The way Apple’s products seamlessly connect to one another has helped it become the world’s second-largest smartphone maker and the top seller of smartwatches and wireless earbuds. The launch of Media Notifications is Google’s latest attempt to show that products don’t have to be made by the same company to work together. Google has been moving towards this goal for years by introducing features like Phone Hub, Nearby Share and Fast Pair. Additions like these have become all the more important now that Android and iOS have staked a larger presence in our cars, our ears and on our wrists.

“This is an ongoing investment,” Erik Kay, Google’s vice president of engineering for Android, said to CNET exclusively ahead of CES. “We get to the point where pretty much any feature that shows up on the phone or shows up on a watch is going to inherently be a multi-device feature over time.”

Spotify and YouTube Music will be among the first apps to be compatible with Media Notifications. Google is also working with Spotify to make it possible to manage playback between Spotify Connect devices in Android 13’s new media player — another move to improve consistency across Android devices.

Google has not yet said when either of these updates will launch, nor has it said which products Media Notifications will be compatible with. But since the goal is to make moving between devices easier, Google says users likely won’t have to do any legwork in the settings menu to enable Media Notifications. Prompts should just appear automatically as you move closer to a compatible device.

“That all happens naturally through little nudges and prompts in the user interface,” Kay said when describing how Media Notifications will work.

Media Notifications won’t require ultra wideband, a connectivity protocol that’s made its way into new premium smartphones over the past three to four years, because it relies on signals from various sources like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. But it will likely work more accurately if you’re using a UWB-enabled device, according to Kay. Since UWB can provide precise proximity calculations, its presence in phones improves tasks like sharing files and content between devices and digital car key functionality. It’s also the same technology Apple uses to point you in the right direction of a lost AirTag.

“UWB is something we’re pretty excited about,” said Kay. “But it is one of these things that’s going to take a long time for it to really get ubiquitous in the market.”

Google’s announcements come after Apple has been gradually adding new connectivity features to its ecosystem of iPhones, iPads, AirPods, Apple Watches and Macs. Apple brought the ability to swap FaceTime calls between your iPhone, iPad and Mac in its most recent operating system updates, for example. The ability to transfer audio from your iPhone to the HomePod Mini based on proximity was also a standout feature when Apple introduced its miniature speaker in 2021.

But unlike Apple, Google isn’t using features like Media Notifications to push its first party hardware. Instead, Google wants to make swapping between Android devices feel consistent and easy whether you’re using products from Google, Samsung, JBL or any of its other partners.

It’s a goal that Google must balance alongside promoting its own Pixel devices, which only account for a sliver of the global smartphone market. You may be wondering why Google doesn’t just keep features like Media Notifications exclusive to its Pixel phones, Pixel earbuds and Nest smart home devices to make its devices stand out within the Android landscape. If Google wants to emulate Apple’s ecosystem approach, that would certainly be one way to do so.

The answer is simple: Improvements like these are only useful if they’re available everywhere.

“Every feature you build is a network effect feature, so it depends on there being a wide variety of devices to support the feature,” Kay said. “So if you build something [and] try to make it exclusive to one device, or one partner, or even our first party things, it’s not going to be as successful because there’s not as many devices for it to work with.”

As smartwatches and wireless earbuds have grown more popular, phone makers like Apple and Samsung have increasingly focused on these ancillary products as complementary selling points for their smartphones. Global shipments of smartwatches grew 13% year-over-year in 2022, according to Counterpoint Research, while Canalys reports that true wireless earbuds were the only personal audio category to show growth in the third quarter of 2022. Google is the latest smartphone maker to jump on that bandwagon and launched its first smartwatch, the Pixel Watch, in October, Google plans to introduce a new Pixel tablet next year.

Making watches, earbuds and smart home devices work together more seamlessly isn’t just about convenience. Some experts believe that accessories like these will play a big role in the smartphone’s future as annual phone upgrades feel incremental.

“The next quest for the smartphone is to figure out what it will connect to next,” Runar Bjørhovde, an analyst with market research firm Canalys, said in a previous interview for a separate story. “Because the smartphone has not necessarily reached its potential yet, but as a standalone device I think the smartphone is getting closer and closer to the edge.”

Interestingly, Google plans to launch foldable devices as well, including a clamshell foldable and a side-by-side foldable, which will go directly against the Galaxy Z Flip and the Galaxy Z Fold series. It means that Samsung will not only have to compete with Google on the non-foldable smartphone front but also in the foldable smartphone realm in the coming years.

Google is planning to launch two smartphones in April/May 2023. One of them will be the Pixel 7A, which is codenamed ‘Lynx.’ This phone, as you might have guessed, will be a more affordable alternative to the Pixel 7. According to the report, the Pixel 7A will have the same price as the Pixel 6A: $449.

The second device will be the Pixel Fold, a side-by-side foldable smartphone similar to the Galaxy Z Fold 4. This device is codenamed ‘Felix,’ and according to the report, will be priced at $1,799, which will put it in direct competition with the Galaxy Z Fold lineup. Unfortunately, details about its specs are scarce at the moment.

Pixel 8 series is coming in H2 2023

Around the fall of 2023, Google plans to launch the Pixel 8 lineup. Similar to this year’s Pixels, the Pixel 8 will have two devices, the Pixel 8, which is codenamed ‘Shiba,’ and the Pixel 8 Pro, which is codenamed ‘Husky.’

While the Pixel 8 Pro will have a similar screen size and dimensions as the Pixel 7 Pro, Google will reportedly shrink the screen size and overall form factor of the Pixel 8, which means that it could go directly against the Galaxy S23. Both the Pixel 8 series phones are said to feature a chipset codenamed ‘Puma,’ and you can expect Google to market this SoC as Tensor G3.

Google may or may not launch Pixel 8A in H1 2024

In the first half of 2024, we could see the launch of Pixel 8A, which is codenamed ‘Akita.’ However, Google might launch this smartphone only if it sees good success with the Pixel 7A. Else, the company may scrap the plan to launch the device.

Seemingly, Google is also thinking of launching Pixel A-series smartphones once every two years rather than launching one every year. If the brand does launch the Pixel 8A, it will reportedly be priced at $499, which will be $50 costlier thane its predecessor.

Pixel 9 series could arrive in H2 2024 with three phones

The Pixel 9 series will reportedly arrive in the fall of 2024, and interestingly, it will have three phones, and this lineup would look like Apple’s iPhone series.

There will be the Pixel 9, which will be similar to the iPhone 14. Then there will be the Pixel 9 Pro—codenamed ‘Caiman’— like the iPhone 14 Pro. The third device—codenamed ‘Komodo’—will be in the league of the iPhone 14 Pro Max. All three phones would come with the ‘Redondo’ chipset, and Google will most likely call it the Tensor G4.

Along with it, Google could also launch a successor to the Pixel Fold. Reportedly, it would get specific about the second-gen foldable only after seeing consumer response for the ‘Felix.’

Galaxy Z Flip rival from Google could come in 2025

Google’s 2025 lineup of smartphones could heavily be influenced by the success or failure of its 2023 and 2024 devices. But what’s more important is that Google is planning to launch a clamshell foldable smartphone in 2025, which could go directly against the Galaxy Z Flip series.

Google’s flip-style phone will most likely launch alongside the Pixel 10 lineup, which will have three devices. The first one would be the Pixel 10, which will be the base variant in the lineup. There will be two Pixel 10 Pro models, one with a smaller screen size and the other with a larger screen size.

That being said, Google might also drop its plan to launch a clamshell Pixel phone, and in that case, the company could launch four non-foldable pixel phones, which would include the Pixel 10 in small and large sizes and the Pixel 10 Pro in small and large size. This strategy, once again, would be similar to Apple’s.

So, it looks like Google’s smartphones launching in 2023, 2024, and 2025 will be heavily influenced by Apple’s and Samsung’s current lineup of flagship devices. More importantly, Google is going to compete with Samsung on many fronts in the near future, and if Samsung wants to be ahead in the race, it definitely has to up its game.