So, a few days ago Apple announced iOS 8 and previewed some of it features. This made me look back into Android, specifically Stock Android. And with Google I/O just around the corner, here are some things that I wish Google will improve on.
The Dark, Old, and Gloomy Holo UI
When it first came out, Holo UI was the thing. Everyone who was still on Gingerbread wanted it, they installed launchers and even modded framework and stuff. Skip forward 3 years, Holo UI is still here with a little change on the icon colours. Some may love it, but it's definitely getting boring. There are rumours that the next version will be 5.0 instead of 4.5. I hope that with the 1.0 jump, there will be a major UI overhaul.
The Not So Helpful Quick Tiles
Quick Tiles, when you look at it it really seems to help make things quicker. "Oh look, the WiFi icon. If I press this, it's gonna toggle the WiFi, right?" NOPE, clicking it will bring you to the Settings section while long pressing it will toggle it instead. I don't know how long it's been like this but I've only tasted stock since 4.2.2 and it's still like this on KitKat so... Someone in the UX Department needs to be scolded.
Not only it's rather misguiding, the toggles itself doesn't offer that much. There are no tiles for NFC, Sync, Auto Rotation and there's no way to add them either. Custom ROMs and manufacturers' skins however offer all these for years and even after a few 0.1 updates, Google doesn't seem to touch this. Which makes me wonder if most people prefer it Google's way. I definitely don't.
KitKat Transparency Not Being Used
When KitKat was announced, the transparent status bar and navigation bar really wowed me. I was hoping the colours would match accordingly to which app is opened. But apparently, apps need to be updated and coded to take advantage of this. Which is fine, there are a few apps that does this but what baffles me is Google isn't one of them. Other than Google Now Launcher, everything pretty much stayed the same. How can others be motivated to do this when even Google isn't doing it.
It Lacks Appeal to the Public Eyes
Have you seen what other skinned Android can do without installing other apps? Multi-Window, Dual Capture Camera, Slow Motion Video Capture, Floating Apps, Power Saving Mode, Video Calling, and many more. What can Stock Android do? Well, normal stuff every Android smartphone can do except those above I guess. Stock Android are designed for developers and tech enthusiasts so it should be normal to stay as de-bloated as possible but don't you want some of those goodies that other skins offer?
Your Thoughts?
Yes, there are apps that can do the stuff above and Xposed Framework can help, but we're talking about pure stock Android without roots and many other stuff. Which makes me wonder, being a Nexus user, how many of you guys stay pure stock?
With competition heating up such as iOS's possible split Window Mode and Windows 8.1's Cortana, not to mention other emerging OS such as Tizen, Ubuntu Touch, Sailfish and Firefox OS; Android need to step up it's game on the next version. What do you think will make Stock Android better?
uchihakurtz said:
So, a few days ago Apple announced iOS 8 and previewed some of it features. This made me look back into Android, specifically Stock Android. And with Google I/O just around the corner, here are some things that I wish Google will improve on.
The Dark, Old, and Gloomy Holo UI
When it first came out, Holo UI was the thing. Everyone who was still on Gingerbread wanted it, they installed launchers and even modded framework and stuff. Skip forward 3 years, Holo UI is still here with a little change on the icon colours. Some may love it, but it's definitely getting boring. There are rumours that the next version will be 5.0 instead of 4.5. I hope that with the 1.0 jump, there will be a major UI overhaul.
The Not So Helpful Quick Tiles
Quick Tiles, when you look at it it really seems to help make things quicker. "Oh look, the WiFi icon. If I press this, it's gonna toggle the WiFi, right?" NOPE, clicking it will bring you to the Settings section while long pressing it will toggle it instead. I don't know how long it's been like this but I've only tasted stock since 4.2.2 and it's still like this on KitKat so... Someone in the UX Department needs to be scolded.
Not only it's rather misguiding, the toggles itself doesn't offer that much. There are no tiles for NFC, Sync, Auto Rotation and there's no way to add them either. Custom ROMs and manufacturers' skins however offer all these for years and even after a few 0.1 updates, Google doesn't seem to touch this. Which makes me wonder if most people prefer it Google's way. I definitely don't.
KitKat Transparency Not Being Used
When KitKat was announced, the transparent status bar and navigation bar really wowed me. I was hoping the colours would match accordingly to which app is opened. But apparently, apps need to be updated and coded to take advantage of this. Which is fine, there are a few apps that does this but what baffles me is Google isn't one of them. Other than Google Now Launcher, everything pretty much stayed the same. How can others be motivated to do this when even Google isn't doing it.
It Lacks Appeal to the Public Eyes
Have you seen what other skinned Android can do without installing other apps? Multi-Window, Dual Capture Camera, Slow Motion Video Capture, Floating Apps, Power Saving Mode, Video Calling, and many more. What can Stock Android do? Well, normal stuff every Android smartphone can do except those above I guess. Stock Android are designed for developers and tech enthusiasts so it should be normal to stay as de-bloated as possible but don't you want some of those goodies that other skins offer?
Your Thoughts?
Yes, there are apps that can do the stuff above and Xposed Framework can help, but we're talking about pure stock Android without roots and many other stuff. Which makes me wonder, being a Nexus user, how many of you guys stay pure stock?
With competition heating up such as iOS's possible split Window Mode and Windows 8.1's Cortana, not to mention other emerging OS such as Tizen, Ubuntu Touch, Sailfish and Firefox OS; Android need to step up it's game on the next version. What do you think will make Stock Android better?
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Custom ROMS are way ahead of this.. Stock, naaaa.. Custom roms you get features satablility and sort of completeness. It defeats stock by a long margin.
Rohit02 said:
Custom ROMS are way ahead of this.. Stock, naaaa.. Custom roms you get features satablility and sort of completeness. It defeats stock by a long margin.
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Click to collapse
Yeah, tried stock for a week, couldn't stand it :silly: With all those bugs, it makes you wonder if people at Google actually uses stock Android or never tried custom ROMs, lol.
uchihakurtz said:
Yeah, tried stock for a week, couldn't stand it :silly: With all those bugs, it makes you wonder if people at Google actually uses stock Android or never tried custom ROMs, lol.
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Click to collapse
LOL,Nice one.
+1 on that
Yesterday was released the first Developer Preview of Android 8.0 (I think this will be the version).
Android O may feature new notifications, app icons badges notifications (Woah! I do this since nova Launcher exists! iOS since 2010..) , picture-in-picture mode, smart text selection, (like previous CMs, right?) gesture support, and a new policy to restrict background app activities (Maybe this might be interesting).
However, not much has changed. So, the questions we ask ourselves all are two:
1. Is there a way to get the preview (AOSP) on our 3t?
2. When Google decides to radically change Android eliminating its famous wakelock? When will abandon this boring Material design? Really no longer has ideas?
Thread closed. See thread here: Android O
Surprise ! Received update and installed.. seems good for now. But feels WIP in a few areas. Needs 1 update to complete it.
Downloading
Snap or Exynos?
India has exonys
the new icons on the notification panel look cartoonish
got the update, a lot has changed, and I am impressed with Samsung. Good Work.
Not impressed.
1. Quick settings design is back to Touchwiz
2. OneUI is inconsistent. Even Samsung apps like My Files still have key interactive elements on top still.
3. Icons and color scheme back to cartoonish touchwiz
4. Broke Samsung apps like Goodlock and lost all customizations including some themes.
5. Dont really get the OneUI concept. I know that I'm opening the Message app. Do I really need to waste half the screen with a message telling me I'm in Messages?
Etc etc
Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk
arbit12 said:
Not impressed.
1. Quick settings design is back to Touchwiz
2. OneUI is inconsistent. Even Samsung apps like My Files still have key interactive elements on top still.
3. Icons and color scheme back to cartoonish touchwiz
4. Broke Samsung apps like Goodlock and lost all customizations including some themes.
5. Dont really get the OneUI concept. I know that I'm opening the Message app. Do I really need to waste half the screen with a message telling me I'm in Messages?
Etc etc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hence I said WIP... needs atleast 1 update big 1 at that
Hey guys you probably know how one UI 2.0 of Samsung looks like, especially the quick settings panel. I have lineage 16.0 with magisk running fine on my phone. The clock in the quick settings panel is very small so I wanted to like get a bigger clock or like having clock battery and other details into the quick settings panel and since that part of one UI has most of the things I actually want I am referring to that ..is there any module or things that I can use to get that one UI or similar into my phone..?
Thanks in advance :good:
Not sure if there is any module available but you may want to try Descendant OS it mimics like One UI.
Hi
I found one day a port of One UI rom for Santoni, but IRL wasn't working.
look "Redmi 4X - Samsung Experience 9.5, Oreo 8.1" with Google to look at this. Web site is xiaomiui dot net
Hi,
Well I like the Official Miui rom but some functions I loved got removed by xiaomi so I finally want to break out.
I want to actually use the Notification Logs that came with Android 11 (don't know why xiaomi removed it) and I miss the option to set the priority of notifications. I used this one a lot because I had some notifications I wanted to see when I pull down the bar, but I don't need to see the icon all the time.
Also more customization would be nice...
So I'm asking you here, wich ROM comes the closest to a stock android experience or wich ROM is the 'best' one.
Thank you and have a nice day!
Synytrix said:
Hi,
Well I like the Official Miui rom but some functions I loved got removed by xiaomi so I finally want to break out.
I want to actually use the Notification Logs that came with Android 11 (don't know why xiaomi removed it) and I miss the option to set the priority of notifications. I used this one a lot because I had some notifications I wanted to see when I pull down the bar, but I don't need to see the icon all the time.
Also more customization would be nice...
So I'm asking you here, wich ROM comes the closest to a stock android experience or wich ROM is the 'best' one.
Thank you and have a nice day!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Without hesitation:
https://xiaomi.eu/community/
or
https://one.revtechs.me/en/index
there's Pixel Experience which are the same as Pixel phones, HentaiOS which are heavily tuned for great user experience, or Evox if you want more customization than barebone. LineageOS are similar to AOSP. There's so many ROMs to try, really.