In the 365 days that a year has, we know many exciting new terminals, others not so much and many Applications and games, but not all are joys. It is also the time to say goodbye to apps, services or anything else related to Android that left us during 2020.
Like in previous years, we have compiled 13 things we said goodbye to on Android during the year, as well as some that still work, but whose death has already been announced. Perhaps not all of them are the best, but we choose to remember them as such in our last goodbye on this last day of the year.
Google Hangouts
Death date: Mid 2020
Hangouts, the once pre-installed messaging application on practically all Android terminals, began to fall from grace in 2016, when Google announced not one, but two replacement apps: Google Allo and Google Duo. Ironically, Hangouts would end up surviving Allo, who closed the doors in 2019.
Since then, Hangouts has been in limbo as Google tried to clarify itself with its messaging apps. After the last reorganization with Google Workspace, it seems that Google’s accounts finally add up, and Hangouts will migrate to Google Chat in mid-2021. Will this be the last episode in the Hangouts drama? Stay tuned.
Google Play Music
Death date: 2020
Another death that has been brewing for a long time is that of Google Play Music, which for many years was the music player pre-installed on Android phones. Later, YouTube released your own music service subscription, which over time would evolve into a rival app for Google Play Music, Youtube Music.
Google then decided that YouTube Music would be your main music service, beginning the progressive shutdown of everything related to Google Play Music and the inclusion, little by little, of the functions that were still absent in YouTube Music. With the Google Play Music store closure, it is reasonable to declare the death of Google Play Music, although it is still available on Google Play.
Datally
Death date: 2019?
Datally was an application for control data usage on mobile which began its journey in 2017 under the name of Triangle. The application connected the mobile to a local VPN in order to analyze and manage the mobile data traffic with precision.
Suddenly, Google removed Datally from Google Play without explanation, and so it continues to this day. Technically, this happened in 2019, but since we didn’t include her in last year’s compilation, we felt the need to give her one last belated goodbye. By the way, that the application you can continue installing from Google Play if you downloaded it at some point in the past.
Firefox Send and Firefox Notes
Death date: September 2020
For many years, Firefox had only one application on Android: its browser. Back in 2018, Mozilla began releasing other apps under the Firefox brand, as Firefox Send, Firefox Notes, Firefox Lockwise or Firefox ScreenshotGo.
Several of these applications are still available, but in September they announced that Firefox Send and Firefox Notes had their days numbered, as part of a change in strategic focus and, in the case of Send, as a result of some users using it to send malware and carry out phishing attacks.
Samsung XR
Death date: September 2021
In 2019, Google gave up on its Daydream VR virtual reality platform, and Samsung did the same a few months later, announcing shutting down its virtual reality service: Samsung XR. Since May, several related services have been shutting down, until the final closure on September 30, when all accounts were deleted.
Samsung has completely swept its VR platform from all store apps, and Samsung VR Video has been removed from Google Play’s Microsoft Mixed Reality store. The house glasses were therefore left without support and without application, being able to be used only to view offline content.
Unlimited storage of Google Photos
Death date: June 2021
One of the lows of the year in the year that was full of lows was the announcement that Google it would end the unlimited backup of Google Photos. That is to say, No more having a copy of all your photos in Google Photos in exchange for “compressing” them to high quality instead of original quality.
The change has not yet taken effect, and is that everything will stay the same until June 2021, but in these six months that separate us from the date we are going through the different phases of mourning. We hope to accept it by June 2021, maybe finding a good alternative.
The Samsung Cloud gallery copy
Death date: June 2021
Another synchronization service that will stop working in June 2021 is that of Samsung. Under the name of Samsung Cloud, this cloud integrated into One UI allows you to synchronize and store a copy of your photo gallery.
Not even the photo gallery not even the files you have in the Drive storage will be synced more on Samsung Cloud, offering to use Microsoft’s OneDrive storage instead. The Samsung Cloud service will definitively close in June 2021, when all data will be erased.
Preview messages
Death date: August 2020
When Google launched its new messaging applications, Allo and Duo, it ran into a problem: in the beginning, few people had them installed, so they had a difficult time facing giants like WhatsApp or Messenger, with millions of users. The solution: an invention of google called preview messages.
Preview messages allowed you to chat with people who didn’t have the app installed. That is, from Allo, you could write to someone who did not use Allo, and a notification would arrive on their mobile from which they could install Allo. The system never spread and eventually Google disabled the API around mid year.
Fortnite on Google Play
Death date: August 2020
Fortnite launched on a select list of Android mobiles back in 2018 and using your own installer, downloadable as APK from the Epic Games website, to avoid paying commissions for in-app purchases to Google. In April, the miracle happened: Fortnite came to Google Play, thus facilitating its installation.
The joy did not last long. In August, Epic included its own payment system in Fortnite, bypassing Google’s integrated shopping system and, therefore, the commission. Due, Google removed Fortnite from Google Play, and it has remained so until now, with no signs that this will change in the near future.
Android version distribution
Death date: april 2020
For years, Google was updating the Android version distribution charts on all active Android devices monthly, but in 2019 he began to linger. The updates skipped a month, two, three or directly did not arrive. After almost a year without news, Google finally stopped including distribution data on its website.
Instead, Google ensures that developers can see the most used versions within Android Studio, but the truth is that said data was updated only once and no more, in April 2020. To see the state of fragmentation, the only tools we have are the crumbs of information that Google releases every now and then when you find a positive piece of information to share.
Tetris and Tetris Blitz
Death date: april 2020
There are few games as recognizable and universal as Tetris. This block game is on practically any platform imaginable, including mobiles. On Android, Electronic Arts had the license and two quite popular games: Tetris and Tetris Blitz. Both of them they disappeared on April 21 of the store.
This death comes after The Tetris Company and N3TWORK they will arrive an agreement for launch Tetris Royale, a Battle Royale mode for up to 99 players at a time. This successor is already on Google Play under the name of Tetris, although its score is not very good, with 3.3 stars at the moment.
Periscope
Death date: March 2021
Twitter bought Periscope in 2015, the live video streaming app, although he never seemed to have much interest in developing it. Instead, adapted and included Periscope features on Twitter, like your own live video system, Twitter Live.
Finally, Twitter posted Periscope’s expiration date. Periscope will continue to work for the time being, but new accounts can no longer be created and the application and service will be closed permanently in March 2021, since the decline in the number of users made its maintenance “unsustainable”, according to Twitter.
Google Cloud Print
Death date: January 1, 2021
Google Cloud Print was a system by which you could connect a cloud printer and thus be able to print from any device. After ten years in beta, last year announced the closure of the service, which will stop working tomorrow.
When it was launched in 2010, Google Cloud Print was presented as a good solution to be able to print from Chromebooks and Android, but the latest versions of Chrome OS and Android natively support printer management, so the application is out of date.
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The news
The best always leave: 13 things we said goodbye to on Android in 2020
was originally published in
Xataka Android
by
Ivan Ramirez
.
