00:00 \u2013 Mishaal Rahman: Is Google\u2019s delay in releasing source code a sign of AOSP\u2019s impending doom?<\/p>\n
00:04 \u2013 C. Scott Brown: And could Google finally make Health Connect a true alternative to Apple Health?<\/p>\n
00:09 \u2013 Mishaal Rahman: I\u2019m Mishaal Rahman.<\/p>\n
00:11 \u2013 C. Scott Brown: And I\u2019m C. Scott Brown and this is the Authority Insights podcast where we break down the latest news and leaks surrounding the Android operating system.<\/p>\n
00:20 \u2013 Mishaal Rahman: So this week or actually last week, Google released Android 16 QPR1. For those of you Pixel users, this came in the form of the September 2025 Pixel Drop. And typically developers, you know, once Google pushes out the update for Pixel phones, they only have to wait about 24 to 48 hours maximum for Google to upload the source code. But this time, the source code is nowhere to be found and Google told us that developers might have to wait a couple of weeks for the source code to arrive. And to date, Health Connect has been a central hub for all your health and fitness data, but it currently doesn\u2019t track any data of its own. But that could change in an upcoming update. And also this week, we got a threefer in terms of the updates that are coming to the Gemini app. We have a bunch of new features that are improving the experience of using the app and starting a chat, searching through your previous chats, and then finding key info about real world places in your chats. So let\u2019s get started with the biggest story in my opinion. It\u2019s the fact that Google has delayed the release of the source code for Android 16 QPR1. Now, for regular users, you probably won\u2019t really care about this news because, I mean, you\u2019re not going to be diving through Android source code anytime soon. It doesn\u2019t really matter to you. But it does, it is a concerning trend considering, you know, for years now, Google has released a source code in a very timely manner following the release of an update for a Pixel device. So, just for a little bit of background knowledge, what is AOSP? AOSP is short for the Android Open Source Project. It is the open source version of the Android operating system that runs on all Android devices. It is licensed under the Apache license 2.0, which is a software license that is very permissive. It allows anyone, even you and me, to take the code, modify it, and redistribute it however we please without paying a fee to Google and without having to upload any changes we made. We don\u2019t have to release the source code for anything we do. And, I mean, that\u2019s why you have like One UI from Samsung, Hyper OS from Xiaomi. They have all these heavily customized versions of Android that are originally based on Google\u2019s open source version. And the only reason why these various flavors of Android even kind of behave similarly to other devices is because Google tries to maintain some semblance of control through compatibility licensing requirements, through application distribution agreements, through its Google Mobile Services bundling. And Scott, I kind of want to ask you, you know, for many years now, Google has had this kind of dual layer approach where they have, you know, AOSP is open source, and then you have Google tacking on all these requirements to OEMs through Google Mobile Services, through the compatibility requirements. What did you think of this arrangement? Do you think it\u2019s been effective for Google in making Android more popular? Or do you think it\u2019s kind of been a bad approach for Google to grow Android?<\/p>\n
03:31 \u2013 C. Scott Brown: Well, I guess it depends on how you look at it. Like as far as spreading Android around and making it become the dominant mobile operating system in the world, huge success, 100%, no question. You know, I mean, Android is in everything. It\u2019s in cars, it\u2019s in tablets from, you know, from Amazon, you know, that has, you know, quote unquote, its own operating system, Fire OS, but that\u2019s just Android with, you know, heavily modified code. And then, you know, I think like the screens that you find on a plane when you\u2019re riding on a plane and you see the screen, 99% of those are Android. Like Android is everywhere. So if all we\u2019re thinking about is whether or not this system made Android popular, 100% yes, very big win. The question though is whether or not it\u2019s been successful at doing what Google needs it to do, which is to be an operating system that it controls and makes money off of. And that is a little bit more of a shaky answer. There\u2019s not a definitive yes there, which is the main reason why I think this new development with, you know, AOSP, the source code not being released in a timely manner, as well as a couple of other things that uh that have happened over the past few months and even a couple that we\u2019ve already talked about even in the short history of this podcast, that lead to the concept that Google is trying to close down Android a little bit, you know. It\u2019s an open source operating system. It\u2019s never going to be closed source. Like Google would have to fundamentally change the entire core idea of what Android is. So it\u2019s always going to be open source. It\u2019s just that Google is sort of slimming down how much of it is actually accessible to the public in a very open manner. And the reason for that is because Google, you know, Google wants to have more control over it and it\u2019s seeing pressure from outside sources to do different things with Android, most notably the EU. So depending on how you look at it, the AOSP system has been good or not so great. And it really just kind of goes with how you perceive the success of Android being.<\/p>\n
05:46 \u2013 Mishaal Rahman: Yeah, I\u2019ve always felt, you know, there\u2019s a bit of an asterisk when you call AOSP or Android an open source operating system, like open source project because you know, when you think of open source, you think of like you have a public GitHub repository where a bunch of independent developers all contribute code and you all work together and you have like maintainers who like approve patches and approve code kind of like in the Linux kernel, which is like there\u2019s a huge community of people volunteering and working on things like and and contributing to a single project. It\u2019s quite a bit different when it comes to Android. Google is the sole maintainer of Android. They have final say in terms of what gets submitted to the code base. Not only that, earlier this year they actually shut down the ability for developers to contribute their own code. They now developed Android fully in private. And so, you know, if you\u2019re not a Google engineer or you\u2019re not an engineer that works at one of the OEMs, there\u2019s a very low chance you\u2019ll be able to contribute anything that ends up in Android\u2019s codebase. And another thing is that Google has the final say on whether or not they release the Android source code at all. There is technically no legal obligation for them to do so. There\u2019s nothing forcing them to release the source code for the Android that runs on your phones. And in fact, there are several versions of Android where they don\u2019t release the source code at all. We don\u2019t have the source code for Wear OS. There\u2019s no source code for Android TV. We do have the source code for Android Automotive, but that\u2019s actually a strategic move from Google because they are trying to convince car makers to actually adopt their platform and to do that, they kind of want to give car makers the ability to customize it to suit their needs. So they\u2019re kind of forced into that position. Okay, we want to attract car makers and use we want them to build on the Android platform, but they won\u2019t do it unless they have some level of control. So we\u2019re going to release this as an open source platform so we can get better penetration in the car market, which is kind of like the reason why they did Android as an open source project from the in from the get go because when you\u2019re when you\u2019re growing a project, they needed to convince smartphone makers and tablet makers and way back then that okay, you\u2019re going to use our you\u2019re going to use our operating system as your base instead of another platform or develop your own. And to do that, we\u2019re going to release it as an open source project so that, you know, if you ever grow tired of things that we\u2019re doing, you can always fork it and start your own project. But kind of, we\u2019re in this we\u2019re in this position now where Android is so ubiquitous and it\u2019s so well- developed that there\u2019s really no benefit to companies shying away from it unless you\u2019re you\u2019re trying to like create some new form factor that Google themselves don\u2019t support, kind of like you have Meta with Horizon OS for their XR devices, which Google is now actually trying to compete with their Android XR. And you also have this position where Google is so dominant with its GMS, Google Play services and Google Play Store that it would be a really bad idea for an OEM to release a mobile device without the Play Store. So they\u2019re kind of like in a position where they\u2019re going to go with Google\u2019s version of Android, whether they like it or not, because if they want to have access to all the apps in the Play Store, they got to go with Google\u2019s version of it.<\/p>\n
09:03 \u2013 C. Scott Brown: Yeah, I think I think the core idea here is that times have changed. You know, when Android first came out, Google was trying to like you said, trying to build these relationships, trying to make it so like, no, don\u2019t use your own proprietary operating system. We tried that, you know, with the Palm and BlackBerry and all these different operating systems on all these different smartphones. And Google was kind of like, okay, we\u2019re all collectively fighting against iOS or at the time, iPhone OS. You know, we\u2019re all collectively fighting against that. So let\u2019s band together. Here\u2019s an operating system. It\u2019s free to use, do whatever you want with it, you know, we Google just gifted it to them. Things are different now. Like you said, now it\u2019s like if you don\u2019t use Android and you\u2019re not, you know, Apple, then you\u2019re basically signing your own death certificate. You\u2019re never going to survive in the wide world of smartphones. Unless you\u2019re Huawei in China specifically, but that\u2019s a very distinct difference because, you know, Huawei is basically like the national brand of China. So, of course, they can succeed there. But for everybody else, if you don\u2019t use Android, you\u2019re done. So, yeah, Google\u2019s now at the position where it has all the power and it\u2019s like, well, you know, what\u2019s the what benefit, you know, what what benefit is there to us if we do all the stuff that we\u2019ve been doing for the past, whatever it\u2019s been, 20 years. It\u2019s just not there anymore. So it\u2019s like, yeah, times have changed. and I think Google is starting to realize that, you know, it can change the way it does things and people don\u2019t really have anything that they can say about it. I mean, what\u2019s going to happen is Samsung going to start releasing, you know, Samsung OS on their phones? No, of course not. Like it\u2019s just that\u2019s just not happening.<\/p>\n
10:52 \u2013 Mishaal Rahman: I mean it\u2019s not just that there\u2019s no benefit now. It\u2019s actually arguably actively detrimental to them to to continue going the way they\u2019ve been going because we\u2019ve seen with the EU coming after Google and the Epic v. Google trial that the way Google\u2019s been doing its business where they kind of dangle AOSP is an open source platform, but then, you know, they kind of enforce their own requirements through trying to force GMS on OEMs and through the licensing agreements that governments really don\u2019t like this arrangement. They really don\u2019t like how Google is promoting AOSP as an open platform while at the same time trying to get companies to bundle all of its services and abide by all of its rules. They kind of see this as like a bait and switch and a way for Google to exert monopolistic pressure. Ironically enough, you know, Apple iOS has been closed from the very beginning, but they didn\u2019t get the same scrutiny in the epic fee Apple trial and a large reason was because since they were closed from the very beginning, there was never an argument that they were having to use any monopolistic practices to kind of close off access to its platform because the platform was never open in the first place. So if Google were to close off Android hypothetically, then OEMs would have to work with Google. There would be no, oh, we\u2019re we have the option of using AOSP, but Google\u2019s forcing us to use GMS. If they were to close off Android, it would only be if you want the latest version of Android and all the security fixes, then you have to have GMS. And that forced bundling would kind of ironically take away from the arguments that, you know, the governments have had against Google and what I feel kind of contributed to their losses in these anti-trust cases.<\/p>\n
12:34 \u2013 C. Scott Brown: Yeah, so I mean, Google\u2019s kind of in a tough situation now. It\u2019s got to slowly migrate Android to being less open source while still, of course, maintaining it as a de facto open source system because like I said earlier, unless Google completely changes what Android is, it will always have to be on a on a certain level an open source platform because of Apache 2.0 and all the things that entails. So it\u2019s like, I don\u2019t know, Google\u2019s in a tough position. But I think that the core issue here for this particular bit of news with the operating system or sorry, with Google not releasing the source code for these big changes that have happened. I think it\u2019s just going to be growing pains, you know, and developers are just going to have to sort of adjust every month as Google decides like, oh, here\u2019s a new thing that we\u2019re going to take away that we\u2019ve done before in the past. And that\u2019s going to be rough on developers, but I think in the end, it\u2019s going to continue to make Android be the dominant player. Like that\u2019s all Google wants. Like Google does not want Android to get worse and it doesn\u2019t want it to lose market share. It wants it to be the number one operating system for mobile devices in the world, which it is right now, and it wants it to stay that way. So this is all very strategic. It\u2019s just that, you know, change is hard for developers. Change is hard for Android users and we\u2019re just going through a lot of changes over the next few years and we\u2019re just going to have to see how it goes at the end. But yeah, I don\u2019t know. I think a lot of people would view this as being bad. They\u2019d be like, oh, this is bad. Like Google is doing bad things to Android. But it\u2019s not really bad. It\u2019s just things have changed. It\u2019s been a long time since Android first came around and things can\u2019t stay the same forever, you know?<\/p>\n
14:29 \u2013 Mishaal Rahman: Yeah. And I mean, we\u2019re kind of seeing like the decisions Google has to make with Android XR. I\u2019m especially curious to see what they\u2019re going to do with that platform because when I asked them if they plan to release the source code for it, they would not give me a yes or no answer. But I I probably think that they\u2019re probably not going to release the source code for Android XR because they\u2019re, you know, they don\u2019t want to help Meta, their biggest competitor in this space because they already have their own AOSP fork of Android \u2013 Horizon OS, which is based on AOSP. And yeah, it\u2019s going to be interesting to see what they do moving forward with Android and the source code. I think personally that the delayed release of source code is probably going to be what they\u2019re going to be doing going forward. I did ask Google if this delay that we\u2019re seeing with Android 16 QPR1 source code is going to be a one-time thing or the new norm going forward. But I didn\u2019t hear back yet. But I think a delay makes sense because I mean, I think it makes sense unfortunately because for Google, they can kind of still eat their cake and have it too. They can still kind of have Android be open source, but if you\u2019re a company who wants to access to all the latest security patches, which is a very important thing, and you also want, you know, the latest features that Google\u2019s developing in its quarterly releases, then you\u2019re going to have to sign up and become a GMS partner. You\u2019re going to have to get you\u2019re going to have to sign those contracts and those agreements. So I think this is probably what\u2019s going to happen going forward. Like Google is right. They\u2019re not killing AOSP as Seang Chau had mentioned on X. AOSP is not going away, but I think it is going to be very different going forward.<\/p>\n
And moving on to our next story. So something else that might be very different in the future is Google Health Connect. So Health Connect, for those of you who don\u2019t know, is a platform, it\u2019s basically an app and it\u2019s a framework that allows you to store health data on your device. So prior to Health Connect, you would have apps like Fitbit, Adidas Running, you would have Strava, you would have Google Fit, you would have all these different services and they would all store their own different kinds of data in different ways. So like one app would read and write health, it would read and write heart rate data in a different way than another app would. And so if you\u2019re a developer who wanted to support integration with other applications, you would have to write 50 different integrations that handled the different ways every single app actually interpreted that data, which was kind of untenable. That\u2019s why you didn\u2019t really have a lot of apps communicating with each other. But Health Connect aims to solve that by kind of standardizing the way that apps store and retrieve certain kinds of health data. And it basically comes in the form of an app and an API that apps can use. So the app allows you to control what applications have access to what kinds of data and how long they have access to it. And then the API allows apps to read and write that data to this on-device database. And this database is secure. It is only on your device, but you can back it up to your Google Drive or other cloud storage bucket. And that\u2019s it. It basically just stores your existing health data from your other applications. It doesn\u2019t do anything else. It\u2019s not like Apple Health, which can actually use the sensors on your iPhone or your Apple Watch to actually collect some health and fitness metrics. So Scott, before we dive into what\u2019s changing with Health Connect, what might be changing, I kind of want to ask you, do you use Health Connect?<\/p>\n
18:20 \u2013 C. Scott Brown: No, I mean, I have it. I mean, I\u2019m pretty sure every Android phone has it on there, but I don\u2019t really use it. I\u2019m lucky in the sense that I have a Pixel Watch that I wear all day, every day, and before I was using the Pixel Watch, I was using Fitbit products. So it was very easy for me to just transfer everything that I\u2019ve been doing with Fitbit to to the Pixel Watch because Google owns Fitbit. So I\u2019m kind of the anomaly in the sense that all of my data, my health data has always been in one place. So therefore I never had to worry about pulling in things from different apps. That being said, I do own other things that I could be using. I have a Wahoo Tickr chest strap. I have a Garmin smartwatch for hiking. I have other stuff, but I don\u2019t really use it for health tracking. And therefore Health Connect has never really been something that I\u2019ve needed. But at the same time, Health Connect made a lot of sense to me when it first came out. I was like, oh yeah, totally. Like you\u2019ve got all these different pools of data and all these different formats and whatever, putting it all together into one place makes perfect sense to me so that everything could be a little bit closer to what Apple\u2019s uh version does. But yeah, I mean, I think Health Connect was kind of a disappointment because it was a solution to a mess that Google had let happen rather than a from the beginning, this is how it\u2019s going to be take it or leave it thing. Which I know Android fans tend to get upset about when it comes to Apple. You know, they tend to feel like Apple is too strict and too controlling and that\u2019s why they like Android better. But really, this is one of those situations where Apple\u2019s strict controlling ways actually make it a better platform in certain respects because Apple came in and said, guess what, you want to do stuff on the iPhone or the Apple Watch, you have to do it this way. That way, everything is the same and we can control everything that we want to do. And Google didn\u2019t do that. And now Google\u2019s trying to you know, clean up like imagine your house being a complete and utter disaster after a party and Google\u2019s coming in to be like, how are we going to fix this? Whereas Apple just didn\u2019t let that party get out of hand in the first place and doesn\u2019t have to clean anything up. So like that\u2019s kind of where Health Connect is in this sense. So, so yeah, I don\u2019t use it. and I\u2019m lucky that I don\u2019t have to use it, but I am the anomaly. There are people on Android Authority who are not in my Rita, for example, she\u2019s using like 20 different health things from various stuff and trying to collect it all into Health Connect is proving to be something that\u2019s really upsetting for her because it\u2019s such a mess.<\/p>\n
21:05 \u2013 Mishaal Rahman: Yeah, and from the beginning, it\u2019s just like kind of it\u2019s I think it\u2019s the same thing, same situation that Google had with the Find My Device network where they valued privacy over convenience. You know, with the Find My Device network, you had the issue where Google opted everyone into the more privacy friendly option where you would only track people, it would only track devices if there were at least multiple Android devices nearby pinging that tracker. With Health Connect, they made it so by default, like when it launched, that database only lived on your device. There was not even a way to transfer it to another device or back it up into the cloud. And there\u2019s still no way to sync it between devices. So as you mentioned, like Rita has had a rough time using Health Connect because she has like 20 different services and like 10 different devices as you know, we all do. We have so many different devices. But for her, she discovered that when you, you know, use when you sign up and use Health Connect on your phone, and you have it on your tablet, and then you have a device and a service that\u2019s supposed to route data through Health Connect on like a treadmill, for example, any data that\u2019s collected on your phone is not synced over to your tablet. So you might have different step counts, for example, on your phone versus your tablet, different heart rate data on your phone versus your tablet. and it\u2019s not kind of like centralized and and collected together into one central database, which was kind of like you would think is the idea behind Health Connect, but really it\u2019s like a single device database. It\u2019s not like a multi-device kind of broad database that Apple Health currently offers. But that doesn\u2019t mean things can\u2019t change. You know, we\u2019ve already saw that Google did solve the problem with the fact that Health Connect was limited to one device by adding backup and restore capabilities. And it looks like they might be working to evolve Health Connect into something beyond just a hub for your existing health data. Based on my own findings, it looks like Google is adding native step tracking support to Health Connect. And I think that\u2019ll be a big deal because that would be the first kind of metric that Health Connect itself would be collecting rather than relying on third-party apps contributing that data. So Health Connect, which is built into every Android phone since Android 14, would start tracking your steps without you even having you install a third-party application. And, you know, step tracking is a very simple thing. It\u2019s just analyzing data from your phone\u2019s accelerometer. Like pretty much any phone can do it, right? So this is not like a big feature in and of itself, but the fact that they\u2019re doing this at all suggests they might be working to evolve Health Connect into something much more, perhaps something that is finally an equivalent, a true equivalent to Apple Health. And that is something I\u2019m excited for.<\/p>\n
23:45 \u2013 C. Scott Brown: Yeah, and it should be noticed that or noticed, it should be noted that =Samsung Health is also much closer to Apple Health. So it\u2019s not like Android doesn\u2019t have platforms that can do a lot better than what Health Connect can do. It\u2019s just that once again, Google is starting from complete and utter chaos and having to figure out a way to organize it without pissing everybody off. And when I say everybody, I mean, you know, all the other companies, Garmin and Wahoo and all these fitness companies that want to have this stuff. So Google\u2019s got to figure out a way to thread the needle. How can we make it so that Health Connect is actually useful to our users and more like Apple Health and Samsung Health, but also not so rigid that our partners get really mad at us. So it\u2019s like once again, this is a situation that Google kind of made for itself and is now trying to figure out a way out of it.<\/p>\n
24:37 \u2013 Mishaal Rahman: It\u2019s funny that you mentioned Samsung Health as the Android version of Apple Health when Google has its own Fitbit, which, you know, is basically also an Android version of Apple Health. You know, it does a lot of advanced things. It\u2019s a primary means of tracking all your health and fitness tracking your health health and fitness metrics if you have a Pixel phone or a Pixel Watch or a Fitbit. But unlike Apple Health, it\u2019s not built into every Android device. The same is true for Samsung Health. Only Health Connect is available across the board on all Android devices. So if Google were to, let\u2019s say, upgrade the baseline for what Health Connect is capable of, and then, you know, you could install additional services like Fitbit or Samsung Health if you wanted a more advanced tracking features, then I think we would be getting closer and closer to what kind of Apple Health currently offers on the iOS side of things where you have Apple Health, but it\u2019s not the end all be all. It\u2019s not the only thing you can install and use or you should be using on Apple devices. It\u2019s like it\u2019s a good baseline. It collects all this data together in one place and it tracks some things, but it doesn\u2019t track everything. and it doesn\u2019t work with all devices that you might want to use to improve your health. So, you know, this is just the start of something. I hope it\u2019s the start of something big, but we\u2019ll have to wait and see.<\/p>\n
And the final bit of news that we\u2019re going to be talking about is a trio of updates coming to the Gemini app. So the first change is a refreshed new section in the Gemini app called \u201ccreated by you\u201d. And this section will store all of your Gemini-generated images, videos, and even deep research documents and code. This will be similar to the ChatGPT library feature, which allows you to, you know, quickly access all the things that you created within the application. You know, a couple of months ago, they actually recently added search support within the app, which made it much easier to find, you know, like a specific chat that you had initiated with Gemini because, you know, you could have hundreds of chats and then having to scroll through that list would be a huge burden. And the same thing is true right now. It\u2019s kind of a pain in the butt to find a specific image that you had generated through Gemini because it would be in one of these chats here. But you have to find the exact chat that you actually made to generate that image or code base or whatever you did. So this new \u201ccreated by you\u201d library will just kind of put all of that in this big, nice, beautiful gallery that you can scroll through. The next new feature is a new update to the Gemini Live experience where if you\u2019re sharing your camera with Gemini Live and you point it at something and you ask it about say like a particular location, it\u2019ll start showing these Google Maps info cards that tell you information about the place name, the type of place it is, the average rating and the number of reviews. So it\u2019s kind of like this a little bit of useful information without having to kick you out of the Gemini Live camera sharing experience, which you know, is what I found to be one of the more annoying things about the Gemini Live so far is that, you know, if you ask it about something, it\u2019ll tell you the information, but it doesn\u2019t show you the information so you can\u2019t like actually visually see what it\u2019s telling you and sometimes that information is pretty useful. So having that information right as you\u2019re actually pointing your camera at something will be really helpful. And then finally, Google is improving the home screen for Gemini to change it from where you have these chips at the bottom, where you have the + icon, the banana image for the Nano Banana image generator, the research button, and the three dot menu for more. They\u2019re testing a new UI where you have this new menu option that expands into this card that shows you all the available options. At the same time, you can also access these same options by these chips that are underneath the hello text. And they are also testing some suggestions where instead of showing those chips that I\u2019ve previously just showed it, you could alternatively just quickly start a new chat with Gemini by clicking one of these suggested prompts that are shown underneath the hello message. So this is a couple of things that Google\u2019s added. I kind of wanted to hear your thoughts on all three of them, but in particular, Scott, I wanted to ask you about the new Google Maps info card feature. because I feel like this feature and all the other Gemini Live screen sharing, camera sharing features are kind of preparing for the eventual, the upcoming launch of the Android XR glasses. What do you think?<\/p>\n
29:20 \u2013 C. Scott Brown: Yeah, that makes sense to me. I mean, I can imagine the usefulness of that. I can imagine the usefulness of it just from a phone perspective. I travel a lot and one of the things that I use Gemini Live for pretty frequently when I\u2019m traveling is I take it out and I point it at something, you know, a landmark or a building or a street sign or whatever. and you know, ask, what\u2019s the significance of what I\u2019m looking at here? And, you know, like you said, Gemini will respond and say, oh, that\u2019s, you know, you know, the White House and its significance is it\u2019s the house of the President or what, you know, like it\u2019ll explain what it is, but it doesn\u2019t have any Maps information. Nothing I can touch or click or see. It just talks to you. So yeah, so having the Maps information would be super useful. But yeah, I mean, with Android XR sort of eventually coming. I mean, I know it\u2019s here, but we still need a device to use it on and Google told us that it was coming this year, but I still haven\u2019t heard anything about that. So it\u2019s pretty deep in the year now. so I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on there, but yeah, theoretically, Android XR, a piece of hardware with Android XR on it is coming this year and yeah, this seems like the a logical preparation for using your headset or your glasses or whatever it is that it\u2019s coming to visualize things around you and get information directly from Gemini for assisting you to get, you know, to dive even further into information surrounding whatever it is that you\u2019re checking out. So yeah, that makes perfect sense to me. When is it coming though?<\/p>\n
30:59 \u2013 Mishaal Rahman: I mean yeah, I can\u2019t imagine myself awkwardly holding my phone up and asking it about like a place in public. You know, like, oh, tell me about this place and waiting for it to respond and then having it show the results. Like I would just quietly pull out my phone, type in the prompt, like tell me about this place and maybe take a picture. Like for me, it seems all of these Gemini Live camera sharing experiences are just kind of testing these features out for Android XR. Like they\u2019re definitely not intended for you to use these on phones. They\u2019re just just too awkward to be holding your phone up in this way.<\/p>\n
31:34 \u2013 C. Scott Brown: Yeah, but the big problem is that so far, the only thing that we know is absolutely coming out at some point in the near future is Project Moohan, which is the thing that Google and Samsung and Qualcomm have been developing jointly together, which is very definitively a headset. It is something that you do not take with you to go other places. You\u2019re not walking around with Project Moohan on your face. So yeah, this would have to be for something that you take with you on a walk, which the only logical explanation would be a pair of smart glasses. And we know that Google is working on these, but they are, as far as I can tell anyway, much further behind in the development process towards an actual retail launch release, than Project Moohan. So yeah, if this is definitively for Android XR, who knows when we\u2019re actually going to see this come out. So yeah, if you\u2019re somebody who doesn\u2019t want to use their phone for this, you\u2019ve got a while to go. So go ahead and keep using your phone for now because it\u2019s going to be a while before we have any Android XR glasses to review or talk about. Because considering we still like I said, don\u2019t even have a release date for Moohan and it\u2019s been over a year, right? Since we heard about Moohan? Or if it hasn\u2019t been over a year, it\u2019s been very close to one.<\/p>\n
32:56 \u2013 Mishaal Rahman: They announced it in December. They said that we will get an Android XR device sometime in 2025. So we have about three months left now for them to show something.<\/p>\n
33:08 \u2013 So yeah, and I haven\u2019t heard anything, you know, usually before a big release, you know, as a person who works in the industry of leaks, we all know like you start hearing about things a few weeks or even a few months ahead of time. I haven\u2019t heard anything. So I don\u2019t know what\u2019s happening there, but yeah, maybe we\u2019ll find out something soon.<\/p>\n
33:31 \u2013 Mishaal Rahman: Hopefully along with the rumored trifold.<\/p>\n
33:34 \u2013 C. Scott Brown: Yes.<\/p>\n
33:37 \u2013 Mishaal Rahman: So Scott, before we close off, I did want to ask you one more thing and it\u2019s about these chatbots in general and like the way we access them. So you remember last week we talked about the kind of search experience like how it\u2019s kind of like jarring to have one search bar in one app do one thing, another search bar in another app do one thing and they\u2019re kind of not really integrated well together. I kind of feel like we\u2019re seeing the same thing with these LLM chatbots. You have the Gemini app, as we\u2019re seeing that like Google\u2019s building so much into this Gemini app that they\u2019re kind of redesigning it every week to kind of make sure that users are getting the features that they want and then they\u2019re not missing out on the features and they\u2019re able to access all their chats and staying and spending so much time with the apps. But then you also have all these other applications that are kind of building integrations with those chatbots. So what do you think is going to be the feature of our interactions with these chatbots? Do you think we are all going to be using these dedicated apps like Gemini, like ChatGPT, or do you think people are going to be primarily using them through the existing apps that they already use?<\/p>\n
34:41 \u2013 C. Scott Brown: I mean, that\u2019s a really good question. I know what I would like the most would be one spot. That\u2019s what I would like the most. I mean, I know there are a lot of inherent problems that would come along with that, but at the same time, just take AI overviews, for example, you know, you go to google.com and you type in, you know, a search query of some kind, and depending on whether or not the search query is applicable to AI Overviews, you\u2019ll get a top box that will show you created by AI information related to your query. That\u2019s Gemini. Like that\u2019s the Gemini LLM doing what it does. You could type the same thing into Gemini itself, the app on your phone or even the Gemini web portal. And you\u2019ll get very similar information, theoretically. But yeah, the fact that these things exist in these two disparate areas is very strange. Obviously, Google\u2019s never going to get rid of google.com. It\u2019s been decades and everyone knows that if you want to find information about something, you go to Google. You Google it. So Google can\u2019t all of a sudden be like, okay, don\u2019t go to Google guys, go to Gemini. Like that just wouldn\u2019t work for 99% of the population. So yeah, I feel like the easiest solution would be to make google.com a Gemini portal instead and just integrate everything into one space. But then, you know, are you going to go to google.com to create an image? Like is that something that the general user is going to understand? Are they going to understand that if they go to google.com and type in, please make me an image of, you know, a badger eating a hot dog, whatever. Like are they going to know to do that or are they going to think, no, that\u2019s a Gemini task. So like what Google sort of has to contend with here is making sure the general populace, not people like you and me and not even people that listen to this podcast, but you know, moms and grandmas and young children and stuff like that, how are they going to convince them to go to these specific places to do these specific things? When everything that they\u2019re doing is all based on the same underlying chatbot. That\u2019s the problem. I wish there was a simple way to just put it all in one spot because that to me makes the most sense. And that\u2019s what\u2019s happening with ChatGPT. You know, like with ChatGPT, you\u2019re going to one spot and you\u2019re doing all your ChatGPT stuff. And that\u2019s why I think ChatGPT is still, you know, got the mind share throughout the populace of being like, oh, if I want to do these AI things, I go to ChatGPT. And Google\u2019s got to fight that somehow. And yeah, by having all these disparate things, search bars over here, Gemini, AI Overviews over here, it\u2019s never going to win. And so Google really needs to figure out a way to elegantly put it all under one roof. How it\u2019s going to do that, I don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t make enough money to figure that out.<\/p>\n
37:43 \u2013 Mishaal Rahman: No, I mean, you brought up a good point about like they want to integrate it into in a way where people are familiar with. They don\u2019t want to rock the boat. They want to get people to use Gemini, but they don\u2019t want to rock it too hard because they don\u2019t want to lose people who use google.com, which is a buttload of people. So, yeah, that is a question. I have no idea how they\u2019re going to answer that. Like I would also love everything to be in the Gemini app. Like my go-to is just the Gemini app. Even if I\u2019m using Android Studio for something, they have a Gemini chatbot inside there. Google Docs has like a bunch of Gemini features in there. I don\u2019t use any of that. I only go to gemini.google.com or open the Gemini app. I like having everything in one spot, the chat, the search history, my custom gems, and all the stuff that I\u2019ve created, the interface that I\u2019m familiar with. You know, I just like having it in that one spot. I generally expect the output because I can always switch it to 2.5 Pro versus like there\u2019s sometimes no model switcher in these other integrations, but I know most people are not going to be consciously going to the Gemini app. You know, they might be familiar with ChatGPT, and the only way they know how to access that is through the ChatGPT website or the ChatGPT app. But for Gemini, Google has all these existing services that are really popular that they can kind of slowly ease their services into, but I don\u2019t think they\u2019re going to be able to really get a lot of people, like a critical mass of people to take their experiences and fully transition and migrate over to the Gemini app. I think, yeah, you\u2019re probably right that we\u2019re just going to see them ease more and more of their features into their existing apps and services.<\/p>\n
39:18 \u2013 C. Scott Brown: It\u2019s funny you mentioned, you know, not using the per app Gemini features because I do this all the time. So what I use Gemini for a lot is thumbnail ideation for my C. Scott Brown YouTube channel. So I\u2019ll come up with an idea and I\u2019ll type it in and then I\u2019ll get a visual representation of the thumbnail I\u2019m looking for and then I can go and capture a photo and do everything and we can edit all together. And I then take that photo that I\u2019ve created in the Gemini app, download it and then put it in the Google Doc with the script I\u2019m working on. All of this could be done in Docs and I always go to the Gemini web app to do it and I don\u2019t know why. Like I get to the Docs and I start embedding the video or the the thumbnail and I\u2019m like, I could have just done this all in Docs and I just forget every time because like you I\u2019m like, no, I want one place where everything is.<\/p>\n
40:12 \u2013 Mishaal Rahman: I think I think for me the reason is because like we\u2019re already so used to how Google Docs works, to how YouTube works and everything, right? Like adding these little tidbits there that like, oh summarize this document or you can generate an image in Google Docs. It just adds more and more like mental stimulus, mental things to keep track of. We\u2019re like, okay, I\u2019m just going to ignore all of that. I know that if I want to do anything that\u2019s AI related, I\u2019m going to go to the Gemini app or the Gemini website. I\u2019m just going to keep using these existing services the way I\u2019ve been using them for like a decade. And I think personally for me, that\u2019s probably the reason why I\u2019ve been doing everything in just the Gemini app.<\/p>\n
40:49 \u2013 C. Scott Brown: Yeah, 100% agree. Feature creep is real and, you know, if you just look at Microsoft Word, I mean, I don\u2019t know if you use the Office suite at all, but I use some Microsoft Office tools. and when you open Microsoft Word now, it\u2019s a nightmare. It\u2019s like 20 pop-ups and like use AI this, use AI that, like sir, I just want to write some words, you know. Like I don\u2019t want all this stuff.<\/p>\n
41:16 \u2013 Mishaal Rahman: Sir, this is a Windows PC. Let me use my Windows PC.<\/p>\n
41:20 \u2013 C. Scott Brown: Exactly. It\u2019s like it\u2019s just too much. And so yeah, Google, I think Google needs to figure this out and it needs to figure it out soon. And this is something like I said that we talked about in the previous episode where it\u2019s just like, this is this is now, you know, we were just talking about the problems with Health Connect and how my analogy of like a party, like a post-party cleanup where you have to clean up after this rager. Like that\u2019s what Google is at right now. And the rager is starting to develop. And if Google wants to not have to clean up that mess later, it\u2019s got to start now making sure that things don\u2019t get out of hand. And yeah, and unfortunately, I just think it\u2019s moving too fast. It\u2019s moving too fast to try and compete and do all these things. And it\u2019s going to have this giant mess for itself five years down the road that it\u2019s going to then have to try and figure out how to clean up. And it\u2019s just like just come up with an idea right now and go for it. And that\u2019s Google\u2019s Achilles heel. Like it just can\u2019t do that for some reason.<\/p>\n
42:19 \u2013 Mishaal Rahman: I think that\u2019s actually Google\u2019s uh MO, isn\u2019t it? Like they come up with a new messaging app every week and then five years down the line, they kill it. I think maybe they do a little too much of that.<\/p>\n
42:28 \u2013 C. Scott Brown: Yeah, so well, so anyway, it\u2019s a tricky situation and it\u2019s just we\u2019re going to have to see how it all pans out.<\/p>\n
42:37 \u2013 Mishaal Rahman: Right. So that\u2019s everything we\u2019ve got for you this week. You can find links to all the stories mentioned in this episode in the show notes and you can find more amazing stories to read over on androidauthority.com.<\/p>\n
42:49 \u2013 C. Scott Brown: Thanks for listening to the Authority Insights podcast. We publish every week on YouTube, Spotify and other podcast platforms. You can follow us everywhere on social media at Android Authority and you can follow me personally on Instagram, Bluesky and my own YouTube channel at C. Scott Brown.<\/p>\n
43:06 \u2013 Mishaal Rahman: As for me, I\u2019m on most social media platforms posting day in and day out about Android. If you want to keep up with the latest in Android, go to my Linktree and find me on the platform that you like best. Thanks for listening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"00:00 \u2013 Mishaal Rahman: Is Google\u2019s delay in releasing source code a sign of AOSP\u2019s impending doom? 00:04…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3159],"tags":[2240,138971,547,53,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-421263","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-authority-insights","9":"tag-authority-insights-podcast","10":"tag-mobile","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115197385346486279","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}