I’ve grown increasingly frustrated with some of Google’s practices, particularly when it comes to their Pixel devices.
Last year, I switched to the latest Google Pixel, moving over from my Huawei phone because I wanted to stay within the Android ecosystem. Unfortunately, the experience has been disappointing for several reasons:
- The Google search bar is permanently fixed on the home screen — it can’t be moved or removed, which feels unnecessarily restrictive. And the blatant full colour logo smack on the screen is distracting.
- Google Photos only allows 15GB of storage, and once that limit is reached, recovering deleted photos becomes impossible, even if you have no need for online backups. It is insane that the “bin” is an online function linked to the backups! It feels like a trap whcih forces you to upgrade.
- The voice control function requires you to unlock the phone with a password, which defeats the convenience it’s supposed to offer.
- The microphone placement at the bottom of the phone often leads to poor voice reception if the device isn’t angled just right – this is evident when I try to use speaker mic and also manifests inconvenience also manifests in the the voice control aspect. It feels like Google is trying to compensate for hardware limitations with software solutions, and the result is often clunky and frustrating.
- I really miss having a reliable fingerprint unlock option.
If it weren’t for Australia’s VOLTE regulations, I wouldn’t have needed to switch from my Mate20 — a device I still find superior in many ways compared to the 2024 Pixel (apart from the camera).
This experience has made me reflect more broadly on the direction big tech is taking. It feels like competition in capitalism is only encouraged up to a point — after which innovation stalls, and convenience or user needs are no longer the priority. Without Apple or Huawei or companies that at least have some vision for creativity and innovation, we would – or we already are – being preyed on by moloch (Meditations On Moloch, 2014).
The interesting thing is, I have expressed my displeasure of the logo on my screen, only to be countered by two of my very logical friends – they countered that it is a functional screen for searching up apps as well as look up information. My old Mate20 Huawei has a much more discreet screen, with a simple swipe of a button the search bar appears for an app search, where you can input immediately without needing to search for the input box, click it, then type. I double checked and realised my latest Google pixel has this function as well, so what’s the point of having an extra unmovable search bar? What’s more, Huawei also allows a search bar to be placed on the screen which is optional – at least it doesnt have a full coloured Google logo in the search bar section.
The 15GB cap is just the icing on the cake. Combined with the fact that I recently got a macbook air for work, and that I have to open up developer debugging options to export the photos, no doubt deterring a bunch of not-so-techy people, I’m forced to realise it is not only Apple that is protective of their ecosystem. Google, an android-based system, is also making it increasingly hard to share. Not even one year, and I’m fed up with Google.
It’s disheartening. I used to admire Google for being a place that fostered great ideas and empowered innovation. Now, it just feels like another system that’s lost sight of the vision.