Motorola to push build-your-own-phone concept with Project Ara

Motorola wants to take smartphone customization to the next level.

The Google-owned company this week announced Project Ara, a hardware platform that would allow users to essentially pick and choose the parts of their smartphone.

With Project Ara, customers would buy an endoskeleton, which is the body of the device. From there, they can select and add modules, each of which includes a different part of a phone, such as a battery, a physical keyboard, a new display or a camera.

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Motorola said it wanted to work with other developers to create all sorts of modules that customers would be able to add to their devices.

“Our goal is to drive a more thoughtful, expressive, and open relationship between users, developers and their phones,” the company said in a blog post. “To give you the power to decide what your phone does, how it looks, where and what it’s made of, how much it costs, and how long you’ll keep it.”

Earlier this year, a very similar project called Phonebloks was started and it quickly gained a large following on the Web. Motorola said it would be working with Phonebloks and its creator, Dave Hakkens, to make the idea of Project Ara into a reality.

“We’ve done deep technical work. Dave created a community. The power of open requires both,” the company said.

Motorola said it planned to issue invitations to developers to participate in Project Ara in the coming months.

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