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Discussion: Is Android going in the right direction? (lemdro.id)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

85 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Happy weekend!

You might have noticed that [email protected] has reached 15K subscribers, with over 400 active visitors per week!

With the release of Android 14, which is slowly making its way to more devices, it seems like a good time for a community discussion on the direction of Android development.

Discussion Questions:

What do you think about this latest release?
Do you think things are going in the right direction?
Is there anything you'd like to see prioritized in future releases?
Which device are you on?

P.S. Subscribe to [email protected] if you haven't already. It's the best place to ask questions, seek advice, or to help steer others in the right direction for all things related to Android.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (3 children)

In my opinion, no. At least not under the reins of Google.

Android 11 added scoped storage, severely limiting file access from apps, although app developers have found ways to work with it.

Android 12 did a lot of UI redesigning, including the horrible Internet toggle and it just seemed like there is way too much whitespace.

Android 13 did something right: Made you confirm if you want notifications from apps. IDK why it took this long for such a basic feature even iOS had for forever.

Android 14... Nothing really useful, but they are limiting sideloading of old apps that tend to be super efficient on storage, memory, and CPU. It's a defeat in the ongoing war between Google and sideloading. They also are trying to force the volume down when it's too high for too long, even when it's paired with a Bluetooth device at low volume, another braindead move with possibly good intentions but terrible execution.

With other OEMs (Samsung, BBK, Xiaomi, etc), they still sometimes add useful stuff, but I have a Motorola, so I don't have much of an opinion on the extra stuff.

Google is saving their actually innovative and useful features for the Pixel line of phones. Many of these features are really software that Google arbitrarily locks to the Pixel.

And many of the Google stuff has just been getting worse and worse, they've been getting more and more pushy on me when I do something they don't like (disable location, for example). Google likes the idea of trying to make Android more like iOS and restrict user freedom. This is why Android market share is declining in the US: If you want iOS, buy an iPhone.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yesterday, I was trying to simply automate turning on/off Wifi via Tasker at a set time. Turned out Google has removed API access for this pre Android 12 only and can't be done. If Google wants to be make an IOS clone, then it is doing very wrong, IMO.

In android 14, they still allow sideloading via stuff like F Droid or apk's downloaded from internet? Or does the user has to confirm a prompt everytime? At the rate Google is restricting stuff, maybe some years down the line, the only way to sideload apps would be via adb.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

They still allow sideloading through F droid and the like, as long as the app is specifically made for a newer Android version. There is a prompt to confirm (as with the Google Play Store), but this is good because it makes the user aware that they are installing an app.

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