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Android 17 is barely making a dent as Android 11 still powers 10% of phones
More than a quarter of Android users have upgraded, but millions are still running outdated software.
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Joe Maring / Android Authority
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TL;DR
- Android 16 is now the most widely used Android version, accounting for 25.4% of active devices, up from 7.5% in December 2025.
- Android 17 has reached just 1% adoption, despite becoming available in June 2026, and even Android 8.1 has a larger share.
- Android fragmentation remains a problem, with 43.6% of active devices still running Android 13 or older.
Android 16 has finally become the most widely used version of Google’s mobile operating system, but the latest Android distribution figures suggest that getting users onto newer software remains a challenge.
Despite Android 17 reaching more devices since its release in June, the latest software accounts for just 1% of active devices. The figures also show that a surprisingly large number of Android users are still running versions that are several years old.
According to the latest figures shared by heise.deoid devices as of October 2026. That’s quite a considerable jump from the 7.5% adoption recorded in December last year, when Google last updated its distribution figures
Meanwhile, Android 14 is the second most widely used version, with 15.3% of devices still running it, while Android 15 follows at 14.7%. Together, the two releases account for 30% of active Android devices.
Even more surprisingly, Android 13 and Android 11 continue to have quite a substantial presence, with 11.8% and 10.5% shares, respectively. Android 12 isn’t far behind at 9.6%. In other words, more than 30% of active Android devices are still running Android 13 or an older version.
Google’s figures show that 56.4% of active devices are running Android 14 or newer. While that’s a majority, it also means that more than four in every 10 devices are yet to make the jump to Android 14 or later.
It’s worth remembering that these aren’t figures from a real-time survey of every Android phone. Google no longer publishes a regularly updated public distribution chart. The company only offers cumulative adoption figures through Android Studio. The latest estimates are derived from those figures and cover devices that contacted the Google Play Store during a seven-day period.
There’s also a timing caveat when comparing Android 17 with its predecessor. Android 17 has had less time to reach devices than Android 16 had when the previous distribution snapshot was published. Still, its 1% share highlights how slowly the latest release is reaching the wider Android ecosystem.
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