Why not go for Lollipop, if possible? 
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Last year, i searched around the net for smartphones using the same platform as the FP1. As far as i know, none of them recieved Android 5.0/5.1. So i think the best we could hope for is KitKat 4.4.
However, looking at the Android distribution, this would be a huge upgrade in terms of longevity and app support. Currently, a bit less then half of all android devices have the same api level (17) or a lower api level as the Fairphone. That means a developer deciding only to KitKat and above (level 19) ignores roughly half of it’s potential users (and customers). Therefore, there are very apps not comaptible with the FP1 due to its android version. Obviously this will change with time. But if we get Kitkat (Android 4.4), this means that we are on par or above in terms of api support with 87% of all android devices.
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Hi all,
I have a FP1U that works fine for me. But I recently found I need at least Android 4.3.
After reading all the relative posts and try to understand the problem my conclusion is that at the moment it is not possible but efforts are being done to solve this.
Am I right?
Can you please update what is the situation?
Thank you,
Juan
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For what?
You are right 4.3 isn’t available for FP1(U) atm and you are also right, that efforts are being made, but except for at that borrel there was no official statement about this yet.
Hi
I need it to be able to use the App We Are Homies which is compatible from 4.3 onwards. But the point is: is this ever going to be possible? I mean: this is obviously going to be a recurrent request as time goes by from the 35000 FP1U’s users out there.
Is the solution to the problem dependant on Mediatech drivers?
Thank you!
Juan
Up until @jftr started this thread on July 13th the consensus was FP1(U) will never see an update beyond 4.2 because it’s impossible without the source code for the chipset - which Mediatek won’t release.
The community discussed this at length and even made a few suggestions, some reasonable some meant rather kiddingly.
@jftr’s “announcement” came as a big surprise to most of us, but still without an official announcement by Fairphone I wouldn’t get my hopes up.
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Hi,
Thank you for the prompt reply. Let’s keep hoping it might be possible soon!
Juan
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Can someone from @fairphone answer my question?
Is there hope that FP1 devices ever can be updated to Android 4.3 or above?
This forum is still a community forum. If you want an official answer from Fairphone you should submit a request. 
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I’m not from FairPhone but I don’t think we’ll ever see an Android version update.
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Hi, I just submitted the request. I will give feedback as soon as i get an answer,
Thanks all for your support!
Juan
Hi all,
Fairphone replied to my request ad here is the answer:
“We are still looking into the options, but for now the statement on our website is still valid”
I sugested them to update the statement because otherwise this gives the feeling that the issue ha been abandoned.
Regards,
Juan
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Well, I think they intentionally leave it that way. People got burnt in the past by statements from FairPhone about Android updates so they stick to a worst case scenario. If an Android update never materializes, no one can claim FP has ever given out false hope. And if an update does appear, everyone will be like “yay, FairPhone is so awesome”, right? 
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You are probably right…
So here it is, the next step in the right direction:
The blog post doesn’t give any specific information. However the (probably costly, both financially and in terms of effort spent) step of getting all necessary licenses shows how dedicated Fairphone is.
And they specifically thank us – the critical community – to push them forward. I also want to thank Fairphone now for not abandoning us.
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This is fantastic news!
Interesting to see FP uses IntelliJ IDEA as their IDE of choice. It’s my weapon of choice as well for Java development.
Good news indeed. I think a open bug tracker for it would be nice as well.
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True! As soon as I’ve checked-out the code repo and compiled it myself for the first time, I will change it!. 
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I’m gonna remember you then!