Hope for future FP1 Android updates

I’ve been to the recent community borrel and I come back with great news.

Whilst discussing Fairphone 2 and update policies for the new device, Bas told us that Fairphone is trying to change the update process. They are trying to get licenses from the platform provider to be able to create and ship future Android updates in house.

There is already a team of software engineers at Fairphone that assesses what is necessary for such a step. Negotiations seem to be taking place already. There doesn’t seem to be anything definite, but both Bas and other members of the Fairphone team sounded like it is something they are actively pursuing. Bas specifically mentioned the possibility of an Android 4.4 update for FP1.

We need to keep in mind that this could still fail for various reasons. However, after I had thought that all is lost for Fairphone 1 already, it is great relieve to hear that Fairphone has not given up yet.

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[quote=“jftr, post:1, topic:7032”]
However, after I had thought that all is lost for Fairphone 1 already, it is great relieve to hear that Fairphone has not given up yet.
[/quote]Ok, that’s news, alright. Not great, though. “assesses”, “Negotiations”, nothing “definite”, “could still fail for various reasons”. Sounds more like “we know it’s futile, more or less. But let’s try it again, anyway.” Let’s stick with the facts and not raise our hopes just yet.

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I intentionally wrote the post as vague as possible because I still fear I might have misunderstood. As you stress: I don’t want to be the one that raised hopes without reason.

However I don’t think it is a “futile” case which is only attempted for show. It sounded like they have invested real efforts into that and I don’t think they would do that if they knew already it is for naught.

We have to wait or ask Fairphone staff to give more and concrete insight.

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Thanks for letting us know jftr. I’m skeptical myself as well and kind of laid the issue to rest. A surprise update to Android 4.4 would be excellent but if not, I’m not disappointed anymore over it either.

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They at least try it! SuperB work!

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Android 4.4 on FP1 would be great. I cross my fingers :wink:

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Why not go for Lollipop, if possible? :wink:

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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. :wink:

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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? :slight_smile:

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You are probably right…