Buh-bye Jelly Bean? Chrome on Android now only supports KitKat 4.4. or higher

[Redaktion]

Older Android devices that still run Jelly Bean (JB) - or the versions of the OS from 4.1 to 4.3 - will no longer be able to run Google Chrome. The minimum API level for this app is being reset to 4.4 (or KitKat). This may not seem like a big deal; however, millions of devices out there still run JB.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Buh-bye-Jelly-Bean-Chrome-on-Android-now-only-supports-KitKat-4-4-or-higher.337266.0.html

[Ale]

Chrome doesn't matter, what matters is WebView (chromium) for security reasons of 3rd party apps.

As for browsers itself, FireFox is much better due to extension support.

[Ale]

Correction, Webview was split into an APK as of Android 5.0.

Since webview has not been updated in android 4.0 and 4.1, I would suggest against using them anyways (4.4 as well). As for chrome not being updated, as mentioned, just use firefox.

Overall though, even my 6 year old device is using Android 5.0. More than likely, the 3.5% that are still on 4.0-4.2 are mostly Android TV boxes which don't use a browser anyways. I wish google broke down devices by operating system.