I don't care about any of these, I just want to be able to have whatever Google pay does without Google.
You could claim that's not an android problem but if you do I don't think you've ever had to explain to people your phone doesn't have a Google Play store.
It is? I haven’t carried my wallet around in years, because Apple Wallet does everything I need. Concert tickets, boarding passes, bank cards, public transport cards, etc. A physical wallet and cards in comparison feels like stone age technology.
Banks and card networks will only accept proprietary shitware as payment. Would you rather keep the malware confined to a separate processor chip or would you let it run on your phone?
In other words, would you like to have your physical card to be lost or stolen and someone paying with it? As small amounts don’t ask for a pin confirmation. Having my phone stolen is pretty much another level of attack.
No it’s not, all of my and my extended family cards (for… like a decade!) are never even leave the envelope they come in. I’m not sure I personally know people who use physical cards over Google or Apple Pay. I have seen the cards being used in the wild, of course. But I’m having hard time remembering anyone I personally know who does that.
> AI services will be able to easily interact with other apps installed on the device and perform tasks on behalf of the user within those apps, for tasks that the apps and the user have chosen to make available to AI services. These tasks include “send a message”, “create a note”, “schedule a meeting”. This includes access to certain Google apps (i.e.Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Maps, YouTube, Messages and Phone) that Alphabet will make available through operating system-level integration channels.
> [...]
> For instance, Android implements structured on-device integration through App Functions, which developers can enable for their apps, and which can be accessed by AI services without being reserved anymore for Google services, such as Google Assistant or Gemini.
> 7. Screen automation
> AI services will be able to automate multi-step tasks within apps, on behalf of the user upon their consent. They will do so by imitating user behaviour in a separate virtual window, which makes it possible for the assistant to complete the task in the background, while the user can do something else. [...]
> Android implements screen automation via Computer Control, which can automatically access apps, and which is currently reserved for Google’s services, such as Gemini.
> 9. System-level on-device models
> AI services will be able to call on existing on-device models (“ODMs”), including the Gemini Nano ODMs, that are part of the DMA designated operating system, already preinstalled on Android devices and already made accessible to third parties. As a result of the measures, third-party AI services will have guarantees of equal access (for example, in terms of performance) to ODMs, as Google’s services. [...]
> 10. On-device model implementation
> Third parties will be able to install, run and use on-device models (ODMs) under the same hardware‑resource and background‑execution conditions that Google’s own models enjoy, and will allow their ODMs to be shared centrally with other apps. [...]
This is a fabulous ruling and the EU continues (for the moment at least) to be the biggest champion of holding corporations to account and pushing back on entrenched tech power.
I know there are bunch of concerning things like chat control getting pushed through but at least there is a counterbalance in other areas as well.
Funnily enough, I think it is in Google's best interest to comply and do the best work they can.
Besides security that they might want to guarantee up to a limit, that would boost Android usage, also including their own hardware.
The future lies in a large, local-friendly ecosystem and the hardware to support it.
Gate keeping software makes even less sense nowadays.
The competition is on compute offering. Cheaper, faster, at scale. They can have a competitive advantage over incumbents if they stay smart.
Funnily enough, I think it is in Google's best interest to comply and do the best work they can. Besides security that they might want to guarantee up to a limit, that would boost Android usage, also including their own hardware.
It is not necessarily a competitive advantage, because Apple needs to do the same (which is why they aren't releasing the new iOS 27 Siri, etc. in the EU).
Apple and Google just took different approaches: Google just released their stuff in violation of the DMA and had the EU come at them. Apple chose to be in compliance before before releasing their assistant updates, though they tried to lobby the EC in favor of releasing now with the promise of adding interoperability in N months.
I am completely in favor of this. But for Google/Apple the best outcome giving their own assistance preferential treatment. More subscription income.
The core issue is not "Google not allowing a feature", it's that small businesses cannot buy phones, install a patched version of Android without a restriction and sell them to make money.
Until this problem is solved, everything else is palliative.
It is one of many projects that make alternative, AOSP-based operating systems (e.g. GrapheneOS, LineageOS, /e/OS), and some of them sell devices for an additional source of income (e.g. Murena who develop /e/OS also does this).
That was a good read. But I still thought anyone can take graphene os and put it in a phone and sell it? Maybe there is specific licensing restrictions in the android license that stop this.
Ah, yes, the Google/Apple narrative of "if we open the ecosystem, all users' data is at risk". Meanwhile, they are the companies that continuously harvest behavioral data from phones, put backdoors for law enforcement through weak defaults (iCloud backups are not E2E encrypted, unless you enable ADP), etc. All this while, GrapheneOS, LineageOS, etc. provide real, provable privacy.
What a shame. How much time and €M spent just to deign allow you to do some very specific stuff on their devices (in 5 years at least once the trials and shenanigans settle) ? Obviously it doesn't include the "answering call screening" for example, which requires very privileged APIs accessible only by "system" apps, i.e. the ones preinstalled in the ROM. How about RCS ? Remember RCS the "open" standard replacing SMS ?
RCS is a nothingburger in Europe, virtually everybody uses WhatsApp (and a smaller group also Signal, etc.). RCS is especially relevant to the US where many people use iMessage and the downgrade path is SMS/MMS.
Whoops my bad then, disregard previous post. Creating a facebook account at once with my national id in addition to my carrier subscription. Gotta love US dependency.
Indeed. This ruling seems to be targeted at AI specifically. It is a great ruling, because it allows proper competition of other assistants with Google's (and Bixby). However, IMO the bigger evil is all the anti-competitive stuff that make it impossible for competitors to Android/iOS to enter the market, including European products like SailfishOS, such as remote attestation and the things that flow from it (e.g. no tap-to-pay support with most banks). The EC seems very pre-occupied with competition inside Android/iOS, while completely forgetting about competition between mobile OSes.
It is also pretty jarring to see the EU talk a lot about sovereignty, but then further entrenching the Android/iOS duopoly by baking remote attestation into the EUDI reference wallet (and copied into the national wallets), effectively shutting out alternative systems yet again.
Yes, I know that the EU consists of a lot of bodies and sometimes the right hand doesn't know what the left hand does. But man, sometimes I wish there was a stronger single, long-term vision. Somehow they seem to have forgotten about January this year (Greenland threats) and that as long as we fully depend on Android/iOS, etc. the US could shut down pretty much all modern communication infra. But instead of solving these vulnerabilities now and pouring money into alternatives, we (as the EU) drag ourselves down into battles of just how much we can do on the terrain of some feudal overlords.
It seems like there is a short window where we still have AOSP systems that could be workable for the large population (outside remote attestation, pretty much all apps run on GrapheneOS, microG, etc.) and Google's strong arming through developer verification and remote attestation could still be put back in the box. But the EC does nada, nothing (presumably).
I agree that attestation is the biggest deal. My current hope is that the upcoming GrapheneOS phones will be able to achieve that. It's really up to a manufacturer being able to strong-arm third-parties - banks and such - into accepting their chain of trust, and Motorola may be able to do that.
Stallman was right : without the four freedoms your software owns you rather than vis-a-versa.
Interoperability is the key to breaking out of walled gardens and owning your own data and digital self.
This is a big win but google will fight back it seems instead of embracing interoperability.
It may seem trivial but using a small DSP running a tiny model to provide a battery efficient always on wake up call for home AI is huge.
As a carer for elders who rely on AI to use modern devices in the face of their difficulty keeping up with interface changes this bodes well.
Gatekeeping AI and the future with hidden features is straight out of the bad old days of M$’s embrace, extend and extinguish.
I embraced AI to let my elders control their home and they love being in control but are constantly frustrated with UI changes and often find themselves stuck unable to call me with ‘Alexa call Daniel’ which provides them with hope if they wake stuck in a nightmare.
Come on google, please don’t be evil embrace interoperability and the open source community.
Well done Eff, Cory Doctorow and the Pirate parties of Europe for this small win
You could claim that's not an android problem but if you do I don't think you've ever had to explain to people your phone doesn't have a Google Play store.
I get that you might want one if you are a tech maximalist with a single focus. But that doesn't mean you should stop carrying your card.
define open wallet then
My favorites:
> 6. Structured on-device integration
> AI services will be able to easily interact with other apps installed on the device and perform tasks on behalf of the user within those apps, for tasks that the apps and the user have chosen to make available to AI services. These tasks include “send a message”, “create a note”, “schedule a meeting”. This includes access to certain Google apps (i.e.Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Maps, YouTube, Messages and Phone) that Alphabet will make available through operating system-level integration channels.
> [...]
> For instance, Android implements structured on-device integration through App Functions, which developers can enable for their apps, and which can be accessed by AI services without being reserved anymore for Google services, such as Google Assistant or Gemini.
> 7. Screen automation
> AI services will be able to automate multi-step tasks within apps, on behalf of the user upon their consent. They will do so by imitating user behaviour in a separate virtual window, which makes it possible for the assistant to complete the task in the background, while the user can do something else. [...]
> Android implements screen automation via Computer Control, which can automatically access apps, and which is currently reserved for Google’s services, such as Gemini.
> 9. System-level on-device models
> AI services will be able to call on existing on-device models (“ODMs”), including the Gemini Nano ODMs, that are part of the DMA designated operating system, already preinstalled on Android devices and already made accessible to third parties. As a result of the measures, third-party AI services will have guarantees of equal access (for example, in terms of performance) to ODMs, as Google’s services. [...]
> 10. On-device model implementation
> Third parties will be able to install, run and use on-device models (ODMs) under the same hardware‑resource and background‑execution conditions that Google’s own models enjoy, and will allow their ODMs to be shared centrally with other apps. [...]
The future lies in a large, local-friendly ecosystem and the hardware to support it.
Gate keeping software makes even less sense nowadays.
The competition is on compute offering. Cheaper, faster, at scale. They can have a competitive advantage over incumbents if they stay smart.
It is not necessarily a competitive advantage, because Apple needs to do the same (which is why they aren't releasing the new iOS 27 Siri, etc. in the EU).
Apple and Google just took different approaches: Google just released their stuff in violation of the DMA and had the EU come at them. Apple chose to be in compliance before before releasing their assistant updates, though they tried to lobby the EC in favor of releasing now with the promise of adding interoperability in N months.
I am completely in favor of this. But for Google/Apple the best outcome giving their own assistance preferential treatment. More subscription income.
The core issue is not "Google not allowing a feature", it's that small businesses cannot buy phones, install a patched version of Android without a restriction and sell them to make money.
Until this problem is solved, everything else is palliative.
https://iode.tech/
I don't think it's high volume, I think this is done by some of the microg folks.
But OEMs probably do everything in their power to make this business model unviable or at least not scale.
Pardon my ignorance; but why would Android need to be patched? Is it because it wouldn't run on the phone hardware otherwise?
Because those 11 features mentioned in the OP post need to be unlocked.
DMCA and other anti-circumvention regulations.
Please stop parroting surveillance tech company's narratives.
It is also pretty jarring to see the EU talk a lot about sovereignty, but then further entrenching the Android/iOS duopoly by baking remote attestation into the EUDI reference wallet (and copied into the national wallets), effectively shutting out alternative systems yet again.
Yes, I know that the EU consists of a lot of bodies and sometimes the right hand doesn't know what the left hand does. But man, sometimes I wish there was a stronger single, long-term vision. Somehow they seem to have forgotten about January this year (Greenland threats) and that as long as we fully depend on Android/iOS, etc. the US could shut down pretty much all modern communication infra. But instead of solving these vulnerabilities now and pouring money into alternatives, we (as the EU) drag ourselves down into battles of just how much we can do on the terrain of some feudal overlords.
It seems like there is a short window where we still have AOSP systems that could be workable for the large population (outside remote attestation, pretty much all apps run on GrapheneOS, microG, etc.) and Google's strong arming through developer verification and remote attestation could still be put back in the box. But the EC does nada, nothing (presumably).
also they should not abandon Nokia back then
Interoperability is the key to breaking out of walled gardens and owning your own data and digital self.
This is a big win but google will fight back it seems instead of embracing interoperability.
It may seem trivial but using a small DSP running a tiny model to provide a battery efficient always on wake up call for home AI is huge.
As a carer for elders who rely on AI to use modern devices in the face of their difficulty keeping up with interface changes this bodes well.
Gatekeeping AI and the future with hidden features is straight out of the bad old days of M$’s embrace, extend and extinguish.
I embraced AI to let my elders control their home and they love being in control but are constantly frustrated with UI changes and often find themselves stuck unable to call me with ‘Alexa call Daniel’ which provides them with hope if they wake stuck in a nightmare.
Come on google, please don’t be evil embrace interoperability and the open source community.
Well done Eff, Cory Doctorow and the Pirate parties of Europe for this small win