Turns out Rabbit R1 was just an Android app all along

Over at Android office, Mishaal Rahman managed to do it Download Rabbit Launcher APK file on Google Pixel 6A. With some minor modifications, he was able to run the app as if it were on Rabbit’s own device. By using the volume up key instead of the single hardware button on the R1, he was able to create an account and start asking questions as if he were using the $199 R1.

Rahman points out that the app likely doesn’t offer the same functionality as R1. In his words: “The Rabbit R1 launcher is designed to be pre-installed in the firmware and granted several privileged system-level permissions – only some of which we could grant – so some features will likely fail if we try.” But the fact that the software runs on a mid-range phone from almost two years ago suggests it has more in common with a regular Android app than with it.

Rabbit founder and CEO Jesse Lyu disagrees with this characterization. He made a long statement Edge which we have partially quoted below – this was the case also uploaded to the Rabbit X account if you want to read the whole thing.

“rabbit r1 is not an Android app… rabbit OS and LAM run in the cloud with highly customized AOSPs and lower level firmware modifications, therefore a local APK bootleg without the appropriate OS and cloud endpoints will not be able to access our service . Rabbit OS is customized for r1 and we do not support third party clients.

R1 is not alone; AI Humane pin it seems to work on version open source software for Android. But now that the first reviews have started to appear, the R1 is on top – i They’re not great, Bob. Rabbit released its first software update today to address some complaints, including a rapidly draining battery. This the issue seems to be better controlled after the update; My R1’s idle battery performance has improved significantly after downloading the update this morning.

But the bigger problem is that R1 just doesn’t do enough useful things to justify its existence when, you know, phones exist. It looks like this AI gadget may have just been an app after all.

Updated April 30 at 11:23 p.m. ET: Added statement from Rabbit CEO Jesse Lyu.