Android 13 has barely been released and Android 14 is already being talked about. According to the source code of Android, it seems that Google plans, with Android 14, to stop the fact that older smartphones can access Internet sites. Good news for those who do not want to change phones frequently.
You unlock your (admittedly very old) phone one fine day to search for something on the internet, only to find that most, if not all, websites simply refuse to connect, throwing up security warnings instead.
This happened with phones running Android 7 or earlier in 2021, when a so-called root certificate expired. While Android 13 is still rolling out to some smartphones, the issue could be avoided with Android 14.
Continue surfing the Internet with an old Android smartphone, thanks to Android 14
As Esper.io Senior Technical Writer Mishaal Rahman spotted in the open source Android code, Google is working on a new main module which will allow update root certificates on the fly. Currently, certificates are updated as part of full system updates, which rarely reach older devices.
Rather than being part of the system package itself, the new certification module can be updated through Google Play Services. This allows Google to push updates as and when needed, which helps keep devices connected to all the websites you may visit on the internet.
To read: Android 13 arrives on Windows 11 in beta
The problem of outdated root certificates is particularly important on Android. Here, most apps and browsers rely on the built-in root certificates to verify secure connections, while on Windows and macOS many apps have their own updatable root certificates.
On Android, a striking example of an app that relies on its own root store is firefox. This means that the browser will continue to work on old Android phones no matter what, even if a system certificate has expired.
Source : Esper.io
