Google has added two extra years of software program help to the Pixel 6 sequence, the Pixel 7 sequence, and the unique Pixel Fold. That is implausible information for anybody utilizing these telephones; since they use a Google-designed Tensor chip, it is what ought to have been promised all alongside.
It says a bit extra about Android’s rapid future, even when it does not spell it out: do not anticipate the following killer function(s) to be a part of Android.
You are proper when you’re considering that Google hasn’t stated something about Android 17 but and actually hasn’t instructed us a lot about Android 16. but it surely does not have to as a result of we now know that no matter it’s, the Pixel 6 will (hopefully) be capable of run it.
The Pixel 6 wasn’t a nasty cellphone, however let’s be sincere — its Tensor chip is not a powerhouse, and having “solely” 8GB of RAM means it is lacking many on-device AI options. It was constructed earlier than Pixel telephones wanted chips that might course of AI even sooner and the reminiscence to energy the options that got here together with it. We rapidly noticed that only one 12 months later.
Here is the factor — none of that, or any of Google’s AI magic, is a part of Android. It is all proprietary Google property that it releases to pick out gadgets because it sees match. Android has been like this for some time, with Google holding again lots of the options you assume include it and deciding which telephones from which firms can have them. In the event you ever get your arms on a tool that runs the free and open model of Android, you may simply see how it’s missing.
I prefer to name this the Pixel paywall. Google reveals us a brand new function, spends half-hour on a stage to inform us how nice it’s and why we must always need it, then says you solely get it when you purchase a brand new Pixel cellphone.
This is not nothing new; each different tech firm does the identical factor. The distinction is different tech firms do not provide a “free” working system that powers billions of smartphones.
We’ll see this once more with Android 16 when Google debuts a brand new Pixel cellphone. All the new options are going to be Google’s personal and never freely accessible as a part of Android, and a handful of them will solely be accessible for the Pixel 10. Do not anticipate many (or any) of them in your Pixel 6. You will not be dissatisfied that method.
There’s nothing unsuitable with this. I do not prefer it, and I do know different individuals who really feel the identical method, however no person ought to anticipate a for-profit firm to show over its greatest software program options or the key algorithms that energy them as free software program, irrespective of how restrictive the licensing is. Google is doing what we must always anticipate it to do.
Future variations of Android could have loads of different modifications underneath the hood, and people could be essential, particularly by way of stability, safety, and privateness. A lot of these “API modifications” that do not get a lot press just do that and are 100% mandatory and necessary.
Issues like digital camera tips or fancy AI-powered house display screen options are separate, the identical method Samsung’s are for Samsung telephones or Apple’s are for iPhones. Google realizes their worth and is aware of it is going to entice a couple of individuals sufficient to purchase a brand new Pixel cellphone despite the fact that their Pixel 6 continues to be supported and does every part it did when it was new and extra.
It is nonetheless nice that Google realizes it has an obligation (sure, I stated obligation) to help Tensor-powered gadgets so long as attainable. Nvidia can inform them a factor or two about how having management over the brains of an Android gadget means you’ll be able to help it for a decade. Or longer.
