- cross-posted to:
- android
- cross-posted to:
- android
Buying Android phone is increasingly just the entry fee for Google’s AI ecosystem.
The direction of travel is clear: Google is pushing AI harder and harder to redefine its ecosystem and bring new, powerful features to users. Android’s core OS remains free, but Google increasingly appears to view it less as a product and more as a delivery mechanism for its AI services. As those services become more central to the modern smartphone experience, many of the platform’s most ambitious features are also becoming subscription products.
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Honestly at this point i hope Google goes bankrupt.
What I hope is that they lose Android to the anti trust lawsuit they’re currently in
It’s in the US, they just buy Trump something nice and they’ll be let to be a monopoly. What needs to happen is for the EU to grow balls and stand up to US monopolies, by stripping any copyright, patent, or trademark protections of the offending companies.
Wait they have lawsuit?
Yes, it’s still ongoing: https://tech-insider.org/google-antitrust-appeal-doj-search-monopoly-2026/
Personally I don’t think the side loading will kill them. It’ll happen and nothing will change.
Perhaps the ai bubble burst could damage them enough, but they are way to big of a monopoly to fall. And android alternatives still scare people as unlike PC, you may brick your phone, or be locked out of apps due to play services
I’m hopeful for the Motorola grapheme OS phone breaking some of that hold. It’s slated for release next year.
When my current phone ages out, my next phone has HarmonyOS.
I hope you speak Mandarin. App availability outside the PRC seems to be pretty close to zero. Unless you think it’s time for round 3 of a webapp-based OS? iPhone OS couldn’t do it in 2008 and webOS couldn’t do it in 2010, but 5G exists now, so it should at least be better. I’m still not sure about good.
I live in China. My SO has a HarmonyOS phone already. Interestingly it has a setting to display everything in English (among a lot of other languages).
Sounds like that’s one more viable option for ~15% of the world’s population, then! The rest of us have to wait for something that can run Android (or I guess iOS somehow) apps.
Or, you know, wait until Huawei shakes out the big features and ensures they’re bug-free before they start selling outside of the PRC.
You don’t think that China is their end-game, do you?
I want this but remember it is still Andriod.
Sucks so msny apps need play services and have no alternative like banking apps witch I have to use on the web browser.
bring new, powerful features to users
Everyone’s a power user when the feature requires 10 GW
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I am sorry to be that guy, but think about switching to another Android ROM (like GrapheneOS) or a Linux phone.
Android will only get worse from here, the Roms and Linux will get better.
Wake me up when they are viable daily drivers
been daily driving graphene for a bit over a year now and it does everything i did on the stock pixel. banking and authenticators work perfectly
Graphene is android, it can be gone in a month of Google decides.
GrapheneOS has been a viable daily driver for most people for quite some time. I’ve used it for two years now without issue. Even banking apps and the like work apart from some very unusual cases which don’t affect me personally.
Goooood morning sunshine!
I swapped my pixel a few weeks back, and it’s been so smooth that I forgot I did
I still hate that they started using “AI” to control display brightness. Since then I constantly have to change my brightness and it still somehow manages to always get it wrong.
Surely it just checks your camera?
Is that why my wife’s pixel suddenly dims then slowly brightens repeatedly even when the light is not changing?
I’ve had pre-ai devices that did that
I actively avoid the AI systems they keep adding to my pixel, they’re dumb. Even Gemini replacing assistant was dumb, it can’t control my smart home? What’s the point of it then
They’ve embedded it into everything, so the next step will be to make everything virtually unusable without the AI subscription. You won’t have a choice if you continue using Google Android devices.
Just in time, several alternative OSs are starting to come of age where they’re actually usable for most. Google will push users right into their hands.
The next few years in Androidland ought to be interesting.
LineageOS with zero AI on my pixel works for me for now. So help me, I will stop using a phone before I take part in wherever Google thinks mobile phone are heading.
My Pixel runs Graphene. Haven’t seen any unwanted AI intrusions.
Rent-seeking and modern business culture go together like guillotines and techbrodudes.
If they were smart, they would make the subscription tier so you won’t have these “features”.
Wait, they’re gonna take all the bullshit AI stuff i fight to constantly turn off and conveniently lock it off behind a paywall I’ll never subscribe to ? Can someone explain why this is bad?
Either the incessant ads for AI integrations that you’ll eventually be willing to pay to get rid of, or the ecological devastation of it all. Take your bet on which’ll happen first
Fuck google, in fact fuck all american tech companies.
However, if you want to actually make use of Docs Live, Gemini Omni Flash, Gemini Spark, Information Agents, Google Pics, or the new Daily Brief, you’re going to have to hand over cash every month for a Gemini subscription.
Okay? So the bullshit I don’t want costs money now? Fine. One of the convenient things about my Galaxy phone is that if I accidentally click on some AI bullshit feature, I can’t even use it because I never created a Samsung account.
I got an email a little while ago about how they’re raising the cost of Workspace because of the “added value that AI has brought”. I immediately spent the next 15 minutes hunting down and disabling every AI feature. I really need to migrate away.
“Docs Live, Gemini Omni Flash, Gemini Spark, Information Agents, Google Pics, or the new Daily Brief”
these are kinda non everyday apps, so google cannot harvest enough data, which means a payment fee. nothing extraordinary news, just a clickbait title.
Really looking forward trying GrapheneOS or HarmonyOS even. Not interested in any of this stuff. 99% it’s flashy but not that useful on the grand scheme of things. You suck my data, AND I need to pay you now? No way 🤣
I have a Huawei tablet that updated to Harmony os. It’s de-,googled by default. It can use stores like Aurora, Fdroid, etc. The thing is like 5 years old and runs beautifully. If I need to check Google mail, I open Firefox. YouTube? Firefox.
I have gbix, or some other containerized Google services, but haven’t used it online a couple of years.
The only thing that I’m not too happy about is governance of Harmony OS, being Chinese and all, but I don’t use it for any sensitive stuff like banks etc.
Huawei hardware is really top tier, BTW
Unlike everyone here that seems to have a plan, I am pretty stuck on what my next steps will be. I do not want to support this or anything that they have been pushing lately, but at the same time im not sure where to go either. I hate iphone so thats not a question, nor are they any better either. So what else can i go to thats also going to support everything i currently do on my phone plus the apps that may no longer be available wherever I end up going to.
I am waiting for motorola and grapheneOS to release something.
Jolla Community phone for me. Pain, and suffering and probably a substandard experience so that in a year or two folks like you will have something capable to run too! Wish me luck!
Thank you for your sacrifice o7
Thanks for the info! I looked into it and I love the idea of it, but sadly your right it will take years before it ever becomes a rival or replacement. I really hope the phone is a success, otherwise progress will be slow or even ended if not. It does sound like the perfect time to drop something like this though and good job taking an already successful name so its more recognizable. Im curious to see how they handle apps, it took me a min to find but it does look like they have a compatibility layer which im not sure if its straight up emulation or not and is still not perfect either. If everything works out maybe this will be my next phone after my next phone lol.
I think many of us feel stuck, because the choices for smartphone operating systems are indeed limited.
As for me, it’s clear that Google is making it harder for people to develop and install Android apps. Google wants to ensure that it remains in control and that no one can escape from GApps and Gemini.
The only way to stop this is to break up Google. Or to fund smartphone OS project other than Android, however, that would take years.
Why would I pay for Gemini when I get it for free on Google ?
