Android apps on Windows gives us what Google promised all along

“We have to bring Android and Chrome to every screen that is important to users.” That was Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who spoke at Google I / O 2014. Seven years later, Pichai’s vision could finally become a reality, but maybe not as he had imagined.

It was the combined forces of Amazon and Microsoft to bring the core of the Android experience – the all-important apps – to millions of additional users with the introduction of native Android app support on Windows 11. The solution is a potential game changer for the way users interact with their favorite apps, smartphones, and PCs, but it’s amazing that the initiative was driven not by Google, but by one of its biggest competitors.

Google has always spoken heavily about the virtues of open source software at the heart of Android and the benefits of open platforms to drive innovation and bring technology to the masses. To quote Pichai again, “When you run a platform on a large scale, you need to make sure that it is really open. In this way, you not only do well, but others too. “

That is certainly true. Without extensive partnerships and mutually beneficial cooperation, Google’s smartphone, smart home and TV products would not be the successful, cross-hardware ecosystems they are today. The recent partnership between Google and Samsung for Wear OS 3.0 is one such example. If you consider that Google has proven time and again that it cannot be trusted to properly integrate its huge service portfolio even on its own hardware, it is good that the search giant is supposedly so open to playing nice with others.

However, the company’s actions over the past decade have often failed to live up to this ethos. On the one hand, Google preaches openness and competition, but on the other hand keeps its software under control. This is especially true for Android and its biggest technical competitors.

See also: Why did Microsoft choose Amazon over Google for Windows 11 Android support?

You don’t have to look far to find examples of Google’s uncooperative approach to competing ecosystems. At the beginning of the last decade, Google blocked Microsoft’s YouTube app from its ill-fated Windows Phones. For more recent examples, Google reportedly bans Android TV partners from engaging with other Android forks (see: Amazon Fire TV). Mountain View was also reluctant to update its apps to meet Apple’s new privacy labels in the App Store.

The most controversial and powerful tool that Google is using to claim control over Android and the associated app ecosystem is Google Mobile Services (GMS). GMS is a set of programming features (APIs) that allow developers to take advantage of Android’s location data, payments, security, and other very common features used by Google closed-loop apps and third-party software.

However, GMS licenses are only granted to devices that meet the Google Compatibility Definitions Document (CDD) and associated tests. This means that you need to support all of Google’s services like ads and the store, even if you only want to use Google’s Location API. Even then, the acquisition of a license is subject to strict conditions. The 2013 Play Store license agreement required that companies not take any action that would “fragment Android”. Such as the development of a forked operating system. Competition is okay, but only if it uses Google.

Claims like this have been deemed unfair in the EU, resulting in a whopping $ 5 billion fine in 2018. The ruling resulted in the company finally changing its EU requirements for Google services to Android in 2018. Of course, that didn’t change the status quo in other markets, especially in the USA.

The Big G markets GMS and its Play Services as tools to ensure high quality, consistent user experiences across apps and hardware. That’s true to a certain extent. However, it is also a stick with which manufacturers who dare to go Android in their own direction are incited and punished. And remember, Google ultimately decides and manages what goes into the main Android open source project.

It is important that without GMS your device cannot run its own apps from Google or other apps that rely on associated services and APIs. Losing the Google Play Store is undoubtedly the biggest potential loss, but there are other features, such as locations for Uber or WhatsApp’s drive backup feature, that rely on GMS for core functionality. Because of this, Amazon and Huawei – the latter has seen its smartphone empire collapse outside of China with no access to GMS – both have their own app stores and a more limited selection of software on their forked versions of Android OS. And yes, that also means that Windows 11 doesn’t have all of the apps you’re likely to use in the Google ecosystem.

Why is it all so important? For starters, it shows how Google controls the developer tools, distribution platforms, and even the hardware that falls under its ecosystem. It’s a self-asserting power structure that Google won’t easily part with, especially for a rival like Microsoft.

The result is a contradicting approach to open collaboration. The company has long touted the benefits of open software and standards, but has vigorously opposed competition on the fringes of its ecosystem. Google could compromise and make GMS more accessible in order to bring its entire library of apps to Windows and other ecosystems, but has chosen not to. Just like it brought the Play Store to Chrome OS, but not Linux.

The irony is that Google had the right message for years, but its actual approach is becoming increasingly flawed. Consumers are more likely to prefer platforms that allow them to run the same software on multiple devices. Ideally, I want to run exactly the same messaging, fitness tracking, and banking apps with identical functionality on all of my devices. Amazon’s Android app support on Windows is an important step towards this reality. Likewise, there’s a similar direction of travel at Apple that quickly targets app and hardware parity on iOS, iPad, and Macs.

Google is facing the loss of multi-platform momentum while its biggest competitors are benefiting. Amazon will benefit from app sales and a much larger presence on the Microsoft platform. I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon’s Fire TV, tablet, and smart home products saw a surge in sales too. In the meantime, Windows 11 has benefited from a whole range of new cross-platform applications and represents a further step outside of the traditional, pure PC basis of the venerable operating system.

Panos Panay, chief product officer for Windows, recently stated that all stores and apps are welcome on Windows and indicated that the company remains open to working with Google. But if Amazon’s move doesn’t really shake things up, it seems doubtful that Google will loosen control of its Android app ecosystem and give us the vision of computing it has been talking about for so long.