r/ProjectAra

Maybe now it is the right time for this Project. I loved the Idea back then, and I still do now. Come on Google 😁

Is there a android phone with 100% open source drivers, kernel and userspace?

So aside from Project Ara dying, it seems like everything modular is doomed to fail?

? Didn't get funded on Indiegogo, seemed to have produced a product at some point but no updates in over 5 years.
Nexpaq? Pivoted away from the phone case they were making into powerbanks, then renamed themselves to moduware, then died ().
iblades? Technically exist, most people never get it but apparently some do, but
That modular smartwatch that got posted here a while back?
Puzzlephone?
? You can still buy it, but half the layouts don't actually work, and the website is dead so you can't update it.
FrameWork is alright but honestly the modularity aspect only really adds things you used to get all of on a laptop.

Can someone give me some good news? Anything modular out there doing well other than custom building your own PC?

Hello everyone, I'm an engineering master's student looking into modular smart phones. I have a question about ARAs electrical connections between the modules.

Looking at conventional smartphone flat flex cable connections, there are a great deal more conducting pins/contacts than on these Project ARA models - Increasing the size of these connections looks great as it could improve their durability, but how did ARA manage to reduce the number of contacts? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I understand that some of these images may be purely promotional, but I believe there are/ were working models out there.

I bought a Note 10+ in 2019, and realised that since my S7 edge that had died, I hadn't been excited about another phone since then in 2016. More recently, I was talking to a friend about how the Note would be the last phone I bought until I saw a decent level of innovation from manufacturers.

I then remembered Project ARA, and how excited I was for that phone too. I decided to have a look through Google to see if any new news had surfaced.

This article caught my eye, dated June 2020, and I can't comment on its legitimacy, but there are plenty of new patent images that could be reverse image searched to see if they actually exist.

Anyone think its likely that we will see the ARA revived and manufactured by Google? I get companies patent stuff for the sake of competitors not getting it, but to file some fairly extensive patents (as explained by the article) for the sake of stopping competitors seems like a waste of time if they don't plan on capitalising on it any time soon.

Hello old friends,

I recently was thinking about Project ARA and was reminded of a few modules I saw being developed. Back then, some modules I saw didn't seem that important or were too radical at the time. But after this pandemic, I am convinced that Project ARA would have allowed people to have much more control over testing and being safe during a viral pandemic.

Within the last Dev Con there was a company developing a module that would primarily be a replacement for diabetes blood tests. It would take a blood sample and label the amount of sugar in the micro sample. The next step was radical. They designed the module to replace other laboratory tests for blood. The module would be able to do much more than sugar. They eventually wanted to get to a point where new diseases could be updated for the module to detect.

The implication and necessity for this test today is obvious. Allowing people to have access to this amount of freedom would have turned the entire system on its head. There was another module being designed to test water and soil samples. There was another modules being built to determine air quality. All of these modules could have been updated to help people test themselves and the area around them.

These modules were all functioning years ago, and as expected, the companies stopped pursuing a product after the project shut down. Imagine what more could have been designed and sold within those years? Imagine the power an individual could hold in their hands today? Instead, Google decides to focus on making a iPhone replacement and ignore the promises they made about a moonshot factory. Project ARA could be helping the world take control of their own testing. Instead we get a discount on their store page to buy stuff already out there.

Sorry for the ramble, but I wanted to share a memory I had about a blood testing module. Today a mobile blood test does not seem too crazy, but rational.

Until next time,

Your forgotten tester.

Had a vivid dream last night about reading an article giving some news about Project ARA. Detailing how Google is relaunching Project ARA in response to American companies finding new manufacturing countries outside of China. Very ecstatic and bewildered after waking up, becoming sad after realizing it was not real.

My initial response to the news was really mixed. They didn't show which iteration they would use, the real modular endoskeleton version or the gimped shitty version with only three or four options. I was really happy at first, but then I thought, what if they're using ARA as an emergency plan to save face value with the American public? Recent news with Google has not been good.

Imagine a modular phone which has limited specs in this day and age? Remember when Google was focusing on including billions of people who didn't have phones, instead of building a Pixel market for the top classes of the world?

Project ARA was suppose to free society of stagnate hardware progression and move society towards a market where any company could jump into the smartphone hardware ecosystem. Lowering the costs of hardware substantially. Google can still save society from only caring about advancing expensive cellphones, but that would require focusing on older tech and making it better. I was actually looking forward to a 1GB RAM modular phone, with Android developers optimizing their software to work better on lower spec devices. Instead we have a odd paradox where we throw away hardware faster than we can benefit from it.

Google should be ashamed of themselves for how they treated Google ATAP, their moonshot factory, and all of their projects that would have changed the world. Their gimped version is kinda a sign to me that they wanted to save billion dollar corporations from new competition. Verizon and AT&T would be forced to make a module that would work with each others devices. Companies could actually show their contributions to the industry and market their own products to the public directly in a module, instead of relying on a foreign company to approve of the internal product themselves. Their worst nightmare. And that's why Google couldn't allow their real modular device to disrupt everyone, it would cause too many companies around the world to disrupt the billion dollar beasts controlling the smartphone industry, like mice in cages. And the new Pixel device is a new choice of cheese of the year.

I'm tempted to write a book about how troubling Google's shift is to me. They went from wanting to help billions of people without access to the internet, to marketing iphones to the upper classes of the world. It is not a great feeling to see thousands of concepts companies designed, hoping to jump into the smartphone market for the first time, only to be denied for a product whose spirit is against everything Google once stood for. They were going to make hardware development as easy to jump into as app development has become in Android. It is so frustrating to see what has become of a once great company that was shooting for the moon. Now they're just another Pixel on a earthy television, waiting for someone else to create a new platform for them.

Hi everyone, we're currently developing a modular smartphone and we want you to help us! Please visit our and subscribe to our newsletter and join our discord. This way we can discuss ideas freely and keep you guys updated on a daily basis. We want to make this work, so let's join forces and build something together!

Edit: I suck at Reddit

Video:

Ok, I haven't seen anyone who has thought of this yet, and I don't know that this is even valid, but to me, it seems like this is a precursor for a Project Ara revival. In the video "funny you should ask..." I believe so because it touts a larger battery, better storage, and better camera. This is normal for a smartphone release, but what sells me is that it then says "why is my phone so {slow, hot, fragile, broken}?" These were all goals (with the exception of hot) for Project Ara to improve upon in a smartphone. Speed, and the possibility of switching processors, fragility, and the ability to replace broken parts without sacrificing the soundness or ability of the others, and broken. That one seems like one that is out of place, even for a modular smartphone. I acknowledge that these could all be general terms, that I am misinterpreting them, and that they signify a new phone and nothing else. But to me, as the video has been posted on the day of Apple's launch, it seems as if it is trying to be a direct competitor, with something more to offer. To have all the functions and power of an iPhone, and the cheapness and long term use credited to modular phones. I want to hear your thoughts!

I didn't have a lot of hope for the modular market after Ara got cancelled and the flop of the g5. I was hearing about Andy's new company that was going to make a and now that I've seen it, my reaction is: "really?" It seems like they tried to hop on the modular train, but not bank too hard on it. And if there's not a big enough user base, no one will develop modules for it. Even the moto z had trouble getting developers. If there will be anything it's going to be released by them. It removed the headphone jack and the sd slot, but they decided not to waterproof it. I'm not exactly sure who their target audience is or what they're trying to market.

What my question is, if there's anyone who still reads this subreddit, what do you guys think?