~/Simon's Blog ❯

Android doesn't add features.

UPDATE: I've made a list that aims to be as comprehensive and/or definitive as possible in documenting features that are "part of Android" - or rather which aren't and instead depend on Google Services Framework or Google Play Services in some form. It is found here: https://codeberg.org/TGRush/non-android-features

The way Google advertises new "Android" features pisses me off, and I need to let out some steam about that.

TL;DR: Google promotes functionality, including accessibility functionality, as "part of Android", but it is actually part of Google Play Services, or it relies on the Google Services Framework. This means that to use the app as intended, you'll have to sacrifice a fair amount of your personal privacy to install Google's privacy-invading libraries and services.

if you visit any of the Android websites since Android 10, there have been extra subpages made to showcase new android versions, starting with 10 and going up to 14:

The only exception here is 12L, which was a special feature drop targeted primarily at large-screen and foldable devices. That is only documented/advertised on their developer site: https://developer.android.com/about/versions/12/12L

Across all of these you will find a variety of features, many of them regarding accessibility or new "intelligent" features. But what if I told you many of these aren't actually in Android? What if I told you they never were?

The Android source code is public under the Android Open Source Project, or AOSP for short. AOSP has been around since Android's existence, and it's essentially the barebones essentials of Android; When you strip out all of your manufacturers and Google's apps and additions, you're left with AOSP. However, you'll notice that some advertised android features are missing. Things like Smart Reply, Focus Mode, Live Caption, Family Link and more. The list goes on, and so far I've only listed features that aren't actually part of Android's core that come from Android 10, listing all the other versions' missing features too would make this quite a long list, so I'll skip doing that.

This is not what Google advertised, and it is essentially a lie to say that these are Android features. For instance, anyone in China doesn't have all of the above mentioned features, including those that relate to accessibility because they're not bundled with Android. But, it gets worse: Not only does Google not bundle any of the aforementioned features and more, but also does Google not release any of them under an Open-Source license, even when technically possible. For example, all the APIs and functions required for Digital Wellbeing to work are in AOSP, but Digital Wellbeing itself isn't. This means technically you can install Digital Wellbeing manually on a clean version of Android, but it is not bundled and unlike the rest of Android's core, Digital Wellbeing is completely closed off into Google's ecosystem. To visualise a little, here's a list of accessibility features that you cannot use unless you have Google Play Services and other Google Components on your phone:

Note that this list is not complete. This is only what's found when going through the Android announcement pages and looking at Google's apps on the Play Store.

In essence, Google has long stopped adding features to android, these features are now added either to Google Play Services / Google Services Framework, or into seperate apps that require GSF. Note that I have not even touched on non-accessibility features, like Project Mainline Updates, which allows security updates to be seperate from OS updates, or Predictive Tools like smart replyand so on.

And so what?

Well, the examples that I've listed aren't everything, actually. Another similar thing that Google has been doing to Android is removing the official Android Apps from AOSP, leaving them to rot and then replacing them with their privacy-invasive, but updated versions. A couple months ago, AOSP had a phone and SMS app, a couple years ago it had it's own calculator, contacts, gallery and camera apps. All of these have since been abandoned and consequently removed from AOSP, leaving them only available if manually re-enabled by a manufacturer or developer. Their solution is to use Google's continuations of these apps, which have been re-licensed, the source code has been made private and all of them depend on Google Play Services / GSF, which harms user privacy.

Slowly but surely Android is turning into nothing but a husk of what it once was, with features not only being removed, but also being misadvertised as being part of Android.

What happens now?

Nothing. Google won't change, and projects like Lineage OS can only pick up on these apps in a limited capacity. For many of these apps there are mature replacements, but those do not follow Android's design guidelines, nor do they use APIs normally only available to System-Apps (like the hidden Phone-API to change the phone number that displays in the Settings, because that is not stored by default on SIM Cards)

I wish there was some solution to this, some turning point where I can say "Hey! This community project maintains the apps voluntarily!", but sadly that is not the case. We are all slowly watching as Android becomes less and less at it's core with no alternative other than to submit to Google's data collection.

PS: Expand Me! Note that due to the fact that all of the aforementioned are no longer in AOSP, any independent developers, companies that don't ship Google Play Services like Huawei and more all do not have any of the accessibility features and the rest available at all.

Thanks for reading! I wish you a good rest of the day, evening, night, or whatever other time you're reading this!

#a11y #accessibility #android #google #tech