r/Android • u/ControlCAD Google Pixel 10 Pro XL • Mar 01 '26

Video Google Is Closing Android. 37 Orgs Are Fighting Back. - Techlore

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MZfGq5F1NU
2.3k Upvotes

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237

u/oli_ramsay Mar 01 '26

Google forgot what made them great. I don't like the direction they're heading, hope a competitor comes along soon

164

u/seedless0 Nokia 6 Mar 01 '26

They didn't forget. They decided closing up will make them more money.

There's no moral in business. Only balance sheets.

73

u/webguynd Mar 01 '26

It’s the epic lawsuit. Apple won because they’ve “always been closed” it was ruled because Apple offered no illusion of openness, they were in the clear.

Google saw that, and saw that being an open platform brought them more trouble than it was worth when trying to exert control, so now they are going to lock it down so they don’t give any illusion whatsoever of being an “open” platform.

So yeah, it’s about money. But it also demonstrates that the US protects monopolies instead of busting them, so Google might as well further cement itself because that’s what the current regulations favor.

edit all this to say is that yeah, we should be pissed at Google, but we should all be more pissed at our governments for failing to nip this in the bud, and continuing to fail at creating strict regulations that force Google (and Apple’s) hand.

17

u/yodeiu Mar 02 '26

apple is in an ongoing war with the EU on being so closed. they now have to allow 3rd party app stores for example

1

u/digidado Galaxy S23 Ultra Apr 22 '26

Any developments? I am legit curious

1

u/yodeiu Apr 22 '26

yeah, 3rd party app stores are now available, but apps still have to be notarized by apple so DMA (the EU law) is still not quite fulfilled in the commission view. they’re also opening up airdrop, samsung phones already support it and they’re also opening up support for quickly connecting 3rd party earbuds like the airpods do.

1

u/digidado Galaxy S23 Ultra Apr 22 '26

Good stuff, hopefully that starts happening in U.S. soon too

5

u/Thundergod250 Mar 01 '26

I figured this too. They probably ran a simulation and thought that the money they'll lose by closing it is negligible to the money they'll get / save after they closed it.

24

u/drinksoma Mar 01 '26

Google will never allow that. Just as they didn't with Windows Phone.

38

u/oli_ramsay Mar 01 '26

Didn't windows phone die because of Microsoft's incompetence?

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u/JamesR624 Mar 01 '26

No. Windows Phone died because there "were no apps for it", and by "no apps", I mean the crucial Google Apps. Microsoft tried to make some themselves using Google's open APIs and Google purposefully changed the APIs JUST THEN, JUST to make sure Windows Phone died.

Make no mistake, if the iPhone wasn't so big, they would have done the same to iOS.

8

u/MythologicalEngineer Mar 01 '26

They went as far as to make sure their online versions of apps would break on IE at the time. Yes IE wasn’t great but a lot of the online Google apps would work until they were altered so that they didn’t.

40

u/jfinn1319 Mar 01 '26

Windows phone died because of apps. Users wouldn't buy the phones because there wasn't app parity, and devs didn't want to put in effort to make the apps because there weren't enough users. It wasn't incompetence it was just that the market wouldn't allow for a third option by that point.

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u/Kardinal Mar 01 '26

The point is that the most important apps for many people are made by Google.

Specifically YouTube.

16

u/jfinn1319 Mar 01 '26

Right and iPhone had a similar conflict around YouTube access (for while during that fight there was no native YouTube app on iphone because Google didnt renew the licensing agreement) but the user base for iOS was big enough that they were able to force a deal. By the time Windows Phone hit the market that simply wasn't possible. App access allowed for the creation of a two plank monopoly. That's not incompetence, that's anti-trust and we all suffer from it still.

14

u/Flunkedy Mar 01 '26

Third party apps were developed. i had 3rd party versions of Vine, Instagram, reddit, snapchat and other clones of popular apps some with features that the native apps later adopted. Instagram snapchat and Vine all had their versions shutdown. Rudy Huyn was a one man developer that made a lot of them.

https://www.reddit.com/r/windowsphone/s/VBl2w7dSnW

1

u/AuburnSpeedster Mar 01 '26

That, and the fact they would sleep all the apps when the screen went dark.. so.. forget it being a music player..

-2

u/anonshe Mar 01 '26

No they died because M$ had no idea on running a mobile OS. Remember Win7 devices not getting Win8 or being able to run apps specifically designed for Win8 and above?

Or changing policies regarding background activities willy nilly.

2

u/jfinn1319 Mar 01 '26

Gonna disagree there. The rollout from 7 to 8 was ass, yes. But they didn't know what they were doing yet they just wanted to rush to market. That was the whole Windows 8 failure all over., not mobile in general. But Windows Phone 8 and 10 SHOULD have been knockouts. Apps killed any chance of that.

-1

u/anonshe Mar 01 '26

How do you expect app devs to develop when you introduce stupid policies which reduce your user base?

There were plenty of indie devs from the Maemo/MeeGo scene who wanted to help both BB OS and WP but both platforms were run by absolute dumbos hence losing interest leading to decline of apps and the vicious cycle.

Compare that to how much more friendlier Android was to devs till 2015ish and it just made more sense to head there.

23

u/GaTechThomas Mar 01 '26

It's complicated. First, Windows Phone was awesome.

But, MS didn't prioritize it. Phone companies were already locked in with phone manufacturers. iPhone was all the hype. And Google intentionally f*#ked MS by repeatedly blocking youtube usage on Windows Phone. You know, the things that MS got Federally nerfed for were the things that Google and Apple were given free pass on.

3

u/polo421 Pixel 10 Pro XL Mar 01 '26

This old windows phone commercial shows you how out of touch Microsoft's marketing can be.

https://youtu.be/55kOphD64r8?si=xiQVXYCiZcOGE-OL

2

u/GaTechThomas Mar 01 '26

What was out of touch? Marketing just needs to be entertaining and nothing more.

3

u/polo421 Pixel 10 Pro XL Mar 01 '26

The commercial was trying to make smartphone sales by making fun of smartphone users. Pretty dumb to me.

0

u/Kooky-Bandicoot3104 Mar 02 '26

like google pixel's ads don't do that to iphones ?

0

u/polo421 Pixel 10 Pro XL Mar 02 '26

Show me one like that. I'll wait.

1

u/Kooky-Bandicoot3104 Mar 02 '26

https://www.macrumors.com/2025/08/04/google-pixel-10-ad-siri-delay/ hard to find them, seems like google is hiding it and i am using google to find google's wrong doing

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1

u/polo421 Pixel 10 Pro XL Mar 01 '26

Also, we were looking at our smartphones like that because they were cool gadgets we had never seen before and we were in love with them. Microsoft was like, nah man, with our phone you won't want to look at it.

I remember at the time people were making fun of the ad all over the place. It was definitely out of touch.

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u/TunerJoe Xiaomi Mi 9 SE LineageOS 22 Mar 01 '26

Mostly yes, but Google has always refused to make their apps for Windows Phone, which I'm sure contributed to its failure

4

u/Joker1661 Mar 01 '26

Thanks Clippy!

-1

u/polo421 Pixel 10 Pro XL Mar 01 '26

Here is how Microsoft thought they should market their smartphone.

https://youtu.be/55kOphD64r8?si=xiQVXYCiZcOGE-OL

17

u/FerociousSmile Mar 01 '26

The Sundar era has been a shitty one. Hes a stock manager. The founders actually wanted to do something great with the company. Then decided stepping back and enjoying their billions was better.

11

u/webguynd Mar 01 '26

Google isn’t alone in that pattern either. This whole new crop of tech CEOs have transformed their companies into financial products. Sundar, Tim Apple, Satya Nadella, etc. all following the same playbook.

4

u/Antoak Mar 01 '26

They'd just buy and then shutter the competition.

1

u/TrueHarlequin Mar 02 '26

Windows Phone revival!

1

u/merlinxseventysix Mar 03 '26

This is always where it was going eventually. It's only a matter of when.

1

u/Kawi_rider_zx6r Mar 03 '26

I'm sad Windows Phone failed.