New Android changes: Using app upgrades to replace OS upgrades

Not long ago, when Google launched its new Android system, it did not brag or even dull. Why is that? The reason: Google Play services (Google Play service). Back in September 2012, Google launched a program for Play store. It allows businesses to add new functionality to users of Andorid 2.2 and above without having to completely upgrade the OS. This program is called Google Play Services, which is the focus of the I/O conference last year. As Andorid 4.3 demonstrates, this is a powerful tool that can bring new functionality to users of the old operating system.

How does this platform work? How it differs from Android itself.

What is Android?

To understand why Google Play Services is important, you need to understand what Andorid is. Most people think that Android means "a mobile phone running Google software," and many times it's not. Technically, Andorid is a mobile device-oriented operating system. Because it's open source, companies can use it, modify it, and turn it into their own system, which is irrelevant to Google.

The most obvious example is the Kindle Fire. It runs Andorid, but no play Store, no built-in Google service, or even mentioning Google. Amazon has developed its own app store, offering its own content services, and its own hardware.

This is Andorid, it is a platform, any enterprise can build its own things on it.

Google has long been entangled with andorid, mainly because of the need to access the play Store, and equipment manufacturers must comply with some rules, including a built-in Google programs and features. Because of this, Google occupies a central position in the early Andorid. However, a long time ago, Google began to separate itself from the Andorid.

Most of Google apps are independent

When Google released Andorid 2.0, concerns surfaced.

See more highlights of this column: http://www.bianceng.cnhttp://www.bianceng.cn/OS/extra/

At that time, Google launched a new progressive navigation function, it is ready to accompany the new Motorola Droid launch. However, for the next one months, the feature was introduced in Andorid Market (later renamed Google Play). From there, Google has a tendency to offer new features via app upgrades, rather than OS upgrades.

Over the past few years, Gmail, Search (including Google Now and Voice Actions), Hangouts (previous talk), Chrome, YouTube, calendars ... These are all directly upgraded. With app upgrades, rather than OS upgrades, you can dramatically shorten the frequency of new features, which are upgraded about 6 months ago and now take only a few days.

This also poses the problem that each new version of Andoird has a new API that developers can implant. For this reason, some apps require OS version 4.0, and some can run in Legacy 2.2. Apps for the old system also need new apps. As a result, the problem of fragmentation is even more pronounced.

Google Play is a new platform

This year's I/O conference, Google launched a number of new features, it will enter the Android device, these features include:

--play Games

--Synchronization of all devices (via app support) notifications

--Geographical fence (geofencing)

-Activity identification (app can detect whether a user is walking or driving.) ）

All of these features have one thing in common: You don't have to upgrade to Android to use it. In fact, on the 3-hour I/O conference, the speakers on the podium did not even talk about Android upgrades. Instead, these features are added to play services, which support Andorid 2.2 and later versions.

For the first time in 10 years, Andorid old users who have been discarded by equipment manufacturers can use the new features introduced in the I/O conference.

Andorid 4.3 also introduces some new features:

--Plate configuration restrictions (limited access to some apps and content)

--The Dial panel is automatically completed (The Dial panel prompts the phone number or person name when entering numbers or letters)

--Wi-Fi tracking location, no Wi-Fi can also be enabled.

--Low energy Bluetooth support

Most of the new features are not important, the scope of the impact is not small.

For example, notification synchronization affects the entire platform's app, and dial-up AutoComplete may only be seen by a few users. Most manufacturers will replace the Dial-up app and use their own software instead, some big companies already have this function.

The presence of Google Play Services has given Google a stage to make it easier for companies to launch new features that are important to Google's position in smartphones and tablets. With it, 98.5% of Android users can only use the new features to effectively solve the problem of fragmentation, at least the functionality provided through Google Play services is no longer fragmented.

The future is uncertain, but clearer.

So, in this way, the next key function is not the need to rely on Andorid upgrade to get it? No. First, as we saw at the I/O Assembly, the existing APIs are entering play Services and the work is not finished. We are also not sure what Google is going to do, and its intentions for future upgrades are not officially disclosed. We can't see the change as a plan. When Android 5.0 is launched, it can create new problems.

One thing that is obvious and increasingly obvious is that Google brings new functionality to existing devices and that users don't have to worry about what version of OS they are using. Users don't have to wait 6 months or 1 years to get new functionality without having to go through the manufacturer or the operator; 18 months later, users don't have to abandon it because the device is too long.

This is the core of Google Play services, which lies on your phone and silently brings you new features. For example, over the past few months, Google has quietly removed app certification services from Andorid 4.2, and services have been transferred to play services. Your phone is safer now because it has nothing to do with the manufacturer or the operator anymore.