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Google kills two-year “Pixel Pass” subscription after just 22 months::Two years on a Pixel Pass was supposed to get you a new phone.
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This is why users don’t invest in the google ecosystem. No consistency or follow through.
The Netflix of technology
Does Netflix have a reputation for being inconsistent? I know people are pissed with the recent password sharing policy, but as a dev, I’ve only ever heard interesting/downright awesome stuff coming from Netflix’s tech side.
Netflix has a reputation for killing TV shows after 2 or 3 seasons, before they can be wrapped up. So there’s a ton of content on Netflix which is ‘unfinished’ and so completely unattractive to anyone that might want to start watching it. Why would I ever bother starting to watch, for example, Santa Clarita Diet if I already know the show just ends with no pay off?
I remember watching the first season of that, shame to hear it didn’t get a proper finish.
I’m still mad about 1899. Cancelled on a cliffhanger after one season while having great reviews. I don’t get it
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This is exactly why Stadia failed. I honestly think if it was a service like Gamepass Ultimate where the games come with the sub, it would’ve been a success. Spending $60 on a game I can only play via Google’s service though? Fuck no. Never. Not in a million years.
I honestly think if it was a service like Gamepass Ultimate where the games come with the sub, it would’ve been a success.
I mean, they should’ve communicated better, because that’s essentially what the paid subscription was: subscribing would get access to a library of free games to play. I think the library could’ve been better.
Even today, I’m using Geforce Now + XBox Game Pass, I find that the streaming quality isn’t the same as Stadia (but the game selection is much, much better).
My wife’s computer had a hardware failure so I set her up on GeForce Now for a month until I could diagnose and fix the issue (i was super busy with returning to college at the time) and it was absolutely jarring how well it worked!
I got my money back and have a billion Bluetooth controllers for my steam deck.
I lucked out with the whole situation. I got in when they were offering a free stadia bundle with cyberpunk, then not long after they killed the service. I got my money back for cyberpunk and a free Chromecast and stadia controller out of it. Now that Google has enabled Bluetooth support, it’s my go to PC controller.
I used to be all in with Google. After being burned over and over again, I’ve nearly entirely exited their ecosystem with some exceptions. I just don’t trust them anymore to maintain their products for the long haul.
Yeah I moved to Apple last year.
The garden walls may be higher but at least I don’t have to worry about the plants being chopped down.
Also I’m excited because there might actually be some resale value for my devices for once in my life.
Yep. I switched too. It’s nice to have resale value and a decent camera. I feel like every android phone I had has a major decline in camera quality over time. I haven’t experienced that with my iPhone. I also like how easy it is to add new devices to the eco system. I used to be an apple hater but no longer. I just need shit that works, I don’t give a flying fuck about “oPeN dEvElOpMeNt.” I text, browse, take pics and listen to music on my phone. That’s it. I don’t need to ability to hack the pentagon with my fucking phone.
I think the pixel 7 has the best camera around, that narrative changed a generation ago
That narrative still exists. Pixel 7 is one phone. The rest of them (Samsung, lg, etc) have degrading, shitty ass cameras and don’t hold much resale value.
I used to be a huge google supporter, and I’ll still take android every single day over an iPhone… but other than that google could go burn for all I care.
I’d like to exit Google, but Gmail makes this oh so hard. I’ve been using Gmail since over 20 years, basically my life is on that service. How did you migrate off Gmail?
Just… export the emails and most systems will have a way to import old emails.
Hell for work I’m in the middle of migrating emails sent on a platform, logged on a secondary platform but stored on a third, to a fourth platform via CSV only.
There are ways to forwards all your emails into a new email address i think. Google it.
It’s just a running joke at this point. If it doesn’t sell as many ads as Search, YouTube and GMail, they’ll kill it. Even if you’re paying them for it.
They can’t just have a little service that makes them a little bit of money. They have to have the top service that makes the most money.
I don’t mind the pixels and I trust they’ll stick around. So much user data to
selllearn fromWhat do you mean “ecosystem”? Are you unable to understand the idea of making products you can opt into and out of? Just because apple tries with every move to keep you dependent on them for all your devices, doesn’t mean everyone else aims to do the same.
Lots of misunderstanding in these comments. Google Fi service is not going anywhere, Google is not cancelling any services. The Pixel Pass is basically just a bundle of optional services that can be added to your Fi account for a very slight discount. You do not get a free phone, you get interest free financing on your phone. Because they are cancelling the Pixel Pass Google has given me $100 credit towards my next phone, which is a better deal than the Pixel Pass itself.
Like many people I’m not happy with a lot of things Google has been doing lately, but the Pixel Pass being cancelled is not important.
To take some sting out of the move, Google is offering a “$100 loyalty reward credit” for active Pixel Pass subscribers. You can use it for $100 off a new Pixel phone from the Google Store or Google Fi, and it expires in two years.
Thanks for pointing out that typo, I fixed the credit amount
The Pixel Pass is basically just a bundle of optional services that can be added to your Fi account for a very slight discount.
$300 over 2 years is not slight.
I understand completely. This is profiteering and another example of google killing a product I like. Fuck google. They finally got me to switch to an iphone after buying Nexus/Pixel for a decade. I’m switching out of spite.
Damn. Shoulda kept your Pixel and put GrapheneOS on it.
I’m so glad I keep seeing the “just GOS it”, I greatly prefer my GOS pix6 to the stock one. As I said in an earlier comment in this post, I just can’t switch the stock one over fast enough!
I hate Google as much as the next guy but I don’t think switching to the product of an even more capitalistic company, one that is completely locked down and doesn’t allow you to install your own OS, is actually a good solution…
That’s 12.50 cents a month. You could have literally cancelled at any time.
Except that you’re lying
That sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen. Telling people they get a new phone if they sign up for 2 years then cancelling it at the 22 month mark.
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Ah I just realised. I was assuming users would get a free upgrade at the end of the 2 years, but it might be they get it upfront at the start
Yeah, it’s basically a deal at the time of phone purchase: do this 24-month interest free payment plan for a new device, and we’ll throw in phone insurance, Youtube premium, and Google One for a significantly discounted price. At the end of 24 months, you can either get a new phone and sign up for another 24 months, or cancel at that time.
Yeah, its confusing the way its worded, but it’s still kind of shitty. I am sure there were some who would have bought another phone, but we’re lured into the Pixel deal. I know some people really look forward to replacing their phone every couple years, for whatever reason (they all seem pretty much the same to me).
This is just an interest free financing plan that comes bundled with services.
No one was going to get a free phone.
Google cancelled a project?!?
/Shocked Pikachu face
I really hope they cancel Web Environment Integrity too
I want to switch to Google Fiber but I can’t shake the thought that as soon as I do they’ll shut down operations and pawn my soul off to Satan ISP
I wouldn’t be surprised.
Look at stadia, I knew it would be a rocky road for them to market it, but by also buying game studios with the intentions to make and release games, I was under the impression that they would keep going with it. They pumped so much money in to it.
Oh boy, how wrong I was.
I never considered it because the game streaming is still pretty new and I’ve never forgiven Google for killing the news reader.
I knew it was doomed when they announced the business model. Subscription + buying the games was never going to fly. If they had gone with a Game Pass style subscription, it would have had a chance.
It wasn’t that though, it was just miscommunicated, the subscription was a ps+ type thing, while you could buy games and play them for no additional costs at 1080p. Having Phil Harrison lead the whole thing didn’t help either (he rejected Hideo Kojima’s offer to make an exclusive game for stadia ffs)
I will never move to GCP because of this. The reputation damage with Reader, Stadia, Hangouts, etc has made me not want to invest moving my companies services to their cloud. I doubt they are factoring this in when they shutter a service, but it is costing them millions. Google has shown it can’t commit to supporting their products and services, so why bother spending time integrating with them and get locked in, just for it to be depreciated or discontinued immediately.
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Both are also in heavily regulated industries with oversight from state utility commissions and the FCC, where simply trying to exit a market requires a whole proceeding before the agency/commission. They could announce that they’d be exiting the industry and selling its assets to a competitor, but that would have to clear antitrust hurdles and would take a while.
I think that means that effectively, they can’t just “kill” these services but would have to sell to someone else, and the approval process itself could result in some concessions for the consumer, so that even Satan ISP would have limited power to really screw over the consumer.
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Yep, just like they did in Louisville.
Dude, they ARE Satan ISP.
One more headstone in the Google graveyard
I have been a lifelong googler. Owned every Nexus phone and Pixel until the Pixel 6, when I got Pixel pass. They finally made me mad enough to switch to an iphone. I dislike Apple very much, but I can rely on their services still being around 2 years after they launch.
But why iPhone?
I went to search for what the best phones are. Now I’m on OnePlus 8T for the past three years and the device still kicks most phones asses for what was a good price. I’ll use this for another two years I guess and then I’ll look at what is the best phone again. It won’t be iPhone, that’s for sure
Apple products are overpriced like hell, and simply not yours to do with what you want.
Probably because it’s not 2010 and both platforms are matured to the point of being able to do almost the exact same things for the majority of users, so it’s just down to small personal preferences.
This is so true now. I used to go back and forth between iPhone and Pixel phones, and then a few years ago decided it’s just nicer with an iPhone. I know I’ll get regular updates and I’ll get OS updates way longer than any Android phone will. The OSes are pretty much the same now, little tweaks here and there between the two and they are nearly identical to how they work. And iPhone just has more QOL features over Android.
Yeah pretty much the same except iOS is absolute trash with the shittiest ux imaginable. Yeah, I have to use them for work. Safari is a fucking trainwreck as one example
The UX is pretty comparable to the Android one, I think. I don’t use Safari, so I don’t know too much about it. I use Firefox instead.
And no I think the ux is not intuitive on iOS. Some of the simplest common options are either hidden or missing altogether
Firefox on iOS is actually just a reskinned safari, because apple will not allow an actual different browser on their platform. The EU probably is going to change that though.
I think this is mostly right. There used to be big differences and now its very much just a preference. Except when price is taken into account.
Apple no longer have an excuse for the high price of their phones because they are, as you said, basically the same as androids and in some cases just not as powerful.
Androids have the advantage of competing with itself. There are many different makes and models of android all fighting for space so new features or improvements happen faster than they do for iphones. Apple have lost what made iphones unique and therefore “worth it” in many consumers opinions.
If they are now basically an android they should cost the same as an equivalently specced android.
iPhone is still WAY more expensive, more prone to failure, harder and more expensive to repair, and you can’t do the same with the device as on an android. So as long as you are a rich non-power user with little technical knowledge and don’t care about the money, then I guess iPhones (and apple in general) are okay, I guess.
That also directly describes most Apple users
If anything that’s nonsense, iPhones are cheaper and easier to get repaired and far less to failure and I say this as someone who runs a store that sells phones.
iPhones are cheaper than Android phones? And they’re easier to repair?
I’m sorry but both those claims are lies. iPhones and apple hardware in general always is more expensive for less hardware. And though I’m sure there are some hard to repair Android phones out there, apple typically makes sure you get sabotaged if you don’t repair your hardware at their stores and yes, their repair services are insanely expensive
Try to as a normal non technical user get a random £200-300 android phone repaired that isn’t Samsung and then try to get an iPhone repaired and see the cost difference
Because they’re lying
Because the phones just fucking work
Do you mean to say that android phones don’t work?
They do not work as well no, take for example if I buy an android phone + a Samsung watch + Sony headphones and run them together you know what happened last time. The Samsung watch broke the Sony headphones touch controls because of the apps not integrating properly.
That’s the kind of it just works apple phones don’t deal with, I work with phones daily and the amount of people I see return android phones compared to iPhones is not even funny
Just buy a different android phone you buffoon
He’s probably talking about his dissatisfaction with Google’s entire Android platform on top of Pixel Pass
I mean, there are android phones from 2013 that still work…no need to advertise for apple.
lifelong googler
lol, oh now it’s too much?
I don’t believe you.
They need to get rid of that clown Sundar. Under his “leadership” Google has been on an endless downward trend.
He’s helped with the only metric that shareholders actually care about: profitability. No matter that a lot of those on-paper $ have come through gimmickry and at the expense of the long-term success of the company.
You are right. The year before he became CEO, Google “only” had revenue of $66B. Last year, their revenue was $280B.
But if you look at the revenue chart, they were headed in that direction seemingly regardless of who was at the helm. But I think he is really hurting their long-term profits. I know that might sound crazy when they are making over 1/4 of a trillion per year, but there are more and more people who will simply not even consider a Google product these days because they feel in 6 months, Google will just kill it off. Who wants an orphaned phone or watch or VR headset, let alone all the software and services they kill off.
Yeah, they aren’t just eating their seed corn. They’re sowing the seed corn and then burning it down before it bears fruit, over and over
there are more and more people who will simply not even consider a Google product these days because they feel in 6 months, Google will just kill it off
What the fuck?
It has been a pretty short trip from “Don’t be evil” to “The cutting edge of late stage capitalism”
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Which isn’t a lot of time if we’re being honest
Didn’t feel like a trip to me, more like teleportation.
i am waiting for day when google kill its search engine
That day might come unless they can get the quality of search back under control.
I wouldn’t be surprised (or sad) if a disruptor comes along with a new idea and gives 'em a hard time.
Personally I’ve already replaced a high percentage of my Google searches with the OpenAI gpt-4 playground.
I replaced google with Kagi. It’s much much much better. So much better that I’m literally willing to pay for a search engine. It just doesn’t compare.
Already has.
Tried searching for anything on it recently?
And then they started pushing Bard which in sure will replace search as soon as it can push ads slyly in conversation
They already have, it’s pay to play now
why would they kill their only successful product
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This probably isn’t a big deal, but this is (and the fact that Google is an ad company) is the reason why I wouldn’t rely on any Google service or product that I couldn’t easily replace in a matter of minutes.
It’s this kind of knee jerk on Google’s part that might save them a few bucks in the short term (presumably incentiviced with bonuses for the managers) but causes long time reputational damage over time.
I don’t understand how seemingly no one up the chain considers this before pulling the plug so quickly.
Don’t fuck with user trust. When you lose it it’s pretty hard to get back.
I was all in for years and each product I’ve been burned, this is the last straw for me. As each thing I own fails or needs replacing, it won’t be Google.
I am done, I looked past a lot of faults because of the overall capabilities of the ecosystem they created and they’ve slowly dismantled it and changed and tweaked everything to be annoying to use.
It’s like they intentionally pick the best features, remove them and try to gaslight me into thinking it’s better now.
I’m just done with them.
Wtf are you even talking about.
Your question really made me laugh because I was indeed rambling but the overall point was - I bought Google products, they’ve dismantled and changed things to make it less useful than it was or they have cancelled the product/program entirely. So I’m not buying their products anymore. It’s my opinion but it’s my money and I’m going to choose to spend it elsewhere.
Hope that clears it up.
Since everything I’m aware of that they’ve cancelled is free software, I’m curious what products you are talking about
Pixel pass is the most recent service they’ve cancelled on me, my movies I bought on Google TV after being moved to YouTube but that service is gone too.
Their assistant devices have slowly gone crazy and barely understand anything and half the features for them have been removed for one reason or another.
Also the transition from the Nest app for my cameras which was amazing to the shitty Google home app which had half the features and didn’t work with all my cameras so I had half on nest and half on Google home.
Also their WiFi app is now also in Google home and it has less features than the original stand alone. So it’s not all free services, it’s things I’ve paid for and been burned over and over again.
I had a lot of their stuff over the years and it’s always great at first until… it’s not.
Okay, this explanation does make sense. I’ve only ever really given money directly to Google by buying their phones, and recently a Google TV device. I have a Nest thermostat which I bought before they owned it, and while they haven’t actually messed anything up with it per se, it’s been really annoying how many times they’ve nagged me about migrating my Nest account to a Google account. Also they did cancel a bunch of features on Fitbit after they bought it. Granted I didn’t really use any of those features but I could see how that would be frustrating.
The voice assistant is pretty bad. tbf though, I think Siri is as well. Apple doesn’t buy companies quite so often but I’m pretty sure they’ve changed their offerings over the years. A while back I went looking for a way to play my iTunes purchases on Linux and… that was not possible. The Apple DRM is a huge pain in the ass.
this is sooooooooooo shitty, I’d be so fucking upset
The title made it sound bad, then I read the article. It basically said they are canceling a subscription service offering. No one is getting cheated out of a phone. You could pay 45 or 55 dollars a month for 2 years and once it was over you could pay that again to get a new phone. So $1080 for their phone + google services or $1320 for the more expensive phone with their services.
It was started with the Pixel 6. The Pixel seven I see listed as $599 through the playstore. So thats $481 or $240.50/year on google services you can avoid paying for and just get the phone. Oh, and you are “eligible” for that new phone whenever you want.
Whoa, you read the article before getting out your pitchfork? I wish more people would. Part of the reason I left Reddit was due to people (or bots) who would post articles with titles that were unfair, combined with users who wouldn’t read, yet had strong angry opinions about everything.
I bought my pitchfork with a saftey in it. Figure by the time I take the safty off I may have cooled down some haha
This is Google’s standard operating procedure.
I cannot believe that in the year 2023 people were still paying for a Google service that was supposed to last beyond 30 days. Especially one that was supposed to have a long-term reward. You would have to have so much blind trust in Google at that point.
EDIT: I now understand that this was a a two-year installment plan for the existing phone. That being said, I still don’t think anyone should buy into Google products or services expecting them to have long-term support. Google has shown time and time again that they are willing to kill any and all projects at any time with almost no warning.
Well, that solidifies my plan for graphene os on this 7pro and once fairphone comes state side I’m going all in. Been moving to Proton services and this will be the first and last Google phone I get. So sick of their backtracking on everything I enjoy. Fuck Google.
I heard the latest fairphone doesn’t have a headphone jack
Im running GrapheneOS on my 7 Pro and I like it very much. Only issue I had was Android Auto. That seems to be not possible to have…
The headline is sensationalist since it implies they were going to get a free phone and Google bailed at the last minute.
Really? Because that’s how I’m reading it.
while new signups are no longer allowed, existing users will be able to finish out their two-year term. The end of the term was supposed to mean re-upping with a shiny new device, but Google now says, “By the end of the 2 year term, you can’t upgrade to a new phone with Pixel Pass.”.
I think Ars Technica has it wrong with that wording, the FAQ from Google support linked in that article says:
Can I still upgrade my Pixel device after 24 months?
Yes, you can still upgrade your Pixel device after 24 months, you just won’t be able to renew your subscription to Pixel Pass. You can purchase or finance your next Pixel device directly from Google Store or Google Fi Wireless, and you have the option to trade-in your current Pixel device towards your next device. Current Pixel Pass subscribers received $100 towards their next Pixel purchase good for 2 years, which can also be used alongside available promotions.
So you can upgrade your phone for the current term, but you can’t renew your subscription and upgrade again.
You’re reading it wrong. You can upgrade to a new phone, just not a new phone that comes with PixelPass.
They would have had to pay. It’s not like they already paid and now they’re not getting what they were promised.
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