A lot of people think that any device that uses the Android operating system is going to be classified as an Android device. The only problem with this line of thinking is that it’s not even close to reality. For a device to officially be considered an Android device, it needs to be certified by Google after which the device would be allowed to have various necessary pre-installed Google apps.
Up until two years ago certification was not all that big of
a deal since you could just download any apps you needed onto uncertified
devices, but with all of that having been said and now out of the way it is
important to note that Google started clamping down on such devices back in
2018 which means that now only certified devices are given the chance to access
such apps and the like.
A cheat of sorts that many uncertified Android users have
been able to take advantage of has to do with Google Messages. Most uncertified
Android devices were able to enjoy uninterrupted Google Messages access, but it
seems like times are now changing as a new APK teardown by 9to5Google indicates that Google Messages
are now only going to be accessible on certain certified Android devices all in
all.
This means that Google is stamping down its authority on the
Android platform, making it less of an open sourced operating system that
anyone could incorporate into their devices and more of a Google product. This
is a smart business move for Google since exclusivity is something that
companies like Apple have used in the past to edge ahead of their competition,
but it will be intriguing to see how the various Android users that are out
there would end up responding to something like this in the first place seeing
as they might not be happy about it.
Read next: Google Calendars’ Desktop Version Is Once Again Featuring An Offline Mode, After Temporarily Retiring It A Few Years Prior
