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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL,Nice one.
+1 on that
Hello...
I have recently updated my device to android pie which gave me one ui from samsung also... i dont like the rounded frames of icons and prefer icons as developers provide.... anyhow i cant find a way to disable icon frames on my phone... i have tried all the menus in settings and searched everywhere... before one ui you can find the setting in display setting of your device but i cant find it anywhere now...
Is it related to android pie not supporting such thing or have samsung removed the feature ?
Please let me know
*My device in indian unit
Choose different icon set
Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk
Altamash Parwaiz said:
Hello...
I have recently updated my device to android pie which gave me one ui from samsung also... i dont like the rounded frames of icons and prefer icons as developers provide.... anyhow i cant find a way to disable icon frames on my phone... i have tried all the menus in settings and searched everywhere... before one ui you can find the setting in display setting of your device but i cant find it anywhere now...
Is it related to android pie not supporting such thing or have samsung removed the feature ?
Please let me know
*My device in indian unit
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't remove icon frames in One UI. You can always download an icon set in the Samsung theme store.
Mr. Orange 645 said:
You can't remove icon frames in One UI. You can always download an icon set in the Samsung theme store.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry but i dont find any icon that dosent come with icon frames... is there any way around ?
Altamash Parwaiz said:
Sorry but i dont find any icon that dosent come with icon frames... is there any way around ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GollaUX has frames..
I hope to be that you want.
Regards
friends
could anyone confirm with me if on Color os i have two keyboards installed (Gboard+swiftkey) then where does the Switch input method comes? on right corner of Navbar OR in dropdown notification (like miui)
before i buy realme x2 , i just wanted to know, i am ordering online and couldn't find answer for this question on various videos on youtube
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.
Hi guys,
I have a freshly rooted Xiaomi Redmi 4x with Havoc OS 4.16 installed, which is based on android 11 and Pixel 5.
Thus, this is a question about Pixel 5's UI even if the phone is not a pixel 5 ( it does appear as one in Google Play Store).
I noticed when I install an app, the automatically generated home screen shortcut is created not on the home screen but on the next one to the right. The more I think of it, the more I realize this might be in fact a good design idea, because the user might want to keep the main home screen clean and under his/her control. However, for the sake of it, is there a setting to tell the UI to create new shortcuts on the main screen instead? I looked in the settings but could not find it.
I do know I can move them, no issue in that.
Edit. This might be the wrong forum though, 'cos I just read Havoc OS uses Material Design 2 UI.
"Havoc-OS 4.x is based on AOSP, inspired by Google Pixel. Has a refined Material Design 2 UI crafted by @SKULSHADY".
I don't suppose Google Pixel 5 uses this UI.
If that's the case, I kindly ask a mod to DELETE this. Thanks!