It’s Google I/O week and even though the keynote isn’t until tomorrow, news is already hitting the (Wi-Fi) airwaves. After being announced all the way back in 2016 and going through eight developer previews, Android Things is finally hitting version 1.0. Android Things is yet another Android OS form factor that lives alongside Android TV, Android Automotive, and (Android) Wear OS. Things is meant for IoT devices, with a special focus on fixing the security nightmare that IoT devices usually create.
Most Android devices are not known as bastions of security (the phrase “toxic hellstew” comes to mind) but the root cause of security problems on most Android devices is the same problem that plagues IoT: device makers don’t want to update their devices. Google is going to solve this problem by just doing all the update work itself: every single Android Things-based product will get three years of OS updates, direct from Google, for free.
It sounds so simple doesn’t it? Just make Google do it. But the reason Google can do all the updates for all the Android Things is because device makers aren’t allowed to modify the Android Things OS. Just like Windows, Android Things is closed source and has a centralized update system. Google controls the operating system, and device makers can only make apps. Such a centralized update scheme could never work the open source Phone Android, where OEMs can—and do—change every little thing about the OS (usually for no good reason).
With Google in charge of updates, three years of support will come to any device running the “long-term support version” of Android Things, which is expected of end-user devices. Automatic updates are enabled by default and will arrive as monthly security updates and the occasional major OS update. Google also mentions that after three years there are “additional options for extended support.”
As part of this centralized update scheme, Android Things only supports certain pieces of hardware. With the 1.0 launch, Google is certifying System-on-Modules (SoMs) based on the NXP i.MX8M, Qualcomm SDA212, Qualcomm SDA624, and MediaTek MT8516. We normally deal with SoCs (System-on-Chips) around here, but an SoM is pretty much the same thing—a CPU, RAM, storage, Wi-Fi, I/O and anything else you need to run a mini computer. SoMs are just bigger (and cheaper!) than SoCs, since the components are strewn around a tiny circuit board rather than crammed into a tiny chip. Consumer electronics companies can then hide these little boards in whatever their bigger product is: refrigerators, toasters, sensors, smart displays, speakers, and more.
For an idea of exactly what this hardware is, Qualcomm’s model names are really easy to understand. The SDA212 has a Snapdragon 212 processor, which is what you would find in a bottom-of-the-line smartphone. End products seem to work a bit like the video card market, where one company does the core engineering work (Qualcomm in this example, Nvidia or AMD for video cards) and end users buy these SoMs from a number of third-party vendors. Google’s example SDA212-based device is the Intrinsyc Open-Q 212A SoM. The Intrinsyc board has 1GB of RAM, 4GB of storage, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and lots of expansion options, all squeezed into a 50mm x 46.5mm (1.96 inch x 1.83 inch) board. If you need more beef for your IoT workload, something based on the Qualcomm SDA624 would have a Snapdragon 624 and be pretty darn fast.
Additionally, the NXP i.MX7D and hacker favorite Raspberry Pi 3 Model B are supported as developer devices. These don’t have a promise of 3 years of updates and aren’t meant for production devices, but they’re good for prototyping.
Developers can manage their fleet of Android Things devices via a cloud-based Android Things Console. Here device makers (not owners) will be able to manage OS and app updates, view analytics for device health and performance, and issue test builds of the software package.
As an IoT OS, Android Things is a lot more stripped down than normal Android. Even a screen is optional. The OS is meant to run a single app at a time, which can be used as the interface for a touchscreen device or just to run a few sensors and communicate with the internet. As an example of what’s possible, one of the first devices that will run Android Things are the Google Assistant Smart Displays that will be out later this year from Lenovo, JBL, and LG. Android Things will also power Google Assistant speakers from LG and iHome.
If you haven’t guessed from the product lineup, Android Things makes it easy to use Google cloud services in your end product. The Google Assistant and Google Cast are well-supported APIs, along with the usual Google stuff like Firebase APIs, the Google Maps Platform, and mobile vision APIs. You also have (nearly) the entire Android Framework at your fingertips, so the app can be whatever you want.
A natural question to ask when you hear about three years of update support from Google is, how does it make money on this? Android for phones is also free, but Google still has a ton of indirect ways to make money on Android. Google gets a percentage of apps sold through the Play Store, and a offers a solution for ad-supported apps, which it also gets a cut of. There are ads in Google mobile products like Search and Google Maps, and there are plenty of ways to spend money in the Google Play apps for music, movies, tv, and books. Plus by building a top-tier mobile OS and having its products work well on it, Google makes it very easy to be a Google user, and that means more ad revenue for Google on desktop and mobile. None of these revenue streams necessarily applies to an Android Things device, which might not even have a screen.
It seems like the main Google revenue stream for Android Things is through its (optional) cloud services. Google’s Firebase and Cloud Platform products offer easy ways to do push messaging, analytics, cloud computing, and integration with Google services. Usually these products start with a free tier for hobbyist and low-usage apps, but when an app sees an uptick in usage, Google starts charging for all that cloud processing.
Android Things 1.0: It’s here, it’s ready for production, and unless you bought a Google Pixel, soon your Wi-Fi enabled toaster might soon be more up-to-date than your Android smartphone.
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