The Android phone maker says go ahead, fix your own phone.

The Android phone maker says go ahead, fix your own phone.

The right-to-repair movement continues to gain steam as another big tech company shows its support for letting people fix their own broken devices.

Google endorsed an Oregon right-to-repair legislation Thursday calling it a “common sense repair bill” and saying it would be a “win for consumers.” This marks the first time the Android phone maker has officially backed any right-to-repair law.

The ability to repair a phone, for example, empowers people by saving money on devices while creating less waste,” said Steven Nickel, devices and services director of operations for Google, in a blog post Thursday. “It also critically supports sustainability in manufacturing. Repair must be easy enough for anyone to do, whether they are technicians or do-it-yourselfers.”

In the Oregon repair bill, manufacturers will be required to provide replacement parts, software, physical tools, documentation and schematics needed for repair to authorized repair providers or individuals. The legislation covers any digital electronics with a computer chip although cars, farm equipment, medical devices, solar power systems, and any heavy or industrial equipment that is not sold to consumers are exempt from the bill.

Google has made strides in making its Pixel phones easier to fix. The company enabled a Repair Mode for the phones last month allowing the protection of data on the device while it’s being serviced. There’s also a diagnostic feature that helps determine if your Pixel phone is working properly or not. That said, Google’s Pixel Watch is another story as the company said in October it will not provide parts to repair its smartwatch.

Apple jumped on the right-to-repair bandwagon back in October. The iPhone maker showed its support for a federal law to make it easier to repair its phones after years of being a staunch opponent.

    • Venat0r@lemmy.worldEnglish
      252·
      10 months ago

      It almost doesn’t even matter for Google products: I’ve had more Google products die due to lack of software support rather than any sort of hardware issue…

      • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        2·
        10 months ago

        Their phones keep on updates for longer than any other androids. Crap thing is they use cheaper apu’s so I still don’t want one.

    • Showroom7561@lemmy.caEnglish
      13·
      10 months ago

      As a former Pixelbook user, I agree 100%. A firmware update crippled my touchscreen, and the touchscreens of quite a few other users, from the look of their support forum.

      Rather than investigate and issue a fix (which they haven’t in years, also according to their support form), they literally told me to buy a new laptop. WTF?

      Well, I sure did. I got a Framework. Now I can fix it whenever I want with ease, and with every part readily available, too!

      Thanks, Google!

    • WHYAREWEALLCAPS@kbin.social
      3·
      10 months ago

      I remember back in /r/Pixel on Reddit that Google had a mid tier or higher customer service rep in the subreddit. Why? Because their regular customer service sucked so bad they needed someone in /r/Pixel to do damage control. If a person wasn’t in the subreddit, they’d basically be left twisting in the wind.

      I had my OG Pixel XL get compromised and my Google account stolen. Asking to get it back was basically “Fill out this form and we might get back to you at some point. You won’t receive any communications from us except to tell you your account has been recovered. And there’s no way for you to talk to a real human.”

    • verysoft@kbin.social
      41·
      10 months ago

      TLDW: They are basically advocating for selling assemblies of parts for “user safety”. So for example, if one chip on a motherboard was broken, instead of selling the individual part, they want to sell you the entire board with all the other parts attached (which can cost nearly as much as the device was new).
      Video also highlights how you can buy a device cheaper than the cost of buying a genuine part from the manufacturer.

      Google are grabbing good PR headlines with backing one complaint point in the right to repair scene, but then also backing a bunch of anti-repairability in the rest of their post, neatly snuggled away in a bunch of corpo talk bullshittery.

      • macattack@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8·
        10 months ago

        That was my sentiment exactly. The benefits of being able to buy parts to fix a device is more muted when the replacement part cost the same as a buying an entire used phone. Maybe I’m in the dark, but the cost of screens feels inflated and like a deterrent to fixing devices, in spite of it being likely the leading reason for repairs.

      • AdamEatsAss@lemmy.worldEnglish
        51·
        10 months ago

        I mean it’s better than nothing. Hopefully it leads to more economical repair kits. On a personal note, of the repair required soldering chips onto/off the board I would much rather buy a working board then try to replace a single chip.

        • verysoft@kbin.social
          3·
          10 months ago

          Sure, but most people wouldn’t even want to attempt a board replacement and would rather take it to a repair shop. Replacing an entire section of a device because one tiny part is broken is not helping the e-waste problem repairability is trying to work on.

          These companies just want to upsell you to a new device, they want to group parts into assemblies to increase the price, and if the repair is going to cost just a small amount less than buying a new device, people are likely just to buy a new one, now that old device becomes e-waste and the company made a sale. Instead of it being a cheap repair, keeping that device going for as long as possible.

          • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            10 months ago

            the e-waste problem repairability is trying to work on.

            Just to be clear, reducing e-waste is just a fringe benefit and kinda beside the point. The real reason for repairability is that it’s the device owner’s property right, and to try to restrict repairs (or worse, make them “illegal” via inserting frivolous DRM and invoking the DMCA) is to infringe on that right.

        • TimeSquirrel@kbin.social
          41·
          10 months ago

          would much rather buy a working board then try to replace a single chip.

          That’s perfectly fine for you, but I do own a hot air rework station, so give me the option.

        • KptnAutismus@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          10 months ago

          yeah, you basically need to be a pro at reflow soldering. but that’s the thing about independent shops, they’re willing to put in the extra work to be as economical as possible. ends up being cheaper as well.

      • KptnAutismus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        10 months ago

        “buzzword, buzzword, buzzword, anyway consume product. don’t worry about how we group unreliable parts in with the expensive ones.”

  • DannyBoy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    12·
    10 months ago

    That’s a Samsung S4 in the stock photo. Those things were like Lego, I used to have a few that I’d swap out parts to keep running. I changed out screens, charging ports, cameras. And you could swap batteries on the fly. Those were better times.

  • deegeese@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    122·
    10 months ago

    Google doesn’t really sell phones, this is just a cheap way to match Apple.

    You don’t see them backing open access anywhere else. In fact, they’re trying to lock down all the client software to stymie ad blockers.

    • Thetimefarm@lemm.eeEnglish
      3·
      10 months ago

      They made a big deal of being the first manufacturer to officially offer parts through ifixit, but a replacement kit for the internal display on the Pixel Fold is over $900 USD. It’s almost the same price as a brand new 512 GB Pixel 8 Pro, but that will have a warranty and is guaranteed to be waterproof, unlike a repaired phone.

      • deegeese@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        Got any non-folding examples? I’m not surprised to hear a low volume folding screen is $$$.

    • Dr. Bluefall@toast.oooEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Well, slander tends to be fictitious, so its inverse would just be facts that paint someone in a positive light.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    11·
    10 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    The right-to-repair movement continues to gain steam as another big tech company shows its support for letting people fix their own broken devices.

    Google endorsed an Oregon right-to-repair legislation Thursday calling it a “common sense repair bill” and saying it would be a “win for consumers.” This marks the first time the Android phone maker has officially backed any right-to-repair law.

    The legislation covers any digital electronics with a computer chip although cars, farm equipment, medical devices, solar power systems, and any heavy or industrial equipment that is not sold to consumers are exempt from the bill.

    The company enabled a Repair Mode for the phones last month allowing the protection of data on the device while it’s being serviced.

    That said, Google’s Pixel Watch is another story as the company said in October it will not provide parts to repair its smartwatch.

    The iPhone maker showed its support for a federal law to make it easier to repair its phones after years of being a staunch opponent.

    The original article contains 291 words, the summary contains 168 words. Saved 42%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!