Qualcomm has announced a collaboration with Google stating that moving forward, Snapdragon series 7 and 8 chips will receive support for Android and security patches for a whopping 8 years, starting with the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip.
As part of this collaboration, Qualcomm guarantees to provide essential software like core drivers to mobile manufacturers for a lengthy 8-year period (whether or not mobile manufacturers will actually support for 8 years is another matter, but it certainly makes their job easier). The updates from Qualcomm will be separate from the mobile manufacturer’s code, delivered through Android’s existing Project Treble.
Currently, Android’s kernel utilizes the Android Common Kernel (ACK) maintained by Google for 4 years per version. Qualcomm, in this case, promises to upgrade the ACK for two rounds and support it for 8 years.
The collaboration between Qualcomm and Google spans 5 chip generations (which should equate to 5 years following the yearly chip release cycle, but could potentially change in the future) starting from phones equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip running on Android 15 and onwards. As for the upcoming Snapdragon 7 series devices that have yet to be unveiled, they will also receive this privilege.
Source: Qualcomm
TLDR: Qualcomm partners with Google to provide 8 years of Android support and security patches for Snapdragon 7 and 8 chips, beginning with the Snapdragon 8 Elite. Updates will be separate from mobile manufacturer’s code and delivered through Android’s Project Treble.
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