Google is a strange company.
It’s not really a hardware manufacturer, and it’s not just a software company either. Sometimes it looks like a test center for machine learning algorithms. Really though, it’s an odd mix of all of the above.
It’s also in a weird place when it comes to the smartphone industry. While Google knows its future depends almost entirely on the smartphone, it needs to mix being the guardian of Android with selling phones itself. and create services that work on all platforms.
That’s why Google receives more regulatory attention than Apple – an even bigger, richer and heavier company. Google needs to find a way to play fair with the Samsungs and Xiaomis of the world, because those companies depend on one of its biggest products: Android.
Google was doing a decent job here. We would see the debut of features on Nexus phones that were built on Android APIs available to any company wishing to license the proprietary version of Android. Some were even free and open-source, so anyone from Amazon to an indie hobbyist developer could incorporate them.
That started to change when Google started making Pixel products, and the Pixel 7 event threw everything aside. Google keeps some of the best features to itself, especially when it comes to accessibility, and I don’t know why. Not quite sure, anyway.
Google keeps some of the best features to itself, especially when it comes to accessibility.
To understand what I’m saying, you need to understand a little about how Android works. Much of it is open-source and available for anyone to use and modify freely. There are rules you’ll need to follow if you want to access Google’s proprietary software, but anyone can license Android once they can show they have compatible hardware.
Then there are parts of Android that are closed. These usually come from hardware manufacturers that aren’t obligated (or willing) to share their work with the competition. So far so good, and none of this really affects consumers.
The most vital part of Android, as sold on Google’s own hardware, is different. It’s 100% hands-off for all other companies and is built using the data Google collects from all of us about the things we want and need to do with our smartphones. These private APIs and ML models drive many of Android’s best features, and the only way to access them is to buy a phone directly from Google.
Some parts of the new features require support through “regular” Android APIs, and they’re there for any other company to use. Some are powered in part by technology licensed through GMS or Project Mainline. It’s as if Google knew it had to provide the bare minimum to keep judicial committees at bay, but didn’t want to go any further.
Google, of course, makes no mention of this aspect of its business at material events. To say that features like new contextual spatial audio could be available for all phone makers or that Clear Calling, Real Tone and Guided Frame are locked to the Pixel brand “just because” doesn’t look pretty. But it would be true.
By the way, these features aren’t exclusive to the Pixel 7 either. They’re all coming to the Pixel 6 and 6a series as well via the Pixel Feature drops. However, they will likely be faster on the Pixel 7 thanks to the Tensor G2’s new TPU.
That’s the catch. Google has locked these and other features into its own hardware platform through machine learning models. Your phone, whether it’s made by Samsung, OnePlus, or any other company, already keeps track of your face and might announce when you need to press the camera button. Likewise, your phone uses AI to determine the tone and hue of colors or the sounds people make versus the sounds made by a loud air conditioner or exhaust pipe, as well as the direction they’re coming from. .
Google now locks down functionality to its own hardware through machine learning models. These could (and should) be allowed.
These are accessibility features, and these features shall be made available to each Android hardware partner directly by Google through a license. Yes, they might not be as accurate or happen as quickly as they would on a Pixel because it uses a dedicated chip to interpret specific ML patterns, but it could be designed in a way that it still works like announcement.
I don’t know why Google is doing this. Google is, at best, a failed hardware company — Samsung sells more phones in six months than Google sold in total. Locking features behind its own brand won’t be the catalyst to change all that.
Google would be more successful if it shared “Pixel features” with Samsung because it would collect a lot more data. Data is money for a modern technology company, especially for a company that can use that data like Google can. The same goes for things like keeping Fitbit premium locked to its own hardware. I do not understand anything.
What I can understand, however, is that someone who would live a better life if they could use contextual spatial audio cues or audible camera cues due to a disability wouldn’t be happy to know that Google fragments Android in a way that forces you to buy its own products when there are plenty of other great phones out there.
Everything we saw from the Pixel 7 event should have been part of Android 13. In the past, it would have been. Maybe Google is considering licensing its own ML models or even its Tensor TPU to other companies, and that’s all part of the R&D process. Maybe not. I just wish it was different.
#Google #keeping #Androids #features #Pixel #paywall