Unplugged Google Products and Services in 2023
Google has no problem building small ideas and big services and then quickly dropping them. In the coming year, Google will again have a number of projects and products on its hit list. We provide an overview of the departures.
According to the official statistics, Google has pulled the plug on 55 apps, 21 hardware products, and 204 services in the roughly two decades of its existence – the Killed by Google page, among others, keeps a detailed record of this. The group, or rather its many departments, like to try out new ideas – also in parallel and in competition with each other – and then often stamp them out again. As it is already foreseeable at the start of 2023 that the tradition will be continued in this way. Some departures are already known, and others are easy to foresee.
Stadia was a disaster
The game streaming service Stadia will of course ensure the most spectacular departure this year. In terms of its dimensions and complexity, this is probably one of the biggest failed attempts that Google has ever made. After last year’s announcement of the end, the death anniversary for Stadia comes on January 18, when the cloud servers are finally shut down. The loss of trust among supporters and users will probably continue for a long time.
Google duplex for web
Duplex is probably one of the best prime examples of the sometimes erratic software development at Google. Originally, Duplex was presented as a telephone assistant, but it was then expanded to include functions that automate the filling out of web forms. However, with Auto Fill and Google Assistant, there are two services that already cover this area. Duplex will now be dismantled in 2023, the web functions will be deactivated and the team will return to the call functions. Predicting the end of the entire duplex project here next is probably not too far out of the window. The prognosis: the assistant is likely to swallow the functions at some point.
Google Maps Street View App
The separate Streetview app has already been removed from the Play Store, and the final end will come in February. With the application, Google has also enabled users to create their own street view recordings. Furthermore, many of the functions were also represented in the Maps app. Google does not intend to replace user-created content for Streetview after the end of the app. Also foreseeable: Waze could be fully integrated into Google Maps this year.
Pixel smartphones
Of course, the end of updates for some Pixel devices this year comes as no surprise. This year, the Pixel 4 and Pixel 5 generation is on the hit list, from the second half of the year they will no longer be supplied with Android updates and security patches. Pixel 4a support ends in August, Pixel 5 and Pixel 5 XL in October, and Pixel 4a 5G in November.
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