Updating Android without updating!

Google I/O has traditionally, for the past few years at least, been an event where Google unveils the newest and shiniest version of Android to the world. Although open source, Android is developed in-house with little known to the outside world save through the usual rumours and leaks. It’s been no different this year. Prior to Google I/O, there has been signs of a new version of Android, version 4.3 and widely believed to be a new iteration of Jelly Bean showing up in server logs. The talk of the grapevine was that this version would be unveiled during the I/O event.

It wasn’t.

There was no mention of it in the keynote, although there were cryptic references to it by engineers making presentations. However, given what was mentioned in the keynote itself, we may glean some information towards Google’s intentions.

Google Play Music All Access; service that allows unlimited streaming

Google unveiled a number of new services it offers for Android during the event. First of all, it unveiled the Google Play Music All Access service, which is a Spotify-esque service that allows unlimited streaming of any music in Google Play’s library for a fixed monthly fee. This is built on top of the already excellent Music service which allows you to upload 20 000 songs to the cloud for streaming anywhere. Google also launched the Google Play Game Services, its answer to Apple’s Game Centre by allowing you to play games that supports cloud saves, matchmaking, and leaderboards. Google also unveiled the “Google Editions” of a couple of high-end phones on the market right now that will run the stock Android experience without any manufacturer skins: the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One. Google+, the fledgling social network, also received a massive update with its Hangouts chat service replacing the aging Google Talk service to compete with the likes of messaging services like WhatsApp. A redesigned version of Google Maps was also in the works.

There is a common theme to the new features: they run on existing (well, newer ones at least) versions of Android without needing an update. Android updates has always been a sticking point in the Android ecosystem, causing Fragmentation (TM) and other nasties. By not announcing a new version of Android while revealing a slew of new Android features, it is likely that Google was attempting to show that they can add new features to Android without updating the underlying version of Android itself. We first saw these efforts when Google applications on Android such as Gmail began to be updated from the Google Play store without needing a new version of Android. Google I/O continues this effort by decoupling some of the applications from the Android core. It is likely that this will continue in the near future.

There is a common theme to the new features: no update!

Another reason could be due to the increasing consumerisation of the Google I/O event. The event was originally envisioned to be a platform for Google to reach out to developers. The increasing prominence of Android in recent years have caused consumer attentionto increase for the event, threatening to derail it from its developer roots. This could be an attempt to shift the event back to its original focus, and perhaps create another event just for consumers. If that is the case, then we may yet see another event to announce a new version of Android down the road. The current rumours, which should be taken with a pinch of salt, points to early June for this.

Of course, all of the above is simply speculation – Google may have intended to show Android 4.3 at the I/O event but it simply failed to materialise due to some last minute problems. We may never know. It is, however, nice to see that Google can in fact update Android without updating Android.