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Google Quietly Discontinues NFC Smart Unlock Without Explanation (betanews.com)
Mark Wilson writes: Android users have been slowly discovering that Google has killed off NFC Smart Unlock. The feature, which makes it possible to unlock a phone with an NFC device such as a ring or bracelet, has been discontinued without explanation. Earlier in the month, Android users started to post messages on Google's Issue Tracker website, indicating that the feature was no longer available to them. Three weeks later, Google has finally responded, indicating that NFC Smart Unlock has been deprecated.
I think this had so few users that there wasn't a good reason to keep it going in the face of the other unlocks offered. Android can use a place, the sound of your voice, a look at your face, the bluetooth MAC ID in your car, etc.
Bruce Perens.
Google will do as Google wills.
There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
Why would somebody even want this feature? Yeah, I'm sure some people will say "convenience", but if this is how you're making it "convenient" than you might as well just disable the phone locking completely!
This sounds a lot like putting a strong lock on your home's front door, but then putting the key on a string and draping it over the external doorknob! Yeah, you've got "security", and it can be "conveniently" bypassed, but in reality it's like you're essentially leaving things wide open.
Show of hands: Does anyone here know anyone who uses this feature?
I'm not doubting that some exist, but I'm curious about how many are out there.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Well this NFC ring I have on my finger just go less useful..
Pluggable Authentication Module. We could call it PAM maybe?
Guess it rode a wave outta here.
Might've been some scenario involving security compromise incident with NFC Unlock that got Google in the tort docket, cleaned out of a few million off-the-record (undisclosed settlement), and the corporate-tool sharks looked at future liability and were like: 'Ax this. Ax this NOW.' The hush-hush of the feature going behind the barn like that makes me wonder.
Does Bluetooth LE obsolete NFC? If so, NFC won't be in new phones and that's a good reason to stop writing code for it.
Bruce Perens.
Just because it's no longer core functionality, there are still apps that provide the feature.
They were around before NFC unlock was part of Android, and they're still around now.
It's not like another ecosystem that fights against apps that provide the same functionality as the OS.
The Cloud, where features disappear into The Fog.
Table-ized A.I.
The linked article includes a comment by someone who apparently has a sub-dermal NFC tag implanted. Either he's one of the nerdiest people around, or he's just revealed that he's actually a dog. (Actually, though, are those commonly used by the disabled to make unlocks easier?)
Save Maine's economy: write stuff down. All comments are exclusively my own, not my employer.
Google already has earned a reputation for taking things away without recourse. You are Google's bitch if you use their stuff. Like Apple, Google will decide what is useful to you, regardless of your input.
Google drops stuff when it determines from all the data it garners from its devices that people don't use stuff. So it basically decides its not worth continuing the support. I found it never worked very well and I think I only had a pair a Sony Wireless headphones that ever supported it anyway.
This is all that Google has been in recent years. Half assed blind bets with zero focus. They'll announce some big feature, big service, interesting tech application, and then instead of making it better and more accessible they'll just stay quiet for months and years, abandon it, and then "deprecate" it silently. Empty promises, premature ejaculation.
On the other hand, if there's some hype around some sort of functionality, instead of integrating it on their older services, they'll create new ones, like not only one or two but sometimes 4 or 5 different versions with different names for no good reason, and then screw up the entire ecossystem fracturing userbase towards multiple overlapping services. And then, when understandably none of the versions have good adoption because everyone is left confused at the prospect of trying multiple apps to do something they already use another app for, then the strategy falls back to the standard. Keep quiet, abandon it, and deprecate.
Google isn't evil anymore... it's just stupid. It became a victim of stretching itself out too thin, and creating an internal culture that lives in small bubbles. They cannot get their dev teams together to come up with a unified concept of anything anymore. The company cannot think big anymore. It doesn't seem to have unified concepts for whatever pure functionality, it's just a bunch of scattershot ideas. Most of the Google mainstays are all getting up to a full decade old. The search engine, maps, Gmail, Chrome, Android. What has Google produced internally in the past 5 years or so that is still going strong?
This has been proven by payment systems, by chat apps, by new stuff like Google Assistant not integrating well or making use of other Google services, by different apps that overlaps functions of others... it's like different parts of Google have absolutely no idea what other parts are making, and they keep churning out whatever, deciding what to do with what's left behind later on.
I'll just avoid new Google stuff as much as possible. You have no way of knowing what will survive, you can't rely on it, and channels of communication on development are as opaque as they can be. We are basically alpha testers. It's easier for me personally to invest on apps and services that have devs or a company focused on it, and dependant on it for the sake of their businesses.
The worst part of it all is that at least when the company was still young, it used that sort of strategy for new ideas. Now it only picks crap from the hype pile, re-hashes it, and see if it sticks. Crap like Allo and Duo. They don't even have a spine to risk completely eliminating Hangouts and several other chat platforms to consolidate into one thing and offer it as a single chat solution. It's all half assed and without focus.
Plus security risk.
Just mob the poor guy from all his devices and voila... all unlocked!
Google search is next...
And this kind of shit is why I don't use any of Google's bullshit devices or services. They just arbitrarily shut them down at any time, without warning, just taking shit away from you that YOU bought. I use only APPLE hardware for my [YOUR COPY OF OS X HAS BEEN DEPRECATED. WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE. PLEASE JOIN THE OVER 90 PERCENT OF HAPPY macOS High Sierra USERS AND UPGRADE TODAY. ERROR 36801.4]
Where are the refund for folks who purchased that capability and the accessories?
NFC is totally insecure. You can scan someone's signature by physical proximity and nothing else, and then spoof it.
I had this enabled with my fitbit but it didn't matter, the phone was still always locked. Useless piece of shit feature.
Look like my old phone that I have to re-connect with my old car radio that receive a update at my dealer, do not offer smart unlock this time... didn't think about it until now!
Ceci n'est pas une Signature !