Moutain View, California-based tech giant Google is killing off Android Things, the company’s heavily stripped-down, Android-based operating system for Internet-of-Things (IoT). The company is said to completely shut down Android Things early next year, according to an FAQ page on Google’s Android Developers forum. In its post, Google said that it had announced an update regarding the commercial use of Android Things platforms for device makers. Following in line with those updates, the company said that it is turning down the Android Things Console for non-commercial use.
Starting January 5 2021, Android Things will stop supporting new projects and starting January 5 2022, the Android Things console will be turned off for all existing projects and all project data will be permanently deleted — including build configurations and factory images. Soon, the only product that can run Android Things will be the ones built on commercial hardware SoMs (system-on-modules) from vendors like NXP, Qualcomm, and MediaTek, but these are only available to specific OEM partners building smart speakers and smart displays, Google has said. Google has released FAQs around the Android Things shutdown in order to address the inquiries regarding the existing projects and the future of Android Things.
Google had initially said that updates would be centrally distributed by the company roughly every three years, preventing manufacturers from modelling the OS. The platform, however, was not able to gain popularity and Google started focusing more on other IoT platforms like Google Smart Home, which remains the company’s premier platform for IoT products. Google had launched Android Things for IoT devices in December 2016.
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