Android Is Catching Up to Apple in an Important Way

Google is launching one other new characteristic to make switching between all of the Android gadgets in your life a bit simpler. Media Notifications, introduced at CES, will allow you to transition audio content material from the automotive to your telephone, headphones, telephone and sensible dwelling gadgets primarily based on proximity. It’s Google’s latest effort to convey its Android ecosystem as much as par with Apple’s on the subject of connectivity and cohesiveness between gadgets. The manner Apple’s merchandise seamlessly join to 1 one other has helped it change into the world’s second-largest smartphone maker and the highest vendor of smartwatches and wi-fi earbuds. The launch of Media Notifications is Google’s newest try to indicate that merchandise do not should be made by the identical firm to work collectively. Google has been transferring in the direction of this aim for years by introducing options like Phone Hub, Nearby Share and Fast Pair. Additions like these have change into all of the extra essential now that Android and iOS have staked a bigger presence in our automobiles, our ears and on our wrists. “This is an ongoing investment,” Erik Kay, Google’s vice chairman of engineering for Android, stated to CNET solely forward of CES. “We get to the point where pretty much any feature that shows up on the phone or shows up on a watch is going to inherently be a multi-device feature over time.” Spotify and YouTube Music shall be among the many first apps to be suitable with Media Notifications. Google can be working with Spotify to make it attainable to handle playback between Spotify Connect gadgets in Android 13’s new media participant — one other transfer to enhance consistency throughout Android gadgets. Google has not but stated when both of those updates will launch, nor has it stated which merchandise Media Notifications shall be suitable with. But because the aim is to make transferring between gadgets simpler, Google says customers probably will not should do any legwork within the settings menu to allow Media Notifications. Prompts ought to simply seem routinely as you progress nearer to a suitable system.  “That all happens naturally through little nudges and prompts in the user interface,” Kay stated when describing how Media Notifications will work.Media Notifications will not require extremely wideband, a connectivity protocol that is made its manner into new premium smartphones over the previous three to 4 years, as a result of it depends on alerts from varied sources like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. But it can probably work extra precisely should you’re utilizing a UWB-enabled system, in line with Kay. Since UWB can present exact proximity calculations, its presence in telephones improves duties like sharing information and content material between gadgets and digital automotive key performance. It’s additionally the identical know-how Apple makes use of to level you in the best course of a misplaced AirTag.”UWB is something we’re pretty excited about,” stated Kay. “But it is one of these things that’s going to take a long time for it to really get ubiquitous in the market.” An illustration exhibiting what Google’s new Media Notifications characteristic might seem like. 
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Google’s bulletins come after Apple has been step by step including new connectivity options to its ecosystem of iPhones, iPads, AirPods, Apple Watches and Macs. Apple introduced the power to swap FaceTime calls between your iPhone, iPad and Mac in its most up-to-date working system updates, for instance. The capability to switch audio out of your iPhone to the HomePod Mini primarily based on proximity was additionally a standout characteristic when Apple launched its miniature speaker in 2021. But in contrast to Apple, Google is not utilizing options like Media Notifications to push its first get together {hardware}. Instead, Google desires to make swapping between Android gadgets really feel constant and simple whether or not you are utilizing merchandise from Google, Samsung, JBL or any of its different companions. It’s a aim that Google should stability alongside selling its personal Pixel gadgets, which solely account for a sliver of the worldwide smartphone market. You could also be questioning why Google does not simply preserve options like Media Notifications unique to its Pixel telephones, Pixel earbuds and Nest sensible dwelling gadgets to make its gadgets stand out throughout the Android panorama. If Google desires to emulate Apple’s ecosystem method, that would definitely be a technique to take action. The reply is straightforward: Improvements like these are solely helpful in the event that they’re obtainable in all places. “Every feature you build is a network effect feature, so it depends on there being a wide variety of devices to support the feature,” Kay stated. “So if you build something [and] try to make it exclusive to one device, or one partner, or even our first party things, it’s not going to be as successful because there’s not as many devices for it to work with.” As smartwatches and wi-fi earbuds have grown extra in style, telephone makers like Apple and Samsung have more and more targeted on these ancillary merchandise as complementary promoting factors for his or her smartphones. Global shipments of smartwatches grew 13% year-over-year in 2022, in line with Counterpoint Research, whereas Canalys studies that true wi-fi earbuds have been the one private audio class to indicate development within the third quarter of 2022. Google is the newest smartphone maker to leap on that bandwagon and launched its first smartwatch, the Pixel Watch, in October, Google plans to introduce a brand new Pixel pill subsequent 12 months. Making watches, earbuds and sensible dwelling gadgets work collectively extra seamlessly is not nearly comfort. Some consultants imagine that equipment like these will play an enormous function within the smartphone’s future as annual telephone upgrades really feel incremental. “The next quest for the smartphone is to figure out what it will connect to next,” Runar Bjørhovde, an analyst with market analysis agency Canalys, stated in a earlier interview for a separate story. “Because the smartphone has not necessarily reached its potential yet, but as a standalone device I think the smartphone is getting closer and closer to the edge.”