FP Security Updates need to be more frequent

Common apps are sometimes even working with unpatched Android 6, PayPal for example, WhatsApp requires 4.1 or higher.

Did you do some research how long Fairphone is existing already :wink: ?

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Let’s be real, we’re a minority that wants security updates at all. I’ve had more friends complain about, and I quote, “My phone wants to update all the time” than I’ve had friends that mention being on Android x-1 months after the release of Android x.

I definitely think Fairphone should commit to monthly updates, but I think we’re fooling ourselves by thinking this will scare away any large amount of future customers. The average person watches YouTube/TikTok/Instagram on their phone and if that + the local Bank app works, they are happy.

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Sure, I have a phone running 4.4 and a dozen apps run happily on it, including getting updated (Signal comes to mind). But it’s a personal “in-case-of-emergency” phone, not a work phone.

Sure, but I’d say it’s kind of irrelevant: The important thing for a company is how long they plan to keep existing… :slightly_smiling_face:
The competition won’t do them any favors just because they’re new(-ish) and small.
If Fairphone seem like they’ve on to a good thing, everybody will try to get on that same bandwagon, and all Fairphone will have left is a little market lead, which won’t mean much if some big Chinese actor with all its industrial power decides to encroach on their turf. They need to be (and most importantly remain) the incontestable leaders of their very own segment, and for this they need excellence. IMHO.

All true but I don’t think that is the average Fairphone client. People buying a Fairphone, heck, people having heard of a Fairphone, are apparently mostly power users, IT types, tinkerers (From your handle I suspect you’re an offline movie/TV editor, aren’t you? I’m a consultant).
Fairphone is definitely not in the same market as your run-of-the-mill smartphone – fortunately for Fairphone because else they wouldn’t stand a chance against the giants ruling the smartphone market.

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My two cents. Most of the people who ask me what is my phone and who decided to buy one after are far from power users.

I think this forum is far from reflecting the diversity of profiles who bought an FP. After all, only power users spend time in forums :wink:

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Here is an nice example of how big (huge) actors are slowly thinking about entering the market for modular, easily repairable hardware: Ars Technica: “Dell concept laptop has pop-out components, disassembles screwdriver-free”.
All right, it’s about laptops, not phones, but it shows the industry is listening and (slowly) reacting. Fairphone needs to stay ahead of the pack since they have neither the financial strength nor the manpower to face them in open combat competition.

I can’t speak for all real world Fairphone meetups that ever happened or all Fairphone Angels who ever got contacted by other FP users but my experience from Hamburg is that it’s definitely not mostly power users. In some countries Fairphone has even run ads on regular TV. They have been on the “Best Gadget of the Year” list of the New York Times. Other mainstream newspapers had articles about FP for years. Several operators list Fairphone as possible phone together with their contract, normal resellers offer Fairphones. It’s really not just the IT/tinkerer bubble that may have heard of Fairphone.

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Okay, okay, I stand corrected.
Fairphone users don’t want security updates, all they need is WhatsApp/TikTok/Instagram/Youtube to work. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: :laughing:

Seriously, I still think regular security updates would be welcome by most many some me.

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The loudest people are usually not the majority :speak_no_evil:

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This is a cringe-worthy excuse for the lack of security updates. And the average person is just a strawman to go with it.

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If this were to happen, inluding big players and then really in true Fairphone-fashion, I imagine that for the Fairphone founders it would be: “Mission accomplished”!

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Of course it’s a cringey excuse. But it’s 100% what Fairphone are thinking when they delay something for 3 months.

Fairphone earns millions of dollars in profit every year. If they hired more developers then obviously we wouldn’t be in this situation. The problem is, that profit can go towards other things instead. Into their pockets, for example.

Millions are nothing if a small % of sells.

Are you sure?
Because I’m running company portal, Teams, Outlook on my FP4 without problems.
Also, I work in an IT-Service where we also set up Android 11 devices with intune. (Samsung A32, they come with 11 but can be updated to 12)
But it could be an administrator rule, that you need Android 12 or newer security patches. Guess the Intune Profiles have such settings.

At which point do you get the notification? Maybe there is a workaround. (Intune has a lot of possibilities to avoid restrictions…)

To give a comparison, Framework is quite similar to Fairphone in terms of products, and has what superficially looks like similar community forums. They also often have unexpected delays and problems. But their employees, both community liaisons and engineers, are a constant presence on their community forums. Users are largely kept informed of what is going on, whether good or bad. Long arguments about delays, updates, and expected fixes to bugs don’t happen as often or as severely, because everyone can simply read the posts from employees. At times, employees even post workarounds to problems that users willing to use them can try, when they might not be suitable for everyone. People are directed to contact support when it makes sense (eg, for something specifically wrong with their machine), but not for general problems like security updates being outdated.

Yet with Fairphone basic questions on the forum about things like timelines for updates, at best, end up with no real information beyond suggestions to contact support, which seems like an absurd way to get updated information, and at worst, devolve into lengthy arguments, or hostile and unconstructive responses from certain Fairphone Angels.

Much of this thread would likely not be here if we simply had more regular posts like rae’s above. It can hardly take that much time to write them, and they’d likely cut down on the number of support requests.

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Nailed it. Every response on here by an official from Fairphone is likely one less support request. It’s bizarre that Fairphone is hosting their own forum and then they are (almost) completely ignoring that forum.

I also feel you when it comes to specifically the toxicity of certain angels. I had the audacity to suggest a developer blog to keep us in the loop in another topic and the replies from said angel were ones of ridicule. Some people on here genuinely believe that Fairphone is doing everything 100 percent correctly and any and all suggestions are heresy.

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It’s not even a matter of a one-to-one ratio. There are a number of threads here where many people are being advised to contact support to ask for updates or to complain about already widely known problems, in part because there’s a sense that Fairphone is using number of support tickets as a measure of priority. If Fairphone simply had employees respond to the threads to give updates about problems, that could cut down on far more than one support request per post.

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I own both Fairphones and a Framework laptop.
There is really a striking difference in the communication between the two companies. Framework also uses the forum as a support channel. People with problems can search there and in many cases find a solution contributed by a Framework employee. I can imagine that this saves an extremely large number of support requests. With Fairphone, everyone is first referred to support, which only answers after weeks due to overload and then there is an eternal back and forth, because first all standard questions are processed. In order to find a solution at the end. Or the ticket is closed with “Thank you, I’ll forward it to the appropriate team”.
I can’t imagine that the team of the younger company Framework, which has been in existence for a much shorter time, should be so much better staffed than at Fairphone.
There are also statements like this: “sorry, we will not be able to deliver all ordered laptops in September as originally promised for this reason: […] We will keep you informed about the nexts steps”. Of course, the statement isn’t satisfactory for everyone (if I’m being torn out of my corporate network, no explanation as to why there are delays will help me), but the resentment is so much less when the company communicates in such a way.
In summary: with Framework I feel supported by the manufacturer and the community, with Fairphone I feel ignored by the manufacturer and only supported by the community (which is of course often very competent and helpful).
Guess who I will definitely trust the next time I buy a product or recommend a purchase to ot
hers, and who I will think about and weigh up first.

EDIT: sorry, completely off-topic

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I have to agree that responses from some Fairphone Angels were absolutely the reason I decided to return my FP4: the happy daughter meme, advice to contact support for every post, papering over obvious issues that keep coming up (camera & mic quality, operator compatibility, this thread, etc.), ignoring every suggesting or grievance, because it “doesn’t represent them”, and only their opinion matters. I can’t imagine FP as a company being happy with the way this community is being run, yet they don’t introduce community managers to improve things. On the other hand, comments about Framework make me think I should consider it for the next laptop.

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First, I see very different points of view among the Fairphone angels so why putting all of them in the same bag ? I feel like difficult to say Amoun and UPPERCASE agree on many topics but maybe I am blinded.

By the way, I don’t understand why some people are pointing the “toxicity” of some of the Fairphone angels since I think this adjective could be used for many non Fairphone angels. With time I find this forum less and less benevolent (not sure this is the right word for bienveillant in French).

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