Google Ends Play Services Support for Android 6.0

Phones that cannot upgrade will stop receiving the Google background updates that enable account sign‑in, notifications, location and security checks.

Overview

Google has raised the minimum Play services requirement to Android 7.0, which means devices still on Android 6.0 will no longer receive new Play services updates.
Google Play services runs in the background and provides account sign‑in, push notifications, Maps and location APIs, security checks, data sync and other features many apps rely on.
Owners of Marshmallow phones may see apps fail to install or update and will face growing instability for authentication, notifications and location features as developers change requirements.
Because Play services will stop getting updates, unpatched vulnerabilities will accumulate and using such phones for banking or payments will become riskier; Google and reporters advise installing official upgrades where available or moving to a supported device.
The change highlights long‑running Android fragmentation problems because many affected phones are too old to get official OS upgrades, and developers and manufacturers may progressively stop supporting these legacy devices.