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This is precisely why I left Android. Google can't seem to decide on a direction and stick with it. Years of new features that inevitably ended up abandoned 2

This is precisely why I left Android. Google can't seem to decide on a direction and stick with it. Years of new features that inevitably ended up abandoned 2 versions later resulted in a constantly changing and unpredictable user experience. It was fun while I had free time in college and enjoyed flashing ROMs, but as I got busier with life this lack of refinement pushed me away. The RGB leds were one of my favorite features of early Android phones. I even backed a terrible Kickstarter campaign that synced those colors to an RGB wristband (this was before smartwatches were a thing).

ValentineC 2mo ago
> Google can't seem to decide on a direction and stick with it. Years of new features that inevitably ended up abandoned 2 versions later resulted in a constantly changing and unpredictable user experience. I'm guessing cultures that reward shipping new products (e.g. 67 different messaging apps) don't turn out great for consumers.
entropie 2mo ago
> The RGB leds were one of my favorite features of early Android phones. I Right man. I had forgotten that my nexus 7 had this kind of LED and I really liked it and missed it later.
jerlam 2mo ago
Conversely, I was surprised to learn that the temperature sensor introduced on the Pixel 8 Pro in 2023 was only removed this year. No one knew why it was there in the first place.
- avidiax 2mo ago
  I heard that it was a COVID feature. I guess people thought you would be scanning your friend's foreheads before socializing. That sensor would be much better if it was integrated with the camera and LIDAR, so that you could "paint" a scene with thermal data by moving the phone around.
  - jerlam 2mo ago
    That's the only plausible scenario, but it also came out in 2023 and people stopped caring at least a year before. And it persisted for a few years so either someone thought they could salvage something from it, or no one had a better idea what to put there.
    - abeyer 2mo ago
      That probably means the board was being designed a year or two before that... so quite possibly they had put it in the design when it still seemed relevant and the cost/hassle/delay of a new revision of the board design and manufacturing changes made it easier to just leave it there and ignore.
  - jeffbee 2mo ago
    The sensor is damned handy because it has plenty of range and good options in the software for estimating emissivity. I use it in the kitchen.
    - Paradigm2020 2mo ago
      How exactly do you use it ? Another app or default ?
      - jeffbee 2mo ago
        I just use the stock Pixel Thermometer app (actually not even sure if it's stock or you have to install it from Play Store). Some developers online have complained that there is no public API for it, which may explain lack of other apps. I have never used it for its health purpose. I only use it for objects like walls and cooking pans.
- jerojero 2mo ago
  its definitely a meme feature but I use it here and there to estimate ambient temperature (by measuring different surfaces). also use it to measure the temperature of the bath, things like that. definitely could do without, but its a fun feature.
- r4indeer 2mo ago
  I'm sad to see it go. I use it quite frequently for cooking and baking, and have used it for checking if the heating works properly or checking my own body temp. It also makes for a good party trick sometimes.
bebna 2mo ago
On BlackBerry i had an app that could do colour patterns, rhythms and so on depending who contacted you on which medium. Got a mail from you boss? Blue led. Got an sms or call? Red alarm. U could also group people and or mediums together (this was a basic feature of blackberry os)
- jeffbee 2mo ago
  That eventually became an OS feature, where you could set the LED color for every app.
bitpush 2mo ago
Its a smartphone feature and not operating system feature. This is like saying "I left Windows because my Windows Laptops doesnt offer fingerprint scanner anymore" Google only controls Pixel, but why did Samsung, and Lenovo, and Xiaomi and Motorola remove the LEDs?
- handedness 2mo ago
  Same reason almost anybody in the phone and laptop spaces seem to do almost anything these days: to copy Apple. It's the new sympathetic magic.
  - dgellow 2mo ago
    Apple hasn’t been innovating in the smartphone space since at least half a decade, compared to the android landscape
    - gyomu 2mo ago
      And yet every time Apple does something, Android vendors are happy to drop their innovations and realign to whatever Apple’s doing. Case in point, the latest Samsung foldable that just happens to be the exact same unseen before form factor as the upcoming Apple foldable, released the month before, even though Android has been “innovating in the foldable space” for like 10 years now. Because until now no one working on those foldable phones had the guts to say “wait let’s not just the take the existing phone screen aspect ratio and make it foldable, this new screen technology should make us rethink the overall form factor” - it took Apple to make that step.
      - johanvts 2mo ago
        1 month doesn’t seem like enough time to copy something so fundamental as the screen geometry.
        gyomu 2mo ago
        Supply chain leaks around this device have been around for quite a while.

ValentineC 2mo ago

> Google can't seem to decide on a direction and stick with it. Years of new features that inevitably ended up abandoned 2 versions later resulted in a constantly changing and unpredictable user experience. I'm guessing cultures that reward shipping new products (e.g. 67 different messaging apps) don't turn out great for consumers.

entropie 2mo ago

> The RGB leds were one of my favorite features of early Android phones. I Right man. I had forgotten that my nexus 7 had this kind of LED and I really liked it and missed it later.

jerlam 2mo ago

Conversely, I was surprised to learn that the temperature sensor introduced on the Pixel 8 Pro in 2023 was only removed this year. No one knew why it was there in the first place.

avidiax 2mo ago
I heard that it was a COVID feature. I guess people thought you would be scanning your friend's foreheads before socializing. That sensor would be much better if it was integrated with the camera and LIDAR, so that you could "paint" a scene with thermal data by moving the phone around.
- jerlam 2mo ago
  That's the only plausible scenario, but it also came out in 2023 and people stopped caring at least a year before. And it persisted for a few years so either someone thought they could salvage something from it, or no one had a better idea what to put there.
  - abeyer 2mo ago
    That probably means the board was being designed a year or two before that... so quite possibly they had put it in the design when it still seemed relevant and the cost/hassle/delay of a new revision of the board design and manufacturing changes made it easier to just leave it there and ignore.
- jeffbee 2mo ago
  The sensor is damned handy because it has plenty of range and good options in the software for estimating emissivity. I use it in the kitchen.
  - Paradigm2020 2mo ago
    How exactly do you use it ? Another app or default ?
    - jeffbee 2mo ago
      I just use the stock Pixel Thermometer app (actually not even sure if it's stock or you have to install it from Play Store). Some developers online have complained that there is no public API for it, which may explain lack of other apps. I have never used it for its health purpose. I only use it for objects like walls and cooking pans.
jerojero 2mo ago
its definitely a meme feature but I use it here and there to estimate ambient temperature (by measuring different surfaces). also use it to measure the temperature of the bath, things like that. definitely could do without, but its a fun feature.
r4indeer 2mo ago
I'm sad to see it go. I use it quite frequently for cooking and baking, and have used it for checking if the heating works properly or checking my own body temp. It also makes for a good party trick sometimes.

bebna 2mo ago

On BlackBerry i had an app that could do colour patterns, rhythms and so on depending who contacted you on which medium. Got a mail from you boss? Blue led. Got an sms or call? Red alarm. U could also group people and or mediums together (this was a basic feature of blackberry os)

jeffbee 2mo ago
That eventually became an OS feature, where you could set the LED color for every app.

bitpush 2mo ago

Its a smartphone feature and not operating system feature. This is like saying "I left Windows because my Windows Laptops doesnt offer fingerprint scanner anymore" Google only controls Pixel, but why did Samsung, and Lenovo, and Xiaomi and Motorola remove the LEDs?

handedness 2mo ago
Same reason almost anybody in the phone and laptop spaces seem to do almost anything these days: to copy Apple. It's the new sympathetic magic.
- dgellow 2mo ago
  Apple hasn’t been innovating in the smartphone space since at least half a decade, compared to the android landscape
  - gyomu 2mo ago
    And yet every time Apple does something, Android vendors are happy to drop their innovations and realign to whatever Apple’s doing. Case in point, the latest Samsung foldable that just happens to be the exact same unseen before form factor as the upcoming Apple foldable, released the month before, even though Android has been “innovating in the foldable space” for like 10 years now. Because until now no one working on those foldable phones had the guts to say “wait let’s not just the take the existing phone screen aspect ratio and make it foldable, this new screen technology should make us rethink the overall form factor” - it took Apple to make that step.
    - johanvts 2mo ago
      1 month doesn’t seem like enough time to copy something so fundamental as the screen geometry.
      - gyomu 2mo ago
        Supply chain leaks around this device have been around for quite a while.