sign-in remained a system-level function that was stuck in time. Any Google services that wish to accept sign-ins from those versions must follow security requirements from 2011, which includes turning off two-factor authentication (2FA) and enabling a specific “allow less-secure access” setting in your Google account. These outdated Android versions must go at some point because they are just too unsafe.

In Android Studio, Google displays active user base breakdowns for Android versions; however, Gingerbread has such a low device count that it isn’t even included. It accounts for fewer than 0.2 per cent of active devices, trailing 14 other Android versions. Users of these older devices could still sideload a third-party app store to locate replacements for all of Google’s applications, but if you’re a technical user who can’t afford a new device, there’s a high possibility you could load an aftermarket Android ROM and install a completely new operating system.

You’ll only be able to sign in to Android 3.0 Honeycomb, available for tablets, after September 27. Although this OS isn’t modular, Google recognised that login security updates might become a problem in the future; thus, Honeycomb included a “sign-in through web” option during the first setup. The hard-coded Android login can still be hacked, but “sign-in through browser” redirects you to a webpage that can be updated with current technology and then forwards your login to the OS.

It’s not enough to keep Honeycomb from being labelled a “less secure software,” and it doesn’t work well with 2FA, but it’s enough to keep the OS running for the time being.

In Android 5.0 Lollipop, the login method was made updatable, and it now checks for essential setup updates before you log in.

These gadgets have been obsolete for a long time for day-to-day use, so it’s not a significant problem, but Google’s server shutdowns are a nightmare for preservationists. Today, anyone can boot up an old Apple II or install Windows 1.0 on an old computer to get the complete experience, but if Google disables login support, previous Android versions will be rendered obsolete. Say goodbye to the Android Market, Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Talk if you can’t log in to Google. The base OS will continue to function, but you won’t be able to perform everything that users did on these phones previously. Unless there’s some kind of strange login emulation method, you’ll never see these applications operate on phones again.

This isn’t the first time Google has removed earlier Android versions due to increased login security. For years, the Android 1.0 applications have been broken.