One of the best things about modern smartphones is the increasing length of software support offered by the manufacturers. Samsung, Google and Honor offer seven years of updates for some of their devices, and though Apple doesn’t state how long it will keep iPhone models up to date, the firm currently still supports phones released in 2018.
It means you can buy a phone today and potentially be confident it’ll still be safe and secure to use into the 2030s.
Unfortunately, not all companies are equal, and if you are still using a smartphone made by LG, it’s nearly the end of the line. The famed mobile maker announced it was closing its smartphone business in 2021, bringing the curtain down on a fabled phone history that included such beloved handsets as the LG Chocolate slider from 2006, the LG G3 with its incredible 1440p display in 2014, right up to the firm’s last ever phone, the zany LG Wing (below) that had two displays and physically rotated into a ‘T’ shape.
When LG threw in the towel, some of its phones were still due software updates, including the Wing and recently released models such as the LG Velvet and LG V60, so the company kept its software update servers online to allow existing customers to access, download and install the free updates for a few years.
As reported by Android Authority, LG now plans to permanently close its software update servers on June 30, 2025. After this point, it’ll be impossible for you to update your LG smartphone to the latest available software, which, depending on which phone you have, will be Android 12 or Android 13, given they were launched several years ago.
“We hereby announce the termination of LG Electronics’ mobile software upgrade (FOTA), Update Center and LG Bridge services,” LG said on its website.
“After the termination of this service, software upgrade service will no longer be provided. If necessary, please upgrade the software before the service ends on June 30, 2025. (Termination of service includes all software upgrade services including service center upgrades).”
LG said in 2021 that any phone released in 2019 or later would receive three Android version updates from their year of release.
It’s not that LG has released many security patches in recent months for its last phones, it’s just that the servers are still on so you can access the updates if you haven’t already. I was a big fan of LG phones, but they were never the best for updates – if I recall, you had to often manually head into settings to check if you had the latest version, rather than the system announcing it to you.
If you have an LG phone that’s still kicking, head to the software update section of the settings app to check if you have any updates to download, and install them before June 30. It then might, unfortunately, be time to think about getting a new phone as there will never be any new security patches for you.
I’ve still got an LG V60 that I use to listen to hi-res music as it has a superb DAC (digital-to-analogue converter) hooked up to its 3.5mm headphone jack, a rare inclusion on a phone even when it was released in 2020. If you have an LG kicking about with a headphone jack, especially a V-series model, you might find it has a second life still in it as a dedicated music player.