Ever since Google launched their Facebook clone, Google+, they’ve slowly been integrating it into all their services. YouTube, Android, Google Docs Drive, nothing can escape the Google+ reign of terror. The social network’s latest victim is Android’s photo gallery application. If you pick up either of the two new Google Play Edition devices that were announced yesterday, you’ll notice that the only way to view the photos you’ve taken is to open the Google+ Photos application. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to ecosystem lock-in.
How serious is this? On one hand, most Android devices sold today have a thick layer of custom software from the company that assembled the actual hardware. HTC has a custom photo gallery, as does Samsung, LG, Sony, you get the idea. They’re not going to give a damn about this change. But on the other hand, Google has Google Play Services, and if they want to, they can push their own Photo Gallery application to each and every Android device if they want to, similar to how they forced Google Hangouts down everyone’s throats. And this is why you should use Dropbox.
