2023 will mark the end for the first 4K streaming player Roku ever made. Recently Roku started to contact owners of Roku 4s to inform them that the Roku 4 will no longer be receiving new updates. Roku 4s will continue to work, but no new features will be added going forward, and some apps may stop working in the future.
The Roku 4 was first released back in October 2015 and received eight years of updates before Roku finally decided to end support. At the time, it was one of only a few major streaming players that offered 4K streaming.
The Roku 4 was replaced by the Roku Ultra in 2017 but has lived on until 2023.
Here is the email Roku sent customers who are still using a Roku 4:
Dear Roku Streamer,
Thanks for being such a loyal Roku user! You’ve been streaming with us for a long time and we’re glad you’ve been enjoying your Roku player even after all these years. While your current player will continue to stream and receive critical updates, it doesn’t have the latest capabilities and will soon stop receiving feature updates.
You can keep using your Roku player to stream the channels you currently have. However, this device will no longer get new features or streaming channels, updates to existing channels, or other software-related updates. You may lose access to some channels over time as those channel partners make updates.