Google will no longer let you sign in to a Google account or use apps like Youtube Gmail, Drive, etc on the old Android devices with the Android version 2.3.7 (the final version of Gingerbread) or lower installed after September 27th, 2021, according to various sources, including some Reddit users, and trusted sites like 91mobiles, 9to5Google and Liliputing.
In an email to customers, the company said that this cutoff is necessary for security purposes and to safeguard the user’s account privacy. That is why after September 27th the users of Android 2.3.7 or lower will no longer be allowed to sign in on any Google services. Google says, “If you sign up your device after September 27, you’ll get the errors like username errors or password errors.”
However, according to 9to5Google, this will only impact system and application-level sign-in, users can still visit Google Search, Gmail, Drive, etc. on the mobile web.
This Android 2.3.7 was released 10 years earlier, and there will be very few users that still have this version or even older installed on their old Android devices. And as over 3 billion Android users are currently present across the world, this change is going to affect very few users and device collectors.
So, if you are a user of Android 2.3.7 or older, then September 27th is the deadline, you will still be able to use some of the apps of Google if already logged in the device’s browser. If you want to exercise longer with these Google apps, it might be time to move on.