14 DAY TRIAL // One reason why people love Android is its flexible nature, and OEMs across the world have been forking the interface on their Android smartphones and tablets without much fuss or Google’s interference.
However, all good things come to an end. Why are we saying that? Because when it comes to Google’s latest Android Wear, Android TV and Android Auto platforms, OEMs and developers won’t be awarded the same privileges.
Here, Google will rule supreme and no one else. What this signifies is that Google won’t have anyone meddle with the UI on Android Wear, TV and Auto platforms. The fact has been confirmed by Google’s own Director of Engineering David Burke who spoke to ArsTehnica.
“The UI is more part of the product in this case. We want to just have a very consistent user experience, so if you have one TV in one room and another TV in another room and they both say Android TV, we want them to work the same and look the same… The device manufacturers can brand it, and they might have services that they want to include with it, but otherwise it should be the same.”
Bottom line is that Google will be doing all the managing for these tree platforms, including pushing out soft updates and feats, much like in the vein of the Chrome desktop.
What Google is trying to achieve here is to bring homogeneity to all these platforms running on Android’s latest issue. The search giant also wants to provide a consistent user experience that will prevent users from getting confused about the many possible faces of the UI.
This might put a lot of pressure on Google’s hardware partners because they will have to think of other ways of luring customers in, instead of relying on a slight UI redesign. Therefore, you can kiss things like TouchWiz or Magazine UX goodbye.
Google doesn't like OEMs tinkering with its interface anyway, because this involves pushing their own services in the front, while Google’s are left in the background too much.
Remember the debate between Samsung and Google back when Magazine UX was introduced with the Samsung Galaxy TabPRO and NotePRO tablets?
Back then, Google asked Samsung to keep things in the more stock-Android version side of things, but Samsung didn't stop there with Magazine UX, but pushed on top of its new AMOLED Galaxy Tab S tablets.
Google appears to have had enough of being the good guy, at least while wearables, TV and cars are concerned.