He followed this up this morning by saying that the reason it was removed was that it was not being used. So keeping the code in there increased the overall package size.
Spread out over billions of devices and small changes make a huge difference. He also stated metered data plans as a primary motivation.
So tinfoil hats off.
Removed from system and moved in an automatically downloaded package doesn’t make it smaller nor use less data. The opposite.
You’re referencing a different thing. This is the open source version bundled into AOSP, not the Google Play Services version.
Directly from the source:
So, as I suspected, Fast Pair code was deleted from AOSP because it wasn’t being used by anyone.
And because it wasn’t being used, it was just taking up space unnecessarily. Although HalfSheetUX was only a few megabytes in size, Mainline modules are served to many millions of people, a decent portion of whom are on metered connections.
Note: This has no implications for the Fast Pair feature you’re already familiar with. Fast Pair started out as a feature bundled in Play Services and will remain that way for the foreseeable future. This news just means there’s no longer an open source version of Fast Pair.
Android aosp becoming more and more barebone.
Yes and it is worrying. Google ought to make everything AOSP and but keep anything proprietary. They have nothing to lose so I don’t understand why they are stripping stuff from AOSP.
They want people to use and be reliant on Google’s version of android with play services and Google apps. That’s what they have to lose.
With so many OEM’s running to get Google Play services I don’t think there’s any risk they would lose that. Anyone wanting to make their own phone without Google services is going to have a hard time selling that phone.
Mostly it’s only the 3rd party ROM’s that use it the most, and they are a tiny niche.
Which OEMs don’t include Play Services other than the ones that aren’t allowed to?
OEMs selling smartphones in China. And those like amazon selling fireOS based tablets, TVs, and fire TV sticks.
Read the other comments.
TLDR please?
They removed a rarely used function from the free android open source project to a paid, closed source program that Samsung/Xiaomi/OnePlus/Sony/etc are already paying.
This affects only who uses Amazon or Huawei devices (or a Google-less custom ROM)
But while nobody cares about this specific function, Google is slowly removing features from the open source project year by year. The calculator, the calendar, the email client, and so on
Also both Amazon and Huawei never used the AOSP Fast Pair. Huawei has their own proprietary implementation which was there before even Google came up with Fast Pair and FireOS is still on Android 11.
So what happens when they removed all their bloat? We get a nice clean barebone OS?
The trash is taking itself out. Noicee
😆
nitter.net is really slow/doesn’t work. Faster nitter instance: https://nitter.cz/MishaalRahman/status/1701304928700899749
Mishaal is also on mastodon. I’m not sure why we post nitter links for his posts:
I’m convienced in next 5-10 years I won’t be using Android anymore. This is sinking boat, the only thing keeping me on it is that other boats are just being build.
