There are news. Big news. But we betatesters are not allowed to talk about them. FP promised they will talk about them with the whole community (they did it ~3 weeks ago). It seems now it’s time the community demands FP to talk.
Well, if you’re not allowed to talk about it, are you at least able to say, wether it is good or bad news?
I really hope the Fairphone people up their community communication game.
I’m also a beta tester.
It’s arguably the latter in the short term.
10 Likes
ah, so no Android 14, with a jump directly to 15 a bit later on. got it.
2 Likes
Oh well. 
I am curious, how they plan on working around the issues which resulted in the short term situation. Because as far as they told everyone so far, they are dependent on external partners. Quite the challenge ahead, from what it seems.
But maybe they don’t even know yet and that’s why they haven’t communicated anything official yet.
3 Likes
I guess, that is what one calls “wishful thinking” 
I would really appreciate this, but I doubt it, as they most likely still have no commitment from Qulacomm for any update, yet.
6 Likes
this is what someone claims on reddit to.
4 Likes
Unfortunately seems like fairphone is about to screw us over pretty hard. I do regret buying this phone.
2 Likes
If they were to update directly to A15, this wouldn’t be so bad, would it? At least it would secure security updates for the next couple of years (when they really would do it, that is).
In that case I do not really understand why they make such a big secret about this. They do not even sell Fairphone 4s anymore. The only thing I could imagine, is, that an A15 release is not definitely decided.
6 Likes
Yes if they could go for A15 directly, why not. Anyway I do not believe that the situation concerning Qualcomms commitment is different in A15, so I guess that is one reason for not having communicated any plan like this.
For me having an officially supported ROM for long term was the only reason to buy a FP4, but if we have to stay on A13 I would go back to a third part ROM, like I have done years before I got my FP4. And my next phone will definitely not be a Fairphone anymore in that case.
9 Likes
Very disapointing customer communication of Fairphone. Just silence since 4-5 months. But if the points above are true I guess they have a lot of meetings with their legal team, as they can expect a lot of law suites if they break their support guarantee… Either that or will need to refund the Fairphone 4 customers. Both are definitly a existancial risk for the whole company.
IIRC Fairphone never guaranteed Android 14 or above, just that they’ll try to upgrade to those versions on a “best effort” basis. So no agreements or contracts would be broken, if they announce that Android 13 would be the final version for the FP4.
Would still blow alot though.
9 Likes
They guarantee software support until end of 26, that is right. Will be really challeging without updating to Android 14. Not to mention that for many people that will be the last phone of Fairphone, if they just support 2 Android Updates as in the end that would contradict the fairphone claim of a long lasting phone.
4 Likes
I had a look at old articles from the time of the FP4 launch, e.g.
For Fairphone 4, software support is guaranteed until the end of 2025 and includes upgrades to Android 12 and Android 13, but the company aims to extend it even further, until the end of 2027, with upgrades to Android 14 and Android 15 despite support from the chipset supplier expiring. With this unparalleled ambition, Fairphone is aiming to repeat what it succeeded in doing with a previous model: six years of software support from the launch of an Android device.
When they update to A15 directly, I just hope that will happen around the time A13 falls out of support (wouldn’t complain if it was earlier, of course). If that upgrade happens in 2025 I’d be fine with that.
10 Likes
I think a bit more transparency from Fairphone would calm the discussion in this thread. I think a bit more openness about what is actually causing the delay would also help build understanding among customers. 
10 Likes
If the EOL of Android 13 is consistent to the versions before, it will be supported until the beginning of 27. See
Nevertheless it would be highly disappointing for many if they can’t update beyond Android 13 with the Fairphone 4.
2 Likes
Is 27 a typo? Looking at the older versions the max support duration was 3.5 years. In which case A13 that started August 2022 would end support around February 2026.
4 Likes
Thats the current roadmap
Software support roadmap
We aim to support Fairphone 4 with security and software upgrades for five years from its launch date (September 2021), trying to reach 7 years. For Fairphone 4, we guarantee software support until the end of 2026, we did do upgrades to Android 12 and Android 13.
We aim to upgrade for Android 14 in Q4 2024 or Q1 2025.
We did monthly security updates for about 2,5 years, and then we did switch to bi-monthly security updates* since 2024. Furthermore, we will keep the bi-monthly pace until the end of the software support.
We also aim to provide upgrades for Android 15 and do security patching until mid 2028, but it is not confirmed yet.
So yes an update about the current plans would be good, however further upgrades are still only aimed not guaranteed, still I guess to fulfill the guarantee to provide updates tillnend 2026 they have to do an upgrade to 14 or 15.
6 Likes
Oh you are right. So A13 is seemingly supported until begin of 2026. They released it in September 21 so they need to upgrade to another Android version to keep their guaranty of 5 year software updates. And to be honest, that is not impressive as you get even longer support with Samsung phones.
2 Likes
A phone like the Samsung Galaxy S22, released in January 2022, has 5 years of security updates. Thus it is the same as the FP4 and it is a flagship (I didn’t look at middle range phones releases at the same date as the FP4).