Google’s project killing has found a fashionable new victim

The Google Advanced Technology and Projects division, more commonly referred to as ATAP, has been responsible for a handful of eye-catching showstoppers, with the Soli radio system and the wardrobe-focused Jacquard being two of them. Both were announced in 2015 and hit the market a few years later, with Jacquard giving us some of the most unexpected collaborations, including with apparel manufacturer Levi’s and luxury fashion label Yves Saint Laurent – the former bringing us some trendy smart tracker-equipped jackets , while Adidas launched Jacquard tags intended for insoles on football boots. But after being relatively quiet since those partnerships — aside from the 2019 release of two new Jacquard/Levi’s jackets — it looks like the end is near for the project and corresponding companion app.

The latest iteration of the Jacquard app for Android pretty much spells the end for the project. Even if you don’t have the app, it doesn’t seem to be a secret What is new section in the Play Store, which says as much:

This release adds the ability to notify users of product support updates in the future.

Also, opening the app with the internet disabled returns the page pictured below, while 9to5Google found references to end-of-life, including an AppShutdown header, in 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’s going to happen to customers who bought jacket-backed jackets or backpacks when the companion app goes out to pasture. One Jacquard product, the aforementioned Adidas smart insole for athletes, has a separate app which was updated a month ago, but even its future is now uncertain following this revelation.

Project Jacquard, while less creepy than Google Glass, probably had about as much appeal to buyers. 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 the phone by making a gesture on the jacket. But Jacquard doesn’t seem to have caught fire like some would have liked, and it doesn’t help that Google has been in a cutting mood lately on anything that isn’t AI, like with Stadia.