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> If you're using a Pixel 2 or above you'll get additional features to organize and manage your phone, like app suggestions on the home screen based on your daily routines

Ads. On the homescreen of a phone you paid money for.

This is madness. A lot of folks I know are livid that Xiaomi, Oppo and other Chinese OEMs do this...and won't you know it, the world's largest ad-network wants a slice of the pie, too.

Edit: Looks like these are suggestions for already installed apps unlike on Xiaomi / Oppo phones.

> With additional Google Play system update modules, even more security and privacy fixes can be sent to your phone from Google Play

This is huge [0]. Even though Project Treble [1] makes it easier to run latest AOSP and other forks on Androids, this is a much needed update for billions who couldn't be bothered.

[0] https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2020/07/accelerati...

[1] https://source.android.com/setup/build/gsi



"App Suggestions" doesn't mean ads for Apps that you don't have, it means suggestions to quick-launch apps you already have installed.

Android already does this at the top of the applications list, just not directly on the home screen.


My assumption is this is suggesting apps you already open at a specific time of day. This is already a feature in the phone in the apps switcher, but isn't as prominent as displaying the icons on your home screen.


Yeah, I thought it would use ML to suggest opening your "maps" app before work because - what do you know - you have opened the maps app to get to work every day at that time for a year.

I do not believe you'd ever be able to target a user by their routine to offer ads in this manner. Ads were not even something I thought of when I read this.


Other OEMs show you app suggestions based on apps you use. Those suggestions are typically prompts to install them. I thought Google was bringing that to all devices.

Thankfully, it looks like that is not the case.


Installing the update now, but yes this is likely what this feature is, and they've done this on the app menu before (and currently)


Amazon started this on the Fire range years ago - charging a bit more (~15% as I recall) for a variant that didn't advertise on the lock-screen.


True but that was a lot more fair. The ads are only on the lock screen so really unobtrusive, and you have the ability to remove them for a fair price (and replace them with super boring standard ones you can't change )




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