If you buy an Android phone, you’re choosing one of the world’s two most popular mobile platforms—one that has expanded the choice of phones available around the world.

Today, the European Commission issued a competition decision against Android, and its business model. The decision ignores the fact that Android phones compete with iOS phones, something that 89 percent of respondents to the Commission’s own market survey confirmed. It also misses just how much choice Android provides to thousands of phone makers and mobile network operators who build and sell Android devices; to millions of app developers around the world who have built their businesses with Android; and billions of consumers who can now afford and use cutting-edge Android smartphones.  

Today, because of Android, there are more than 24,000 devices, at every price point, from more than 1,300 different brands, including Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Polish, Romanian, Spanish and Swedish phone makers.

The phones made by these companies are all different, but have one thing in common—the ability to run the same applications. This is possible thanks to simple rules that ensure technical compatibility, no matter what the size or shape of the device. No phone maker is even obliged to sign up to these rules—they can use or modify Android in any way they want, just as Amazon has done with its Fire tablets and TV sticks.

To be successful, open-source platforms have to painstakingly balance the needs of everyone that uses them. History shows that without rules around baseline compatibility, open-source platforms fragment, which hurts users, developers and phone makers. Android’s compatibility rules avoid this, and help make it an attractive long-term proposition for everyone.

Creating flexibility, choice and opportunity

Today, because of Android, a typical phone comes preloaded with as many as 40 apps from multiple developers, not just the company you bought the phone from. If you prefer other apps—or browsers, or search engines—to the preloaded ones, you can easily disable or delete them, and choose other apps instead, including apps made by some of the 1.6 million Europeans who make a living as app developers.

In fact, a typical Android phone user will install around 50 apps themselves. Last year, over 94 billion apps were downloaded globally from our Play app store; browsers such as Opera Mini and Firefox have been downloaded more than 100 million times, UC Browser more than 500 million times.

This is in stark contrast to how things used to be in the 1990s and early 2000s—the dial-up age. Back then, changing the pre-installed applications on your computer, or adding new ones, was technically difficult and time-consuming. The Commission’s Android decision ignores the new breadth of choice and clear evidence about how people use their phones today.

A platform built for the smartphone era

In 2007, we chose to offer Android to phone makers and mobile network operators for free. Of course, there are costs involved in building Android, and Google has invested billions of dollars over the last decade to make Android what it is today.  This investment makes sense for us because we can offer phone makers the option of pre-loading a suite of popular Google apps (such as Search, Chrome, Play, Maps and Gmail), some of which generate revenue for us, and all of which help ensure the phone ‘just works’, right out of the box. Phone makers don’t have to include our services; and they’re also free to pre-install competing apps alongside ours. This means that we earn revenue only if our apps are installed, and if people choose to use our apps instead of the rival apps.

Good for partners, good for consumers

The free distribution of the Android platform, and of Google’s suite of applications, is not only efficient for phone makers and operators—it’s of huge benefit for developers and consumers. If phone makers and mobile network operators couldn’t include our apps on their wide range of devices, it would upset the balance of the Android ecosystem. So far, the Android business model has meant that we haven’t had to charge phone makers for our technology, or depend on a tightly controlled distribution model.  

We’ve always agreed that with size comes responsibility. A healthy, thriving Android ecosystem is in everyone’s interest, and we’ve shown we’re willing to make changes. But we are concerned that today’s decision will upset the careful balance that we have struck with Android, and that it sends a troubling signal in favor of proprietary systems over open platforms.  

Rapid innovation, wide choice, and falling prices are classic hallmarks of robust competition and Android has enabled all of them. Today’s decision rejects the business model that supports Android, which has created more choice for everyone, not less. We intend to appeal. 

#AndroidWorks

It’s a constant challenge to ensure that technology works well for people with different needs around the world, especially where connectivity is limited and basic smartphones are the main gateway to the internet. Today, at our second annual Google for Brazil event in São Paulo, we shared updates on how we’re making our products work better for people in Brazil—and elsewhere in the world. We also gave an update on our efforts to make the internet more inclusive, highlighting a new initiative in Brazil to empower women to succeed in a digital world.

New soccer experience on Search

Given Brazil’s passion for soccer, we couldn’t think of a better place to kick off an enhanced experience for football fans on Search, just in time for the World Cup. For this year’s tournament in Russia, fans everywhere will be treated to a new immersive experience that includes group tables, stats, trending players and a host of other features that let you follow matches in real time and see highlights on your phone. For more about all that we’ve prepared for soccer fans, check out our World Cup post.

Android Go coming to Brazil

As an open source platform, Android has helped democratize access to the internet in places like Brazil. But for more people to come online, they need affordable smartphones that offer a smooth experience when browsing the web and using apps. That’s why we developed Android Go, a lighter version of our OS optimized for entry-level devices. Android Oreo (Go edition) is now coming to Brazil on new devices made by our partners Positivo, Multilaser and Alcatel—an important step in our efforts to give more people access to computing.

Brazil elections on Search

2018 is an election year in Brazil, and we want to connect voters with useful and reliable information as they prepare to vote in October. In that spirit, we’re planning features on Search that will allow Brazilians to stay up to speed on key dates, the candidates and other critical information about the election. We’re also adding the option for presidential candidates to post statements directly on Google about where they stand on key issues. And on election day, you’ll be able to keep track of the results on Search.

When the campaign kicks off in August, we’ll roll out a Google Trends hub for Brazil that offers an overview of the race through the lens of Search. The hub will be a one-stop shop for data about search interest in candidates and their parties, the most searched questions and other related queries, all in real time.

More local Actions on the Assistant

We launched the Google Assistant in Brazilian Portuguese less than a year ago, and Brazil is now among the top three countries in daily active users. Portuguese is also the second most popular language for Assistant usage on smartphones.

Brazilians already use the Assistant to send WhatsApp messages, play music on Spotify, and watch videos on YouTube or Netflix. Now we’re working with more than 30 local partners to bring more Actions to the Assistant. In the next few months, Brazilians will be able to order a pizza with iFood, book a table with Restorando, hail a ride with 99 and do much more by using nothing but their voice.

Enhancing Maps for Brazilians

A new feature on Maps will help Brazilians navigate a São Paulo law that restricts motorists from driving in designated parts of the city during peak traffic hours one day a week. All they need to do is give the last number of their license plate and Maps will provide customized directions to avoid restricted areas.

We’ve also more than doubled the number of Brazilian cities on Maps with real-time transit information, to 15 from six. The list now includes cities like Campinas, Caxias do Sul, Uberaba and Campina Grande.

Art Selfie debuts in Brazil

Remember those fun selfies resembling famous artworks that went viral earlier this year? Well, now the Art Selfie is making its Latin American debut in Brazil. Brazilians can find an artistic match for their selfie in Google Arts & Culture‘s vast collection, which includes masterpieces from institutions such as São Paulo’s Pinacoteca and Rio de Janeiro’s Museu Nacional de Belas Artes. Give it a try on the Arts & Culture app.

Grow with Google

Grow with Google offers free training sessions, tools and events to help people grow their skills, career or business. We’ve taken Grow with Google to four cities in Brazil already, training 17,000 people, and plan to hit four more states by year-end.

Technology can also play a key role in helping to reduce gender inequality. That’s the thinking behind Womenwill, which aims to create economic opportunities for women. We brought Womenwill to Brazil in March, and since then more than 2,500 women have undergone training in leadership, negotiation techniques, personal finance and digital marketing.

While that’s a promising start, there is much more to do. Today we announced a Google.org grant of $1 million for Instituto Rede Mulher Empreendedora, a Brazilian nonprofit that promotes and supports entrepreneurship among women. The grant will help them train up to 135,000 women in Brazil over the next two years.

We hope that each of the announcements we made today will have an impact on people’s lives in one way or another. And we remain committed to bringing the transformational power of technology to people everywhere.

When we brought Android Pay to Japan in 2016, our goal was to create a unique mobile checkout experience that was tailored to Japanese shoppers. Since then, we’ve unified the different ways consumers pay with Google into a single brand: Google Pay. We’ve also updated the app to make paying faster and simpler, promote easy access to offers, and provide one, convenient place to manage e-money and loyalty cards on mobile using your Google Account.

Now, we’re rolling out two new ways to pay that will make checking out online, in stores, and across Japan even easier.

Suica and WAON now available on Google Pay

Starting today, you can add and manage your Suica and WAON cards in Google Pay if you live in Japan and have an Osaifu-Keitai eligible phone. This means four major Japanese prepaid e-money cards—nanaco, Rakuten Edy, Suica and WAON—can all be used with Google Pay. You’ll be able to pay with Google Pay at the hundreds of locations that accept any of these cards, plus pay on transit anywhere Suica is accepted.

The Google Pay app makes organizing and managing all your cards effortless. You can use the app to quickly sign up for e-money cards using the information from your Google Account, check your balances and easily add money with your credit card, and set up low balance alerts so you’re always ready to go. You can also see your recent activity across all of your cards, get customized offers and rewards, and find helpful tips in the app’s Home tab.

And if you use Google Pay for transit, you can check your commuter pass, bullet train, and green ticket details, plus register your Tpoint and dPoint cards and scan them right from the app.

Adding Suica and WAON brings us one step closer to making paying faster and simpler for everyone, everywhere. Keep an eye out for even more features and new ways to pay in the upcoming months, and get the app now to see just how easy paying can be.

Ten years ago, when we launched the first Android phone—the T-Mobile G1—it was with a simple but bold idea: to build a mobile platform that’s free and open to everyone. Today, that idea is thriving—billions of people around the world rely on their Android phone every day.

To make Android smarter and easier to use than ever, today we’re unveiling a beta version of Android P, the next release of Android.

A smarter smartphone, with machine learning at the core

Android P makes your smartphone smarter, helping it learn from and adapt to you. Take battery life, for instance—I think all of us often wish we had more of it. In Android P, we partnered with DeepMind to build Adaptive Battery, which prioritizes battery power only for the apps and services you use the most, to help you squeeze the most out of your battery. We also used machine learning to create Adaptive Brightness, which learns how you like to set the brightness slider given your surroundings.

Across the platform, your phone will help you better navigate your day, using context to give you smart suggestions based on what you like to do the most and automatically anticipating your next action. App Actions, for instance, help you get to your next task more quickly by predicting what you want to do next. Say you connect your headphones to your device, Android will surface an action to resume your favorite Spotify playlist. Actions show up throughout Android in places like the Launcher, Smart Text Selection, the Play Store, the Google Search app and the Assistant.

Actions are a simple but powerful way for helping you get what you need quickly; but what if we could surface part of the app itself, right when you need it most? Slices do just that, giving you an even deeper look into your favorite apps. If you search for “Lyft” in Google Search, you can see an interactive Slice that gives you the price and time for a trip to work, and it’s interactive so you can quickly order the ride.

We want the entire device experience to be smarter, not just the OS, so we’re bringing the power of Google’s machine learning to app developers with the launch of ML Kit, a new set of cross-platform APIs available through Firebase. ML Kit offers developers on-device APIs for text recognition, face detection, image labeling and more. So mobile developers building apps like Lose It!, a nutrition tracker, can easily deploy our text recognition model to scan nutritional information and ML Kit’s custom model APIs to automatically classify over 200 different foods with your phone’s camera.

A simple, more approachable Android

With Android P, we put a special emphasis on simplicity. The look and feel of Android is more approachable with a brand new system navigation. In Android P, we’re extending gestures to enable navigation right from your homescreen. This is especially helpful as phones grow taller and it’s more difficult to get things done on your phone with one hand. With a single, clean home button, you can swipe up to see a newly designed Overview, the spot where at a glance you have full-screen previews of your recently used apps. Simply tap to jump back into one of them. If you find yourself constantly switching between apps, we’ve got good news for you: Smart Text Selection (which recognizes the meaning of the text you’re selecting and suggests relevant actions) now works in Overview, making it easier to perform the action you want.

Changing how you navigate your phone is a big deal, but small changes can make a big difference too. Android P also brings a redesigned Quick Settings, a better way to take and edit screenshots (say goodbye to the vulcan grip that was required before), simplified volume controls, an easier way to manage notifications and more. You’ll notice small changes like these across the platform, to help make the things you do all the time easier than ever.  

Awareness and control of your digital wellbeing

Technology should help you with your life, not distract you from it. So we’ve been working hard to add key capabilities right into Android to help you achieve your desired balance with technology. Our focus is on giving you a greater understanding of how you use your phone, as well as more controls. A new Dashboard, for instance, shows you how you’re spending time on your device, including time spent in apps, how many times you’ve unlocked your phone, and how many notifications you’ve received. App Timer lets you set time limits on apps, and will nudge you when you’re close to your limit and then gray out the icon to remind you of your goal. The new Do Not Disturb mode silences not just the phone calls and notifications, but also all the visual interruptions that pop up on your screen. And to make it even easier to use, we created a new gesture: if you turn your phone over on the table, it automatically enters Do Not Disturb so you can focus on being present.  Finally, Wind Down will switch on Night Light when it gets dark, and it will turn on Do Not Disturb and fade the screen to grayscale at your chosen bedtime to help you remember to get to sleep at the time you want.

Beyond smarts, simplicity and digital wellbeing, there are hundreds of additional improvements coming in Android P, including security and privacy improvements such as DNS over TLS, encrypted backups, Protected Confirmations and more.  

Android P Beta is available today on Google Pixel. And thanks to work on Project Treble, an effort we introduced last year to make OS upgrades easier for partners, a number of our partners are making Android P Beta available today on their own devices, including Sony Xperia XZ2, Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S, Nokia 7 Plus, Oppo R15 Pro, Vivo X21, OnePlus 6, and Essential PH‑1.  

Since we first launched Android ten years ago, we’ve been focused on how to build a platform for everyone. Android P is an important step toward bringing machine learning to everyone with an operating system that learns from you, adapts to you and helps you with everyday tasks.

Security experts recommend strong, unique passwords for each service that you use. For most of us, however, it can be difficult to manage credentials across multiple websites and apps, especially if you’re trying to keep track of everything in your head.

In Android 8.0 Oreo, we made it simpler to use Autofill with a password manager, like LastPass, Dashlane, Keeper, or 1Password. Particularly on tiny devices like your phone, autofill can make your life easier by remembering things (with your permission), so that you don’t have to type out your name, address, or credit card over and over again.

With the new autofill services in Oreo, password managers can access only the information that’s required in order to autofill apps, making your data more secure. There’s a specific list of password managers (which you can find in Android Settings) that meet our security and functional requirements, and we’ll be continuing to grow this list over time. If you already use a password manager, then you’ll be able to try the new experience today.

How does it work?

Setting up Autofill on your device is easy. Simply go to Settings, search for “Autofill,” and tap “Autofill service.” If you already have a password manager installed, it will show up in this list. You can also tap “Add service” to download the password manager of your choice from the Play Store.

Once you’ve set a password manager as your Autofill service, the information stored in that app will show up in Autofill whenever you fill out forms (for example, your saved username and password will show up as a suggestion when you’re logging into an app for the first time).

We include Google as an autofill service on all devices running Android 8.0 and above, which lets you use data that you already have saved in Chrome to fill in passwords, credit cards, addresses, and other personal information.

Whether you use Google or another password manager from the Play Store, the new Autofill experience on Oreo makes it easier to securely store and recall commonly typed information, like passwords and credit card numbers.

Android’s mission, from day one, has been to bring the power of computing to everyone. We’re proud that the platform has made mobile technology accessible and useful to billions of people over the last 10 years. While we continue to celebrate Android’s open platform, we’ve been working closely with our partners to bring a consistent hardware and software experience that meets the expectations of users all around the world.

This week at Mobile World Congress, a new generation of smartphones were announced through our two programs: Android Oreo (Go edition) and Android One.

Here’s a recap of all the announcements, straight from Barcelona:

Android Oreo (Go edition)

Android Oreo (Go edition) offers a fast and smooth experience optimized for devices with 1GB of memory or less, while still making sure you have a high-quality experience with the current version of Android and Google Play Protect. Thanks to optimizations to the platform and apps, Android (Go edition) provides double the storage available for use out of the box. At Mobile World Congress, we welcomed some of the first global smartphones to run Android Oreo (Go edition):

• Alcatel introduced its first Android Oreo (Go edition) phone with the Alcatel 1X, featuring the latest Alcatel smartphone design language and technology.
• General Mobile announced the “GM 8 Go,” its first product with Android Oreo (Go edition), as part of the company’s plan to bring computing to more people in Turkey and around the world. 
• HMD Global announced the Nokia 1, a high quality Android Oreo (Go edition) device that delivers smartphone essentials with the reassuring quality users expect of a Nokia phone in a refreshingly familiar design to fans around the world. 
• Huawei has also committed significant resources to supporting Android Oreo (Go edition) smartphones and will be bringing a device to all major emerging markets in the near future. 
• LAVA International Limited introduced the LAVA Z50, which will soon be available at over 100,000 retail stores in India.
• Micromax Informatics gave a first glimpse of BHARAT GO, its first Android Oreo (Go Edition) smartphone, with the goal to convert millions of feature phone users onto these smartphones.
• TRANSSION announced it will release Android Oreo (Go edition) phones across its brands, TECNO, itel and Spice, which will cater to a wide range of consumer groups across a diverse set of international markets, particularly Africa.
• ZTE featured the ZTE Tempo Go, an unlocked smartphone running Android Oreo (Go edition), that looks to provide an optimized and powerful entry level smartphone experience.

Android One

Following the 2017 launches from HTC, Kyocera, Motorola, Sharp, and Xiaomi, we added several new devices to our global Android One portfolio. Each of these devices pairs high quality hardware from our OEM partners with a software experience designed by Google to deliver an experience that is smart, secure, and simply amazing.

To kick off the show in Barcelona, HMD Global unveiled the new Nokia 6, Nokia 7 Plus and Nokia 8 Sirocco, a range of new premium and mid-tier Android One devices. With the latest Google innovations out of the box and two years of OS upgrades, these devices will deliver an easy to use experience that gets better over time. With Google Play Protect and three years of regular security updates, these will be among the most secure devices available.

In addition, BQ recently previewed two Android One devices, the Aquaris X2 Pro and Aquaris X2, both committed to security and a great Android experience. General Mobile also unveiled their fifth Android One device, the GM8, which will be available in the coming months.

In the decade since the launch of Android, we have achieved amazing things due to the open nature of the platform and the vibrant ecosystem of partners. Looking ahead to the next 10 years, we’re committed to strengthening our partnerships to foster innovation, and bringing consistent and high-quality experiences to everyone.

We would also like to congratulate our existing partners on launching their latest flagship phones, including Samsung Galaxy S9, Sony Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact, at Mobile World Congress. Together with the new partners of Android Oreo (Go edition) and Android One, Android will continue to offer great choice and diversity of devices that meet the needs of our users.

We’ve been partnering with the mobile industry to improve the messaging experience on Android with RCS (Rich Communication Services), bringing more enhanced features to the standard messaging experience on mobile devices. As of today, we are working with 43 carriers and device manufacturers to bring better native messaging to every Android user.

Rich messaging for brands

Last year we created an Early Access Program to make it easier for brands to start participating in RCS business messaging (the mobile industry’s term for rich business-to-consumer messages). Today companies across food, travel, retail and delivery services in the U.S. and Mexico are starting to have better conversations with their customers using RCS as part of our Early Access Program.

With RCS, businesses can send more useful and interactive messages to their customers, even for an emergency inquiry. This means, for example, that a retailer can send beautiful images of their products, rather than a text message, and even let the customer select and buy something, all without leaving the messaging app. Best of all, customers who have already opted in to SMS messages from a business get this upgraded experience automatically in Android Messages.

In the U.S., we’ve collaborated with Sprint to enable campaigns with 1-800 Contacts, 1-800-Flowers.com, Booking.com, SnapTravel and Subway, among others, along with messaging partners 3C, CM.com, Mobivity, OpenMarket, Smooch and Twilio. We’re also working with Telcel to bring campaigns to Mexico soon with 5 Piso, Broxel, DHL Mexico and Secretaria de Salud along with messaging partners Airmovil, Auronix, Aldeamo and Tiaxa.

In the coming months alongside our partners, we’ll bring RCS messaging to businesses in more regions. And next week at Mobile World Congress, our partners will demonstrate how businesses can change the way they engage mobile customers using RCS.

RCS messaging growth in 2017 across Europe and Latin America

To help make RCS truly universal and give Android users a consistent and familiar experience with access to all that RCS messaging offers, we’ve been working closely with carriers and device makers around the world.

Over the past year, carriers across Europe, North America and Latin America including America Movil, AT&T in Mexico, Celcom Axiata Berhad, Freedom Mobile, Oi, Telia Company and Telefonica joined Deutsche Telekom, Globe Telecom, Orange, Rogers Communications, Sprint and Telenor Group in their commitment to launch RCS messaging, powered by the Jibe RCS cloud from Google.They will also preload Android Messages as the default messaging app for their subscribers. Vodafone Group RCS service also supports Android Messages and has already launched across 10 of its 14 RCS markets globally. All carriers are committed to interconnecting through the Jibe RCS Hub to bring RCS messaging to users across networks. Collectively, they represent more than 1.8 billion mobile subscribers worldwide.

To bring better default messaging to hundreds of millions of users, device manufacturers including TCL/Alcatel/Blackberry, Transsion, BLU, Positivo, Multilaser, Mobiwire, Azumi, and Essential are joining Huawei, LG, Archos, BQ, Cherry Mobile, Condor, Fly, General Mobile, HMD Global – Home of Nokia Phones, HTC, Kyocera, Lanix, Lava, Micromax, Motorola, MyPhone, QMobile, Sony Mobile, Symphony, Vodafone, Wiko, ZTE, along with Pixel and Android One devices in preloading Android Messages as the the default messaging app on their new devices.

We’re excited to see Android Messages and RCS connect more people and businesses, and look forward to expanding our collaboration with the industry to bring better messaging to every Android user.