Amid Complaints, Google to Add Another 2 Years of Updates for Chromebooks
Good news for Chromebook owners, especially at schools: Google is extending software support for the laptops from eight years to 10.
The company announced the news when educators and environmentalists have been complaining about expiring Chromebooks generating e-waste.
In a blog post, Google said: “Starting in 2024, if you have Chromebooks that were released from 2021 onwards, you’ll automatically get 10 years of updates. For Chromebooks released before 2021 and already in use, users and IT admins will have the option to extend automatic updates to 10 years from the platform’s release when they receive their last automatic update.”
The extra two years of support will apply to Chromebook models released from 2019 and onwards, the company added. A Google support document lists the various expiration dates for the automatic updates.
The change promises to provide some relief for schools dealing with a glut of expiring Chromebooks, which saw massive sales during the COVID-19 pandemic. Once the Google-powered laptops lose software support, the lack of updates can cause the devices to struggle to access certain apps and services, such as an online state testing websites for students. That can be different from a laptop running a no-longer supported Windows OS; although it won’t receive anymore software patches, it can still run third-party programs.
The other problem is that manufacturers can neglect to sell the necessary repair parts to fix broken Chromebooks, according to a study from the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). The same study found that doubling the lifespan of these Chromebooks for all US K-12 students could save taxpayers $1.8 billion.
Google has been aware of the complaints. Back in 2020, the
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