Motorola announces Android 11 plans for over 20 phones, for most their only update

At one time Motorola was as good as it got for Android updates, at times beating even Google’s own phones to the punch. That was back when Nexus phones were a thing, though, and a whole lot has changed in the years since. Now, Motorola is among the worst Android OEMs when it comes to updates, and the company’s Android 11 plans… well, they’re not helping that.

In a blog post today, Motorola announced its plans to update 22 different Motorola devices and a single Lenovo device to Android 11. That’s no small number, but context is key here.

For one, Motorola is announcing this in late December, nearly four months after the update was first released on Pixel phones in early September. Worse yet, none of these updates are rolling out now, rather arriving “in the coming months” and even then, “pending partner support.” It’s great to see Motorola updating so many phones, but when you take the context that most of these models won’t be updated before the first Android 12 Preview drops in the spring, it’s pretty sad. This is something you really ought to remember when considering the company’s offerings.

The full list of Motorola devices getting the Android 11 update is as follows:

As you’d expect, this update will deliver Android 11’s typical features including Bubbles, notification improvements, and more. Motorola didn’t announce any of its own additional features coming with this update, but did confirm that Android 11’s slick power button home controls will be supported.

Looking again at this list, though, there’s some more bad news. Motorola’s update promise only guarantees one major update for the vast majority of devices on this list, meaning Android 11 is the only update they’ll ever get aside from the occasional security patch. This isn’t the case for the company’s foldable Razr 5G and the Motorola Edge+, the latter for which the company was essentially pressured into committing further support. Both of those devices will see Android 12 in time as a second update. The company’s handful of Android One devices are also either seeing their second update here or will see another next year, as our friends at Android Police point out. The more affordable Motorola Edge seems a good candidate for Android 12, too, but the company hasn’t said anything regarding that device.

More on Android 11:

• Samsung outlines official Android 11 rollout plans: Galaxy S20 today, Note and Fold soon
• OxygenOS 11 stable update now officially rolling out for OnePlus 8 series
• Sony confirms Android 11 road map for Xperia series