2022 is coming to an end, being a unique opportunity to look back and remember those who stayed on the way. During the 365 days of the year, there has been a time to discover new applications and new games, but also theWe said goodbye to services, applications and more things related to our Android phones.
In tribute, we will respectfully remember the dead of this year 2022, as we have done in previous years. Whether they were the best or not, we choose to remember them fondly in this final goodbye before the year changes.
BlackBerry operating system
Date of death: January 4, 2022
One of the first victims of the year was BlackBerry OS, which a few years ago was a potential competitor to Android. BlackBerry had been limping for years and made the jump to Android in 2015 and, although there were rumors of yet another comeback to life, the inevitable was finally confirmed.
After trying to switch from hardware to services, that couldn’t be either. Blackberry closed all its services on January 4, 2022 and the following month he even sold the furniture, or rather the patents. Rest in peace.
Tizen for mobile
Date of death: January 10, 2022
The beginning of the year has been withered for the old adversaries of Android. Tizen for mobile, who tried start from zero in emerging markets, also threw in the towel. The operating system’s app store was already closed, so it was a matter of Samsung turning off the light and closing the door. He did so on January 10.
Tizen for mobile was nothing more than a fringe operating system that only reached a handful of Samsung Zs (minus the Galaxy). Since 2017, a mobile with Tizen has not been launched, so the closure was to be expected. Tizen for mobile is survived by the TV version, which is still healthy.
Advanced YouTube
Date of death: March 14, 2022
Most of the entries on our list die at the hands of their creators, but sometimes more than death is murder. YouTube Vanced, a modified version of YouTube with additional features was forced to close after receiving pressure from Google.
YouTube Vanced, which was already surviving outside the Google Store for obvious reasons, was forced to disappear due to – understandable – complaints from Google. advanced partybut many other YouTube alternatives with similar functionality have survived.
Android Auto for phones
Date of death: June 22, 2022
One of the losses that took us the longest to recover from was Android auto shutdown for phone screenswhich ended on June 22, 2022. Android Auto survives, but only on the car screen.
If your car does not have Android Auto, Google wants you to use the Google Assistant driving mode instead, which it is not available on all sites and does not have the same features. Also, this same mode has undergone some cuts and it is possible that it will end up on this list next year.
Google Talk
Date of death: June 26, 2022
Wait a minute, wasn’t Google Talk already dead and gone? Well yes and no. Hangouts has taken over from Google Talk, but the mythical application based on the XMPP protocol it continued to work on very old mobiles
Google removed Assisted Breathing from Google Talk on June 26, 2022. after 16 years of service. Interestingly, Google was recommending users to continue using Google Talk to switch to Hangouts, which is also another zombie that finally came into the light this year, as we will see later.
YouTube Go
Date of death: August 1, 2022
There was a time when Google decided to launch all sorts of lightweight apps to include in Android Go, the version of the operating system optimized for very basic mobile phones. Android Go isn’t as basic anymore, and Google has decided it could do without YouTube Go.
YouTube Go left on August 1, 2022, arguing from Google that the app no longer made much sense because the standard YouTube app had been sufficiently optimized to work with all types of networks and without consuming too many resources.
COVID Speed Cameras
Date of death: October 9, 2022
Radar COVID, the app that seemed to save us from the pandemic or, at least, facilitate contact tracingpassed without pain of glory and extinguished without regard on October 9, 2022. Few missed it.
The app struggled early on, as it required the “collaboration” of analytics centers to provide a code and users to enter it into the app. It was estimated that only 8 out of 100 codes ended up in the app. It was downloaded around 7 million times, cost 3.2 million dollars and basically in vain. Rest in peace?
Hangouts
Date of death: November 1, 2022
Hangouts refuses to die. We left him for dead in 2020, but palace things are slow, and somehow managed to survive to this day while Google continued to move things around in its messaging.
Hangouts had been waiting on death row for a while, but it wasn’t until March that it disappeared from Google Play and the November 1 the application closed permanently and, now yes, really good. The replacement for Hangouts is Google Chat, formerly known as Hangouts Chat, ironically.
google duplex on the web
Date of death: December 31, 2022
It’s not the first time that Google has announced something that seems too good to be true and ends up shutting down before we can test it. It was sort of the premise of Google Duplex on the web, like Google Duplex, but on websites instead of phone calls
Duplex on the web was a technology by which the Google Assistant could access a website and do things for you, like buy a movie ticket. It was announced to much fanfare at Google I/O but ultimately didn’t reach more than a handful of sites in the US, and now the idea is scrapped entirely by the end of the year.
Google Stadia
Date of death: January 18, 2023
Somehow you could see it coming, but one of The most abrupt shutdown of the year was that of Google StadiaGoogle game streaming where you didn’t need a console or a powerful PC at home, but rather a good connection and a controller.
Stadia’s shutdown announcement was chaotic, and the company itself denied rumors of a shutdown a few months prior. The maid? the news is that those who have paid for games on Stadia will receive or will have received a refund the amount they paid.
The Google Street View app
Date of death: March 21, 2023
Google’s Street View app has been baffling users for years who think it’s necessary to see Street View on Google Maps. This is no longer the case since version 2.0: it is an app that used to post content to Street View and manage it from mobile.
To upload spherical photos to Street View, you need to use Google Maps, and other features of the old app somehow survive on the Street View Studio website. The app will survive another few months in 2023, as it officially shuts down on March 23, 2023.
Amazon Reader
Date of death: December 31, 2023
The Amazon Prime subscription brings several additional benefits, including the alternative to Google Photos, Amazon Photos or, more broadly, Amazon Drive. In a way it’s el Google Drive from Amazon.
This cloud storage service was not as popular as others like Dropbox, OneDrive or iCloud, but those who take advantage of it will have to move elsewhere. Since October your application is no longer on Google Play, on January 31, 2023 it will not be possible to download more files and on December 31 anything other than photos or videos will be deleted.
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