Eh - all they did was take the Republic Wireless business model and copied it, then failed to keep the costs in line with market values. They certainly did it better than RW, but I wouldn’t say they were cutting edge. I was a beta tester for RW years and years ago. Switched to Fi for a couple years, now with US Mobile.
I’m not sure I ever considered them to be technologically advanced. They’re an MVNO… this is not a new concept and typcially used by more budget carriers that piggy back off of larger carrier networks. Google just put their own flavor on it, and half of us jumped on just because it was cool to have another Google-branded thing. As far as features and capability, the only thing that really kept me interested (back then and a little bit now) is the ability to add a bunch of data SIMs at no extra line cost. Otherwise, their feature set has always been aligned with T-Mo (and I know this first-hand because the rest of my family is on T-Mo).
Because they owned the app and the Pixel devices, I guess you could say that activating a new device felt a lot more seamless because logging into your phone for the first time included Fi setup. Outside of that, I never saw it as super revolutionary in terms of innovation and technology. Even pricing-wise, they were never the cheapest budget carrier despite using the budget carrier model.
I need Fi flexible plan to be $10 a month instead of $20. The $10 should come with 1GB of data.
I mean all the technology in the world doesn’t make a difference if you have dog shit service that can’t load a thing on any device anywhere. I was with Fi for 3 miserable years. With their top tier unlimited plan. Still never had service outside of WiFi. Worked good when outside of the US though. Never had service in the US
Airalo exists. That’s what happened. 
I keep mine for Youtube Premium.
Regarding international service…they really need to make an option for individual lines to upgrade in order to get service, not doubling the plan for all lines on an account for a month in order you be able to use it. Or at least enable 128kbps service so we can receive messages
I mean, maybe its because I havent really explored other carriers but it seems like theyre still pretty technologically relevent. I dont know of another MVNO that offers a carrier specific VPN, is as easy to set up on a new phone, offers web based SMS, and has such a well made standalone app. I get that a lot of what the used to offer is commonplace now, but it doesnt mean theyve stopped advancing.
The international service was great on my last trip to Asia. I was expecting to have some issues, but it was seamless and I had speeds that were consistent to what you would experience with local SIMs. Others travelling with me had T-Mobile international data and the performance for them was pretty bad. I don’t think there are any technological leaps happening here, but I’m pretty happy with the overall experience.
In large part, at Google, projects are only worth working on for employees if they will get you a promotion, and only new projects can do that.
So unless someone can frame something as “new” then it won’t get any serious attention and will eventually be killed of when there is some form of “friction” that is too much effort to solve.
it’s called a RUG PULL
they hit it and quit it
It’s like Google Fi hit a technological plateau. What happened to the innovation and competitive edge it once had.
Replace “Fi” with anything and your statement holds true (mostly).
If they (Google) can’t show you ad’s then that business will get plateaued and/or killed.
This is google. They are an ad company at the end of the day. I remember how awsome Postini was… they killed it, no add potential…
I would never trust my data to GCP, they might shut it down tomorrow.
One major disappointment I learned the hard way is that they don’t support the cellular capabilities of the Apple Watch. It seems to me that Fi could be another google effort that started great but they will kill at some point and are maybe intentionally making it bad to soften the blow. I hope that is not true and they can continue to innovate and drive the market like they did when they launched.
Feels like Google gave up. By offering us crap service they hope we all leave so they can shut the project down.
It’s more stable now since it only uses TMobile.
I think it’s also worth noting how quick and seamless the web messages experience is. It’s tied to your account, so you can “text” from your computer. Load up your messages on your desktop if you don’t want to check your phone for a while.
I haven’t used a different carrier in a while, but from what I remember it was never what I would call a “good” experience. (Only ever used Verizon tho)
oo unreliable and buggy and almost required being a tech enthusiast to work with support to resolve issues.
I have had Fi since invite days and have never had to contact support. Has always been reliable. Not sure if you are talking about the same service.
Are you employed by Google and work On the Fi project? Have you talked to an AMerican that works for google fi at anytime the past 2 years? I assume if you do work on the project then you are just a google programmer, if google fi does have employees in America then they are justworking on a seperate social project. Its very puzzling why this commercial would get posted here
I don’t understand how tying Fi numbers to Google accounts prevents SIM swap attacks. As I understand it, a SIM swap attack works by tricking another cell phone company (say Verizon) to port your Fi number out to a Verizon SIM. How can Fi’s security measures affect what a rogue Verizon employee could do?