At the end of January, Microsoft said it would be soon ending all security updates and technical support for Defender on Android 10. As of now, you have less than three weeks to upgrade your devices to a newer version before Microsoft pulls the plug. The cutoff on March 31, 2026, will leave older hardware without active mobile threat protection.
With this development, Microsoft is effectively orphaning Android 10 devices. Your existing Defender installation will continue to run on these devices, but you will no longer get new features, security fixes, or technical support. As time goes on, your devices will become increasingly vulnerable without a native Microsoft defense layer.
The move shifts the burden of device lifecycle management directly onto admins who must now replace the older devices or find a different solution. The reality now is that in less than three weeks, devices that are unable to upgrade to Android 11, will become a liability to corporate networks.
Ironically, Microsoft notes that “no admin action is required for this change to occur”, this conveniently glosses over the fact that significant manual labor could indeed be required to identify, upgrade, and replace legacy hardware. The lack of extended support options will force businesses to spend money upgrading hardware.
One thing that Microsoft didn’t mention is whether telemetry and reporting will continue to work from Android 10 devices while they are still being used. For any admins that are not rushing to update devices, it’ll be important to be on the lookout for any potential cutoff for telemetry and reporting compatibility with the Microsoft Defender XDR dashboard.
You can learn more about this developed on the Microsoft 365 Admin Center under message ID MC1222977.