Google Android Support Statement

This information is relevant to staff and students using a smartphone or tablet running Android. Read our information on protecting your mobile device.

Protect your mobile device

Supported versions of Android

Google provides security updates for the versions of Android listed below. Google no longer provides security updates for older versions. To help ensure the security of College systems and your data, IT Services will only provide support for the same versions.

Although it may be possible to connect to our network and access certain apps and services from devices running older, unsupported versions, this is not recommended by IT Services.

Supported versions

Android 15 - On the Student Wi-Fi Service only
Android 14
Android 13
Android 12

Android 15 is not currently supported for the Staff Wi-Fi service

Android 15 was released on the 03rd September 2024.

IT Services are carry out testing for connectivity to the Staff Wi-Fi service. Until this testing is complete, we will not be able to provide support for this version of Android on the Staff Wi-Fi service and would recommend not upgrading until our testing is completed successfully.

Google, Microsoft and other providers will withdraw support for Android 12 alongside the release of Android 15. IT Services will formally end support for Android 12 once we have adopted support for Android 15.

Rooted devices and sideloading apps

IT Services cannot provide support for any devices that have been rooted.

Also, we cannot provide support for apps that have been 'Sideloaded'. Sideloading is the process of downloading and installing apps from an unofficial source; for example from outside the official Google Play Store.

We can only provide support for Android devices that use the official Google Play store natively; we cannot support devices that use their own app store, or which do not ship with the Google Play store as the default app store.

Third-party app support on Android

Certain third-party app providers will only support the use of their apps on the versions of Android supported by Google. For example, Microsoft will only support the use of the Teams and Outlook apps on the versions of Android supported by Google and will not guarantee the security or operation of these apps on unsupported versions of Android.