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Someone can explain why it feels that Android / IOS updates feel less "important" than 6-7 years ago? I remember it was big, everyone was exited and waiting for

by Thaxll 6y ago

Someone can explain why it feels that Android / IOS updates feel less "important" than 6-7 years ago? I remember it was big, everyone was exited and waiting for new features.

vernie 6y ago
The platforms have matured and stabilized.
- pier25 6y ago
  This might be a chicken or egg thing, but we've been using smartphones for a decade so users don't want big changes anymore.
johnisgood 6y ago
Because everything major has already been implemented, and what they should implement are not being implemented because they go against their incentives, such as actual privacy features. I think. Or take for example: they broke call recording. Third party applications do not work above Android 9 (?). There is a Google feature that allows you to record calls, but only incoming calls. How is that for a feature? Why does it have to be tied to Google? Why cannot we just simply record the call, whether it is an outgoing call or an incoming call, without it being tied to any Google-related bullshit? It should be relatively simple to implement, but nope, they do not seem to be wanting to do that.
- curiousgal 6y ago
  IMO the beauty of Android is that I can easily root it and get access to any feature I please.
  - Sargos 6y ago
    It's not easy to root most phones and when you do a lot of apps such as bank apps refuse to run and can be considered broken. It does exist as an option for very tech savvy people but the downsides are very real and not palatable to the majority of people.
- OkGoDoIt 6y ago
  Exactly, every new release of android and iOS these days feels like one step forward, two steps back. It’s less excitement about new features and more dread about what use cases they’re going to break this time.
- izacus 6y ago
  > Because everything major has already been implemented, and what they should implement are not being implemented because they go against their incentives, such as actual privacy features. I think. That's a strange statement considering the main features of both Android 10 and 11 are extensive new privacy features and related changes.
- threeseed 6y ago
  Call recording is a complex situation. a) You are recording someone else, often without their permission, which in many countries is a serious crime. b) You open up the attack vector for apps to surreptitiously record your conversations and make them available to governments or criminals to do all sorts of nefarious things e.g. blackmail you.
  - sauwan 6y ago
    a) The internet and chat applications can be used for illegal purposes. Should web browsers and chat apps be restricted? b) same with GPS, web browsing, email on the device, etc. Call recording is a very useful function to many people. Entirely breaking it is unnecessary.
  - the_pwner224 6y ago
    Web browsing is a complex situation. a) You can look at photos of someone else, including naked children, often without their permission, which in many countries is a serious crime. b) You open up the attack vector for apps to surreptitiously record your browsing activity and make them available to governments or criminals to do all sorts of nefarious things e.g. blackmail you.
- pas 6y ago
  Call recording is disabled to increase privacy. Seriously. Because it was easy to abuse by apps and users too. I miss that feature too though.
bredren 6y ago
I'd liken this stretch of time to 2005-2006. iPod was mature in that it had reached a small video capability but was maxing out what was possible in how you could interact with the product. Back then Apple's products felt boring. Zune was about to debut and compete with them by offering a brown color! 6-7 years ago we didn't have Apple Watch yet. There was still a sense of "what's next?" Today, touch based interfaces in iPhone and iPad are so broadly understood that product interactions are routine: - TikTok uses no new interaction concepts, rising instead on content and content format. - Fortnite uses the same user interactions that have been adopted by shooters rising instead on gameplay. Despite progress on ARKit, using AR experience on iPhone / iPad feels as wrong as watching videos on iPod Video did in 2005. The good news is that iPod Video in 2006 was not even remotely representative of the experience what Apple was developing with iPhone / iPod Touch. I'm hopeful that Apple will debut something as groundbreaking as the interaction iPhone offers between people and the world around them. But until we see a level up like that, its going to feel a little boring on iOS at least. I like this quote by Steve Jobs, which I think is applicable here: “Things happen fairly slowly, you know. They do. These waves of technology, you can see them way before they happen, and you just have to choose wisely which ones you’re going to surf. If you choose unwisely, then you can waste a lot of energy, but if you choose wisely it actually unfolds fairly slowly. It takes years.” Outside mobile devices though, I think this is a very exciting time in open source and software technology. So if you're feeling board, it might be a good time to expand your horizons.
fareesh 6y ago
A lot of obvious features were missing Now they're all there
throw51319 6y ago
People realize these devices are just extensions of a limited subset of human actions. Call, text, look stuff up, watch a video, listen to music, navigate, track, take a picture or video... What else is there that these smartphones need to do? Prob the next thing, since the processing power of the latest A14 and snapdragon is insanely good... just have one device be ubiquitous for everything besides poweruser stuff. Come in from a run and do work on your phone, etc. Seamlessly connects to monitor and keyboard. Do any heavy compiling on the cloud, etc. That's pretty much it. They accomplished their goal.
pjmlp 6y ago
The only features I care about is that they finally improved Java support beyond version 8, and NDK is finally getting AAR package support for C++ libraries. However none of that is relevant for end users, in that regard there is hardly any reason to get Android 11. I was more than happy with my Symbian Belle C7.

by Thaxll 6y ago

Someone can explain why it feels that Android / IOS updates feel less "important" than 6-7 years ago? I remember it was big, everyone was exited and waiting for new features.

vernie 6y ago

The platforms have matured and stabilized.

pier25 6y ago
This might be a chicken or egg thing, but we've been using smartphones for a decade so users don't want big changes anymore.

johnisgood 6y ago

Because everything major has already been implemented, and what they should implement are not being implemented because they go against their incentives, such as actual privacy features. I think. Or take for example: they broke call recording. Third party applications do not work above Android 9 (?). There is a Google feature that allows you to record calls, but only incoming calls. How is that for a feature? Why does it have to be tied to Google? Why cannot we just simply record the call, whether it is an outgoing call or an incoming call, without it being tied to any Google-related bullshit? It should be relatively simple to implement, but nope, they do not seem to be wanting to do that.

curiousgal 6y ago
IMO the beauty of Android is that I can easily root it and get access to any feature I please.
- Sargos 6y ago
  It's not easy to root most phones and when you do a lot of apps such as bank apps refuse to run and can be considered broken. It does exist as an option for very tech savvy people but the downsides are very real and not palatable to the majority of people.
OkGoDoIt 6y ago
Exactly, every new release of android and iOS these days feels like one step forward, two steps back. It’s less excitement about new features and more dread about what use cases they’re going to break this time.
izacus 6y ago
> Because everything major has already been implemented, and what they should implement are not being implemented because they go against their incentives, such as actual privacy features. I think. That's a strange statement considering the main features of both Android 10 and 11 are extensive new privacy features and related changes.
threeseed 6y ago
Call recording is a complex situation. a) You are recording someone else, often without their permission, which in many countries is a serious crime. b) You open up the attack vector for apps to surreptitiously record your conversations and make them available to governments or criminals to do all sorts of nefarious things e.g. blackmail you.
- sauwan 6y ago
  a) The internet and chat applications can be used for illegal purposes. Should web browsers and chat apps be restricted? b) same with GPS, web browsing, email on the device, etc. Call recording is a very useful function to many people. Entirely breaking it is unnecessary.
- the_pwner224 6y ago
  Web browsing is a complex situation. a) You can look at photos of someone else, including naked children, often without their permission, which in many countries is a serious crime. b) You open up the attack vector for apps to surreptitiously record your browsing activity and make them available to governments or criminals to do all sorts of nefarious things e.g. blackmail you.
pas 6y ago
Call recording is disabled to increase privacy. Seriously. Because it was easy to abuse by apps and users too. I miss that feature too though.

bredren 6y ago

I'd liken this stretch of time to 2005-2006. iPod was mature in that it had reached a small video capability but was maxing out what was possible in how you could interact with the product. Back then Apple's products felt boring. Zune was about to debut and compete with them by offering a brown color! 6-7 years ago we didn't have Apple Watch yet. There was still a sense of "what's next?" Today, touch based interfaces in iPhone and iPad are so broadly understood that product interactions are routine: - TikTok uses no new interaction concepts, rising instead on content and content format. - Fortnite uses the same user interactions that have been adopted by shooters rising instead on gameplay. Despite progress on ARKit, using AR experience on iPhone / iPad feels as wrong as watching videos on iPod Video did in 2005. The good news is that iPod Video in 2006 was not even remotely representative of the experience what Apple was developing with iPhone / iPod Touch. I'm hopeful that Apple will debut something as groundbreaking as the interaction iPhone offers between people and the world around them. But until we see a level up like that, its going to feel a little boring on iOS at least. I like this quote by Steve Jobs, which I think is applicable here: “Things happen fairly slowly, you know. They do. These waves of technology, you can see them way before they happen, and you just have to choose wisely which ones you’re going to surf. If you choose unwisely, then you can waste a lot of energy, but if you choose wisely it actually unfolds fairly slowly. It takes years.” Outside mobile devices though, I think this is a very exciting time in open source and software technology. So if you're feeling board, it might be a good time to expand your horizons.

fareesh 6y ago

A lot of obvious features were missing Now they're all there

throw51319 6y ago

People realize these devices are just extensions of a limited subset of human actions. Call, text, look stuff up, watch a video, listen to music, navigate, track, take a picture or video... What else is there that these smartphones need to do? Prob the next thing, since the processing power of the latest A14 and snapdragon is insanely good... just have one device be ubiquitous for everything besides poweruser stuff. Come in from a run and do work on your phone, etc. Seamlessly connects to monitor and keyboard. Do any heavy compiling on the cloud, etc. That's pretty much it. They accomplished their goal.

pjmlp 6y ago

The only features I care about is that they finally improved Java support beyond version 8, and NDK is finally getting AAR package support for C++ libraries. However none of that is relevant for end users, in that regard there is hardly any reason to get Android 11. I was more than happy with my Symbian Belle C7.