Sean Hollister

Pichai answered yes. Outside of some recent changes, “The employees have to make the decision.”

What were the changes? “My understanding is we change the chat to be default-on now for all Googlers.”

“So it’s done a 180, the default now is on for all employees unless someone opts out?” Yes, as of Q1 of this year.

We’re going on lunch — and Pichai is done being a witness. We might come back with Android boss Hiroshi Lockheimer.

Someone might ping him to schedule a meeting on a related topic, he suggests, but he wouldn’t discuss it there.

He could not swear in court that he’d never, ever chatted on a substantive topic. “Not that I recall,” he says.

“Are you aware that Google produced 8 chats total with you as a participant?” asked Epic lawyer Moskowitz.

“I was not aware of that,” he says.

“That’s part of my understanding, I’m not a legal expert.”

“And you understand Google relied on individual users to decide whether the subjects they were discussing were relevant,” she asks in a follow-up.

Pichai says he relied on his legal and compliance teams. The buck does not stop with Pichai here, then; Kent Walker can’t get here soon enough.

“Do you believe that Netflix offers the Netflix app for sideloading by users on Android?”

“I do not recall them doing so,” he admits.

Now, we’re debating if he knows how many steps it takes to install an app on a PC versus an Android phone after downloading from a website. He repeatedly says he doesn’t know exactly how many steps any given thing takes but admits it probably takes fewer steps on a PC.

On Android, he suggests it may only take a few steps, particularly if a user has already turned on Unknown Sources.

“Our mission is to provide access to information, to make it universally accessible and useful,” says Pichai.

“Android is unprecedented, there’s never been a free and open operating system that’s reached two and a half billion users,” he adds.

“We’re trying to strike a balance. Apple’s iPhone only allows the App Store, but we believe in choice, so on Android we allow you to sideload and install additional applications.”

“It’s like a seatbelt in a car, we are adding the protections so you can use it safely.”

“It offers substantially more value,” Pichai concludes.

Today, the Chrome Web Store only offers extensions, he says.

He’s also the only one I’ve seen looking at and gesturing to the jury, like he did a few minutes ago: “Why would you go to the Chrome store and type in Netflix when you could just use it?” he said, pointing out that the Chrome Web Store couldn’t justify as high a fee as the Play Store on Android.

Did you follow these instructions? “Yes I did.”

And, Pichai and Google say, Epic’s smoking gun “chat history off” request was about a “Cloud Next Keynote” event. Nothing to do with Android, Play, or this lawsuit, he attests.