Google has updated its statistics on the distribution of Android versions, and according to the published data, only about 58% of devices run on OS versions that continue to receive critical security fixes, while more than 40% of smartphones – over 1 billion devices worldwide – remain on versions for which such patches are no longer released.
The materials indicate that Android 13-16 are considered supported versions. At the time of data collection, the share of Android 16 was estimated at 7.5%, Android 15 at 19.3%, Android 14 at 17.9%, and Android 13 at 13.9%.
A Google representative emphasized that the built-in Google Play Protect protection continues to work on devices starting with Android 7 and provides real-time application verification, but it does not replace system security updates that close vulnerabilities at the OS level.
In the Android Security Bulletin for February 2026, Google also recommends that users update to the latest version of Android whenever possible and install security updates regularly, as additional security mechanisms are implemented in new versions of the platform.
The amount of value-added tax (VAT) declared by non-residents who provide electronic services to individuals in the customs territory of Ukraine and are registered as VAT payers reached 14.4 billion hryvnia in 2025, while in 2024, the budget received 29% less – 11.2 billion hryvnia.
The “Google tax” brought over 14.4 billion hryvnia to the budget in 2025. These are funds paid by non-residents who provide electronic services to individuals in the customs territory of Ukraine and are registered as VAT payers,” wrote Lesya Karnaukh, acting head of the State Tax Service of Ukraine (STS), on her Facebook page.
According to her, 150 non-residents already pay this tax: in 2025, 12 new non-residents registered as VAT payers, and at the beginning of 2026, another five companies did so.
The leaders in paying the “Google tax” remain the world’s leading digital companies: Apple, Google, Valve, Meta, Sony, Etsy, and Netflix.
“All the electronic services we use every day contribute to the state budget. These are funds for the protection of the country, social programs, and restoration,” Karnaukh noted.
Last year, non-resident companies supplying electronic services declared UAH 12.1 billion in VAT, of which they paid UAH 11.2 billion, which is almost 40% more than in 2023, Danylo Hetmantsev, chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy, said in his telegram channel on Sunday.
According to him, the number of payers of the “Google tax” increased by 29 non-residents over the year to 130 as of January 1, 2025.
“Having reported for the fourth quarter of 2024, budget revenues in January-February 2025 amounted to about UAH 3.5 billion (EUR 39.5 million and $43.5 million). I would like to note that the trend is only increasing, because compared to the same period in 2024, revenues increased by UAH 1 billion,” the Chairman of the Rada Committee cited the data.
Hetmantsev noted that the leaders in the declaration of VAT on digital services in the fourth quarter of last year were Google, Apple, VALVE CORPORATION, ETSY, META platforms, WARGAMING GROUP, Sony and Netflix.
“By the way, Bolt and Uklon platforms have paid about EUR4.5 million or UAH 200 million in tax in 2024,” he emphasized.
As reported, in 2021, the Verkhovna Rada passed a law on the “Google tax”, which proposes to equalize the taxation rules for international technology companies with those of Ukraine. In particular, it stipulates that international companies operating in the information space of Ukraine and earning money from online advertising will pay taxes in Ukraine, including VAT.
US-based Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, has unveiled a new version of its flagship artificial intelligence (AI) model Gemini.
The new Gemini Pro 1.5 model is capable of processing several times more audio, video and text than the GPT-4 model, on which the popular ChatGPT chatbot is based, Wired writes.
In particular, Gemini Pro 1.5 can simultaneously process 1 hour of video, 11 hours of audio, 700 thousand words or 30 thousand lines of program code.
As part of the demonstration, it analyzed the transcript of conversations with the crew of the Apollo 11 spacecraft, presented as a 402-page PDF file, and found several funny moments in it on demand, including the words of the astronauts that the contact was delayed due to a break to eat sandwiches.
Google expects that the new features of the model will allow developers to create new kinds of applications based on it.
The new version of Gemini is already available to them on the AI Studio platform and through Vertex AI’s cloud-based application programming interface (API).
There is no word on when the model will be released to the general public.
Google Corporation has doubled its funding for Ukrainian companies as part of its startup support fund in Ukraine in 2022, allocating $10 million, Michał Kramarz, head of Google for Startups, CEE, said at the Tech Emerging Europe Advocates Meeting 2023 conference in Warsaw.
“The Ukrainian startups supported by the fund received $10 million in funding during the war and were able to hire 216 additional employees during 2022. But what is also very important: they were able to grow revenue by 200% year over year, which means that even in difficult times, in times of war, in a situation that requires resilience, they were able to achieve incredible results,” he said.
Kramarz reminded that last March Google announced creation of a $5 million fund to support startups in Ukraine, which was supposed to give grants of up to $100 thousand without any participation in the companies’ capital. Selected startups could also count on mentoring from the corporation, product support and Cloud loans.
“We received 1.7 thousand applications from startups in Ukraine, of which 300 were selected. Of that number, in turn, we originally planned to select 50, but the startups were so good that we said: let’s at least try to support more,” he said.
Kramarz did not say exactly how many companies were chosen, but said it could not have been 100 or 200, because if that were the case, the financial support program for each company would have been very low.
The representative of the corporation also reported on the launch of an online training program from Google for people who lost their jobs because of the war, but who remained in Ukraine and were willing to work. In three weeks, 32,000 people have gone through the program, and 10% of them have received positive feedback.
Google also supports women with its Founders Fund, which aims to level the playing field for everyone.
In addition, 60 startup founders from Ukraine and Belarus are hosted by Startups Campus Google in Warsaw.
Kramarz said he hopes the ecosystems of Poland, Ukraine and Britain will work even more together after the war than they do now.
“We have amazing skills. We have wonderful people. Let’s try to work more closely,” he said.
The most popular search on Google in 2022 was a browser word game Wordle. In the search line the name of this game was entered more often than the words “Ukraine” or “Queen Elizabeth”.
The game was created by programmer Josh Wardle back in 2013, but it did not become popular then. In 2021, the game was redesigned, and after that it caused a furor. Just a few months later, The New York Times bought the game, and it is now playable on the newspaper’s website and mobile app. You can often see that people on the subway, for example, are often playing word composition.
Among the news topics on Google, the most popular was the situation in Ukraine. It is followed by news about Elizabeth II, who passed away on September 8. “Election results,” “Powerball number” and “Monkeypox” rounded out the top five most popular news topics.
When searching for recipes, users were most interested in Indian cuisine, particularly the dish Panir pasanda. This is a kind of curry made from paneer cheese.
Because of scandals in the world of showbiz, users often googled the names of famous people. For example, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, as well as Will Smith t Chris Rock were among the top five most searched stars on a Google search.
As for athletes, Internet visitors in 2022 most often read about tennis player Novak Djokovic.
