Ryan Haines / Android Authority
Yeah, I said it. I don’t expect it to be a popular opinion, but I said it. If Google really wants all of its wildest Pixel dreams to come true, it has to look across the aisle. It needs to examine Apple’s control over the entire iPhone pipeline and seek to emulate it, transforming the Pixel from just another Android option into the go-to device for the purest Google experience on the market.
And yes, I realize that the Tensor project and Pixel UI have already started that ball rolling, but I think Google needs to go further. Here’s how I came to take such a controversial stance, as well as why you should feel the same way if you consider yourself a Pixel fan.
It all started with stricter sideloading…
Andy Walker / Android Authority
A while back, Google announced a new policy to make sideloading apps safer and more reliable. It decided that it was time to start verifying all developers who distribute Android apps, regardless of whether they are listed within the Play Store. On the surface, I think there are two ways to think about this — you can either get hung up on Google taking away a little bit of freedom from our favorite operating system, or you can view it as an improvement to the overall security of Android.
Personally, I’m choosing the latter. I know, I know, it’s very rule-following of me, but I can’t help it. I see the benefits of a little bit more safety when I’ve almost pressed the wrong download button on sites like APK Mirror more than once. The last thing I need is for whatever well-disguised ad I pressed to load up my Pixel 10 Pro XL with who knows what just because I couldn’t tell one download button from another.
There's no such thing as a free lunch — if we lose sideloading, I want something in exchange.
And when I think about Google improving its sideloading security, my mind automatically goes to the other historically locked-down platform — yes, iOS. It’s no secret that Apple wants to keep anything and everything that you put on your iPhone above board, and by making nearly everything run through the App Store, it’s able to maintain the high level of optimization that lets iOS do more with less.
So, if Google is going to start locking things down, it may as well go all the way. It may as well ensure such a high level of Pixel-specific optimization that its in-house flagship can overcome the current performance gap between its own Tensor chip and Qualcomm’s top-end Snapdragon offering. In some ways, that sounds like iPhone-ifying the Pixel, but I think it really means prioritizing the Pixel in the way it was always intended to be.
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