23 ms·

My feeling is that Google is not capable of fixing fundamental problems of Android. Every year they change some colors and rounded edges (it's starting to get h

My feeling is that Google is not capable of fixing fundamental problems of Android. Every year they change some colors and rounded edges (it's starting to get hilarious seeing the design of their apps being revamped over and over again), and add features invented by their designers nobody asked for. But the keyboard lag, the storage footprint (why must an ever so slightly older phone with 16GiB internal memory be discarded because His Majesty Android demands almost all of its space for itself?), those will only get worse every release. I think they simply don't care. It's all about futuristic colorful stuff that sells. Android will never be a humble, efficient, reliable platform. As for this issue. All I can think of is the tragedies it may cause. It's a cliché: software developers are not responsible, except when their PR forces them to take action.

dougmwne 5y ago
Every Android device I’ve ever had since the early days lagged like crazy. I got my first iPhone recently and it’s smooth as butter. I was a fool for sticking with Android for so long.
- koheripbal 5y ago
  The latest Android OS is such a disappointment. Basic aspects of the display, like the clock, cannot be customized at all. I don't use Apple products because they feel locked-in, but Android is almost worse sometimes.
- SAI_Peregrinus 5y ago
  For Android most of the lag (IME) is artificial. To disable it, enable the Developer Options panel, and set "Window animation scale", "Transition animation scale", and "Animator duration scale" to off (or minimum value if you still want some animation). Suddenly it's much more responsive! Totally shit design. And could still have lower input lag. But instead of reducing it they added slow animations to try to hide it, which makes it take even longer!
pverghese 5y ago
.
- bschwindHN 5y ago
  Why is it absurd?
lvs 5y ago
They're particularly not capable of fixing the problems on the enormous mass of Android phones that are no longer receiving any updates and in many cases, due to manufacturer/carrier disinterest, never were.
- hulitu 5y ago
  Last time i looked Google posts updates for their apps every couple of weeks. Of course nothing more than "Bug fixes and speedy performance improvements". Now, if they need an OS update to fix dialing 991, they need to fix their development process.
  - newsbinator 5y ago
    On my iPhone each of those performance improvements requires downloading ~250mb of an app, so I try to wait and stagger them. Got gmail, drive, translate, maps, and home? That’ll be a gigabyte of “bug fixes and performance improvements” every week or two.
    - smallerfish 5y ago
      Why not set it to update only over wifi?
      - newsbinator 5y ago
        It would be downloading gigs (tens of gigs?) of useless updates every week. Kills my aging battery, slows down my phone/wifi at inopportune times, etc. I'm happy to download a quarter gig of gMail updates if they've actually updated something. Abstract "bug fixes and security improvements" doesn't seem like a worthwhile gig of updates every week.
nebula8804 5y ago
I've owned multiple Android phones starting with the Nexus S, Nexus Galaxy, various Samsung and LG devices but I'll never forget my experience with the Nexus 5. After a poor experience with an LG phone, I decided enough was enough. I dropped a bunch of money for a brand new Nexus 5 on day 1 of release. I swore not to mess with the phone, (no root, no custom roms, nothing) because I was tired of unexpected surprises from my previous phones and just assumed that since I was not following the mainline it was my fault. Well one day when prepping for a life changing trip across Europe, I received an upgrade to the latest Android. I just went ahead and updated and then went on the trip. Little did I know, there was a bug in the firmware such that all video recordings were put through some sort of audio filter. That bug essentially garbled all the audio of all video recordings. I only realized to my utter horror after getting back that all my videos were ruined. I couldn't believe that Google didn't properly test basic functionality and released this garbage update. During the trip my friend had an iPhone 5 and it continually lasted her through the day. Meanwhile my Nexus was running low after 1-2 hours screen on time. It was a constant headache that I never realized before because before this trip I always just took the phone to work where there would be a charger and then back home where there would be a charger. I never realized that real world battery life of this phone was utter garbage. EDIT: I also want to add that I recall watching a bunch of reviews of this phone by the "tech vloggers" and I am dumbfounded as to how they praised this phone or only lightly criticize things like the battery life. I received a totally false impression of this phone before purchasing. This experience basically put me off of tech vloggers as well. I still watch them but only for a cursory view on a product I am already considering getting. Looking back at MKBHD and others after dropping this phone I am just disgusted that I felt like I was duped. After I got back I was fuming for a while over what had happened. I asked about this on the Nexus5 and Android forums and was met with a lot of hostile responses when I complained about how badly Google messed this up. I just couldn't stop thinking about my friend's iPhone 5. I never bought an Apple product in my life because I was conditioned to believe that they are just lifestyle devices for dumb people with too much money. I took a risk and ordered a pre-owned iPhone 5S. WOW what a night and day difference. This phone lasted me another 4 years and caused me to fall in love with phones again. I never realized that I was unconsciously avoiding having to use my Nexus5. With the iPhone I looked forward to using it. This was a gateway drug to me taking a chance on an Macbook. I really wanted to continue using a *nix based environment but I HATED the constant challenges with keeping my Ubuntu environment going and the the equally toxic Linux community (I bet the terrible Android community overlaps with Linux). I took the risk on a Macbook and there was moment where I felt like my mind jettisoned some dead weight. I could finally just walk away from both communities and not have to depend on them when my system/phone messed up. I occasionally load the latest Ubuntu/Ubuntu MATE/Linux Mint on a spare PC, find that some serious bug either didn't get fixed or reintroduced and then put it aside for another year. I'm not sure how to explain this feeling but Apple has given me the freedom to "not" be a part of the Linux/Android ecosystem and that freedom is the most valuable thing they provide. I always dread whenever Google pushes an update to any of their products. I try my best to use extensions to remove their web based updates but sometimes I don't have a choice for their web based products. They have pushed so much useless garbage onto me over the years that I utterly despise their engineering groups. The latest screwup is "Reading Lists". Like come on man, Bookmarks worked perfectly fine! They had to muck up bookmarks?! Now I am stuck setting a flag to disable it(and repeat every time Chrome updates or I switch computers). I can't fathom how a company of Google's stature has such a poor design and QA culture. There must be a lot of grifters who have spent so much time trying to get through their tough interviews such that all they know well is how to pass those interviews but not actually how to make great products.
lionkor 5y ago
> Android will never be a humble, efficient, reliable platform. A phone needs to be able to make 911 calls even if its the most unhumble, inefficient, unreliable platform. This is completely offtopic.
- petee 5y ago
  Thats exactly on topic, and the current issue. Google doesn't care about performance or testing, just new features to advertise, a new clock face, and phone sales. They've left functionality by the wayside
- bserge 5y ago
  The "phone" part became a secondary feature. Law be damned, I guess. My OnePlus loses the data connection while on a call, which is really stupid and sometimes infuriating.
- maybeOneDay 5y ago
  I mean this is essentially the crux of reliability for a phone, no?
  - lionkor 5y ago
    My point is that, instead of being a sign of a reliable phone, it is a feature that is required as a bare minimum. Another example is the fact that it has some sort of human input device and output as well. That's also a "bare" requirement, regardless of how bad the phone is and how unreliable it is. In the same way, food needs to be edible, a mirror needs to be in some way reflective, etc.
petee 5y ago
Android has grown too big for google to maintain, which is why most change seem to be looks and user-goodies, rather than focusing on bug fixes or stability. I've experienced the severe decline in stability over the last 10 years of use, and on flagship phones, not outdated. Currently my Pixel sometimes displayes an open app partially off screen, or scaled wrong and clipped --- this is basic UI that worked for years and is now broken again.
- eckesicle 5y ago
  Yeah, I'm seeing the same clipping issues since upgrading to Android 12. Lots of other bugs too. For example, since upgrading when I use my "<Car Company Name> Remote App" to lock my car the phone will crash to the lock screen and get stuck there. The only way to get out of it is a hard reboot. Shocking.
  - petee 5y ago
    I've luckily not seen a crash-to-lock-screen, that really sucks. And of course these things usually happen when you actually need them. While driving to NYC recently, I briefly lost all signal between two bridges; the whole phone slowed down rapidly and hung within a couple of seconds, google maps frozen on screen.
  - zibzab 5y ago
    You should NEVER upgrade to a new android release before the mandatory 6 months of bug fixes. "Release" is the Google terminology for "it compiles, let's see if it works". That's why most people are okay with the 3-6 months Samsung lag. They simply get a much more stable OS compared to Pixel users. Source: owner of multiple Google devices.
- mijoharas 5y ago
  The thing that has frustrated me for a long time is google discover showing the temparature in Fahrenheit. Predictably there is a support issue with all sorts of people saying they suffer from the same issue and no resolution[0]. The problem is that there are about 5 different ways to get the temperature through google now, probably all built by different teams, so everyone suggests a different way to set your temperature units, but they're all wrong. Pretty sure the same thing is happening internally at google with every team just trying to blame each other one, and no-one caring enough to fix the issue. It just feels like shoddy coding. [0] https://support.google.com/websearch/thread/105615277/temperature-shown-in-fahrenheit-in-google-discover-even-tho-all-is-set-to-celsius?hl=en https://support.google.com/websearch/thread/105615277/temper...
mFixman 5y ago
Is there any product being developed by a giant company for >10 years that isn't a bloated mess at this point? I see feature creep and sloppy functionality in the core as a symptom of the usual tech project management style, where there's pressure to make up random metrics to have flashy results over maintaining existing functionality. Proper testing has the same impact for your performance than just ignoring the metrics you are supposed to test. You can also get praised when you fix the problem your sloppiness caused.
- HatchedLake721 5y ago
  iOS?
  - tokamak-teapot 5y ago
    Yep iOS changes but not in a way where it trips you up and with much fewer features that overcomplicate or cause breakage.
  - Dah00n 5y ago
    Funny as how many change away from iOS because of its strange changes.
    - Aaargh20318 5y ago
      What strange changes are you referring to ? In my experience, major iOS updates don't contain drastic changes and at first glance they don't look too different. Each update feels like a refinement of the previous release, especially compared to Android.
    - Cosmin_C 5y ago
      I'd like to meet some of those people. iOS changed, but not in a way that it hampers usability - and by this I mean basic usability. Texts, calls -> these are the important bits in a phone, not 5000 weather apps that do the same thing and flood you with ads as a bonus. Android is a bloated mess and this bug should be a giant red flag for both Google and MS to get their shit together. Windows is currently a huge mess as well, bloated beyond repair and with "features" nobody ever asked for, but hey, who doesn't like advertising on their login screen and unrelenting telemetry?
Sosh101 5y ago
I've got an old gen1 Pixel xl 128g, which was working well. I'd been putting off the os upgrade nag messages for a long time, but in a moment of weakness I capitulated. Now the phone is basically a shadow of it's former self with an endless list of issues. I suppose I need to try a factory reset if I want to resurrect it, but not sure I'll find the time. To be clear, I don't expect google to actively support such an old phone, but I do expect them to properly test updates if they decide to send them to a particular model.
- m3nu 5y ago
  My Gen1 Pixel is still going strong here. 2-3 days battery life with light use and monthly AOSP updates via Pixel Experience ROM. Hope to use it another 5 years.
  - Sosh101 5y ago
    That's where I was before the update. I loved that phone :-( Now about 7hrs bat life and a half working device. > AOSP updates via Pixel Experience ROM I'd be interested to know what this is! Is it something I can use? Edit: Found it now - looks interesting. Was the installation relatively pain free?
    - m3nu 5y ago
      Yes, it's "relatively" easy. They had over-the-air delta updates with Android 10, but not for 11. Here my current steps for each ROM upgrade. Installation would be similar: - Connect USB - Boot in Fastboot: Press and hold Volume Down, then press and hold Power - Install TWRP recovery `fastboot flash boot twrp-...` - Select to boot recovery mode using Volume Up/Down - Format system and cache partitions ONLY. Leave data and internal - Choose Advanced > Sideload, then run `adb sideload PixelExp...zip` on computer
      - Sosh101 5y ago
        Thank you, I will likely try this.
lm28469 5y ago
> it's starting to get hilarious seeing the design of their apps being revamped over and over again I can't stand that anymore. Every single updates make things more and more unusable, they hide settings, they make buttons bigger for no reasons, &c. They even managed to butcher the alarm app... it looks like an app designed for visually impaired people (which would be fine if it was an option and not the default/only choice).
- hallway_monitor 5y ago
  At least they changed the options when an alarm is going off from icons to text. I swear every morning it was a challenge to figure out which button was snooze and which one would turn the alarm off completely.
- CptanPanic 5y ago
  Even gmail, every week it seems I have to search for the compose email button.
  - easrng 5y ago
    When has the compose button ever been anywhere besides in the left sidebar near the top? Or are you talking about on mobile?
jerome-jh 5y ago
Upgraded my Pixel 4 to Android 12 and told my wife to stay on Android 11. Bugs and questionable design changes. I do not think she will miss any feature ... erh actually what are the new features in 12?
- shriek 5y ago
  > what are the new features in 12 In fact they stripped lot of features by trying to hide stuff in layers with that god awful UI. Sometimes I feel like Android tries too hard to be iOS and loses its identify completely. If I wanted an iOS experience I might as well use iPhone.
- notyourday 5y ago
  > what are the new features in 12? * Clock takes two lines on a lock screen. Gigantic clock! Because we have poor vision. * "Now playing" runs on a lock screen and a lock screen only * Google Assistant cannot be fully disabled * Native launcher uses VERY LARGE ICONS - 4 max in a row! A-la AARP advertised phone for grandma with big buttons. * Can't remove Google search bar via native launcher. * One tap disable?! That's for penguins! We are not penguins! We are senior citizens! Our fingers need exercise!
daneel_w 5y ago
What to expect from a company that systematically goes above and beyond in effort to avoid having to answer support requests from their largest user base; the common end user...
JohnWhigham 5y ago
Google has popularized the practice of keeping hordes of UI designers on payroll and changing the UI every single release. It's fucking cancerous. Nothing can ever just stay the same and work. Users have to be in a constant state of headache to relearn shit for the nth time. Software didn't have to be this way...
- sixothree 5y ago
  You're not wrong, but the intention is to keep users confused. It makes users feel lost and powerless. Then to find something they have to "discover" it; which I'm pretty sure involves endorphins.
- wackro 5y ago
  I don't know. This morning I had to watch a YouTube video to find out how to turn on an induction cook top.
  - phatfish 5y ago
    Hopefully the process wont change in 6 months when a new UI "update" is released. At least i hope not, I wouldn't be surprised to find a cooker controlled by a phone style touch screen running Android.
  - tokamak-teapot 5y ago
    I used a couple of induction hobs and couldn’t get used to them because the interfaces just didn’t work with my brain. Press a ‘button’ - maybe it will work. Move a pan slightly - now you’ve pressed a ‘button’ with and something has happened but you will have to figure out what. Spill some water? Now another change has happened. Maybe the whole thing has switched off and you’re wondering why everything seems to be ruined. I tried to buy one with physical knobs but was told that the manufacturers who make them are moving to the touch controls. So I’m going back to gas.
    - jmnicolas 5y ago
      I have a cheap one. The slightest hint of grease on it or on my hands and it doesn't detect my touch. Sometimes it needs several pass from different dry clothes to activate. I'm mad at the thing just writing this!
rozab 5y ago
I've only just upgraded to android 11, and every single new feature, without exception, is a usability nightmare in some sense. I wouldn't mind so much if they redesigned often and the result wasn't so awful
occoder 5y ago
> Every year they change some colors and rounded edges We are going to... Material YOU!

dougmwne 5y ago

Every Android device I’ve ever had since the early days lagged like crazy. I got my first iPhone recently and it’s smooth as butter. I was a fool for sticking with Android for so long.

koheripbal 5y ago
The latest Android OS is such a disappointment. Basic aspects of the display, like the clock, cannot be customized at all. I don't use Apple products because they feel locked-in, but Android is almost worse sometimes.
SAI_Peregrinus 5y ago
For Android most of the lag (IME) is artificial. To disable it, enable the Developer Options panel, and set "Window animation scale", "Transition animation scale", and "Animator duration scale" to off (or minimum value if you still want some animation). Suddenly it's much more responsive! Totally shit design. And could still have lower input lag. But instead of reducing it they added slow animations to try to hide it, which makes it take even longer!

pverghese 5y ago

bschwindHN 5y ago
Why is it absurd?

lvs 5y ago

They're particularly not capable of fixing the problems on the enormous mass of Android phones that are no longer receiving any updates and in many cases, due to manufacturer/carrier disinterest, never were.

hulitu 5y ago
Last time i looked Google posts updates for their apps every couple of weeks. Of course nothing more than "Bug fixes and speedy performance improvements". Now, if they need an OS update to fix dialing 991, they need to fix their development process.
- newsbinator 5y ago
  On my iPhone each of those performance improvements requires downloading ~250mb of an app, so I try to wait and stagger them. Got gmail, drive, translate, maps, and home? That’ll be a gigabyte of “bug fixes and performance improvements” every week or two.
  - smallerfish 5y ago
    Why not set it to update only over wifi?
    - newsbinator 5y ago
      It would be downloading gigs (tens of gigs?) of useless updates every week. Kills my aging battery, slows down my phone/wifi at inopportune times, etc. I'm happy to download a quarter gig of gMail updates if they've actually updated something. Abstract "bug fixes and security improvements" doesn't seem like a worthwhile gig of updates every week.

nebula8804 5y ago

I've owned multiple Android phones starting with the Nexus S, Nexus Galaxy, various Samsung and LG devices but I'll never forget my experience with the Nexus 5. After a poor experience with an LG phone, I decided enough was enough. I dropped a bunch of money for a brand new Nexus 5 on day 1 of release. I swore not to mess with the phone, (no root, no custom roms, nothing) because I was tired of unexpected surprises from my previous phones and just assumed that since I was not following the mainline it was my fault. Well one day when prepping for a life changing trip across Europe, I received an upgrade to the latest Android. I just went ahead and updated and then went on the trip. Little did I know, there was a bug in the firmware such that all video recordings were put through some sort of audio filter. That bug essentially garbled all the audio of all video recordings. I only realized to my utter horror after getting back that all my videos were ruined. I couldn't believe that Google didn't properly test basic functionality and released this garbage update. During the trip my friend had an iPhone 5 and it continually lasted her through the day. Meanwhile my Nexus was running low after 1-2 hours screen on time. It was a constant headache that I never realized before because before this trip I always just took the phone to work where there would be a charger and then back home where there would be a charger. I never realized that real world battery life of this phone was utter garbage. EDIT: I also want to add that I recall watching a bunch of reviews of this phone by the "tech vloggers" and I am dumbfounded as to how they praised this phone or only lightly criticize things like the battery life. I received a totally false impression of this phone before purchasing. This experience basically put me off of tech vloggers as well. I still watch them but only for a cursory view on a product I am already considering getting. Looking back at MKBHD and others after dropping this phone I am just disgusted that I felt like I was duped. After I got back I was fuming for a while over what had happened. I asked about this on the Nexus5 and Android forums and was met with a lot of hostile responses when I complained about how badly Google messed this up. I just couldn't stop thinking about my friend's iPhone 5. I never bought an Apple product in my life because I was conditioned to believe that they are just lifestyle devices for dumb people with too much money. I took a risk and ordered a pre-owned iPhone 5S. WOW what a night and day difference. This phone lasted me another 4 years and caused me to fall in love with phones again. I never realized that I was unconsciously avoiding having to use my Nexus5. With the iPhone I looked forward to using it. This was a gateway drug to me taking a chance on an Macbook. I really wanted to continue using a *nix based environment but I HATED the constant challenges with keeping my Ubuntu environment going and the the equally toxic Linux community (I bet the terrible Android community overlaps with Linux). I took the risk on a Macbook and there was moment where I felt like my mind jettisoned some dead weight. I could finally just walk away from both communities and not have to depend on them when my system/phone messed up. I occasionally load the latest Ubuntu/Ubuntu MATE/Linux Mint on a spare PC, find that some serious bug either didn't get fixed or reintroduced and then put it aside for another year. I'm not sure how to explain this feeling but Apple has given me the freedom to "not" be a part of the Linux/Android ecosystem and that freedom is the most valuable thing they provide. I always dread whenever Google pushes an update to any of their products. I try my best to use extensions to remove their web based updates but sometimes I don't have a choice for their web based products. They have pushed so much useless garbage onto me over the years that I utterly despise their engineering groups. The latest screwup is "Reading Lists". Like come on man, Bookmarks worked perfectly fine! They had to muck up bookmarks?! Now I am stuck setting a flag to disable it(and repeat every time Chrome updates or I switch computers). I can't fathom how a company of Google's stature has such a poor design and QA culture. There must be a lot of grifters who have spent so much time trying to get through their tough interviews such that all they know well is how to pass those interviews but not actually how to make great products.

lionkor 5y ago

> Android will never be a humble, efficient, reliable platform. A phone needs to be able to make 911 calls even if its the most unhumble, inefficient, unreliable platform. This is completely offtopic.

petee 5y ago
Thats exactly on topic, and the current issue. Google doesn't care about performance or testing, just new features to advertise, a new clock face, and phone sales. They've left functionality by the wayside
bserge 5y ago
The "phone" part became a secondary feature. Law be damned, I guess. My OnePlus loses the data connection while on a call, which is really stupid and sometimes infuriating.
maybeOneDay 5y ago
I mean this is essentially the crux of reliability for a phone, no?
- lionkor 5y ago
  My point is that, instead of being a sign of a reliable phone, it is a feature that is required as a bare minimum. Another example is the fact that it has some sort of human input device and output as well. That's also a "bare" requirement, regardless of how bad the phone is and how unreliable it is. In the same way, food needs to be edible, a mirror needs to be in some way reflective, etc.

petee 5y ago

Android has grown too big for google to maintain, which is why most change seem to be looks and user-goodies, rather than focusing on bug fixes or stability. I've experienced the severe decline in stability over the last 10 years of use, and on flagship phones, not outdated. Currently my Pixel sometimes displayes an open app partially off screen, or scaled wrong and clipped --- this is basic UI that worked for years and is now broken again.

eckesicle 5y ago
Yeah, I'm seeing the same clipping issues since upgrading to Android 12. Lots of other bugs too. For example, since upgrading when I use my "<Car Company Name> Remote App" to lock my car the phone will crash to the lock screen and get stuck there. The only way to get out of it is a hard reboot. Shocking.
- petee 5y ago
  I've luckily not seen a crash-to-lock-screen, that really sucks. And of course these things usually happen when you actually need them. While driving to NYC recently, I briefly lost all signal between two bridges; the whole phone slowed down rapidly and hung within a couple of seconds, google maps frozen on screen.
- zibzab 5y ago
  You should NEVER upgrade to a new android release before the mandatory 6 months of bug fixes. "Release" is the Google terminology for "it compiles, let's see if it works". That's why most people are okay with the 3-6 months Samsung lag. They simply get a much more stable OS compared to Pixel users. Source: owner of multiple Google devices.
mijoharas 5y ago
The thing that has frustrated me for a long time is google discover showing the temparature in Fahrenheit. Predictably there is a support issue with all sorts of people saying they suffer from the same issue and no resolution[0]. The problem is that there are about 5 different ways to get the temperature through google now, probably all built by different teams, so everyone suggests a different way to set your temperature units, but they're all wrong. Pretty sure the same thing is happening internally at google with every team just trying to blame each other one, and no-one caring enough to fix the issue. It just feels like shoddy coding. [0] https://support.google.com/websearch/thread/105615277/temperature-shown-in-fahrenheit-in-google-discover-even-tho-all-is-set-to-celsius?hl=en https://support.google.com/websearch/thread/105615277/temper...

mFixman 5y ago

Is there any product being developed by a giant company for >10 years that isn't a bloated mess at this point? I see feature creep and sloppy functionality in the core as a symptom of the usual tech project management style, where there's pressure to make up random metrics to have flashy results over maintaining existing functionality. Proper testing has the same impact for your performance than just ignoring the metrics you are supposed to test. You can also get praised when you fix the problem your sloppiness caused.

HatchedLake721 5y ago
iOS?
- tokamak-teapot 5y ago
  Yep iOS changes but not in a way where it trips you up and with much fewer features that overcomplicate or cause breakage.
- Dah00n 5y ago
  Funny as how many change away from iOS because of its strange changes.
  - Aaargh20318 5y ago
    What strange changes are you referring to ? In my experience, major iOS updates don't contain drastic changes and at first glance they don't look too different. Each update feels like a refinement of the previous release, especially compared to Android.
  - Cosmin_C 5y ago
    I'd like to meet some of those people. iOS changed, but not in a way that it hampers usability - and by this I mean basic usability. Texts, calls -> these are the important bits in a phone, not 5000 weather apps that do the same thing and flood you with ads as a bonus. Android is a bloated mess and this bug should be a giant red flag for both Google and MS to get their shit together. Windows is currently a huge mess as well, bloated beyond repair and with "features" nobody ever asked for, but hey, who doesn't like advertising on their login screen and unrelenting telemetry?

Sosh101 5y ago

I've got an old gen1 Pixel xl 128g, which was working well. I'd been putting off the os upgrade nag messages for a long time, but in a moment of weakness I capitulated. Now the phone is basically a shadow of it's former self with an endless list of issues. I suppose I need to try a factory reset if I want to resurrect it, but not sure I'll find the time. To be clear, I don't expect google to actively support such an old phone, but I do expect them to properly test updates if they decide to send them to a particular model.

m3nu 5y ago
My Gen1 Pixel is still going strong here. 2-3 days battery life with light use and monthly AOSP updates via Pixel Experience ROM. Hope to use it another 5 years.
- Sosh101 5y ago
  That's where I was before the update. I loved that phone :-( Now about 7hrs bat life and a half working device. > AOSP updates via Pixel Experience ROM I'd be interested to know what this is! Is it something I can use? Edit: Found it now - looks interesting. Was the installation relatively pain free?
  - m3nu 5y ago
    Yes, it's "relatively" easy. They had over-the-air delta updates with Android 10, but not for 11. Here my current steps for each ROM upgrade. Installation would be similar: - Connect USB - Boot in Fastboot: Press and hold Volume Down, then press and hold Power - Install TWRP recovery `fastboot flash boot twrp-...` - Select to boot recovery mode using Volume Up/Down - Format system and cache partitions ONLY. Leave data and internal - Choose Advanced > Sideload, then run `adb sideload PixelExp...zip` on computer
    - Sosh101 5y ago
      Thank you, I will likely try this.

lm28469 5y ago

> it's starting to get hilarious seeing the design of their apps being revamped over and over again I can't stand that anymore. Every single updates make things more and more unusable, they hide settings, they make buttons bigger for no reasons, &c. They even managed to butcher the alarm app... it looks like an app designed for visually impaired people (which would be fine if it was an option and not the default/only choice).

hallway_monitor 5y ago
At least they changed the options when an alarm is going off from icons to text. I swear every morning it was a challenge to figure out which button was snooze and which one would turn the alarm off completely.
CptanPanic 5y ago
Even gmail, every week it seems I have to search for the compose email button.
- easrng 5y ago
  When has the compose button ever been anywhere besides in the left sidebar near the top? Or are you talking about on mobile?

jerome-jh 5y ago

Upgraded my Pixel 4 to Android 12 and told my wife to stay on Android 11. Bugs and questionable design changes. I do not think she will miss any feature ... erh actually what are the new features in 12?

shriek 5y ago
> what are the new features in 12 In fact they stripped lot of features by trying to hide stuff in layers with that god awful UI. Sometimes I feel like Android tries too hard to be iOS and loses its identify completely. If I wanted an iOS experience I might as well use iPhone.
notyourday 5y ago
> what are the new features in 12? * Clock takes two lines on a lock screen. Gigantic clock! Because we have poor vision. * "Now playing" runs on a lock screen and a lock screen only * Google Assistant cannot be fully disabled * Native launcher uses VERY LARGE ICONS - 4 max in a row! A-la AARP advertised phone for grandma with big buttons. * Can't remove Google search bar via native launcher. * One tap disable?! That's for penguins! We are not penguins! We are senior citizens! Our fingers need exercise!

daneel_w 5y ago

What to expect from a company that systematically goes above and beyond in effort to avoid having to answer support requests from their largest user base; the common end user...

JohnWhigham 5y ago

Google has popularized the practice of keeping hordes of UI designers on payroll and changing the UI every single release. It's fucking cancerous. Nothing can ever just stay the same and work. Users have to be in a constant state of headache to relearn shit for the nth time. Software didn't have to be this way...

sixothree 5y ago
You're not wrong, but the intention is to keep users confused. It makes users feel lost and powerless. Then to find something they have to "discover" it; which I'm pretty sure involves endorphins.
wackro 5y ago
I don't know. This morning I had to watch a YouTube video to find out how to turn on an induction cook top.
- phatfish 5y ago
  Hopefully the process wont change in 6 months when a new UI "update" is released. At least i hope not, I wouldn't be surprised to find a cooker controlled by a phone style touch screen running Android.
- tokamak-teapot 5y ago
  I used a couple of induction hobs and couldn’t get used to them because the interfaces just didn’t work with my brain. Press a ‘button’ - maybe it will work. Move a pan slightly - now you’ve pressed a ‘button’ with and something has happened but you will have to figure out what. Spill some water? Now another change has happened. Maybe the whole thing has switched off and you’re wondering why everything seems to be ruined. I tried to buy one with physical knobs but was told that the manufacturers who make them are moving to the touch controls. So I’m going back to gas.
  - jmnicolas 5y ago
    I have a cheap one. The slightest hint of grease on it or on my hands and it doesn't detect my touch. Sometimes it needs several pass from different dry clothes to activate. I'm mad at the thing just writing this!

rozab 5y ago

I've only just upgraded to android 11, and every single new feature, without exception, is a usability nightmare in some sense. I wouldn't mind so much if they redesigned often and the result wasn't so awful

occoder 5y ago

> Every year they change some colors and rounded edges We are going to... Material YOU!