With Google’s I/O announcement expo now firmly within the rearview mirror, it is time for us to enter the inevitable subsequent part of any tech-tinted revelation — and that is the cautious contemplation of the whole lot we have simply skilled.It’s my favourite part of all, personally, because it lets us actually dive in and analyze the whole lot with a fine-toothed comb to uncover all of the delicate significance that is not at all times obvious on the floor.And this 12 months, my goodness, is there some splendid stuff to pore over.Specific to the realm of Android, the sharp-eyed gumshoes over at 9to5Google observed that this 12 months’s under-development new Android model, Android 14, was talked about by title just one time throughout your entire 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). But the keynote was two hours and 5 minutes, and it included loads of speak about Android itself. A brand new Android model is usually a significant focus of each I/O occasion. And someway, Google made it 125 minutes with just one particular callout of this 12 months’s newest and best Android providing.[Get fresh insight in your inbox with my Android Intelligence newsletter. Three things to know and try every Friday!] It positive appears unusual on the floor, would not ya say? But bear in mind: This second is all about going past the floor and in search of out the deeper that means of Google’s actions. And you’d higher consider there’s some critical significance to be sussed out on this scenario.Google’s invisible Android pivotI will not preserve 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 desires to put much less emphasis on every new Android model because the measure of evolution throughout the platform. It’s a captivating shift and one which anybody who’s been studying this column for lengthy is aware of has been increase for years. In truth, we have been speaking about it in these quarters for nicely over a decade now.In case you have not been following alongside — or possibly 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’m hinting at is the way in which Google’s been working to tug increasingly 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 stating of its piecemeal pivot. But it is some of the 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 elements are actually technically apps — particular person objects within the Play Store 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 units immediately. It’s not one thing a median telephone proprietor is even conscious of, and that is kinda the purpose. But it has an immeasurable impact on the general expertise of proudly owning an Android-oriented equipment.In truth, it even provides these of us on the Android aspect of the mobile-tech spectrum an vital benefit over our iPhone-carrying comrades, regardless of the favored narrative on the contrary.Think about it: In the span of some months, we see a degree of serious system-level updates throughout Android that’d quantity to a full main new OS model on iOS — with hefty developments for the whole lot from our default e-mail, messaging, note-taking, net looking, and picture storing apps to significant enhancements geared toward under-the-hood parts chargeable for our telephones’ privateness, safety, and efficiency.As a sure astute Android-obsessed author put it final month:
Google’s method truly presents a fairly vital 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 larger OS updates command probably the most consideration, it additionally presents a really actual drawback round notion. … Google would not do a lot to emphasise the truth that we get these types of updates continuously on Android whereas iPhone house owners get ’em solely a couple of times a 12 months. When you cease and give it some thought, it is actually no shock that so few individuals see the forest for the bushes and notice 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 lastly, with its 2023 Google I/O gala, Google is for the primary time beginning to share that rhythm and alter the way in which it is speaking about Android.Here it’s plain as day, confirmed in a dialog between an Android government and a reporter from The Verge:
Sameer Samat, VP of Android ecosystem … mentioned that as Google has applied methods for Android units to obtain updates outdoors of a once-a-year platform improve, like Play System and app updates, it’s develop into obligatory to border issues a bit in another way. “So this year, we thought it’s important to show people what’s new in Android from a user experience standpoint, regardless of the OS version. While some features that we announced will launch with Android 14, many will arrive in people’s hands through these continuous updates,” he says.
Well, goodness gracious. How ’bout them apples?!But maintain the telephone — ‘trigger there are two sides to each story. And this one is definitely no exception.One platform, two storiesFirst issues first: Google’s Android messaging shift is a strong and vital pivot after years of Android taking a beating for its less-than-exceptional across-the-board efficiency with working system replace rollouts.You know the deal on that entrance, proper? Outside of Google itself, with its self-made Pixel merchandise, most Android device-makers do an embarrassingly poor job of holding their merchandise updated and sending out software program updates in a fairly well timed method — to the purpose the place it is develop into inconceivable to suggest anybody purchase any Android merchandise made by sure significantly outstanding offenders.But this is the issue: While the working system updates on Android completely aren’t your entire story anymore or wherever close to as all-encompassing as they as soon as have been, they’re nonetheless vital — 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 extra nuanced system for granting apps entry to media information saved in your machine.These types 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 likely 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 by means of the Play Store, sure foundational parts can nonetheless be dealt with solely as a part of the formal OS layer.So finally, 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 would not tackle the whole lot and why it is vital to select an Android device-maker who supplies the extent of post-sales software program help you or your small business should have.More 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 form of common Homo sapiens who would not watch an occasion like Google I/O within the first place — stays conscious of what is occurring.Want much more Googley data? Sign up for my weekly publication to get next-level suggestions and perception delivered on to your inbox.
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