Google’s technology and advanced projects division, better known as ATAP, has been responsible for a handful of eye-catching shows, with the Soli radio system and the Jacquard focusing on the wardrobe. Both were announced in 2015 and hit the markets a couple of years later, with Jacquard giving us some of the most unexpected collaborations, including with clothing manufacturer Levi’s and luxury fashion brand Yves Saint Laurent; , while Adidas launched Jacquard tags for football boot insoles. But after remaining relatively quiet since those partnerships, except for the release of two new Jacquard/Levi’s jackets in 2019, it seems the end of the project and the corresponding app is near.
The latest iteration of the Jacquard app for Android pretty much signals the end of the project. Even if you don’t have the app, it doesn’t seem to be a secret What’s new the Play Store section indicating both:
This release adds the ability to notify users of future product support updates.
Additionally, opening the app with Internet disabled returns the page shown below, while 9to5Google found end-of-life references, including an AppShutdown header, within the app’s code. All of this points to an imminent announcement from Google about the death of Jacquard.
It’s not entirely clear what will happen to customers who bought Jacquard-backed jackets or backpacks when the companion app goes out to pasture. One Jacquard product, Adidas’ aforementioned smart insole for athletes, has a separate app that was updated a month ago, but even its future is now uncertain after this revelation.
Project Jacquard, while less creepy than Google Glass, probably had the same appeal to the buying public. The feature set was half-decent, including the ability to be notified by the jacket when you leave your phone behind, or control music on your phone by gesturing at the jacket. But Jacquard doesn’t seem to have caught fire the way some wanted, and it doesn’t help that Google has been in a mood of late for anything other than AI, like with Stadia.