The Response to Google's 7 Year Pixel Update Promise is Getting Weird

In other words, you might not want to trust them because they killed off a Pixel Pass that 25 people signed up for, a Google Podcasts app that was basically a browser in an app shell that was given a proper replacement, a niche business presentation screen in Jamboard, and Stadia…freaking Stadia. They gave you all of your money back and let you keep the controller, guys.
It's not a good look when right off the bat it dismisses what is valid concerns by treating the opposition like they're just whining.
- For real I was going to say this reads like a Google marketing AstroTurf. Just watched the linked MKBHD video and it's not unfair; definitely not "weird"
- The thing is, google guarantees 7 years of support, they can't cancel that. The services they closed had no promise on the longevity
  
  In 2015 Google said "With Google Photos, you can now back up and store unlimited high-quality photos and videos for free". This is no longer true, even considering their vague corporate speak promise of "unlimited high-quality". By Google's own wording within the Google Photos app the options are "Original quality" or "Storage Saver". There is no high-quality unlimited option.
  But it's not even about explicit promises. It's about the constant erosion of user trust. Having to read into the details and interpret marketing vs legal speak does nothing to alleviate that Google has done this to themselves.
- Stadia was amazing. I blame everyone but Google on its demise. You could literally play CP 2077 without a console but people still stuck to PlayStation and Xbox. Google handled the shutdown so well. I played around $500 worth of games got the money back. Kept two controllers and bought a steam deck with that money
  
  Cloud gaming is bad for history. If the game was only released for the cloud, and that game is shut down, or the cloud service shuts down, that game is gone forever.
  They want to push it, because it gives them control over every aspect of the experience. They know everything you do in the game, you can't mod it, you can't pirate, you can't play offline, you can't do anything unless they say you can.
  
  You should blame me then. Once I saw that Google wasn't going to honor steam library on stadia, and then charge full price for games on stadia, I noped out and never signed up.
  I say this is a cloud gamer who uses G-Force now, and shadow. I was their target demographic. And they're pricing model just noped me out of it
  
  Without a doubt it was amazing and me and my family were extremely sad, but in the end what is there to be mad about with stadia... I was part of something different, I was also a founder and played all the time. I think I owned all the games before I didn't 😂
  
  I just got a nice discount on my Pixel 8 preorder with my Stadia refund.
- Because the opposition frames the situation as Google never keeping any promise ever, in addition to refusing to acknowledge Google's positive precedent with Android updates.
  If you view the Android update situation in isolation, you'll see that in the 10+ years Google has sold Pixel and Nexus phones, they have kept each one of their Android update promises.
- I dunno, I kinda don't disagree with them. Companies discontinue products all the time, and Google just seems to get a lot more flak for it.
  Apples discontinued the iPod, and a bunch of different hardware devices. I'm about as worried that they'll discontinue the iPhone as I am that Google will discontinue the pixel line.
  
  Google discontinue a lot more than almost anyone else though. It’s a meme at this point how often they kill things off. Does a website like this exist for any other company?
  https://killedbygoogle.com/
  
  I'm not sure I get your point, people should not doubt Google's promise not because they don't discontinue product but because everyone does?

The article makes valid points but completely misses the real point. The real point, that has been pointed out every single time Google kills another product, is that every time they do that it erodes user trust. This point has been harped on for years, with more and more people agreeing with it the more and more Google kills products.
Is it any surprise then, that we're finally reaching a critical mass of users not trusting Google? It's less update this specific promise being untrustworthy, then the entire company being untrustworthy and this just happens to be the point that the dialogue had changed.

not as if the Pixel 8 is just a small Pixel 8 Pro – it isn’t.
Could've fooled me.
The phones are nearly identical. The Pro has more RAM, a different secondary camera, and a third camera.
Apple absolutely should be (and is frequently) criticized for artificially locking features to certain models.
Obviously it's a good thing to have increased software support. 7 years of security updates is, on its own, a big deal. Google deserves credit for that. But they also deserve to be called out on their bullshit, same as Apple or any other company.
- What are you talking about? Apple should be lauded for at least having the phone tiers that they have. There's choice for every type of buyer. The 15 pro vs pro max is 3x zoom and 5x zoom. That's IT. You get the same features between each pro phone and get to choose the size that works for you.
  Google has hamstrung the smaller phone with a worse screen, much worse camera system (video boost is locked to 8 Pro), no temperature sensor, slower wireless charging speeds, less RAM, gorilla glass Victus 1 vs 2, and an annoyingly glossy back glass.
  I bought an 8 Pro for the camera system because I didn't want to be locked out of the better ultra wide and telephoto, but I wish I could have gotten that in a smaller size.

We’re now at the point where tech media has turned and will now have you believe Google should be questioned, is untrustworthy, and that their promise means nothing
This is worse than even the most insufferable apple fanboy.
Google! Untrustworthy!
God I can’t imagine why anyone would think that
- I've been involved with different companies setting up their cloud presence and negotiating prices, and while Google is a contender, they have to aggressively price themselves at the large corporate level because a lot of people in the room don't have trust in them. Why would we onboard to your platform if we don't think you're going to be around very long? It'll take us years to fully migrate, and then once we're in you could shut it down on a whim.
  I'm not saying that's a deciding factor at the corporate level for people, but it is a discussion factor that other contenders like AWS or Microsoft azure do not have. So their retail graveyard definitely impacts them at every level
- God I can’t imagine why anyone would think that
  This made me laugh out loud

In defense of Google, I have a first-gen Pixel that still gets unlimited Google Photos uploads.
This phone is seven years old and Google had kept its commitment that photo uploads would remain free for the life of the phone.
- Also in defense of Google - I'm still grandfathered in to the $8 plan for YouTube premium because I signed up and have remained subscribed since 2013 when they offered promotional pricing at the beginning of Google Play Music. Years later, they added YouTube Red (now Premium) to the subscription which REALLY sweetened the pot. But they've never bumped my subscription price up.
  
  Ah yes, let’s defend Google for not raising the price of features that were free to begin with like listening with screen off and background listening? Not really sure how much lower the bar can get here
  
  I pay $0 for uBlock Origin lol
  
  I signed up for the original family plan, and they raised my prices multiple times.
  They also killed off YouTube premium light.
  I think you're only paying the original price cause of a glitch.
  
  Same here. At $8 it's an amazing value. I plan on keeping it until they kill off parts of it or raise the price.
- I envy you. My OG Pixel has broken down :(
  
  The Pixel hasn't left the house since 2018. All it has done since then is run SyncThing and upload the photos/videos taken by my current phones.
- Be prepared to pay when it dies. I assumed it wouldn't count when I got a new phone. It does. So now they want me to sign up for a plan. Well, now they want me to pay more for a higher tier. I got a nas instead. I'm cancelling the plan.
  
  I forgot that I had years of free uploads from my Pixel 2. That eventually expired. But I never had to pay for those uploads.
  I also had 100 extra GB for two years for being one of the first Google Maps guides, populating the map with the first photos of businesses etc. When that expired, I did have to start paying. Google are smart - they got me addicted to having all my files right there wherever I was. It's only $20ish per year for that tier, I have been happy to pay for it. I think this might be what happened to you. You may have had some sort of promotion that expired.
  
  I never had to do this with all the media I uploaded via my Pixel 2 back when it has those benefits. Everything I uploaded that way counts zero toward my storage cap, to this day.

This article is unintelligible. I don't see a single point being made. It's filled with whataboutism and making up arguments to debunk.
Google, apple, and Samsung are all untrustworthy. Google and apple also make some pretty good phones, albeit pricy ones.

Paraphrasing MKBHD: Buy the phone for what it has today, not what it might have tomorrow.
I'd believe the promise of 7 years of updates from any other company but definitely not Google. In the words of Logan Roy
- The thing is that they've clearly promised 7 years now, walking back on the promise would cause them massive issues with consumer protection agencies everywhere they sell - they might be toothless in the US, but Google also sells Pixels in Japan and the EU.
- For me, this kinda breaks both ways:
  7 years of security updates is a promise that my phone won't regress from where it was when I bought it - I typically buy a mid-ish range phone (currently running a Pixel 7a) when they are brand new, and run it for ~3 years before I start to want an upgrade. Lack of security updates usually forces the issue, so a phone with 7 years of security updates guarantees that I'll want to upgrade before I'm forced to, and will be able to pass the phone along to a relative. Where I am, a claim like "we will provide security support until X" is backed up by consumer law, so I'd be entitled to a full refund if they fail to meet that guarantee.
  Buying a phone because the manufacturer promises "feature drops" or because you expect that a future version of the OS will have some amazing features you want is like buying a preorder game - you are a fool for trusting marketing without concrete details

So there are two arguments being made in this situation. The first is that because Google kills off services and products all of the time, that taking their word for a 7-year promise is foolish. In other words, you might not want to trust them because they killed off a Pixel Pass that 25 people signed up for, a Google Podcasts app that was basically a browser in an app shell that was given a proper replacement, a niche business presentation screen in Jamboard, and Stadia…freaking Stadia. They gave you all of your money back and let you keep the controller, guys.
C'mon guys they had a "proper replacement" and let you keep the controller! They're not all that bad! 👅🥾
I'll never forgive them for Google Play Music.
I do however believe they're going to stick to their word here though. They make the processor and the OS, it'd have to take some extreme ignorance to fuck that up. It's not like they're reliant on Qualcomm to release new drivers for the chip, one of the big reasons devices stop being updates.

What a fucking bootlicker.

Fool me once shame on me. Fool me 154 times. Shame on you!