4 ms·

hm, they are BLE devices right? google can push out google play services updates to a lot of those phones anytime. it doesn't seem inconceivable. (recent nothin

by pas 3y ago

hm, they are BLE devices right? google can push out google play services updates to a lot of those phones anytime. it doesn't seem inconceivable. (recent nothing os update has some feature related to this, I have no idea if it's from stock android or not though.)

LoganDark 3y ago
I don't think it would be totally impossible for Google to try this, but even the percentage of phones that have functioning GMS (i.e. on a recent enough Android version, receiving updates, and even having GMS installed in the first place) is far lower than the percentage of iPhones that are still receiving updates. Sure, most phones you can buy in the US will have GMS, but part of the benefit of AirTags is being able to track things through, say, China, and you could be somewhat hard-pressed to find a chinese Android with GMS. Meanwhile, all sorts of people all around the world want the latest iPhone, and every single latest iPhone in the world gets the latest updates.
- pas 3y ago
  Hm, strange. I haven't looked at the numbers, but I would assume more Androids are sold and in use with GMS than iPhones. But you might be completed right! Also it's a very interesting point about China and AirTags. How come it's not forbidden by the CCP?
  - LoganDark 3y ago
    > I would assume more Androids are sold and in use with GMS than iPhones. As of 2023, Android has approximately a 70% global market share (iPhone has almost 60% in the US), but we don't know exactly how many of those run GMS. There's a list of supported devices [0], but it'd take forever to sort through it, and we don't know: - how many devices there are not on that list - how many devices have hacked/"pirated" GMS anyway If Google were to pursue something like AirTag, it could probably work okay enough, except: - It'd likely have worse/coarser coverage than Apple AirTags, simply due to the variety of Android phones out there, and the fact that most of them will never be fully updated - It'd likely take a while to introduce because of the need to wait until enough phones are updated for the tags will work properly - It'd likely not have the same quality of user experience, and Google is not particularly known for privacy Re coarser coverage, there are also likely to be huge dead zones where e.g. the dominant phone manufacturer is Huawei, which is hated by Google and no longer allowed to manufacture phones running GMS. Xiaomi doesn't have Google Play, but they still have GMS. [0]: https://storage.googleapis.com/play_public/supported_devices.html https://storage.googleapis.com/play_public/supported_devices... > Also it's a very interesting point about China and AirTags. How come it's not forbidden by the CCP? Probably because it's invisible. Consumers have no visibility or say in how their iPhone tracks nearby AirTags.
    - pas 3y ago
      I mean the CCP is stubborn and irrational, but not blind, if millions of iPhones serve as a dragnet data exfiltration platform, how come they don't try to block it? (Or since AirTags are easy to detect they are simply so low-risk?)

by pas 3y ago

LoganDark 3y ago

I don't think it would be totally impossible for Google to try this, but even the percentage of phones that have functioning GMS (i.e. on a recent enough Android version, receiving updates, and even having GMS installed in the first place) is far lower than the percentage of iPhones that are still receiving updates. Sure, most phones you can buy in the US will have GMS, but part of the benefit of AirTags is being able to track things through, say, China, and you could be somewhat hard-pressed to find a chinese Android with GMS. Meanwhile, all sorts of people all around the world want the latest iPhone, and every single latest iPhone in the world gets the latest updates.

pas 3y ago
Hm, strange. I haven't looked at the numbers, but I would assume more Androids are sold and in use with GMS than iPhones. But you might be completed right! Also it's a very interesting point about China and AirTags. How come it's not forbidden by the CCP?
- LoganDark 3y ago
  > I would assume more Androids are sold and in use with GMS than iPhones. As of 2023, Android has approximately a 70% global market share (iPhone has almost 60% in the US), but we don't know exactly how many of those run GMS. There's a list of supported devices [0], but it'd take forever to sort through it, and we don't know: - how many devices there are not on that list - how many devices have hacked/"pirated" GMS anyway If Google were to pursue something like AirTag, it could probably work okay enough, except: - It'd likely have worse/coarser coverage than Apple AirTags, simply due to the variety of Android phones out there, and the fact that most of them will never be fully updated - It'd likely take a while to introduce because of the need to wait until enough phones are updated for the tags will work properly - It'd likely not have the same quality of user experience, and Google is not particularly known for privacy Re coarser coverage, there are also likely to be huge dead zones where e.g. the dominant phone manufacturer is Huawei, which is hated by Google and no longer allowed to manufacture phones running GMS. Xiaomi doesn't have Google Play, but they still have GMS. [0]: https://storage.googleapis.com/play_public/supported_devices.html https://storage.googleapis.com/play_public/supported_devices... > Also it's a very interesting point about China and AirTags. How come it's not forbidden by the CCP? Probably because it's invisible. Consumers have no visibility or say in how their iPhone tracks nearby AirTags.
  - pas 3y ago
    I mean the CCP is stubborn and irrational, but not blind, if millions of iPhones serve as a dragnet data exfiltration platform, how come they don't try to block it? (Or since AirTags are easy to detect they are simply so low-risk?)