The February security patch is most likely the last new release to come to Google’s 2019 flagship phones
Google started rolling out the February security patch this week as per its usual monthly cadence, and it’s now available to everyone with a Pixel that Google still officially supports, including the Google Pixel 7 Pro. For this update, the company made one exception, though. The Google Pixel 4 and 4 XL are also provided with new software, a few months after their last guaranteed update in October 2022.
The Pixel 4 and 4 XL receiving this update well past their guaranteed time frame isn’t entirely out of the ordinary. Google routinely pushes one last update to phones that have reached end-of-life a few months after the date in an effort to squash any further bugs that were found. This ensures that owners can get the most out of their devices once they’re not maintained anymore. That’s the case for the Pixel 4 and 4 XL here.
Back in the day, the Google Pixel 4 represented a shift in Google’s strategy. The company ignored the industry trend to move to smaller bezels and instead kept the top bezels big, filled with an IR blaster and radar sensor. This allowed for both face unlock and for Motion Sense gesture support, making it possible to use hand gestures to control certain features. The face unlock feature came with issues, though. App developers had to update their apps to use it for biometric authentication. Without a fingerprint scanner, many apps would force users to type out their passwords instead on their Pixel 4 phones.
The Pixel 4 was still one of the most daring phones released by Google, and it’s sad to see it discontinued just three years after its release already. Feature-wise, the same time limitation exists for the Pixel 6 and newer, but at least all these new Google phones get security patches for five years.
You can download the factory images and OTA files for the Pixel 4 in the usual place, over at the Android developer website. If you’re feeling less adventurous, the system update is also available in your phone’s settings.
