A snippet on using Android 2.3 in 2018.

The text below was written in reply to a comment under one video about using Android 2.3 in 2018.
Pinch-to-zoom can and does work, but several things need to be done beforehand to implement this feature.

If I heard correctly, then the phone in question is a Huawei M865C, aka Ascend II (or Ascend 2). Its 600 MHz CPU is Qualcomm Snapdragon S1, specifically MSM7627, and is based on the ARMv6 architecture.

There is 160 Mb of internal storage available to the user. That's a very small amount, but storage is expandable with a microSD card, and PhoneScoop has it, that a 2 Gb card is included (either in the package, or as installed). I recommend using the incuded 2 Gb card, if it's already been installed and set to act as extended storage for the operating system.

One must update the device's system clock to make sure that some of the certificates are (correctly) rendered invalid, and that others still remain valid. This resolves only some of the certificate issues with the native browser component.

Then, one must let the operating system auto-update Google Play Store and Google Play Services. This happens in the background, and without notifications. These two services have several update cycles each to go through, as one depends on a version of another to update.

The version numbers below are based on what they are in Android 2.3.6.

AFAIK, the most recent Gingerbread version of Google Play Store is version 6.2.0.2, and the latest Google Play Services is v. 10.0.84.

The latest or most modern installable version of Google Play Services may take well over 100 MB of local storage, so a microSD card may be in order for long-term use, if it's not already present. Some Gingerbread devices support formatting a microSD card into an extended system volume, and a bundled card — albeit relatively small at just 2 Gb — may already do just that.

While it would be possible to move the microSD card around to other devices, the phone's operating system will still depend on that card for apps and updates, and in the absence of that card, the operating system might either cease working, or not work as one would expect. If the Android system supports graceful degradation, then only some updates and apps stop working and will appear as unavailable.

Once Google Play Store is accessible, update Google Maps. The most recent version is 6.14.5.

The most recent version of YouTube is 5.5.30. Watching videos and most other activities are possible, except uploading — there, you'll get a 410 error.

If all that doesn't work, install Firefox. Since the example phone, Huawei Ascend II, has a CPU based on the ARMv6 architecture, choose Firefox 31.3esr.

If Firefox is not available at the Play Store, you can download it from the Mozilla archive here. Note, that en-US is for a U.S.-English only package, and multi is for a multilingual package.

Devices with CPUs based on the ARMv7 architecture can have a version of Firefox up to and including v. 47.0.

Firefox has its own certificate store, which is quite a bit more up-to-date.

While these versions are not the latest versions of Firefox, they are still comparably more modern than the default Internet Browser, and so, Firefox will work in Android 2.3.

Note, that while Firefox will work and render modern websites, it's slow to start up as it loads settings and extensions. Since Huawei Ascend II only has 256 Mb of RAM, then Firefox is likely to take up all available RAM memory. You will need an ad-blocker, and you will need NoScript to prevent sites from hogging system resources. Most sites will load nicely and better than the aged default browser.

Use Firefox to login to the the web-based Google Play Store, where one can also download/install the official Google Maps.

I also recommend updating to Android 2.3.6, as it has some improvements, and slightly newer security certificates. The Android version in the video was certainly v2.3.4 or less.

---

If there is not enough storage to update Google Play Services:

Back up all your photos and videos, then use the built-in file manager.

In file manager settings, set it to show hidden files, and to show file extensions. Go to approximately where the photos are typically saved to: /sdcard/DCIM/.thumbnails . Files and folders with a leading dot are hidden.

Go into the .thumbnails folder, select all files, and delete them. This should save plenty of space, but note, that the system may re-create the thumbnail database at any time; especially when you view the gallery. Do not delete the DCIM folder, as it's the default folder where photos are saved to. The Camera app can be configured to save to a microSD card, if one is available.

Note, that if one or more thumbnails contain a small-scale image of a valuable deleted photo, you can connect the phone to the computer as a mass storage device, if the computer has access to relevant drivers. You'll need to download and install the phone's drivers from the manufacturer's website.

To reiterate:
You might need a separate microSD card on that phone, and if your particular phone model supports it, you can format or set the microSD card as an extension of system storage. Keep in mind, that that card is then tied to the phone.