Google To Allow OEMs To Customize Android Wear, TV, Auto In The Future

When it comes to customizing the Android platform, many OEMs have had a ball customizing the platform to suit their needs and to differentiate their products from the competition. However unlike Android, Google’s other Android offerings such as Android Wear, Android TV, and Android Auto have been largely uncustomizable, or at least not as flexible in its customization.

Well the good news is that Google plans to relax their grip on these products eventually. Speaking in an interview with Re/code, Google’s Vice President of Engineering Hiroshi Lockheimer stated that the reason Google had initially locked customization of these platforms is because they wanted to get the basics right before allowing OEMs to make further modifications.

We can appreciate this – after all what’s the point of having a beautiful piece of software if its basic features are buggy and not functioning the way it should, right? However in terms of customizability, Lockheimer revealed that the upcoming ASUS Zen Watch will show signs of customizability and what OEMs and users can expect in the future of software customization on Android Wear.

However we also expect Google will want to maintain some form of control over these customizations. After all earlier this year we had heard how Google had asked Samsung to cut back on their Android modifications, so we expect that they probably won’t allow OEMs to go crazy with their customizations either, but it’s still something to look forward to anyway.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Gadgets
Tags: Android Auto, android tv, Android Wear, Google