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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...
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.
Not every application has the same need for security. This could be used for things like a kiosk that only offers services to people with the key. I wouldn't implement it that way, but that is the type of use case where it makes sense.
For example, maybe the NFC key that allows access to the kiosk is just a cheap thing given out for free to all the customers who bought a sandwich during the Thursday Special, and now when they come in they can use the kiosk to play a game and win coupons. And then suddenly your kiosk stopped working, because it did an OTA update. And your tech consultants billed a bunch of hours trying to find the problem, because there was no prior notice from google about the feature being shut down. Ouch.
The lesson: don't rely on OS features for your apps. Use only portable APIs.
The surprising thing about it to me is that google also claims to want to fight android fragmentation, but then they do this stuff that turns fragmentation into a freakin' religion for users. You can't take away my fragmentation, because it is what protects me from your other idiot decisions. Sorry google. It used to be different between us.
Well this NFC ring I have on my finger just go less useful..
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.
Unlock by NFC doesn't mean that's the only way to unlock your phone. I would think having an NFC chip tied to certain devices (like your car mount or your office desk or your bedside table) so that it's always unlocked in those locations......that would be how I would probably use it.
Or maybe put an NFC chip in your safe / bank deposit box so that in the event of your death, your heirs could access your phone.
And, yes, I know Google supports location based unlock, but I hate that implementation because my phone wakes up in my pocket enough as it is......when it's unlocked, it starts doing stuff (deleting icons, making calls, sending text, etc.). So I pretty much keep my phone locked all the time.
The other day, even with my phone locked in my pocket, it called 911.
I really need to find a good case with a screen cover.
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.
Or you built an app with NFC and Device Administrator permissions, you could make your own NFC unlock app!
Oh wait, the second result on google for "nfc ulock app" is an app in the Play store for unlocking your phone with an NFC tag.
The Cloud, where features disappear into The Fog.
Table-ized A.I.
Pretty stupid example there.
So your kiosk is presenting an Android unlock screen to the public, and anyone with a an NFC tag gets full access to it to do as they please?
They're not removing NFC from Android, they're removing the SmartLock option of registering an NFC tag to unlock your phone.
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.
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.
How do you know what the default access gives you access to?
And how do you know that the storage is even writable to change anything?
Making random assumptions to imagine a situation where my example wouldn't work is not exactly attempting in good faith to think about it. The task in thinking about something is first to consider cases where it might be true, and work out from there.
Google search is next...
I thought he died of old age. he was 91.
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 !