There are many variants of smartphones out there, and many variants of skins that are put over Android. The most infamous of these is TouchWiz, but there are plenty of others out there as well. Motorola, on the other hand, has done a great job of staying true to their roots and providing an Android experience very similar to that of vanilla Android. However, for some this simply isn’t enough. The Moto G is one of the cheapest smartphones on the market today, and it feels almost like a Google device. While the Moto G already gets very quick updates and has a very, very minimalist skin over pure Android, senior XDA member alonsoch has gone ahead and released a neat little piece of programming called the MotoTool All In One (AIO). Essentially, this program can flash the stock, CWM and TWRP recoveries. The magical option here is that you can convert your stock Moto G into a Google Play Edition (GPE), to Android 4.4 KitKat, or to Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. The full instructions, as well as the appropriate download links, are available at xda-developers (see the link in the sources).
Of course, with all mods to your phone there will be a risk. Things can always go wrong, and you should only do this if you are comfortable modifying your device. The big question here is exactly what perks this will give you. Well, if you read my faceoff between the Moto G stock and GPE, you will see that the only major difference comes into what signals it can receive. All the other internal and external hardware specs are exactly the same. What the GPE offers is that you remove the slight variations that Motorola has installed on the phone. As it is said on the XDA website, “the GPe still does has its appeals, with the most obvious being its undisturbed, intact Android experience”. For you Android purists out there, this is a no-brainer. I would suggest getting in on this soon. As for everyone else, the call is really up to you if you want to go about it this way or just stick to stock. As I said, the differences are very minimal. However, if you are an Android purist and a T-Mobile customer, you can now access the pure Android experience through this GPE mod and keep your 3G data if you buy a stock edition and convert it. Will you be participating in this? Let us know that and any other thoughts in the comments!