The upcoming version of Google Chrome mobile browser will no longer work on millions of active Android devices.
According to XDA, the recent commit of reveals that minimum API level for the Chrome will be raised from 4.1 to 4.4. It means all the devices running below Android 4.4 will no longer support Chrome mobile browser.
If you check the Android distribution data, Jelly Bean (4.1 to 4.3) still accounts for 3.2% of active Android devices. As we know that over 1 billion active devices are in use globally, approximately 32 million devices are running on Jelly Bean. And these devices will no longer support Chrome.
Android Jelly Bean was announced 6 years ago and many of the devices running on that have no chance of getting KitKat upgrade at all. Users who are still using Jelly Bean-based devices can continue using the older version of Chrome but that will be insecure.
