> Well, one Pixel got three OS updates, but there has been no change in their written support policy that I've seen.

https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/10/4/16403922/g... Every Pixel has 3 year of support mentioned in it's support page.

> Who in their right mind wants to be stuck with the buggy .0 version of an OS?

Android updates have changed over time, they didn't do 9.1 or 10.1 updates at all. All bug fixes are pushed alongside security patches. And Pixel 1 got 4 updates on Android 10, last one being especially a month late due to fixing of all final bugs.

Two years of OS updates with an additional year of security updates is not the same thing as three years of OS updates.

As far as the Pixel 1, the people I knew who installed Android 10 on it regretted the decision. The couple of patches they got before getting cut off definitely did not iron out all the bugs.

> Two years of OS updates with an additional year of security updates is not the same thing as three years of OS updates.

I don't see what your problem here is? Every Pixel gets 3 year of FULL OS UPDATES. Not 2 years OS + 1 year Security updates.

> As far as the Pixel 1, the people I knew who installed Android 10 on it regretted the decision. The couple of patches they got before getting cut off definitely did not iron out all the bugs.

Android folks tend to moan and complain a lot. Just look at /r/Android. All my non-tech-enthusiasts friends using Pixels have never complained about anything.

If Google has indeed changed their support policy, it's going to take more than an article asking if Google has done so to serve as a citation.

>If Google is indeed adding another year, it would at least move closer to matching the lengthy span of time that Apple’s iPhones continue to receive new features and operating system updates. Security updates are also promised for three years, but that was already the case with the original Pixels.

Also, you'll have to excuse me if I take the word of people I know when they say getting Android 10 right before they were cut off from all other updates resulted in a buggy mess.

At least Pixel 1 is one of the officially-supported lineageos devices, with very straight-forward installation step. Once google stop supporting it, jumping to lineageos is easy enough to do and will give the device another years of life. Nexus 6, an almost 6 years old device, is still officially supported by lineageos, so Pixel 1 will likely get supported well past 5 years as well (assuming the maintainers are motivated enough to keep working on it).

On the other hand, if you use a less popular device, your option will be much more limited as the device get older.