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My older Pixel got the UI updates and I hate them. The look is inelegant, even childish, and like Apple they've decided to hide things under extra button presse

My older Pixel got the UI updates and I hate them. The look is inelegant, even childish, and like Apple they've decided to hide things under extra button presses. The insistence on adding AI just makes startup slower. I have not had a single use for AI on my phone ever, though I'm a big fan of it for software dev.

deanCommie 1y ago
My "older" pixel (9 XL) is also now slower as a result. It literally takes a half a second to tap "speaker" during the dialer after the update, which it didn't before. Disappointing.
matt3D 1y ago
I'm curious how these changes align with their accessibility commitments. For those struggling with impairments it must be hard to continue to adapt to your phone shape shifting with each update.
jsheard 1y ago
The AI tax is crazy, Pixels now reserve 3.5GB of RAM to keep Googles local models permanently loaded regardless of how much you use them, or whether you use them at all. The base Pixel 10 has 12GB of RAM so that's nearly a third set aside for something you may never use! Last year they had the relative sense to only enable that "feature" on the higher end SKUs with 16GB of RAM, while the lower end SKUs with 12GB would load the models on-demand, but starting with the Pixel 10 series it now applies across the board.
- gausswho 1y ago
  That is wild. And so disrespectful of apps that may need that extra memory. I wonder if GrapheneOS will also suffer this memory overhead, once they do support this newest Android. Or possibly allow disabling it.
  - skiman10 1y ago
    This only happens if the AICore app is installed. Since it isn't on Graphene then the full 16gb allocation of ram is available for the entire system.
  - pkaye 1y ago
    I've read people say that there is a setting to disable it.
- maxhille 1y ago
  Thanks for the reminder. I just disabled AICore and freed 2GB in my Pixel 9 Pro.
jotux 1y ago
I've used nova launcher on my pixel phones for maybe 6 years now. I specifically switched to it because I didn't like UI updates that moved things around -- I like to customize my UI and have it stay there after an update.
- gljiva 1y ago
  Don't you have problems with the app drawer not being scrollable until the launcher's restart? The app is sadly no longer maintained
- MattPalmer1086 1y ago
  Yep, same. But mostly because I didn't want a Google search bar on the screen all the time. And I use DDG anyway for that.
- Copernicron 1y ago
  I used to be all about nova launcher on my android phones. But they got purchased by a mobile data analytics company a while back. I don't trust them anymore and I don't recommend them anymore. Good thing there are loads of quality alternatives available.
  - igor47 1y ago
    What do you prefer?
    - Copernicron 1y ago
      I mainly stick to the stock launcher these days but I also go for phones that are close to stock android. I've heard good things about Niagara and Lawnchair if that helps.
MattPalmer1086 1y ago
Yeah, just got them too and I also dislike them. Everything got really big and ugly and I couldn't figure out how to do what seemed like obvious things. I don't get what they are trying to do with it; previous updates were mostly fine, but really don't like this one.
detritus 1y ago
Is this the one that very cleverly removed the full contact list from the Phone 'app', changed the Take/Deny call orientation, and made everything 200% bigger? Because I [expletive] hate it and don't see how in any way it's better. Now I have to open up the contact list, a completely seperate 'app' to call someone if i can't quite remember who they are, so can't use the Phone's search functionality. So dumb. Well, it's trying to be smart, but I want it to stay dumb. I wish we could preview these things and decide if we want them or not, rather than waking up to find the phone's decided to wear a new change of clothes and we have to tickle it differently to get it to do what we need (not want, NEED).
- throw-the-towel 1y ago
  You can disable updates, it's the second thing I do on every new phone. (The first thing I do is disabling sounds.)
- fluidcruft 1y ago
  I was frustrated with some other change to Phone a while ago and was angry but then decided to just make the mental switch to Contacts as my main entry to phone long ago. I only ever go into phone directly if I need the dialer. But frankly I can't say I use phone itself much anymore, mostly I use some form of messaging. (But I have used Niagara launcher for a long time so finding Phone when needed is super easy/fast)
- vel0city 1y ago
  You can still get the full contacts list. Press the menu button and then press "Contacts".

deanCommie 1y ago

My "older" pixel (9 XL) is also now slower as a result. It literally takes a half a second to tap "speaker" during the dialer after the update, which it didn't before. Disappointing.

matt3D 1y ago

I'm curious how these changes align with their accessibility commitments. For those struggling with impairments it must be hard to continue to adapt to your phone shape shifting with each update.

jsheard 1y ago

The AI tax is crazy, Pixels now reserve 3.5GB of RAM to keep Googles local models permanently loaded regardless of how much you use them, or whether you use them at all. The base Pixel 10 has 12GB of RAM so that's nearly a third set aside for something you may never use! Last year they had the relative sense to only enable that "feature" on the higher end SKUs with 16GB of RAM, while the lower end SKUs with 12GB would load the models on-demand, but starting with the Pixel 10 series it now applies across the board.

gausswho 1y ago
That is wild. And so disrespectful of apps that may need that extra memory. I wonder if GrapheneOS will also suffer this memory overhead, once they do support this newest Android. Or possibly allow disabling it.
- skiman10 1y ago
  This only happens if the AICore app is installed. Since it isn't on Graphene then the full 16gb allocation of ram is available for the entire system.
- pkaye 1y ago
  I've read people say that there is a setting to disable it.
maxhille 1y ago
Thanks for the reminder. I just disabled AICore and freed 2GB in my Pixel 9 Pro.

jotux 1y ago

I've used nova launcher on my pixel phones for maybe 6 years now. I specifically switched to it because I didn't like UI updates that moved things around -- I like to customize my UI and have it stay there after an update.

gljiva 1y ago
Don't you have problems with the app drawer not being scrollable until the launcher's restart? The app is sadly no longer maintained
MattPalmer1086 1y ago
Yep, same. But mostly because I didn't want a Google search bar on the screen all the time. And I use DDG anyway for that.
Copernicron 1y ago
I used to be all about nova launcher on my android phones. But they got purchased by a mobile data analytics company a while back. I don't trust them anymore and I don't recommend them anymore. Good thing there are loads of quality alternatives available.
- igor47 1y ago
  What do you prefer?
  - Copernicron 1y ago
    I mainly stick to the stock launcher these days but I also go for phones that are close to stock android. I've heard good things about Niagara and Lawnchair if that helps.

MattPalmer1086 1y ago

Yeah, just got them too and I also dislike them. Everything got really big and ugly and I couldn't figure out how to do what seemed like obvious things. I don't get what they are trying to do with it; previous updates were mostly fine, but really don't like this one.

detritus 1y ago

Is this the one that very cleverly removed the full contact list from the Phone 'app', changed the Take/Deny call orientation, and made everything 200% bigger? Because I [expletive] hate it and don't see how in any way it's better. Now I have to open up the contact list, a completely seperate 'app' to call someone if i can't quite remember who they are, so can't use the Phone's search functionality. So dumb. Well, it's trying to be smart, but I want it to stay dumb. I wish we could preview these things and decide if we want them or not, rather than waking up to find the phone's decided to wear a new change of clothes and we have to tickle it differently to get it to do what we need (not want, NEED).

throw-the-towel 1y ago
You can disable updates, it's the second thing I do on every new phone. (The first thing I do is disabling sounds.)
fluidcruft 1y ago
I was frustrated with some other change to Phone a while ago and was angry but then decided to just make the mental switch to Contacts as my main entry to phone long ago. I only ever go into phone directly if I need the dialer. But frankly I can't say I use phone itself much anymore, mostly I use some form of messaging. (But I have used Niagara launcher for a long time so finding Phone when needed is super easy/fast)
vel0city 1y ago
You can still get the full contacts list. Press the menu button and then press "Contacts".