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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.
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..
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.
I don't. I do use bluetooth beacons to accomplish a rather similar thing (but not for things that require security).
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.
I didn't even know this feature existed. If I did I wouldn't have used it. The way I see it, it kind of defeats the purpose of security if a simple device such as a ring can disable it.
With that being said what gripes me is when companies have a feature on a device I purchased decide that I no longer need that feature and disable it. Like when Microsoft "decided" that I didn't need gadgets in windows 7 any more.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
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.