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Android 7.1 Nougat's Changelog Reveals Pixel-Exclusive Features Not Available To Nexus Devices (bgr.com)
With the launch of the Google Pixel and Pixel XL yesterday, Google failed to mention the fact that vanilla Android is dead. The Pixel and Pixel XL run Android 7.1 Nougat, custom software made solely for the new Pixel devices and not for past Nexus smartphones. A changelog for Android 7.1 reveals that Nexus smartphones and tablets will not get Pixel-specific features. They won't get the Pixel Launcher or Google Assistant. BGR reports: Google is trying to set the Pixels apart by giving them special features, and it's not like that's an irrational business decision. But the Pixels might change the way Android fans buy devices. Before, you could go for Nexus to get the hottest Android features as soon as Google released Android updates, or you could buy anything else and hope for speedy software upgrade. Now, it seems that you'll have to buy Pixel to get a full Android experience as Google envisions it, or get anything else and never experience Android in its full glory. Some of the Pixel product-specific features, as mentioned in the changelog found by Android Police, include: Pixel Launcher, Google Assistant, unlimited original quality photo/video backup to Google Photos, phone/chat support, and various cosmetic changes.
I don't want the Pixel launcher or assistant. All I thought about during the presentation was how to disable all the crap. I'll gladly keep using my N6 if it means I don't receive all the stupid speech/assistant crap.
Except in the past those exclusive features usually had a reason behind them. Like the hardware didn't support the feature.
No, it was the same thing with the Nexus line as well.
Take the action bar library for instance. When it first came on the scene, it wasn't backwards compatible. The community created its own library for backwards-compatibility. Eventually, Google supported an official version of the backwards compatibility library and the community version was discontinued. There are dozens of other examples like this.
First Google comes up with a new feature, which it implements on the latest hardware and on its latest flagship device. Then later, the real work begins, both the open source community and Google try to bake an adaptation of that new feature into a compatibility library (that hopefully won't run like a dog on the older hardware).