I think that for the rank and file, not needing to use the device is fine. But if you are a manager/product owner/etc (especially over teams in charge of said devices) then YOU specifically should have to use google devices like 24/7 as part of your job.

I think it's unhealthy for those in charge not to use the products they sell, especially when talking about consumer goods.

I think those directors, VPs and PMs should be mandated to use their own products. Okay to keep iPhone, but use Android as well, at least for their corp works. The product quality of Workspace and Chrome is debatable but it's not even remotely comparable to those niche market products because everyone must use it in their daily works. Why not for Android and their hardware products? Even FB did droidfooding long time ago...

I worked at FB when GearVR came out, and I was the only person on the floor who had an Android device to test it with (so I'm not sure the whole dogfooding thing worked very well there either).

Back in the day Google gave phones and other hardware to the teams and I happily dogfooded it all. Filed bugs, the whole bit.

Then it stopped. And if I’m going to spend my own money, Google has to compete on features just like anyone else.

the argument isn't that all googlers should have to dogfood all google products. But people in charge of a product line should have to dogfood it.

If you aren't willing to dogfood the the product line you have ownership of and prefer to use other products, you shouldn't have ownership in it as you have no vested interest in really making it better.

If you don't want to use your own product, why should anyone else? Empathy and understanding for your users is what drives a great product.

There is always nuance.

I think if you work on a team for some product, it would be good to be a user of that product. Especially if you are at a high level driving product decisions.

I think if you don't work on a specific product it is good to have diversity. For example GMail developers should probably use a mix of OSes and web browsers. But most Android GMail app developers should probably be using Android GMail.

But of course you don't want to be blind to other players, copying good ideas is good. So you do want to regularly interact with the other options as well. But I don't think only using the third-party option is a good idea either. If you only use an Apple Watch you don't know how the Pixel Watch works and how it has different interaction patterns (which on its own is probably a good thing). Maybe the product leads of the Pixel watch should regularly alternate between their own product and other competitors.

Let's put it a different way. Are you as likely to see the same number of Pixel watches, while walking around the hallways in the Apple spaceship?