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With Google’s I/O announcement expo now firmly within the rearview mirror, it is time for us to enter the inevitable subsequent section of any tech-tinted revelation — and that is the cautious contemplation of all the pieces we have simply skilled.
It is my favourite section of all, personally, because it lets us actually dive in and analyze all the pieces with a fine-toothed comb to uncover all of the refined significance that is not all the time obvious on the floor.
And this yr, my goodness, is there some splendid stuff to pore over.
Particular to the realm of Android, the sharp-eyed gumshoes over at 9to5Google seen that this yr’s under-development new Android model, Android 14, was talked about by title solely one time throughout the complete 2,000-hour Google I/O keynote.
All proper — so it wasn’t actually 2,000 hours (even when it did really feel prefer it at occasions). However the keynote was two hours and 5 minutes, and it included loads of discuss Android itself. A brand new Android model is usually a significant focus of each I/O occasion. And in some way, Google made it 125 minutes with solely one particular callout of this yr’s newest and best Android providing.
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It certain appears unusual on the floor, would not ya say? However keep in mind: This second is all about going past the floor and searching for out the deeper which means of Google’s actions. And also you’d higher imagine there’s some severe significance to be sussed out on this state of affairs.
Google’s invisible Android pivot
I will not hold you ready: Google seems to have very a lot averted specializing in Android 14 as a deliberate and tactical technique — not as a result of it is inching away from Android as an entity however as a result of it needs to position much less emphasis on every new Android model because the measure of evolution throughout the platform.
It is an interesting shift and one which anybody who’s been studying this column for lengthy is aware of has been increase for years. The truth is, we have been speaking about it in these quarters for effectively over a decade now.
In case you have not been following alongside — or perhaps simply do not take into consideration these things 24/7, like sure unbalanced and deeply disturbed people (insert awkward eye-darting right here) — what I am hinting at is the way in which Google’s been working to tug increasingly more items out of the particular Android working system and deal with ’em as standalone parts as an alternative.
Since 2010, we have been watching Google go at this with none formal announcement or declaring of its piecemeal pivot. However it’s one of the crucial consequential adjustments the working system has ever skilled, and it is one thing that impacts all of us who use Android-associated devices.
Plain and easy, a large array of parts that’d historically be thought of system parts are actually technically apps — particular person gadgets within the Play Retailer which can be nonetheless core elements of any telephone’s basis however are actually in a position to get up to date quite a few occasions a month in a means that reaches all gadgets immediately.
It is not one thing a median telephone proprietor is even conscious of, and that is kinda the purpose. However it has an immeasurable impact on the general expertise of proudly owning an Android-oriented equipment.
The truth is, it even offers these of us on the Android aspect of the mobile-tech spectrum an essential benefit over our iPhone-carrying comrades, regardless of the favored narrative on the contrary.
Give it some thought: Within the span of a few months, we see a stage of serious system-level updates throughout Android that’d quantity to a full main new OS model on iOS — with hefty developments for all the pieces from our default e-mail, messaging, note-taking, net searching, and picture storing apps to significant enhancements aimed toward under-the-hood parts liable for our telephones’ privateness, safety, and efficiency.
As a sure astute Android-obsessed author put it final month:
Google’s strategy really presents a fairly important sensible benefit, for the reason that updates to all these items usually land a number of occasions a month as an alternative of being collected into annual clusters — however with the way in which greater OS updates command probably the most consideration, it additionally presents a really actual downside round notion. … Google does not do a lot to emphasise the truth that we get these kinds of updates consistently on Android whereas iPhone house owners get ’em solely a few times a yr. Once you cease and give it some thought, it is actually no shock that so few individuals see the forest for the bushes and understand the way it all provides up.
This identical author (who, by the by, is each exceptionally charming and terribly humble) has been bangin’ this drum for eons now. And eventually, with its 2023 Google I/O gala, Google is for the primary time beginning to share that rhythm and regulate the way in which it is speaking about Android.
Right here it’s plain as day, confirmed in a dialog between an Android govt and a reporter from The Verge:
Sameer Samat, VP of Android ecosystem … mentioned that as Google has carried out methods for Android gadgets to obtain updates exterior of a once-a-year platform improve, like Play System and app updates, it’s change into crucial to border issues somewhat otherwise. “So this yr, we thought it’s essential to indicate individuals what’s new in Android from a consumer expertise standpoint, whatever the OS model. Whereas some options that we introduced will launch with Android 14, many will arrive in individuals’s arms via these steady updates,” he says.
Effectively, goodness gracious. How ’bout them apples?!
However maintain the telephone — ‘trigger there are two sides to each story. And this one is actually no exception.
One platform, two tales
First issues first: Google’s Android messaging shift is a strong and essential pivot after years of Android taking a beating for its less-than-exceptional across-the-board efficiency with working system replace rollouts.
You understand the deal on that entrance, proper? Outdoors of Google itself, with its self-made Pixel merchandise, most Android device-makers do an embarrassingly poor job of protecting their merchandise updated and sending out software program updates in a fairly well timed method — to the purpose the place it is change into inconceivable to advocate anybody purchase any Android merchandise made by sure notably distinguished offenders.
However here is the issue: Whereas the working system updates on Android completely aren’t the whole story anymore or wherever close to as all-encompassing as they as soon as have been, they are nonetheless essential — in ways in which transcend the flowery new options and interface enhancements we see on the floor.
With Android 14, as an illustration, the software program introduces a brand new privateness requirement that plainly exhibits you if and the way an app shares location knowledge with any third events anytime a location permission is requested. It features a new function for higher defending your telephone’s PIN, too, in addition to a more nuanced system for granting apps entry to media recordsdata saved in your gadget.
These kinds of system-level enhancements to privateness, safety, and efficiency are frequent elements of Android working system updates, even when they don’t seem to be the elements that are inclined to get probably the most consideration. And for all of Google’s admirable efforts at pulling items out of the working system and updating ’em in an a la carte method via the Play Retailer, sure foundational parts can nonetheless be dealt with solely as a part of the formal OS layer.
So in the end, there are two sides to this shift: an consciousness of what Google’s doing and why it is a good, if overdue, change in focus — and a remaining consciousness of why it nonetheless does not tackle all the pieces and why it is essential to choose an Android device-maker who offers the extent of post-sales software program assist you or your online business should have.
Greater than something, although, perspective issues. And this shift in messaging goes a good distance in higher conveying the present state of Android and the way updates are literally dealt with.
Now let’s examine if Google manages to stick with it and ensure everybody — together with the type of common Homo sapiens who would not watch an occasion like Google I/O within the first place — stays conscious of what is taking place.
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