Happy weekend!
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With the release of Android 14, which is slowly making its way to more devices, it seems like a good time for a community discussion on the direction of Android development.
Discussion Questions:
- What do you think about this latest release?
- Do you think things are going in the right direction?
- Is there anything you’d like to see prioritized in future releases?
- Which device are you on?
P.S. Subscribe to [email protected] if you haven’t already. It’s the best place to ask questions, seek advice, or to help steer others in the right direction for all things related to Android.
My current gripe with Android is that some features are done via Google Play Services instead of being integrated into the OS, like Fast Pair or Nearby Share. It’s a double-edged sword really. It fixes some of the fragmentation on Android by making those features available to older Android user via a Google Play Services update, but it also removes them from AOSP so AOSP forks like GrapheneOS can’t use them without Google Play Services.
I think it’s an okay tradeoff. We keep using devices with Play Services because they’re still not too hostile. However if they get properly hostile, it’s completely possible to create an alternative Play Services implementation, open source or otherwise. It’s how Chinese non-Play-enabled devices function for example. Isn’t there already a small OSS implementation for degoogled devices?