I got tired of waiting. It’s one thing to be on Android 11 still; kind of like running Debian stable assuming security patches are continuously backported. But that isn’t the case; 1 December rolled around and I found myself three months out of date with security updates, so I installed CalyxOS on my FP4 this morning. All is working well now and I’m on Android 13 with a locked bootloader.
I think Fairphone should partner with CalyxOS or somebody and outsource their OS development.
Hi everyone,
Thanks as always for being so frank, and for sharing your thoughts about the need for more frequent communication. This is something for us to improve and we’ll take your feedback internally. You’re all quite right that a status update on this topic could have come earlier and we’re really sorry it has taken some time. As you all know, our team is currently working on the Android 12 update and we’ve been gearing up for the roll out which, in our original planning, would have started this week. Unfortunately, we’ve had to postpone the Android 12 release due to critical emergency calling issues that were identified in certain countries.
In the meantime, however, our team is currently working on the Android 11 security patch for November, which will be released in the coming days. When that goes live I’ll pop a message both here and on our social channels, so no need to contact our support team. If you have already logged a support ticket, then you will be updated via email when the update is released.
We know this is disappointing news and we sincerely apologize if you have been affected by certain apps not functioning at full capacity or that are temporarily inaccessible. Our team is working hard to ensure that all issues are smoothed out as soon as possible so we can release Android 12 early next year. Thanks once again for your patience. We really appreciate it.
A weekly or, hell, even monthly update like this, although disappointing, would help address a lot of the communication concerns.
Thank you for the update, @formerFP.Com.Manager. It makes me, and I expect will make many others, happy to know that updates are coming soon. Not much more than that was needed.
I do agree that communication on the topic of updates by Fairphone could use improvements. I hope that can be remedied both for the benefit of existing customers and Fairphone’s good brand.
Well, here’s the thing. We didn’t know until now, at least not officially. That’s the whole problem in a nutshell. If Fairphone had been more transparent and prompt with these announcements, there would have been less gossip and less complaints.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful for the explanation you provided us with. But it simply came a month too late.
Indeed. I also fail to see why the security updates should be delayed for three full months just because they are working on a new major update.
As stated prior, Debian does not stop supplying security updates the months before dropping a new release, so why should Fairphone?
Pretty great to get an update on the situation, even if it means my phone won’t be seeing Android 12 this year.
Can you please let us know when you release the version, would love to be a beta tester too.
So true, even /e/ foundation or iodéOS should join forces, they are basically all doing the same (CalyxOS and iodéOS are both using MicroG that is developed by /e/ foundation). Not saying it’s easy because they each have their own idea and roadmap for the future, but the community would gain so much.
Mildly relevant is this table I maintain that tracks security updates of GrapheneOS, CalyxOS (FP4), /e/OS (FP2/FP3/FP4), and my DivestOS (FP2/FP3/FP4): https://divestos.org/misc/a-dates.txt
I’ve attached it as a picture here for mobile users:
microG is not developed by /e/ foundation and microG even predates the existence of /e/OS, CalyxOS, and iodeOS.
@SkewedZeppelin Yes you are right, I meant “sponsored by /e/ foundation” as written on the website! Not sure how much they are involved in the dev.
Google November Patch is comming out
This is so true @Phragmites !
Seriously @formerFP.Com.Manager - can you consider doing this in a more consistent way please, maybe building an actual company process behind it?
Everyone here just needs some news every now and then, I don’t think it’s going to cost the company too much in terms of resources.
Thanks!
Hi,
I have heard about, that Android 12 had to be postponed due to critical emergency calling issues identified in certain countries.
And Android 11 security patch for November will be released in a few days.
That was already posted here in this thread:
“The coming days” for me is 2-4 days. If it’s not out at the end of next week I’ll be pretty disappointed to be honest.
According to customer support “[the] team is currently working on the Android 11 November security patch, which will be released around the middle of this month.” So hopefully, the wait will be over soon…
In my experience, other mobile phone providers (the big ones) provide security patch updates much less often. A friend of mine has one of the latest Samsung and his first update came after 5 months. Even then, the patch level was already 3 months old.
In my opinion, that’s enough. The “gaps” that are closed usually don’t affect us at all. The biggest problem with the “insecure” use of a smartphone is the user himself and not the phone (opening strange links, downloading mail attachments, etc.).
My girlfriend has a Galaxy A52s and she gets monthly updates, and has done so since she bought it around the same time I bought my Fairphone 4.
https://security.samsungmobile.com/workScope.smsb
The “gaps” that are closed usually don’t affect us at all.
For plenty of people in here it’s not about the “gaps” themselves. Some work apps straight up stop working if you’re more than 2 months behind.
Yes, Samsung got much better at that. Some ten years ago updates were rare and far between (my first Samsung (Note 2) only ever got two updates, that’s all), now they have become quite good at that.
The thing is that nowadays some apps require a fairly up-to-date Android, and stop working if you fall behind. (It was BTW the main reason I changed phone…)
Fairphone needs to keep this in mind if they want real “sustainability”. Without this Fairphones will have a very short professional life expectation.
Debian has many hundreds of developers, is why 
probably dozens of times the size of the tiny team whatever outsourcer Fairphone chose has assigned to it. (No doubt charging them several times the team’s combined salaries, natch, because that’s how outsourcers work.)
