Often we don't see the forest behind the trees. And the seemingly inconspicuous news of the past week about the release of a vast application to the Google Play catalog perfectly confirms this thesis.
You may have already heard: Google has uploaded their standard Calculator app to the App Catalog. 'Wow! Calculator?! Incredible! – many will sneer. – Stop though, does the app support the Android Wear interface at the native level? Okay, not bad. ' But that's not even why the news is important.
Decommissioning an application from the operating system to Google Play is a much bigger step for Android as a platform. This is a kind of milestone in the six-year process, signaling its imminent end. It is about deconstructing Android as an operating system. And this trend set by Google is gradually changing our thinking about the very definition of the concept of an operating system.
Divided Android
Let's take a short trip back to the recent past in order to see the full picture of what is happening and understand the impact of the process on us as consumers. The deconstruction of Android began in the fall of 2010, when Google announced that it was moving the Gmail app off the main OS as a regular downloadable app to the Google Play directory (then still called Android Market). At the time, according to Google, the move was aimed at ensuring that Gmail updates were no longer tied to “version updates Android, which would allow everyone to get new features faster without having to wait for system updates.” And this, friends, is the significance of what is happening now.
2010 Gmail app interface
Today we easily accept the independent existence of applications such as Gmail outside the operating system, where they are regularly updated and quickly reach the end user. But remember: not so long ago, almost all significant applications were 'embedded' into the OS itself. And that meant that the update only came when the system was updated on your device, if it ever happened. Since the first half-hearted step, many applications and services that were previously part of Android – and are still part of the OS of other platforms – have received their 'independent' status as a separate and easily updated application on Google Play.
In addition to Gmail, the OS included: Calendar, Hangouts and Messenger, the Google application itself (the basis of Google Now and search), Google Now Launcher, Maps, Newsstand, Music, Books, Movies, Drive, Photos, Documents, Chrome and System Webview (a utility for displaying web content by third-party applications), stock applications (keyboard, clock, camera, phone and device control). Google Wallet and Android Pay now stand apart, as well as Google Services, an application that controls a significant part of your device's background functions, such as the behavior of the Smart Lock function. So what's left in the OS itself? At this stage, there is not much outside the main driving force. The last piece of this puzzle was the already mentioned calculator app.
The big picture
Do you understand what all this is about? By decoupling another support component from the OS, Google gives manufacturers the ability to continue to make their own modifications at the OS level, while at the same time reserves the right to monitor and regularly update the significant part of the system responsible for the user experience and providing a reliable path directly to the user. While you can take advantage of third-party alternatives to Google components, stock options are always available to navigate, so don't underestimate this trend. In any given month, there may be a number of near-system updates that, in aggregate, are comparable to the main update on other platforms. Google just does it quietly and, perhaps in part at sacrificing publicity, rarely focuses on the big picture and parts of this 'mosaic'.
Arbor # 1: About updating devices from Android
All this does not mean at all that full-fledged platform updates like the upcoming Android N have lost their importance. They contain significant fundamental improvements to the operating system itself and its core user interface, those parts of the platform that cannot be accessed through individual elements. If we consider the constant updates of isolated components of the system between major releases as a whole, then they are perceived as absolutely logical and it seems to me that this aspect of the update is often not touched upon in discussions.
From my point of view, the deconstruction Android is almost complete, at least in the first and most important phase of the process. The next phase, if it happens, will affect deeper processes and begin to separate the 'heart' of the OS from the surface components, which Google may already be experimenting with, judging by the recent preliminary system update. In theory, this could give the company the ability to roll out faster updates for security-sensitive components. the actual code will be present on all devices, as well as separate them from the elements 'on the surface', which manufacturers are able to beat.
Over time, we will understand whether and when such a change will occur, but at this stage we can say that the operating system Android has changed significantly over the past few years. Today, the OS itself is only part of a larger puzzle, and it's time for us to start thinking about it that way.
Original material by JR Raphael
Elir: As we can see, Google realized that their products will not be left without a user base in any case, even if they are excluded from the set of main programs. And this awareness allows them to lighten their OS without losing control over its content. In turn, I see this change exclusively in a positive way: I remember well the time when when buying a smartphone in a set of applications, pairs of applications duplicating each other in functionality were found, included in the assembly both by Google and by the direct manufacturer. Subsequently, I had to either delete or disable unnecessary ones on my own, which was not at all convenient. So, it is quite possible that later the user will have the opportunity to choose between pre-installed products and options from Google.
According to the author, Mountain View seems to have decided to invest in the development of the ecosystem around its once key product. In any case, such innovations are not without interest, however, I would like to be able to observe such experiments in our market.