Pixelated - Android, Not Scamdroid

Episode Date: March 27, 2026

Welcome to episode 93 of Pixelated, a podcast by 9to5Google. This week, Damien, Abner, and Will discuss Google's new "advanced flow" for enabling sideloading on Android, set to launch on all Play-supported devices later this year. It's a change built with security and safety in mind, and your hosts are pretty impressed with how the company has designed this shift. Then they dig into the potential news that OnePlus could be preparing to exit the global market, leaving an enthusiast-shaped hole in its place. Subscribe YouTube Podcasts Pocket Casts Spotify Apple Podcasts Overcast Sponsored by Proton Unlimited: Pixelated listeners can save 30% on an annual subscription by signing up for Proton Unlimited using this link. Thanks to Proton Unlimited for sponsoring this week's episode. Timecodes 00:00 - Intro and Google's sideloading changes 21:16 - OnePlus rumors 41:22 - Wrap-up Hosts Abner Li Damien Wilde Will Sattelberg Read more This is Android’s new ‘advanced flow’ for sideloading apps without verification, includes one-day waiting period [Gallery] Android isn’t killing sideloading, and Google found a near-perfect compromise Source: OnePlus may shut down in global markets as early as April OnePlus reportedly ending retail efforts in India as global shutdown looms Listen to more 9to5 Podcasts The Sideload 9to5Mac Happy Hour Electrek Space Explored Feedback? Drop us a line at [e-mail], leave a comment on the post, or reach out to our producer. And for even more Android discussion, dive into the official 9to5Google forums!

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Welcome to Pixelated episode 93. I'm your host, Will Sackleberg. This week, Damien Abner and I gathered to discuss Google's new eagles. advanced flow for enabling side loading on Android, designed to bolster security and safety while allowing power users to keep installing unverified APKs. You might be surprised to learn that we're not totally against this change. We explain why. Then we dig into Damien's reporting this week that One Plus is seemingly set to leave the global market, potentially as early as next month. It's all coming up right now. So guys, it's nice to be back. We had a little

bit of a brief break and we are back talking Android specifically one piece of news that came up that we haven't talked about and it's really kind of affecting it's going to affect everyone Android's brand new side load protections there's going to be a new system for us being able to sideload applications on our phones I think it's a little bit divisive I like the fact that Google's come out and actually just told us what's going to happen because I think not knowing was what people were most confused about but I don't know what you're going to guys think? Is this a good solution to an air court's problem people seem to have with the way side loaders have been talked about in the last year or so? So the fundamental thing is developer

verification. It's the idea that Google wants to authenticate who you are, who the developers are before they can get on your Android phone. This is to tackle spam, scams, and And all that, basically what's happening is people are being forced to install apps that basically drain your bank accounts or act as a, they watch everything you do on your phone, all that kind of stuff. And it's particularly an issue, it's an issue around the world, really. all these kinds of scams that force people to act on short notice to secure the quote unquote secure their back account or whatever and this is the issue it's a billion dollar problem the

financial fraud is happening at a large scale made easier by the prevalence of mobile banking mobile apps really so global issue that Google has been trying to tackle from multiple fronts but the the one that they the one that's being tackled right now is that's particularly side-loading how easy it is to side-load and to get to trick people into installing malicious apps that do all sorts of things on their phone so that is where Google is coming from and what you have to do now is this new side-road flow basically you have it's for power users it's it's to address the complaints of people who of these

developers well it's twofold some developers don't want to go to the verification process um enthusiast hobbyist whatever and the other side is to protect the users so you enable developer you say that you're not being coached true, you're not being persuaded to install anything like that. And then you have to reboot your phone and then you have to wait 24 hours before you can start side-roading. And after that 24 hours,

you can pick indefinitely, you can side-wold indefinitely, but you can just side-road for seven days. So yeah, that's the flow, 24 hours, all Android device. This is being handled to Google Play services. It'll start later this year. It affects everybody. And of course, there is the outcry to it.

I think this is probably one of the best of an air quotes. I don't want to say bad solutions, but that's the only way I can describe it. It's one of the best of the bad solutions for this. I think that a lot of people, I mean, in fact, let me ask you guys a question first. When is the last time you sideload an application? Because I know which application I've sided all the time.

I couldn't tell you. I've certainly done app updates, I guess. And I have, I mean, I talk all the time about my love of currently the AY and Thor, but in general, emulation fields. And often those time, those, those, those require side loading all sorts of front ends and, and emulation apps, obviously, and things like Obtanium, which is a way to download lots of those. Those are technically, you're technically side loading those, right? But, but like outside of that, like on my phone, I, you know, if I said once a month, I feel like I'd be being generous. Like I, it's very, and certainly from from developers who are not going to be verified, I couldn't even tell you. Probably twice a year, right? Like, that's if I had to guess. Outside of world contacts, which is installing app updates, which is usually Google's app updates, which this shouldn't be an issue for. Exactly now. I use Telegram.

So I'll see with a major, in air quotes, big application that I download from their website. I don't know why I've done it this way because I can do it on the Play Store, but you get those updates quicker. Don't ask me why. I just thought it's done like that. It's your system. Yeah. Yeah, it's a system that I've done.

I also use a couple of applications from F-Droid. I don't know if you guys ever use F-Droid. This sounds to me like the perfect solution to a lot of the kind of people, the kind of things people were complaining about on Reddit, the kind of complaining about online, this reminds me heavily, but not to the same extent. It actually is a lot better than,

I don't know if guys if you've used your Xiaomi phones. If you wanted to put a custom ROM on them, you'd have to have a seven-day waiting period with a SIM card in the device to actually allow yourself to unlock the bootloader and then eventually flash a ROM. Yeah, it's not quite the same, but in the same way,

or in the same side of the coin, this feels like a great way that Google have tackled that by, okay, there is a protective element here for the kind of people who would sideload something accidentally, and like you say, Abner, it's to stop coercion, people downloading things that they don't necessarily know about. I mean, I could quite

easily see my parents falling into the trap of sideloading applications. So this feels like a really good way to do that. But at the same time, like you say, power users, the kind of people who are going to complain about, is sideloading is going away. Well, no, sideloading is just getting a little bit more secure, which I think is a good thing in a lot of ways.

This feels like the perfect way to do it. And I just hope that Google communicates that a bit more broadly. They've communicated it fairly well so far, but it felt a little bit like we were in the dark until this has dropped, and now we have a full idea of what's going to happen. So the other side of this argument is that the people who think the OS, their computers, their devices should be theirs. That is the biggest people complaining about.

this devap of verification and it's what do we think about that argument I mean okay like when Google I think Google announced this the wrong way especially the verification process right I think this should have they should have known that they were gonna get backlash from this and maybe they did and they should have had this flow ready to go with that announcement so that they could they could immediately be like this is not about locking down the operating system. This is about making the operating system more secure. And I think that they were missing this piece at the beginning is why so many people were willing to look at this move

and see it as, see it in bad faith, right? They did not see this in a good faith move from Google. And even when Google was like, okay, we heard you. We're working on an advanced flow for enabling side loading. Even then, people were still like, I don't believe it. I don't think this is happening. I don't think they care. They want a lockdown Android. Now that we have this flow. I think it's, I think anybody who's still arguing Google is operating bad faith, I think that's out the window. I think this is like a perfect compromise where this is a mild inconvenience at best for anybody who will want to side load regularly. And it keeps a lot of people more secure. And I think it keeps, it keeps more people secure than it does cause, than it causes

inconveniences to enthusiasts. Like, I think that's a bigger audience. So I feel like Google's right to make this move. And the only issue they had was communicating. And I think they fixed that as well because I think they have communicated this rollout exceptionally well. And I hope they continue that. But I think the way they have mapped this out to be like, this is about confirming

you're not being coached. I think it's smart to have part of the flow being restarting your phone. not only so that you have to re-authenticate when you log in, but also so that if there is any remote access application already running on your phone, that gets shut down, right? And like, if you are on the phone with a scammer, you have to get off the phone to restart your device. I think that's a good process.

And then, again, with the 24-hour wait period, you are adding this barrier to the way scammers would have to try to get in the way of what, it adds a barrier that most scammers are not going to, going to be able to get over to get back in touch with you, right? It adds an entire day where maybe your grandmother talks to you and you realize that she's halfway through a scam and you can stop it before it happens. I think it's a really good process. Yeah, I think I also agree with that aspect of it. I think the scam protection aspect is a very noble way to to put it and to sell this change. For anyone who is really frustrated by this, he still have that ADB side load

options. So it's not like you are losing the way to get things on your phone the day that it arrives and you power. I don't know. I'm guessing it will be from reset. So if you reset the phone and you then can't access some applications that you use. I mean, I've seen some complaints online about this, but I do think that Google needs to be seen to be doing something about the fact that people are getting scammed on their phones. And while I do think it might not necessarily be a complete, a game changer for the way scams work, because someone might be aware of this, who is a really competent scammer, they all know that there's a 24-hour wait period and come back in 24 hours. I think it will reduce things and people may think twice.

Hopefully people are not skipping through the verification process and not reading the warnings and reading the potential warning signs that they are about to get scammed. At the same time, the people, like I say, they can still utilize the ADB process if they desperately need to get FDroid on their phone and access certain applications. So what you were saying earlier with. about how Google rolled this out. I don't think there was a scenario where Google, sure, they could have done it better,

but I don't think there's any scenario where they wouldn't have received backlash. Yeah, and honestly, like, okay, like the argument that, like your computer is yours, et cetera, et cetera, that is, sure. I it's I don't know that's such an age old argument

in the context of computing that this is your who is it you or is it the company that makes it that kind of thing licensing etc etc but I don't think there's a way that Google

the world is out about people getting mad like honestly what we've seen there's some pretty bad faith arguments out there people claiming Android is dead it's whatever all that that is so lamped right now.

And it's, I know, I sympathize with the, with the power user argument. I don't think it's the biggest hassle to wait 24 hours or to use ADB for the greater good of it. It's like this technology, like this ease of access to technology. It is, with it comes the need to make sure it works for everybody, not just, or it, specifically it works with the vast majority of users, so that using this. But again, like, on the other side, the argument I see that it's like, it's, that it harms the power user experience, et cetera, et cetera. I think, like, my biggest argument to that is do you not

know regular people that could be scammed? Like, it's, like, again, your parents, the people who less tech savvy or even young tech savvy people getting scamped. It's anybody can be scammed. It's like I think there should be more sympathy and empathy for that. It is an issue. It's not about your technical knowledge, right? Like these scammers are not operative. Like, yes, they are looking for less informed users.

But at the end of the day, like, the thing that gets people to fall for scams is the urgency that they add to this. Is the, is the, you need to do this now. Or things are going to get really bad. That can affect anybody. Exactly, exactly. And this is before even we fact the AI stuff. Like it's exactly. It sounds accurate.

It sounds close enough. You're savvy enough. But it's still like that urgency affects anybody. It's your technical level does not matter. Yeah. You can fall for the stuff. And like thinking you are above this is is how they get you because you, because you let your guard down in that way.

And so I just Yeah, the only thing I would have said about the communication is I think if this was here from the jump in You know last Last August That this this would have maybe had less backlash some Certainly, but definitely less But at the end of the day we got here, right? Like I think Google took note of how loud people were and like came up with a system

That is smart and if you are I mean unless you are really like unless you really look at your phone with like this libertarian mindset of like it's mine and I can do what I want with it which which you still can like at that point okay great then you have to learn ADB right like I'm sorry but you do I I think that's totally fair there is still a very high level technical route that you can take if you want to do that it's it's not closed and nobody's really going to want to do it unless they are like you know I saw somebody say like oh, what about like, what about people who flash new ROMs all the time?

And I was like, well, one, that's like, it's like 20 people in the world left to do that regularly. And two, if you were regularly flashing ROMs in this 24-hour period is going to be an issue to you, you have the technical know-how to use ADB for, like, you can do it. So I don't know. I, I, I, the people that this is most inconvenient for are the three of us because we switch phones all the time. Like, that's who should really be complaining.

I put myself in a ROM flasher category. So I'm an, I would be partially annoyed by this. But I do think that, like you say, if I'm flashing a ROM, I can flash a application via ADV. It's like the level of difficulty, the spike there is non-existent. I've already gone through the process that's been able to sideload an application.

I do wonder how this is going to affect certain ROMs in future, though. Like obviously we have privacy-focused ROMs like graphene. There is, I believe. No, they always be affected. They won't be affected at all. It's not. Well, unless they end up doing something into Android and putting it into Android in future versions.

Yeah, that's what was trying to work out. Which that said, like, those arms can just remove that part specifically. I don't know. Maybe it's a cat and mouse game. But right now, if it's, this is for Google Play Services devices. Okay, so I feel stupid for asking that now. So thanks for slapping me down there, Abner. I needed that.

I need that. No, I think that's a totally sensible thing to ask. Yeah. of like how they're going to get into that. Yeah. Yeah, I think, I think the, but you said theoretical, I think that's a really good way to think of how people were looking at the fact that side loading was something that was on the table for being taken away, if that makes sense.

It was on the chopping block, potentially for some people. Like the theoretical loss of side loading was worse than what is actually happening. Like the way that the reactions to this are greater than what is actually happening. It's correctly like what we all said, there's the political, social, it's that mindset applies to everything. Well, that mindset does apply to everything. But it's, again, like, I'm just reminded of, like, the bad, the absolute bad faith arguments we see.

And I'm not sure if they're being genuine or if, or they're just trying to get cricks or whatever. But the idea that Android is dead is insane. Yeah. Yeah. And again, not to keep talking in circles, but those routes exist. And to connect some dots that we haven't connected, if you care a lot about this, maybe you should switch to something like graphene and then you don't have to worry about it at all.

But like you're going to have to pick a route. And I think having lots of options, each of which comes with its own upsides and downsides is good, is honestly good. And it just bolster security. And this 24 hour waiting period, I think, is the is the smallest hurdle to jump over still, like compared to everything else. So yeah, it's an extra step, but you're going to do it. Like most people will do it once every three, four years. That's it. Yeah.

Oh, no, that's a really good point. People don't upgrade their phones as often as they used to, so you're not necessarily going to have this. Exactly. If you want a security delay. It's a one-time thing per device, so. Possibly. Yeah, possibly.

I think as well, though, that like the kind of people, the kind of people that do complain, and I think it's fair for people to complain about this because they've had something in a certain way for a long period of time. Yeah. We sometimes have to realize that we are in a minority. We are not the major component of the, in-air quotes, Android user-based, the Android ecosystem. Most people who use their phones pretty much.

I mean, look at Samsung, for instance. Most phones ship with on-screen buttons still, and I see people using on-screen buttons. My partner uses on-screen buttons. She doesn't use gestures. Like, she will use it as it comes out of the box. And I think for her, that's absolutely fine, she would never need to sideline application. I'm sure she's competent enough to do it. But at the same time, I think of it.

a case of this is probably the best outcome we could have had in this situation. Like, I can't think of another situation where Google, A, made it more difficult, that would not have gone down really well. It made it easier. People would have complained why have you made this change. This feels like that perfect 50-50 straight down the middle, safest and most sensible way to do this. And at a time when we can get annoyed at big tech companies for lots of things, this doesn't feel like it's that much of a problem. problem and without defending Google on this, I think that, yeah, it's the best that they could have done. Maybe they could have communicated a little bit earlier better, but I do think, as

you said, well, the way they've gone about this is a pretty standard way to handle it. They've handled it really well. I don't know how else they could have done any better, but I look forward to sideload some applications at the very least. I'll be able to sideload the applications that are used on a regular basis. If it means waiting 24 hours after the pixel 11 launches, I'm happy to do that. Most of the time, I sideload applications and I never used them and wonder why. It's the exact same with the Play Store. We all download applications and six months down the line,

we're like, why did I get that ticket application? I never used it. It's why Google built notifications into Android for that to be like, hey, you installed this, but haven't opened it. Do you want to? So I don't think it's a bad situation at all things considered. But let's get into another, I mean, I guess it is a bad situation. We are potentially losing a player in the space.

news broke at the start of the week and we've been able to corroborate this that One Plus looks to potentially be ceasing their operations in global markets as early as the end of this month by the time you've, we haven't had a statement from One Plus officially at any point at this stage before this podcast goes live. But yes, we broke this on, I believe, on Tuesday.

It's now, by the time you listen to this Friday, hopefully, no news as yet, but yes, it looks as though 1 Plus is going to cede that ground in all of these regions. We're going to be losing a player potentially in Europe, US, and lots of other regions, and they're going to recede into China as potentially a sub-brand under OPPO.

I think that warrants more criticism than the side-loading situation because we've lost Android players left and right over the past decade. This feels like one of those enthusiasts brands that has been almost a stall one of the real, I guess, driving forces behind the way that we use and expect our Android phones to work. For me, it's really disappointing,

but at the same time, it feels as though this has been kind of something that's been coming and rumbling along for a long time. I don't know how you guys feel about it. I don't know if we want to reminisce about One Plus or kind of pull one out for the company a little bit. I guess I'm just surprised, you know, taking a step back maybe

and obviously I'm specifically looking at North America from my perspective. But I'm very surprised, I don't think I would have seen this coming a decade ago, that the smartphone market, or that the choice in the smartphone market that you have is so much slimmer than like computers. Like that there are like, there are more computer, many more computer brands. And this obviously comes all down to carriers in the U.S. Like this is a very carrier-driven problem that if Verizon and AT&T, T-Mobile, and formerly Sprint many years ago now didn't want to sell your phone or didn't think they could sell your phone to enough consumers to make it matter that like your brand kind of died. And it's not to say that that wasn't. And even getting on the store shelves was on enough, right? Because One Plus has been on the store shelves.

LG was on all of those store shelves. And they pulled out of the market. It was what are, what are, what is Verizon telling its, um, it's sales reps to push, right? What are they offering as, as, um, commission bonuses to push a pixel over, uh, over, over, over the competition, right? Like that stuff, if it doesn't exist now, it certainly did exist. Like that, that those, those things were happening. Um, and it, it's just frustrating, I guess, because it, it, it does really restrict choice.

And so then, you know, let's say One Plus does pull out of the, you know, let's say, let's say they're totally out of the U.S. next month, right? Which is totally possible. First of all, I believe that would, I didn't check the date, but I think that would be like exactly five years after LG pulled out of the U.S. Oh, wow. Because I believe that was April 2021. So that's, that's interesting. I remember I was at the dentist. I had a dentist appointment that morning. And I remember I remember getting a Slack message and being like, oh, missing this big news. I just started an Android police at the time. I just, it's, if you were looking at, you know, the smartphone launches we've had this year so far, like if you're a consumer and you're like, Samsung launched the same phones again, except two of them are more expensive this time.

And I don't, you know, maybe I don't want the privacy display. Or I'm frustrated that it's a slightly worse screen than before. Oh, like, maybe I don't like. like tensor or something like that. I need something with more horsepower. Like you start to get restricted. You know, Motorola really doesn't sell a lot of flagships here outside of the razor. That's it, right?

I mean, that's kind of the field and the nothing a little bit, but not a lot. And certainly not at a scale that people know about nothing outside of enthusiasts. It's it's disappointing and it's frustrating and I don't know. It's not good for the, for, especially in the US, the smartphone ecosystem to, to flourish and have this competition that can push things forward. It's just going to lead to a certain level of stagnation that we've seen for a decade now, right? Like, there is a reason that camera, that smartphone cameras are much more competitive in China than they are in the US. And it's because there's no reason for these brands to compete on, on sensors alone. Yes. I think, I mean, obviously, look at just looking more about the story.

This is from an internal source that. is very reputable that certain staff members from 1 Plus have been given severance pay. They've been told that their contracts won't exist beyond March. So two or three days time from now, that's it. I think looking broadly at the people behind the scenes, I think it's quite shocking that it's almost, there is some precedence. There is some precedence here because 1 Plus in about 2020 when Carpail left the company,

there was a big kind of shrinking of their presence with regards to company staff in Europe. I don't know what it was like in the US, but I know for certain in the UK and Germany and if you were the European nations, they kind of consolidated and went to Finland, which seemed to be their base operations in mainland Europe, which is a very strange way to go about it,

Finland being the home of Nokia. But yeah, it was kind of a really strange situation for me thinking about it in that when I heard this information is what is the play here? What's the long-term vision? Because like you say, it just consolidates the stronger players in the markets that they're at. But I do wonder if that is because OnePlus has really struggled to hit 1, 2% market share globally. India is their biggest market outside of China. Opo has become, which is obviously technically the parent company, there were originally

BBK electronics own them. I don't think they technically exist anymore. I do wonder what's going to, what the future holds for for Opo, because obviously now there's an opportunity for them to maybe go into those markets and there's been a greater push from Opo over the last few years to get high-end hardware into more regions and they had some problems of their own. I do, Pete Lau has, is now heading up their operations. It all seems like a bit of a like a, and I know they swore then, a bit of a mess is a bit of a mess in the situations because there's so much confusion about who is really in the driving seat.

It's disappointing because, yeah, one of the players I think helped pioneer the idea of cheap, affordable, almost high-end phones at price points that make sense to most people, is now leaving the space. It almost feels like the end of an era in that respect. And I think the writing was probably on the wall from 2020 when Carpe left to go do his own thing. And I think we all kind of knew deep down that he was,

not going to be content with just making earbuds and not long after we had nothing for one. I don't think there's going to be any phoenix from the ashes in that respect. So, yeah, I guess the ball is in the court with Opo or Opo now going to start potentially breaking into more of these global markets where One Plus were not even going to say an established player. They were a player in these spaces. I guess there's a lot of questions coming from that.

But let's talk about what One Plus has done over the past few years, though, because it does feel like I don't necessarily think LG was in the same position but One Plus has kind of really had an exceptional 18 to 24 months putting out probably their best products they've ever made. So this decision, this potential decision, is even more stark. Like the One Plus 13,

I don't think there's enough plug it so I can give that device. It's probably one of the best Android phones that has been made in the last three years. It did everything that I think One Plus set out to do. Maybe it didn't have that clean software that people, the early adopters expected. But yeah, it's just, it kind of is, it feels really disappointing and really deflating.

You don't want to break this news because it's a brand that's been so intrinsically associated with Android, but you can kind of see why we've been led down this road. Yeah, their run from the One Plus Open to the One Plus 13 was like, a really, really strong, like, what, what is that, year and a half, two years?

like you're saying, I, you know, and the 15, Damien, you and I have talked about had some had some setbacks, but was not a bad phone. No, I think it's fine. It's fine. You could have argued that like the one plus eight was kind of a bad phone, right? Like, I think if this news was coming, you know, after the one plus eight, nine and ten, and I don't think that nine and the ten were necessarily as rough. But like, I think you'd see people being like, ah, shame.

But, you know, probably, you know, based on the last few, probably time to hang it up. But unfortunately, like we saw one plus kind of go on this like, you know, comeback run, right? And it's frustrating to see them come off that just have absolutely no sales momentum that that is meaningful enough to make an impact here because the carriers control so much here. And it's just, I get, you know, the other thing is just you can't imagine a brand. I mean, we've seen it a little bit with nothing speaking, you know, of. of Carl pays nothing, but I can't, I don't envision who would break, who's even big enough and brash enough to break into the, the smartphone space at this point, right? Like, it's so established, like, what, is nothing the last relatively major company that has

even tried to, to break into just smartphones, like in general, like, like, mass market smartphones. I'm not even talking about in the U.S. like, you know, we, there was a rumor within the last week or so that, like Amazon is thinking about a smartphone again, but it's really some like AI thing. Who cares? It won't work. Nobody will buy it. Like straight up. I will, I will eat a hat. I will eat a hat on camera if that happens. And it's successful. And, you know, like, like AI companies seem like the most like obvious brands to try to do it, but none of them seem to want to actually build a phone. they want to, I don't know what they want to do,

but they want to make out their hardware that isn't a phone. They want to envision what's after the phone because they all have iPhones and they're fine with them. I just like, it just sucks because I don't, I don't know what this means for,

for competition, for the space, for innovation. Like, One Plus had a lot of, a lot of interesting ideas. And the way that LG had a lot of interesting ideas. And you, you can,

you could feel you know, after LG left, the lack of excitement, like, there was a drop in excitement. I mean, I mean, it says a lot that the last release LG did was the wing, which was like an exceptionally weird thing to try to do, that nobody will ever try again. And I feel that way about One Plus, too, where it was like, you know, even on the 15, where I didn't think the camera was as good, at the very least, One Plus was, you know, felt like they could do, bold, brash color processing in a way that, you know, saturated color processing in a way that Google and Samsung and Apple seem to be scared of on their, on their cameras. And I appreciated that.

And, and I don't know, it's just, it's, if this is true and it feels like it's true. And if it, if it's not true this year, I mean, we've been talking about One Plus kind of being on this path for a while anyway. I just, I, it's just a bummer. Yes. I think a lot of, a lot of the, I think a lot of the struggles in recent years have kind of stemmed from the fact that OPPO has been taking the driving seat in terms of things like their hassle by partnerships. It looks as though

that was a big bone of contention between the two teams from what I've been told. I mean, obviously this is the first year that One Plus has released a phone since pre-9 series they had no hassle-by partnership. The hassle-by partnership is now exclusive

to Opo. I think that that was kind of a little bit of a red flag. and that they're diminishing the hardware in favor of the bigger brother, if that makes sense. So probably there was some sort of like red flags there that we kind of,

I guess some people picked up on and it was a case of like, oh, maybe they're just going to go and do their own thing and it's a cost-cutting measure. I do, I mean, it looks as though from rumors online, I wasn't able to confirm this,

is that potentially if One Plus continues as a branding China, which looks to be the case, maybe they could do a little bit what like RealMe are doing at the moment, which is a subbrand under Opo. Yeah. If there is a lifespan or kind of a lifeline for One Plus in that respect,

then I guess it's kind of be good. I do wonder if that means that potentially we'll have this opportunity or fans will have the opportunity to almost import from China and potentially put global ROMs on them. I kind of wonder how that might play out. I think there's definitely going to be a volume of people. I don't know how big that volume is. If One Plus has only managed to gain 1, 2% of the global market

is still a substantial amount of people. would those people then be willing to import phones from China, put a custom ROM on it? I think you just moved to Samsung probably. Yeah, this is a thing. I think just looking more broadly at this, while we do lose a player, I think this is potentially good for people like Google. There is going to be a subsection of people and Google has been gaining momentum. Now there is a really strong play for Google specifically in North America and Europe, which is the two markets that Google has been throwing money out like it's going out of fashion.

there could be some serious gains here for them for people there's going to be a lot of as these brands start receding which i do think more brands will step away from the market because the money just isn't there now google can really start slowly picking these people up and they can start making the gains because by this point in time if you're 15 phones in and you've been buying every single one plus phone or an LG phone or whatever it was prior to that azus all these players are leaving the space you now what you you're going to be sticking to android right and i do think google therefore As long as they can just keep, keep doing what they're doing, keep making these incremental gains in terms of the hardware and the experience,

I do think they can do it with the user base as well. Like there is a lot of a, there is a lot of things that I think kind of coexist between One Plus fans and Google Pixel owners is that we like clean software. I think Oxygen OS was kind of leaning more into colour. So is a good thing for them. but exiles from the 1 plus 7 era and the change to color OS, I think a lot of people will have made that decision anyway.

They'll come over to what Google are doing. They want that pixel experience that 1 Plus have technically originally offered. Yeah, there's a lot to mull over here. Again, it's a sad thing to have happened or potentially be happening behind closed doors. I think it speaks volumes that 1-plus has not come out and given a statement now,

I think kind of the silence is a little bit deafening because this is not just ourselves reporting. This has been reports at the same time. Robin Liu stepped down from India, head over there, and he was one of the most vehement deniers that One Plus was going to kind of cease to exist as we know them currently. Yeah, it's just a sad state of affairs.

I think it's kind of after they've had such a good run recently, you never want to see these brands disappear, but I think it could be very, very good time for Pixel. and probably will be Samsung in North America because it just means there's just less choice for the true Android enthusiast. But yeah, it would be interesting to see how it plays out. I don't know.

I mean, let's finish on a positive note. I think let's think about some of the best one plus products that, I mean, I don't know if you guys had the one plus one. I had the one plus three and three T, which I think were probably in the first, I know as a Nexus guy before that, but they were the first phones that I felt, okay, Android can really start competing on a high-end

hardware experience without the price tag that I'm associating with iOS. Is this where I admit I had never used a One Plus device before the 10? Oh, okay. Okay. Here inputs useless to me then. Yeah, I mean, it was just, it was a Verizon customer throughout the 2010s. Okay. And One Plus just did not, I mean, talk about carriers. One Plus did not operate on Verizon for a long time.

And so, so yeah, I didn't, I, I never purchased one myself because they wouldn't work on my carrier. And so I, I wanted one very badly, especially those first few releases. I remember following, but, yeah. I mean, to me, it's the open. I just, like, they crushed that so hard and to, to the point where that design was the next three years of foldables. Like, they, they knocked it out of the park and everybody kind of.

followed their lead on that. And they had a lot of smart ideas on that device on how to do multitasking. And, you know, that antique layer, no one has copied it, but that antique glare finish on the, on the inner panel made a big difference in how reflections were handled outside compared to other foldables. Yeah, man, that, that was a special phone. And it's a, it's a bummer. We never got like a true successor to it. Yes. I mean, I'm intrigued to see what happens with with, with regards to support and things like that, if we do get this, if we do get an official statement

and what they're going to be doing in future, because there's obviously going to a lot of people out there who've recently picked up the 1 plus 15 and the 1 plus 13 as well, which are both, I don't think people should avoid them, but until we find out what's happening with, with the future of the company

and how they're going to handle updates. But I think because it's color OS, it might mean that these last for a few years to come because it is effective the same version of, of what's found on Opo phones. So that might be one of the few saving graces. But for me, the 1 plus 13 as a device stands out so drastically to me because I think they had a little bit of a rocky period of making changes

for the sake of making changes. But it was a 1 plus 12 that really probably was the one phone where I didn't expect much from it, but it just nailed everything apart from maybe a flat display. Yeah. So that was my complaint about the 13 too. Yeah, incredible camera system. Because they were so close to making it flat. It was like, guys, just, just.

finish the job, make it flat, which they did on the 15, but yeah. Yeah, and then, and then obviously they had the One Plus Watch 3, which I think is arguably, goes toe to toe with the Pixel Watch 4 as probably the best wearOS watch you can buy. For me, One Plus Buds Pro 3 or two? Three, three. I have two pairs of them. They're so fantastic. I think they're the best earbuds period I've ever used in terms of like an Android in-air quotes ecosystem. Yeah, it is, it's not something that you want to report on every single day, but sadly, that's just the way the cookie crumbles. But yeah, it's been good, bad, indifferent. Hopefully we get some more news in the coming days. I think it's been a, it's been a strange time these last couple of weeks. We've had a week off and a lot of

happened. And it's good to be back talking all things. Maybe we'll get some more information about stuff in the coming days as well, because we know that as of this going live, Android 17, beta three has dropped. So if you haven't already go check out our couple of bridge on the website and on YouTube. We always dive into Android and it's always good to talk about that. But yeah, we haven't seen it yet. We're excited to see what's coming with that. But yes, thanks for joining me today, guys.

I know it's been, you're always flexing their muscles when you've been away for a while and come back. So thanks guys. And I'll speak to you soon. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to Pixelated, a 9 to 5 Google podcast. If you enjoyed the show, we ask that you rate and review it on the podcast platform of your choice and help spread the word by sharing the show with friends or on social media.