Google's Smart Home Operating System and Android Things to be Discontinued in 2022

Sieeka Khan, Tech Times 18 December 2020, 08:12 am

Google announced that it will shut down its stripped-down version of Android that is designed for smart home devices. The OS called Android Things never took off and was below expectations when introduced in the market.

Google to shut down its OS for smart homes

The smart home project started in 2015 and it was first introduced as Brillo and was meant to provide the underlying operating system for the internet of things.

In 2016, Google changed Brillo and relaunched the OS as Android Things. It which was meant to run on products such as connected speakers, routers and security cameras. By relying on Android, the OS was supposed to be familiar to the users, developers and it should be easy to navigate.

Also Read: Google Is Developing 'Brillo,' A New Android OS For The Internet Of Things

However, despite the revamp and promotion for over a year, nothing happened. In 2018, some smart speakers and smart displays came out using the underlying OS, according to Endgadget.

Unfortunately, no other companies were interested in Android Things. In February 2019, Google announced that it was refocusing Android Things to cater specifically to smart speakers and to smart displays.

After two years, Android Things is now on track to be discontinued. The Android Things Console, which lets the developers push updates to their devices, will now stop accepting new non-commercial projects starting January 5, 2021.

On January 5, 2022, the console will be turned down completely and all of the project data will be permanently deleted. That means that developers have a year to catch up and finish any Android Things projects that they already have, according to Android Police.

For five years, the project barely made an impact despite the increase in popularity of smart home devices.

According to Ars Technica, Android Things failed to conquer the IoT space. Google did not build a device that is based on the OS itself, instead the company used its own displays and speakers as a modified version of the Google Cast platform.

Android for Everything project

The Android Things OS was part of the Android for Everything strategy. It is a strategy where Google tried to extend the Android-for-phones model to other forms.

Google pushed for a no-cost OS onto a market segment, giving device manufacturers a low-cost and easy way to run with a solid OS that can be updated and has a strong app ecosystem.

Android Things is not the only failed venture of Google. The company also launched Android-for-watches, also known as Wear OS, which never took off because of the lack of chips.

Qualcomm finally made a semi-modern smartwatch chip in early 2020, but it is too late. Android for tablets, which is just phone Android, never worked out because Google could not maintain the tablet interface of the OS or a suite of Google tablet apps.

Also Google's Daydream VR group started to work on Android-for-VR-headsets. They are both phone-powered headsets and one or two standalone models.

The app ecosystem of Android and the touchscreen prowess never translate to VR, so it is not clear why an Android headset was also launched. Google then removed the VR features out of the Android codebase.