![]() ![]() While some features that we announced will launch with Android 14, many will arrive in people’s hands through these continuous updates," he says. "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. said that as Google has implemented ways for Android devices to receive updates outside of a once-a-year platform upgrade, like Play System and app updates, it’s become necessary to frame things a little differently. Here it is plain as day, confirmed in a conversation between an Android executive and a reporter from The Verge: And finally, with its 2023 Google I/O gala, Google is for the first time starting to share that rhythm and adjust the way it's talking about Android. This same writer (who, by the by, is both exceptionally charming and extraordinarily humble) has been bangin' this drum for eons now. When you stop and think about it, it's really no surprise that so few people see the forest for the trees and realize how it all adds up. Google doesn't do much to emphasize the fact that we get these sorts of updates constantly on Android while iPhone owners get 'em only once or twice a year. Google's approach actually presents a pretty significant practical advantage, since the updates to all these pieces often land multiple times a month instead of being collected into annual clusters - but with the way bigger OS updates command the most attention, it also presents a very real problem around perception. Think about it: In the span of a few months, we see a level of significant system-level updates across Android that'd amount to a full major new OS version on iOS - with hefty advancements for everything from our default email, messaging, note-taking, web browsing, and photo storing apps to meaningful improvements aimed at under-the-hood elements responsible for our phones' privacy, security, and performance.Īs a certain astute Android-obsessed writer put it last month: In fact, it even gives those of us on the Android side of the mobile-tech spectrum an important advantage over our iPhone-carrying comrades, despite the popular narrative to the contrary. But it has an immeasurable effect on the overall experience of owning an Android-oriented apparatus. It's not something an average phone owner is even aware of, and that's kinda the point. Plain and simple, a massive array of elements that'd traditionally be considered system components are now technically apps - individual items in the Play Store that are still core parts of any phone's foundation but are now able to get updated numerous times a month in a way that reaches all devices instantly. But it's one of the most consequential changes the operating system has ever experienced, and it's something that affects all of us who use Android-associated gadgets. Since 2010, we've been watching Google go at this without any formal announcement or pointing out of its piecemeal pivot. In case you haven't been following along - or maybe just don't think about this stuff 24/7, like certain unbalanced and deeply disturbed individuals (insert awkward eye-darting here) - what I'm hinting at is the way Google's been working to pull more and more pieces out of the actual Android operating system and treat 'em as standalone elements instead. ![]() In fact, we've been talking about it in these quarters for well over a decade now. It's a fascinating shift and one that anyone who's been reading this column for long knows has been building up for years. I won't keep you waiting: Google appears to have very much avoided focusing on Android 14 as a deliberate and tactical strategy - not because it's inching away from Android as an entity but because it wants to place less emphasis on each new Android version as the measure of evolution across the platform. And you'd better believe there's some serious significance to be sussed out in this situation. It sure seems strange on the surface, wouldn't ya say? But remember: This moment is all about going beyond the surface and seeking out the deeper meaning of Google's actions. And somehow, Google made it 125 minutes with only one specific callout of this year's latest and greatest Android offering. A new Android version is typically a major focus of every I/O event. But the keynote was two hours and five minutes, and it included plenty of talk about Android itself. ![]() Specific to the realm of Android, the sharp-eyed gumshoes over at 9to5Google noticed that this year's under-development new Android version, Android 14, was mentioned by name only one time during the entire 2,000-hour Google I/O keynote.Īll right - so it wasn't really 2,000 hours (even if it did feel like it at times). ![]()
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