271–280 of 360 posts
The notification feature looks nice. I've pretty much exclusively used iOS, but honestly notifications is a weak point for iOS, in my opinion. I frequently have the 1 notification on my home screen, but once unlocked notifications are pretty much impossible to find again.
Once unlocked, swipe down from the top of the screen to open Notification Center.
Not available for Pixel/XL, Pixel 2/XL, Pixel 3/XL, Pixel 3a/XL, Pixel 4/XL, Pixel 4a, Pixel 4a 5G, Pixel 5, or Pixel 5a. I have Pixel 4a and I wanted to get Android 16 to get the smaller notification tile buttons back.
Nice to see someone still using a 4a. I'm still rocking a 3a XL with lineage (massively resisting the urge to upgrade to a Pixel 9). I'm quite certain they'll do a lineage release for our phones for Android 16, hoping to use my phone for as much longer as possible!
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But thats also just what they're trying to advertise. They always make more changes than listed. And its the sneaky ones that get through...like when I upgraded to 15 my home button no longer exists when the screen is locked, which effectively makes google maps navigation stuck on the screen unless you stop navigation by pressing back repeatedly
This is never how the marketing around the big UI overhauls that OP is worried about works. A sneaky UI overhaul that's launched with no fanfare doesn't get anyone promoted, so why bother? > like when I upgraded to 15 my home button no longer exists when the screen is locked, which effectively makes google maps navigation stuck on the screen unless you stop navigation by pressing back repeatedly Smaller things like t…
My current workaround is to trampoline off another program, like Spotify, or the BT settings, that has a constant notification then i can click that which opens the lock screen.
But even a small sounding change can be significant. After the last Gemini push, the alarm clock now would "stop" on voice command, but it would activate for random noises you made, cancelling my alarm for work; the settings were hidden in another app, not the alarm. It wasn't even promoted so nobody knew. This release mentions even more Gemini integrations...
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> A lot of these tools seem like useless frivolity. That's me on a good day; I fuckin' hate smartphones (hardware and software-wise), lol. I have pretty much given up on a slab-style pocket computer (6-7 inch, essentially a deshittified, Samsung XCover-series smartphone on steroids, e. g. S-Pen, exchangeable batteries, audio jack, 1-2 USB-C ports, mSD card slot, lotsa memory, phone-functionality is second fiddle) or…
So there are at least two of us! I'd be truly excited and willing to pay laptop-tier prices for either: 1) a bare (ala Pixel) foldable with S-pen and without large external displays to get cracked and complicate things 2) a rooted linux-computer-in-your-pocket that can be plugged into a usb-c hub and happens to have a SIM card/cell modem to work as a phone. ...but until then I just get by for years and years on whate…
The release of Apple's new glass design has made Material Expressive appear aesthetically pleasing. Apple has declined so much, it's unfortunate.
Glass is a pain in itself and "preparing for a future in spatial computing" is such a bullshit line when the spatial computing future is still 5-10 years away at minimum, and will not be achieved with Apple Vision, at least not in the current shape and form.
Meanwhile, Material Expressive is trying to force a 2020 graphic design trend onto mobile apps. It literally feels like designers at google just wanted to do something new and modern, so they went with a bland corporate "modern design" aesthetic, that reduces UX in name of UI - even tho they are like oooooh users found this button 30% faster, it would be well fucking expected, since highly-paid designers have just redesigned the thing.
Meanwhile, apps will continue to be made in their own style.
Apple will release liquid glass support with 26 and we'll see it appear in new apps. At the same time, Google will probably do a partial release of the new material components for developers, where a giant part of components will lack features described by the design spec, a bunch will be missing, and a bunch will be utterly unusable because Google can't create a good DX to save their lives.
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Maybe Apple thought they need to make a desperate move to deflect from their lack of AI?
Call me old, but I don't think users want AI. Apple summary's turned out barely helpful and that was the big, simple and easy AI application. Instead of a working voice assistant, what uses does AI (LLM) have on a smartphone?
It's easier to keep doing something incremental than to fundamentally change things. One avenue these phone OS, and any consumer OS, can pursue is making it easy to string together app sub-steps. An app can be "cracked open" into sub-step a) either by developers themselves b) or by a backend process at app submission time. The backend process could look at the screens, and see what the user journeys are - this is wit…
It is now up to developers to expose this.
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> What does "working closely" mean for a company with infinite SW dev resources? What do they need from Samsung as far as software goes? Samsung already learned lessons from that journey, Google did not. Also, the Android strategy is to not compete with Android vendors on OS features, they rather collaborate to make them contribute improvements back to the OS. This strategy makes the project faster, cheaper, reduces…
> most of all reduces brand-stickiness within the Android ecosystem (--> if Samsung DeX gets merged into Android, Samsung users can switch brands easier). Why would Samsung want this? Why would they actively reduce their own competitiveness by giving away distinguished features?
Google applies different levers here:
1. Google is making your feature a commodity: Samsung is aware that Google plans to implement a native version of the feature, with or without Samsung. Google will make the feature available to ALL competitors of Samsung. Samsung get's the chance to shape it WITH Google or will later be forced to ensure compatibility with it (because it's not sustainable for Samsung to coexist with AND compete against an ecosystem used by ALL other Android vendors)
2. Google offers to take over some tasks: Google creates media attention for OS-Upgrades, creating pressure for Device-Vendors to adopt the new OS-version as soon as possible. The more a vendor deviates from the generic implementation, the more time & resources (and money) will be needed to adopt a new OS-version. So it's in the interest of Samsung to contribute as much of their fundamentals back upstream, so Google themselves takes care of maintaining it.
3. Google may make it mandatory at some point: The Android Compatibility Definition Document (CDD) defines the mandatory requirements for a device to be granted into the Android Ecosystem. Google is in control of this document and may at some point add specific behavior or features as a condition for Android compliance. This "Desktop Mode" has the potential to become the default behavior for Tablets, so Samsung may be required to adopt it for devices classified as Tablet by the CDD [0]
4. Google returns the favor: Samsung can trade collaboration on this feature for business opportunities with Google in other areas (i.e. Mixed Reality, B2B, Chromebooks,...), which potentially allows Samsung to be first in an entirely new market...
[0] https://source.android.com/docs/compatibility/16/android-16-...
I like their Material Expressive design a lot more now after Apple's big reveal. While it's still a bit too colorful and whimsical for my liking, it does stay much closer to what I think should be the top UX design ideal - be clear, legible, and get out of the way . On the new iOS every screen feels like some UX designer is shouting "look how amazing I am at this!!" at me.
More like shouting "Watch me drain your battery all day long".
Factory images here: https://developers.google.com/android/images
What's with the AI-generated "Key Takeaways" crap on the right column of that page? No thanks, the content is short enough I can easily skim it on my own.
Desperation