Android and Google have been a solid unit for many years and therefore, for many people, are inseparable for good reason. A Google-free smartphone will soon prove that there is another way – but is that really effective? Theoretically, Android without Google is easy to imagine, but in practice, it becomes difficult or even impossible in several places.
Many people may not even know that Google didn’t develop Android from scratch, but bought it many years ago – two years before the presentation of the first iPhone. Even then, Android was supposed to be used on smartphones but had its roots as a planned operating system for digital cameras. That was a long time ago and since the first released version, Android has been a Google product that had some Google apps pre-installed from day 1.
The Google apps can be found on every smartphone certified by Google and cannot be easily removed. It’s possible, but with some apps, users aren’t interested at all – such as Maps, Gmail, YouTube, or even web search.
Nevertheless, there is a niche where Android smartphones without Google services are in demand. This not only applies to the apps visible on the surface, but also to the underlying services such as Play Services.
In the niche and apart from that at Amazon (which again is a story in itself), this is successful. But can a Google-free Android also work in bulk? Many manufacturers have wanted to find out, sometimes involuntarily, and a Google-free smartphone with GrapheneOS will be launched this year. But don’t expect it to break out of the niche.
Android without Google, can this work?
There have already been some Android smartphones without Google services, although only a few have been remembered – but not because of the success.
Unforgettable is the flopped Facebook smartphone, the highly touted “Google-destroying” CyanogenMod smartphone and of course the Huawei smartphones that have gone from market leader to niche within two years. So the signs couldn’t be worse.
Users want Google products
The vast majority of users expect Google services on their smartphones and have no interest in removing the services. In the tech bubble, one can sometimes get the impression that every second person wants to get rid of the services, but the reality of the masses is completely different. The products are expected and if they are not present, they are installed. If this is not possible, the smartphone goes back.
What would be the alternatives?
Let’s spin it so far that the masses accept an Android smartphone without Google: what would be the alternatives to Maps, web search, YouTube, Assistant, Gmail and the many other products?
Of course, there are numerous alternatives, but most of them are inferior to Google products. Now let’s assume that they weren’t inferior: do you want to distribute the organization of your everyday life to many small and independent providers? Where you don’t know what will happen to the data or whether it will still exist next week?
People who want to leave Google do so for specific reasons. You probably wouldn’t leave the ecosystem just to end up in another one from Microsoft, Amazon, or some other big company. So you go from bad to worse or enter the unsafe territory. Therefore, in my opinion, there is no alternative to the entire Google package under Android for the masses.
Android without Google in bulk?
Let’s take it a step further: Provider X has established itself, Android without Google is the norm and the company no longer plays a major role on users’ smartphones. What interest should you then have in further developing Android?
The operating system is free and subsidized by Google’s mobile successes. If these fail, Android will be unplugged. Android will not disappear because of this, because it is an open-source project. But it would change and may be split into many smaller projects. In my opinion, that’s not what users want.
Google has(did) hold the reins of Android development and it’s hard to imagine who will take over. As a community project, with the reach of several billion devices, it is not sustainable and far too important.
If another company comes along, financial interests come to the fore again – so you would not have gained anything in the medium term. The third alternative would be state control, which is probably not so far-fetched given the relevance of Android, but we better not even think about it
Android without Google is not
possible I come to the conclusion that Android is not possible without Google. Just as Windows is not possible without Microsoft and iOS is not possible without Apple.
Although the two are closed source platforms and have very different requirements, the firm anchoring with the company is very similar. Android is simply tailored for Google and the Google ecosystem has been tailored for Android for many years. Despite all the criticism, a more or less perfect symbiosis.
A new operating system is needed In order to break Google’s power, a new operating system is needed. It doesn’t even have to be a smartphone operating system, because smartphones could also be past their prime. A possible successor will probably not come from Apple, Microsoft, Amazon or Facebook, but from a company that may not have even been founded yet.
Eventually, all dominance ends or is weakened. Google has often been in the right place at the right time, but it has to be said that the cornerstones of its great successes date back a good decade and the company hasn’t had the right nose quite as often in recent years.
Conclusion
To answer the question subjectively: Android without Google is not possible. Smartphones without Google are possible. Future mobile or other smart platforms without Google are even very likely. Maybe it will take another decade, maybe two, maybe just a few years. Technology is evolving rapidly and at some point every company starts to rest too much on past achievements, Google will be no exception in the long run.