There are a lot of different reasons why 100 Android users would choose Google's smartphone OS. But they would all come back to the same word: choice. The most important thing that makes Android different from iOS is that you can choose your own OEM, form factor, and application. With iOS, you're stuck with the same hardware and software configuration as everyone else. But as Google and Samsung have tried to compete with Apple's environment, it's hard not to feel like that freedom of choice is starting to break down.

Luckily, everyone's favorite company that makes silicon might be able to handle it. As usual, Qualcomm brought together a lot of journalists, experts, and influential people in Maui, including me, to talk about its new products for the next generation of smartphones. However, neither the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 nor the upcoming Snapdragon X Elite platform meant to compete with Apple's Mac range really excited me, even though both of them look great on paper. At the very end of Qualcomm's yearly keynote was Snapdragon Seamless, a very important new project.

In case you missed the news, Snapdragon Seamless is a new way to build cross-platform ecosystems. It lets devices like Android phones and Windows PCs talk to each other in the background using Bluetooth LE to share files, notifications, audio priority, and a lot more. So, your future Galaxy S24 Ultra running on Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 could feel right at home next to your Snapdragon X Elite-powered laptop from Asus or Lenovo. It's pretty much built into the chips themselves.

One could see Seamless as the unifying force between Android's many fragmented OEM environments, or it be seen as just one more thing that makes things more complicated. When I first saw Seamless, I thought the latter. It made me think of XKCD's famous "Standards" comic, in which the problem of too many rival standards is fixed by... adding another competing standard.

I'm not as sure about this after talking to Dino Bekis, who is Qualcomm's vice president and general manager of Wearables and Mixed Signal Solutions. Unfortunately, this doesn't have all the features that USB-C does. For example, it's not the perfect way to charge your phone. From where I stand, though, Seamless is only good news for customers.

This is the early days of Seamless. It will start showing up in goods next year. It seems like a lot of work to build a product community around the silicon inside it instead of the OEM name. In theory, that means you wouldn't need Galaxy Buds to enjoy great sound with your Galaxy S24 (as long as Samsung agrees to become a Seamless partner, that is). It might even make OEMs more competitive, since they will have to go up against goods from Sony or Bose. These brands may try to beat better ecosystem support with better sound quality or noise cancellation.

As companies like Google and Samsung have worked to expand their platforms to try to get Apple customers (or keep Android customers from leaving), the best feature of Android has been lost. Yes, you can still buy a Galaxy Watch 6 to pair with your Pixel 8 Pro, but you'll need to download a few apps for it to work. Even then, it won't feel as natural as it would on a One UI device. The Pixel Watch 2 and a Galaxy S23 Ultra are the same way. Using phones from different Android makers isn't as enjoyable as using phones from the same brand.

That's not what Android is about, and it never has been. Other companies have taken a different approach to ecosystems than Qualcomm Seamless. This is mostly because Qualcomm is focused on its chips and not its hardware goods. I asked Bekis if Qualcomm would promote these tools to consumers. He said that they would not, except maybe as a badge on the box to show that a device is Seamless-certified. Qualcomm isn't trying to promote one company over another; it just wants its chips to offer the best experience possible.

I do see some issues with this, though. Google and Qualcomm may work together on Android, but Qualcomm doesn't touch the Tensor chips in the Pixel. Because Android devices clearly depend on Snapdragon chipsets, there are still some limits on how well different goods can work together. In the meantime, that XKCD comic keeps going through my mind. Qualcomm is not a perfect company with no bad intentions. Seamless is definitely trying to get people to pay attention to its own goods, even if the OEM name on the box isn't always the same.

Even so, I think this is a good step forward, and the agreements Qualcomm has announced so far make me feel good about the future. Since Snapdragon has a tight grip on the Android device market (sorry, MediaTek fans), this will help the great majority of customers who don't want to buy an iPhone. We just need to hope that all brands that use Qualcomm chipsets, especially Samsung, let Seamless grow along with their own platforms.