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Buying an Android phone is no longer enough — Google wants you to subscribe too (www.androidauthority.com)
submitted 3 months ago* by to c/fuck_ai@lemmy.world
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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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[–] 105 points 3 months ago* (2 children)

I hope Google goes bankrupt,especially after the Android sideloading change.

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  • [–] 69 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    What I hope is that they lose Android to the anti trust lawsuit they're currently in

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  • [–] 5 points 3 months ago

    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.

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  • [–] 38 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    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

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  • [–] 46 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    I'm hopeful for the Motorola grapheme OS phone breaking some of that hold. It's slated for release next year.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    When my current phone ages out, my next phone has HarmonyOS.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 11 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    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).

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  • [–] 5 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    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?

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Well they're literally illegal in the US, so I'm pretty SOL regardless, but even if they have designs on the rest of the world, Apple and Google have several million apps' worth of a head start. We'll see if Huawei can do what Samsung and Palm/HP couldn't.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Apple has priced itself way out of most of the world's market. And Google ... well, let's just say that its current trajectory will make leaving its ecosystem viable and desirable for most people within five years.

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    • [–] 53 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    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

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  • [–] 26 points 3 months ago

    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.

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    • [+] 52 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 8 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    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.

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    • [–] 36 points 3 months ago

    Rent-seeking and modern business culture go together like guillotines and techbrodudes.

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    [+] 28 points 3 months ago (1 child)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 10 points 3 months ago*

    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.

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    • [–] 21 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    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?

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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    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

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    • [–] 17 points 3 months ago

    Fuck google, in fact fuck all american tech companies.

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    [–] 11 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    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 🤣

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    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

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    • [–] 10 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 18 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    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!

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago

    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.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 3 months ago

    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.

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    • [–] 10 points 3 months ago

    "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.

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    [–] 6 points 3 months ago

    bring new, powerful features to users

    Everyone's a power user when the feature requires 10 GW

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    [–] 3 points 3 months ago

    Why would I pay for Gemini when I get it for free on Google ?

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    [–] 3 points 3 months ago

    If they were smart, they would make the subscription tier so you won't have these "features".

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