I remember getting my first Android phone and feeling a sense of empowerment. This Google-branded rectangle put the world at my fingertips. It did what I wanted and then got out of my way. It made life easier and more convenient.<\/p>\n
Now despite boasting bigger batteries, faster processors, and higher-resolution cameras, our phones make us feel powerless; as if we must fight our devices to get anything done. There\u2019s a constant barrage of notifications, and by the time you have dealt with them, chances are you have forgotten what you wanted to do in the first place. Then there is Gemini, Google\u2019s artificial intelligence bot, which won\u2019t leave you alone. Press the home (middle) button for half a second too long, and it pops up, offering to \u201cassist\u201d you.<\/p>\n
What was once a useful tool has now become an instrument of torture, designed to extract as much money from consumers as possible. And to keep it that way, Google is quietly locking away its phones\u2019 source code to make it as hard as possible for people to build better alternatives. While Google awaits the repercussions<\/a> of being convicted of running an illegal search monopoly, the tech giant may have inflicted far greater harm on people through its control of Android than it has by monopolizing online search or advertising.<\/p>\n Things were not always so bad.<\/p>\n Android, the world\u2019s most widely used mobile<\/a> operating system, started life as open-source software. Anybody could look at the underlying code, modify it, and freely share it with others. This was great because it allowed people to choose what was best for them.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s say you don\u2019t like Google constantly spying on you and selling your data to advertisers. You could try installing LineageOS, which is an open-source, privacy-respecting version of Android.<\/p>\n Perhaps you are environmentally conscious. Two years after you bought your phone, the manufacturer stopped providing updates, but you want to keep using it instead of making it e-waste<\/a>. LineageOS again comes to the rescue. It has a large community of open-source developers who support devices long after manufacturers have abandoned them. Or you might be a lawyer, a therapist, or a journalist; someone who needs to handle a lot of sensitive and confidential information. In that case, you would use GrapheneOS, a highly secure version of Android that hackers can\u2019t easily break into.<\/p>\n Perhaps you just want to reduce your phone use. You might use a Light Phone, which does not allow social media or gaming at all. It too runs a custom version of Android.<\/p>\n But Google, which acquired<\/a> Android in 2005, does not like it when you have options. The company has effectively made a prison where it can spy on you, control your user experience, and make more money off you.<\/p>\n To that end, it has been gradually eroding Android\u2019s open-source capacity in the last decade<\/a>.<\/p>\n For example, it recently released the source code for Android 16 without<\/a> the device trees and drivers for its Pixel phones. Device trees tell the operating system what hardware is present in the device: camera, display, speakers, Bluetooth, and so on. Drivers provide instructions for how to use these components. Without them, your phone is just an expensive paperweight.<\/p>\n In March, Google said that it would develop Android behind<\/a> closed doors. Previously everyone could see the code as it was being written. Developers working on alternative versions could grab this prerelease code, make their changes, and test them on actual devices. They could release their versions just days after Google. Now they must wait for months until Google dumps the code alongside the stable release. This greatly delays the development cycle for competitors.<\/p>\n In 2023, Google deprecated<\/a> the open-source Dialer and Messaging features and made future versions proprietary. This means that others must build their own software to make phone calls or send text messages from scratch. Over the years, Google has moved many crucial features, such as the camera, keyboard, and push notifications, from the open-source project to its closed-source black box. Competitors must now spend their scarce resources on reinventing the wheel rather than implementing new features.<\/p>\n Being open source helped Android compete against the iPhone and swiftly dominate the global smartphone market. Manufacturers could quickly adapt it to their devices and sell at lower prices than they could if they had to make their own operating systems from scratch. But now that it has captured the market, Google is rolling up the ladder behind it to keep competition at bay.<\/p>\n Android is effectively no longer open source. It can\u2019t be, because Google does not want users to leave as it tries to shake them down for more money. In its quest for ever-growing profits, Google has created an atrocious user experience.<\/p>\n The most prominent example of this is the way Google has forced AI into everything, even though users overwhelmingly hate it<\/a>. Google recently rolled out an update<\/a> that will allow Gemini to use Phone, Messages, WhatsApp, and Utilities, even if users have explicitly disabled the feature. Gemini also fails<\/a> to perform simple tasks, such as setting timers or sending messages, that its predecessor, Google Assistant, could do easily.<\/p>\n Then there is the Play Store, Google\u2019s Android app store, which has been flooded with predatory applications and games. Many of these offerings milk users for cash at every step using excessive ads and micro-transactions. Mobile games are deliberately designed to be digital casinos<\/a>, addicting children to gambling at an early age. Stories of children spending thousands of dollars<\/a> on games are far too common<\/a>, causing financial distress to their families.<\/p>\n Social media apps are similarly created to keep users endlessly <\/a>scrolling, so companies can show them more ads. Meanwhile, e-commerce and dating apps have several dark patterns<\/a> to manipulate<\/a> users into spending more money.<\/p>\n Even if users manage to put their phones down for a bit, these apps relentlessly bombard them with notifications to bring them back. They fight for every last bit of attention so they can monetize it. This has led to an alarming increase in problematic phone usage. One survey revealed that the average American checks their phone 205 times<\/a> a day. Another survey shows that the average American spent more than five hours<\/a> on their phone daily in 2024, up 14 percent from the previous year. Researchers have observed<\/a> similar trends worldwide.<\/p>\n Smartphones have become toxic to mental health. In multiple countries, researchers have found<\/a> that excessive smartphone use is linked to depression, anxiety, insomnia, and other mental health problems in both adults<\/a> and children<\/a>. One study<\/a> published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that addictive smartphone use doubled the risk of suicidal thoughts<\/a> or behavior in children and adolescents.<\/p>\n Google controls the distribution of apps on Android, and it could easily impose standards to curb such flagrant abuse, but it chooses not to. It gets a cut out of every transaction and doesn\u2019t care if some people get financially ruined (or worse) along the way.<\/p>\n It knows users have no alternative. What will you do, buy an iPhone? Apple\u2019s smartphones also force AI upon you and distribute the same exploitative apps and games \u2014 for an even higher cost. The only difference is that Apple never pretended to be the good guy.<\/p>\n Right now, there is no real competition in the smartphone market, and as a result, the quality of user experience is circling the drain. Consumers are genuinely fed up and walking away in droves. Many young people are eschewing smartphones altogether and using \u201cdumb<\/a>\u201d phones to reclaim their time and sanity.<\/p>\n