Unsolicited surveys from Google are now reportedly showing up for users in Android Messages, in addition to the surveys that began showing up for some Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL owners just last week. While those prior questionnaires were only reported to be affecting Pixel users, the new survey is being reported across a broader range of devices. Like those prior inquiries from the company, the new survey appears first as a banner-style message along the bottom of a user’s screen within the app, which asks the user to “Help improve Android Messages.” Users can, of course, choose not to participate by selecting the appropriate option or can tap the other option to see the questions.
Google’s efforts here appear to be genuinely in the interest of making the company’s applications better via relatively random responses from users, though the method by which they are obtaining feedback will almost certainly bother at least a few users. For starters, there are a number of arguably better ways the company could be garnering customer responses. Not least of all, the questions could be asked through the search giant’s very own Google Rewards application – which is optionally downloadable and survey-specific. However, conducting a questionnaire by other methods wouldn’t necessarily give a clear oversight for how an application is performing on a specific handset and it may just be that Google is looking for answers as they relate to specific manufacturers or models.
Having said that, its at least as likely to be the case that Google is conducting its survey by this particular method in order to get its information from as random a sample of devices and users as possible or that they have some other reason for choosing to use in-app messages to get responses. Without some sort of official information from the company, it would be nearly impossible to tell for sure. Whatever the case turns out to be, it also isn’t immediately clear which handsets can expect to see a survey or even which Google applications one might appear in. The company may end up continuing throughout its entire suite of software or it could be looking for information about a select few apps.
