Android and Wear OS are getting a redesign • Hacker News Board

Re: Android and Wear OS are getting a redesign

#31

Post by tifik » Tue, May 13, 2025, 8:27 PM UTC

awill wrote: post #3

So many people I work with (in tech) were on Android for years, and all eventually switched to iOS. My biggest issue with Google is they aren't convicted in anything they do. They just guess, or try 5 different things, and see what sticks. That makes it a mess for users, as the UX constantly changes. I also can't understand why Google decided a circular face made sense for Wear. It's good for analogue watches, and ga…

Storytime: my partner used to be a long time Samsung fan. She had the phone, tablet, headphones and watch and probably more gear that I don't even know about. Then she moved to Canada with me. Because of how poor the QA in their ecosystem is, after an update her latest-model Samsung watch couldn't pair with her one-year-old model Samsung phone, which severely diminished its usefulness (this was a heavily reported issue at the time). So we went to a mall and entered a store with big SAMSUNG logos everywhere, and were told to go skip rocks. They would not even touch the devices with the same logos they had on their shirts, because both the phone and the watch were bought in a different country.

There was an Apple store in that mall as well, so we walked in and asked "if we buy an apple product here, and there is an issue with it while we are in a different country, would they help us in an Apple store there". The answer was "well yeah of course why wouldn't they" with a "what's the catch" tone and raised eyebrow.

Needless to say she is now fully switched over. Even after two years, she gets delighted every now and then by how smooth the experience is. I recall many "LOL Samsung could never" events.

My current Pixel 6 is my last android phone due to the UX issues that keep piling up with every single update. Last one I noticed: Turning on bedtime mode is now double (2) the clicks it used to be.

Re: Android and Wear OS are getting a redesign

#32

Post by skiman10 » Tue, May 13, 2025, 8:29 PM UTC

jsnell wrote: post #7

> You can now customize Quick Settings to squeeze in more of your favorite actions like Flashlight and Do Not Disturb. I feel I'm missing something. Hasn't customizing the quick settings been possible forever? In fact the only thing preventing me from having the single tap Do Not Disturb in the quick settings is that these same UX people removed the option in the latest version of Android , and buried it in a "Modes"…

You can expand or shrink every tile now instead of only being able to swap position of the tiles. So more tiles per page.

Re: Android and Wear OS are getting a redesign

#33

Post by pjmlp » Tue, May 13, 2025, 8:30 PM UTC

awill wrote: post #3

So many people I work with (in tech) were on Android for years, and all eventually switched to iOS. My biggest issue with Google is they aren't convicted in anything they do. They just guess, or try 5 different things, and see what sticks. That makes it a mess for users, as the UX constantly changes. I also can't understand why Google decided a circular face made sense for Wear. It's good for analogue watches, and ga…

Still on Android.

All the Apple gear I use belongs to my employer.

You should listen to some Apple development podcasts, grass is not so green on the other side.

There are also plenty of unfinished things, some of them have turned into memes by now.

Re: Android and Wear OS are getting a redesign

#34

Post by microtonal » Tue, May 13, 2025, 8:34 PM UTC

frfl wrote: post #28

JamesSwift wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing that made me switch, funny enough, is the 'budget phone' category. The Moto G line and low-end Pixel line completely abandoned the "small, 200-300 dollar phone" segment. And so I got a brand new iphone SE for $200. Havent gone back, and probably wont at this point now that I've moved over and use the family plan for apple one etc.

Your comment seems out of date. There's no $200-300 iPhone anymore. iPhone 16e is the cheapest model I think? That's $600usd? But there are in fact $200-300 Moto phones still and new ones every year, with decent specs for the price and fairly close to stock Android OS. No, they dont have 6 or 7 year of OS upgrades, but that was never a realistic option in the budget Android phone market anyway. It would be unfair and…

The Samsung A5x line usually goes towards 300 dollar/euro pretty quickly and e.g. the A56 get 6 years of updates. The Pixel 8a is currently 369 Euro in my country and has a long update cycle.

Re: Android and Wear OS are getting a redesign

#35

Post by _old_dude_ » Tue, May 13, 2025, 8:34 PM UTC

ndneighbor wrote: post #9

The number one issue I have with Android is that while this looks cool, because of the fragmentation of the OS delivery between vendors- I have no idea which phone or timeframe when I could see the rollout of Material 3 Expressive. More than 10 years later, shopping for an Android phone with the latest OS is a nightmare. Android leadership keeps on getting shuffled around, Google changes priorities every 6 months it…

> at least I know that the phone will be supported for at least 4 years

It's 4 (mid) to 7 years (flagship) for Samsung.

https://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-android-updates-114...

Re: Android and Wear OS are getting a redesign

#36

Post by bigstrat2003 » Tue, May 13, 2025, 8:35 PM UTC

Given how much of a downgrade the last visual refresh was (Android 12 I think?), this is news I do not welcome. Anyone else remember the lock screen being a giant two line clock with no way to customize it, or the way the settings buttons got way bigger for no good reason? It was awful. I don't look forward to seeing what they will screw up this time.

Re: Android and Wear OS are getting a redesign

#37

Post by kotaKat » Tue, May 13, 2025, 8:37 PM UTC

We keep making the screens bigger to make the interfaces even more dumbed down and stupid.

Are we in Idiocracy at this point or what, Google?

Some of you fuckers need to go pick back up The Zen of Palm and re-read it because y'all have no idea what you're shipping these days in comparison.

https://archive.org/details/zen-of-palm

Re: Android and Wear OS are getting a redesign

#38

Post by brap » Tue, May 13, 2025, 8:37 PM UTC

Looks good. I’m happy. Now if they can please change their apps icons to not all look the same, that would be really nice.

Re: Android and Wear OS are getting a redesign

#39

Post by bhouston » Tue, May 13, 2025, 8:39 PM UTC

As an iOS user so many of the headline effects this Android update mentions seem to be already part of my iOS experience. Thus this seems to be catch ups to iOS.

Re: Android and Wear OS are getting a redesign

#40

Post by thecrumb » Tue, May 13, 2025, 8:39 PM UTC

This will be my last Pixel phone. I had the original and it was perfect. No fluff. Simple. Each version gets worse and worse. 7 is horrible. Still can't remove the stupid date from the home screen.