Within hours, Google Maps, Gmail, and YouTube were turned off on millions of old phones

Users of devices that rely on the legacy system will find themselves unable to log into their Google accounts

We're only a few hours away from turning off access to some of the most popular Google services on older smartphones.

The US search engine giant has confirmed that a small number of Android devices will lose access to Google Maps, YouTube and Gmail as of September 27, according to the US search engine giant. A report by the British newspaper "The Sun".

Unless owners of old phones update their devices or quickly buy new mobile phones, millions of people around the world will be banned from using these apps. Google announced the deadline in a short post on its website.

The tech giant said it plans to prevent users from logging in with their Google account on devices running Android 2.3.

The old version of Google's operating system was launched in December 2010. Google said it was withdrawing support for the platform "as part of our ongoing efforts to keep our users safe."

The California search engine giant regularly drops support for older versions of Android as it releases new versions, because older versions of operating systems are more vulnerable to bugs and hacks.

And the latest version of Android is "Android 11". In February 2017, Google suspended Google Pay contactless payments from phones running Android 2.3.

Within hours, anyone using a device based on the legacy system will find that they are unable to sign in to their Google account. They will receive an error in the username and password, even if they enter the correct credentials.

Attempting to add a Google Calendar or Google account to the device's Settings menu will result in the same error.

Other popular Google apps will also stop working, including YouTube, Google Play Store, Google Maps, Gmail, Google Calendar, and more. To continue using these apps, you will need to upgrade your smartphone to Android 3.0.

You can do this by heading to your device's settings and clicking on System > Advanced > System Update.

However, as not all devices running Android 2.3 are able to move to the next version, some users will be banned forever.

Smartphones that are still stuck with Android 2.3 include Sony Xperia Advance, Lenovo K800, Sony Xperia Go and Vodafone Smart Two. (Vodafone Smart II), "Samsung Galaxy S2," Sony Xperia P, "LG Spectrum", " Sony Xperia S", LG Prada 3.0, HTC Velocity, HTC Evo 4G, Motorola fire, Motorola XT532 ″ (Motorola XT532).

If you can't upgrade your device, you can always fix the problem by logging into services like YouTube via your browser.