Software development is a very complex subject that can become rocket science with growing scope and maintenance over a long period of time. In the last few months, one can get the impression that Google has now reached this stage in the Android area and should pull the emergency brake on the operating system and the pixel smartphones. Or is it just not being tested enough anymore?
There is no software without bugs. A Hello World application may not follow this rule, but anything beyond that always introduces bugs, potential security vulnerabilities, or unpredictable behavior. This applies to both hobby projects and commercial products, and there is probably always a point in both cases where something works and no one really knows why. The saying ‘never touch a running system’ is no coincidence.
Of course, the bug rule also applies to Google, because it is not without reason that extensive updates with fixed security gaps or fixed errors can be published month after month. Especially with a project like Android, which consists of hundreds of thousands or even millions of lines of code, it is no longer possible for a single developer to keep track of everything. If there is also a group with what feels like dozens of management levels and a fluctuating strategy behind it, it becomes problematic.
In the last few months, it has been noticeable that avoidable errors have been creeping into the Android ecosystem, which could have been discovered very easily through sufficient testing. It’s not about little things, but about big chunks like the Pixel 6 reception, the Pixel 6 WLAN problem, Bluetooth dropouts or recently the non-functioning of Google Pay after the March update. All things significantly limit the range of functions of a smartphone.
Because Google has full control over software AND hardware, there’s little excuse for that and you can’t pass the buck on to another company. Especially when the group of people affected is very large, as, with the recent Pixel problems, one cannot seriously believe that the company has sufficient quality control in which extensive testing is carried out. It’s a gradual process, but it felt like it was a lot better a year ago. Was it “optimized” internally and then saved a dollar or an hour too much?
The really annoying thing is that Google is damaging the actually very good reputation of Android and the Pixel smartphones and also does not meet the quality standard that users rightly expect. Desktop apps aside, Google’s software has a very good reputation – perhaps on par with Apple. But if you have to be worried before the next update about what might not work after the next restart, then something is going terribly wrong. Worse still, this is now worse for purchase products such as Pixel smartphones than for free products.
I think Google should invest in increased quality control very quickly. The ever-growing flood of versions doesn’t make it any easier. But maybe you should also make a cut with products like Android and “start from the beginning”. Not from scratch, of course, and while maintaining the most important compatibilities, turning it to the left can sometimes work wonders.
One can only hope that the problems will penetrate to the upper floors of Google and the processes will be examined instead of just being optimized on paper.