If there’s one factor Android customers do higher than anybody else, it is making a fuss over issues that are not actually mysterious or deceptive. Because of web model rivalry and one-sided loyalty to an organization that does not even know you exist, each little factor can shortly change into a scandal.
The newest instance of that is that the Pixel 9 (and each Pixel cellphone earlier than it) does not assist Android 15’s stingray protections. No, not the swimming, fishy type of stingray; the small machine designed to seize your SMS messages and cellphone calls.
The guts of the difficulty is that these settings did seem in beta builds of Android 15 on the Pixel, despite the fact that they did nothing as a result of the cellphone’s {hardware} or configuration does not assist it. When Android 15 correct got here round, they had been gone. As they need to have been as a result of they don’t seem to be supported.
That is it. Nothing extra. Many telephones do not assist these options, however as a result of the Pixel comes from Google, who labored on methods to struggle this, some of us suppose there’s some type of conspiracy afoot or one thing. I do not work for Google, however I can guarantee you there is not. When and if the characteristic will be supported, the settings will seem.
That is value noting as a result of if you’re within the protections provided right here, it’s best to know which telephones truly assist them. If you happen to’re like everybody else who wasn’t going to make use of them anyway, be at liberty to say “huh” and transfer on to the following factor with none guilt over not taking part within the outrage. For this reason beta builds exist — to catch errors like exposing an invalid setting earlier than a product involves market. If not having this characteristic influences your shopping for selections, do not buy a Pixel cellphone, and also you’re good.
There’s something to consider right here, although: what does cellphone safety imply, and might complaining actually make a distinction?
For some folks, being an lively goal of cellphone hacking is a sound concern. The wealthy, the well-known, the leaders of the world, these of us have to fret about somebody entering into their telephones and digging for data they don’t wish to share. Sensible folks with these wants have knowledgeable handle their communication gadgets and use hardened and/or strictly locked down gadgets which might be quite a bit safer than the cellphone you purchased off Amazon. Others must rely that their cellphone has the most recent patches in opposition to distant exploits and options like stingray safety.
Almost definitely, you do not fall into any of those teams and are like me: simply a median one that nonetheless does not need anybody to see something I do not wish to share. Safety remains to be vital, however not in the identical approach and never for a similar causes. We’d like safety from ourselves.
For us, crucial a part of a security-focused patch or replace is the issues that maintain some random little bit of code from doing issues it should not be allowed to do as a result of we clicked OK on the fallacious factor. Possibly we adopted a hyperlink we should not have, and one thing obtained downloaded. Possibly we put in an app that tries to do issues it should not. Possibly somebody put in one thing once we weren’t wanting. This occurs way more typically than when overseas spies actively goal our gadgets or SMS messages, however it might probably have the identical end result.
When the corporate that made your cellphone holds these safety updates from you, and also you get upset, that is much more productive than crying foul when a cellphone does not assist a factor it was by no means marketed as supporting. Neither could make a distinction as a result of the businesses concerned hardly ever care about something however earnings, however our continued complaining may; even Motorola now sells telephones that get software program assist for six years or extra.
Possibly being outraged is the correct name. That is so that you can resolve, and I will resolve the place to focus my displeasure. Complaining a couple of factor lengthy sufficient could make a distinction.
Simply complain about the correct factor — Pixel telephones (and all telephones) ought to assist some safety problem Google discovered vital sufficient to make a part of Android itself. A setting that was in beta software program however lacking from the discharge construct is a special story.