OEM skins are off-limits for Android Wear, TV, and Auto

[RedRound2]

As Android is moving beyond the smartphone screen, Google is asserting control over the platform in a way that contrasts with its initial “everything goes” approach.

 

Amidst the warm reception for Google’s new platforms, one very important detail went relatively unnoticed – OEMs cannot skin and modify Android Wear, Auto, and TV, the way they’ve long done with Android for smartphones and tablets

 

Talking to Ars Technica, Android’s head of engineering Dave Burke confirmed that Google will only let OEMs make limited modifications to Android Wear, Auto, and TV products.

We want to just have a very consistent user experience, so if you have one TV in one room and another TV in another room and they both say Android TV, we want them to work the same and look the same... The device manufacturers can brand it, and they might have services that they want to include with it, but otherwise it should be the same.

 

That’s a huge change compared to the massive leeway that Google gave mobile companies back when it was struggling to get Android off the ground.

 

Having Google at the helm will ensure a more consistent experience for users, and more than that, Google will handle system updates itself. According to Burke, Android TV (and presumably the other new platforms as well) updates will happen seamlessly, the way the Chrome browser updates itself in the background.

 

The benefits of Google closely controlling its new Android platforms are multiple – less fragmentation, consistency, faster updates, a cleaner design aesthetic, and cross-platform integration.

 

Source: http://www.androidauthority.com/android-wear-tv-auto-oem-skins-399046/

[Legion]

As Android is moving beyond the smartphone screen, Google is asserting control over the platform in a way that contrasts with its initial “everything goes” approach.

 

Amidst the warm reception for Google’s new platforms, one very important detail went relatively unnoticed – OEMs cannot skin and modify Android Wear, Auto, and TV, the way they’ve long done with Android for smartphones and tablets

 

Talking to Ars Technica, Android’s head of engineering Dave Burke confirmed that Google will only let OEMs make limited modifications to Android Wear, Auto, and TV products.

Quote

We want to just have a very consistent user experience, so if you have one TV in one room and another TV in another room and they both say Android TV, we want them to work the same and look the same... The device manufacturers can brand it, and they might have services that they want to include with it, but otherwise it should be the same.

 

 

 

That’s a huge change compared to the massive leeway that Google gave mobile companies back when it was struggling to get Android off the ground.

 

Having Google at the helm will ensure a more consistent experience for users, and more than that, Google will handle system updates itself. According to Burke, Android TV (and presumably the other new platforms as well) updates will happen seamlessly, the way the Chrome browser updates itself in the background.

 

The benefits of Google closely controlling its new Android platforms are multiple – less fragmentation, consistency, faster updates, a cleaner design aesthetic, and cross-platform integration.

 

Source: http://www.androidau...m-skins-399046/

 

Fixed for dark theme.

 

 

CTRL+Shift+V. TY.

[colonel_mortis]

I can certainly understand this, and for the most part am strongly in favour of the changes, although for "android auto" I am surprised that they are taking this approach, because personally I would think that because every car can be so different, skins make a lot of sense. Perhaps Google has made it work well with all car designs, but I guess we'll see when it releases.

[Epis]

Good.

I think for some applications of Android the user experience has to be kept controlled in the interest of maximum useability, and in the case of Android Auto, safety.

But I don't really see why Google would prevent OEMs from making their own skin for Android TV though.

[JAKEBAB]

I don't have any problems with this and would probably prefer they did this with there phones too.

[LukeTim]

This is good because most OEMs seem to have an absolutely horrible (often, largely absent) sense of aesthetics... Touchwiz, for example, is an absolute eye-sore.

[razor767]

I think this will be good, I wish they did this with phones and tablets as well.

[RH00D]

It's interesting how many people in here are perfectly okay with Google doing this, when back in the earlier days this is the exact type of crap the Google fans crapped all over Apple for and praised Google for not doing.

 

It's almost as if... People just defend a company no matter what because hey "It's the company that I prefer that's doing it, so that makes it okay to do." :rolleyes:

[ShadowCaptain]

Finally

 

Wish android was a slightly more closed and controlled system, more consistency between devices, better for software devs

[colonel_mortis]

It's interesting how many people in here are perfectly okay with Google doing this, when back in the earlier days this is the exact type of crap the Google fans crapped all over Apple for and praised Google for not doing.

 

It's almost as if... People just defend a company no matter what because hey "It's the company that I prefer that's doing it, so that makes it okay to do." :rolleyes:

I think people are ok with stopping OEMs doing this because of the horrible job that they have done so far (for the most part), although they would be less happy if it prevented user customisation, which this shouldn't do.

[Xorbot]

It's interesting how many people in here are perfectly okay with Google doing this, when back in the earlier days this is the exact type of crap the Google fans crapped all over Apple for and praised Google for not doing.

 

It's almost as if... People just defend a company no matter what because hey "It's the company that I prefer that's doing it, so that makes it okay to do." :rolleyes:

 

Welcome to the land of hypocrites! (i.e. the Internet).

[LAwLz]

I think this is very bad.

What made Android so good was that OEMs could do almost whatever they want with it.

Google has slowly moved away from that, and is heading towards more of a walled garden approach like Apple. They are making more and more parts of Android closed source, and putting more and more restrictions on OEMs what they can and can't do.

Faster updates and more consistency between devices is good, but more restrictions is bad.

I would rather have a more "fragmented and chaotic" platform, than to have Google micromanage every little part of it at the expense of OEM's and users freedom.

[Misanthrope]

Aaaaand now we know why Tizen exists on that stupid galaxy watch. Other than that I think it's fine, this is how many, many (MANY) Linux distros start: someone saying "wtf? The new Gnome is ass I'm releasing my favorite Linux Distro with a better UI"

[mvitkun]

It's interesting how many people in here are perfectly okay with Google doing this, when back in the earlier days this is the exact type of crap the Google fans crapped all over Apple for and praised Google for not doing.

 

It's almost as if... People just defend a company no matter what because hey "It's the company that I prefer that's doing it, so that makes it okay to do." :rolleyes:

Could you give an example?

[LAwLz]

Aaaaand now we know why Tizen exists on that stupid galaxy watch. Other than that I think it's fine, this is how many, many (MANY) Linux distros start: someone saying "wtf? The new Gnome is ass I'm releasing my favorite Linux Distro with a better UI"

If OEMs aren't allowed to make skins then chances are third party ROMs will have a hard time as well (might be impossible to make).

[chilicheeseburger]

Why didn't they just implement a skin/theme feature in the first place.

Remember those old Sony Ericsson phones. They had themes and it was awesome.

[Misanthrope]

If OEMs aren't allowed to make skins then chances are third party ROMs will have a hard time as well (might be impossible to make).

 

Pure android sure. But as with the mentioned example (Tizen) I don't think it would be too difficult to create another *nix OS that could easily handle Android apps and even sideload official google ones.

Normally OEMs breaking into the mobile phone business would have a snowball chance in hell of succeeding in introducing another OS at this point in time. However this are virtually untouched markets we're talking about: there is no mass adoption for wearables or car devices and the TV market is so fragmented it only takes a couple of major manufacturer desertions from Google to turn it around because it's so new relatively speaking. I think that while their design goals and overall vision might be commendable, Google might be over-reaching a bit by being this aggressive.

[mymouthandi]

I have no problem with this. The only skin I have been okay with (and actually now prefer on the M8) is HTC Sense. 

[LAwLz]

Pure android sure. But as with the mentioned example (Tizen) I don't think it would be too difficult to create another *nix OS that could easily handle Android apps and even sideload official google ones.

Normally OEMs breaking into the mobile phone business would have a snowball chance in hell of succeeding in introducing another OS at this point in time. However this are virtually untouched markets we're talking about: there is no mass adoption for wearables or car devices and the TV market is so fragmented it only takes a couple of major manufacturer desertions from Google to turn it around because it's so new relatively speaking. I think that while their design goals and overall vision might be commendable, Google might be over-reaching a bit by being this aggressive.

Don't quote me on this, but it seems like all OSes that can run Android apps (Blackberry and Tizen) don't support the latest APIs. My guess is that Google has already taken steps towards locking Android apps into their "eco system", and now they are going to kill forks of Android (and by forks I mean custom ROMs and OEM skins). They have already made a lot of code in AOSP closed source.

 

I am just worried about the direction Google is heading with Android. I liked it better when it was open source and had less restrictions. The lack of an outcry about it is even more worrying.

Sure some skins sucks and I really like stock Android (although I don't use it even on my Nexus), but OEM skins are important because some features are genuinely good (and some of those later get incorporated into stock Android, like quick toggles) and because they help manufacturers differentiate between each other.

[Misanthrope]

Don't quote me on this, but it seems like all OSes that can run Android apps (Blackberry and Tizen) don't support the latest APIs. My guess is that Google has already taken steps towards locking Android apps into their "eco system", and now they are going to kill forks of Android (and by forks I mean custom ROMs and OEM skins). They have already made a lot of code in AOSP closed source.

 

I am just worried about the direction Google is heading with Android. I liked it better when it was open source and had less restrictions. The lack of an outcry about it is even more worrying.

Sure some skins sucks and I really like stock Android (although I don't use it even on my Nexus), but OEM skins are important because some features are genuinely good (and some of those later get incorporated into stock Android, like quick toggles) and because they help manufacturers differentiate between each other.

 

Point taken, yet if you think about it, how truly "Android" is something like the Galaxy phone lines with so much customization? HTC sense, LG with whatever they make, etc. The "core android" experience is actually pretty fucking rare so as a vendor I wouldn't worry too much about supporting official android apps. You have good points about the "freedom" that initially attracted a lot of people to the ecosystem don't get me wrong, I just don't think that they can do much at this point to revert things really.

And also I don't really know if they want to: I know it seems ominous to make moves like this but at the end of the day google primarily cares about how much google stuff you use, even if it's just searches and gmail on an iOS device they're still profiting from that, greatly.

 

[Pomfinator]

It's interesting how many people in here are perfectly okay with Google doing this, when back in the earlier days this is the exact type of crap the Google fans crapped all over Apple for and praised Google for not doing.

 

It's almost as if... People just defend a company no matter what because hey "It's the company that I prefer that's doing it, so that makes it okay to do." :rolleyes:

I think you misunderstand where the sympathies of the Internet were on this topic.  It is true that Google was lauded for being the company that created an open source OS that anyone can use and re-imagine.  What it wasn't lauded for, was the fact that Samsung and LG could come in and ruin it.

 

Probably 9/10 of the fanboys you mention probably had a rooted phone, probably running some version of CM/AOKP/AOSP ROM on it.  That was where the sympathy with Google was, not with the fact that megacorps like Samsung could skin Android and add proprietary bullshit to it.

[mgsstar]

Great that they are not allowing skins and not many mods onto Android Wear products. Hopefully this will allow updates to be distributed faster.