Why Android 5.0 isn't as big of a deal as you think

[Nogitsune Micah]

While lollipop or whatever it is called looks better than the mess Android looked like before, I feel the OS is just still a mess to look at and it tries to do way too much and the UI just is a mess. I'm scared to see what it'll look like on the travesty of Samsung/htc UI skins its bad enough on nexus devices.

 

[cbobb123]

While lollipop or whatever it is called looks better than the mess Android looked like before, I feel the OS is just still a mess to look at and it tries to do way too much and the UI just is a mess. I'm scared to see what it'll look like on the travesty of Samsung/htc UI skins its bad enough on nexus devices.

What do you mean by "mess"?

 

[etad putta]

Look around the phone wars sections, there are more people not too fond of androids update. I don't really care one way or the other, it's no big deal.

 

[thesachd]

WP's action center isn't a cluttered mess.

When I said cluttered mess I was talking about the way that Windows Phone handled notifications prior to the 8.1 update.

To the best of my knowledge I didn't call the new notification centre a cluttered mess, it's not the best implementation but

While lollipop or whatever it is called looks better than the mess Android looked like before, I feel the OS is just still a mess to look at and it tries to do way too much and the UI just is a mess. I'm scared to see what it'll look like on the travesty of Samsung/htc UI skins its bad enough on nexus devices.

A single UI or design language never appeals to everyone, which is why we are lucky enough to have consumer choice.

In my opinion there are things that I don't appreciate a whole lot in Android Lollipop, primarily the white app tray and the new keyboard. But I am growing used to them.

Material Design however is so much more than what meets the eye, it's not just beauty but guts. Apps can have their separate and unique identities and offer great functionality while still being bound by a central guideline.

Many of the Material Design applications IMO beat whatever I've seen in Metro, here are just a few examples:





And that's not all Material Design is, the card based UI extends to way more places and the new regents are spectacular.

Since Android 5.0 supports screen recording, I could even upload a small video on YouTube for you guys to see the awesomeness of Lollipop and why Windows Phone really needs to step up it's game in Windows Phone 10.

 

[Michael Alan Goff]

When I said cluttered mess I was talking about the way that Windows Phone handled notifications prior to the 8.1 update.

To the best of my knowledge I didn't call the new notification centre a cluttered mess, it's not the best implementation but



A single UI or design language never appeals to everyone, which is why we are lucky enough to have consumer choice.

In my opinion there are things that I don't appreciate a whole lot in Android Lollipop, primarily the white app tray and the new keyboard. But I am growing used to them.

Material Design however is so much more than what meets the eye, it's not just beauty but guts. Apps can have their separate and unique identities and offer great functionality while still being bound by a central guideline.

Many of the Material Design applications IMO beat whatever I've seen in Metro, here are just a few examples:

View attachment 89742
View attachment 89743
View attachment 89744

And that's not all Material Design is, the card based UI extends to way more places and the new regents are spectacular.

Since Android 5.0 supports screen recording, I could even upload a small video on YouTube for you guys to see the awesomeness of Lollipop and why Windows Phone really needs to step up it's game in Windows Phone 10.

I meant that you said Microsoft copied the notifications from Samsung for their action center. That isn't the case, though, since TouchWiz is a cluttered mess and Microsoft's isn't.

 

[Nogitsune Micah]

What do you mean by "mess"?

Android has always been a mess to me and tbh I didn't realize why I used it then I remembered my options were Blackberry(had the storm...ugh) and Windows Mobile devices back in like 2010 and I liked android at the time.

The OS just does way too much at one time and it just looks a mess. People showing their homescreens, it looks tacky and ugly to me and i'm like no...just no. It looks too busy and looks ugly. A hot mess.

A single UI or design language never appeals to everyone, which is why we are lucky enough to have consumer choice.

In my opinion there are things that I don't appreciate a whole lot in Android Lollipop, primarily the white app tray and the new keyboard. But I am growing used to them.

Material Design however is so much more than what meets the eye, it's not just beauty but guts. Apps can have their separate and unique identities and offer great functionality while still being bound by a central guideline.

Many of the Material Design applications IMO beat whatever I've seen in Metro, here are just a few examples:

View attachment 89742
View attachment 89743
View attachment 89744

And that's not all Material Design is, the card based UI extends to way more places and the new regents are spectacular.

Since Android 5.0 supports screen recording, I could even upload a small video on YouTube for you guys to see the awesomeness of Lollipop and why Windows Phone really needs to step up it's game in Windows Phone 10.

Windows Phone doesn't need to step up its game in comparison to Lollipop because I see nothing about Lollipop that I really want/care for

Lollipop and android is a non-factor to me. I for starters refuse to anything about google(excluding youtube) and I just don't like the OS.

In a perfect world, I wish apple would be number 1 and Wp number 2 and blackberry(without the android) as number 3. The Os is just unattractive and material design makes it less so but even then from those screenshots, it still is ugly to me.

Furthermore having a choice is great. I love having a choice but sometimes I want to grab something and know it works without much hassle and fiddling nor am I really lacking much from this phone to the next.

I love Apple's Uniformity because they provide the BEST USER EXPERIENCE with no compromise with their phones. If I left Windows Phone for good today, it would be for an apple product because the user experience is hands down the best.

I don't care about openness...most users don't. I don't care how easy it is to customize...most users don't.

I care about it working consistently and no matter what device I choose within that OS, there are no compromises in hardware and software features.

Yes, Material looks decent for android....I still prefer the UI to Windows Phone and iPhone way better

 

[Steve Adams]

Android has always been a mess to me and tbh I didn't realize why I used it then I remembered my options were Blackberry(had the storm...ugh) and Windows Mobile devices back in like 2010 and I liked android at the time.

The OS just does way too much at one time and it just looks a mess. People showing their homescreens, it looks tacky and ugly to me and i'm like no...just no. It looks too busy and looks ugly. A hot mess.


Windows Phone doesn't need to step up its game in comparison to Lollipop because I see nothing about Lollipop that I really want/care for

Lollipop and android is a non-factor to me. I for starters refuse to anything about google(excluding youtube) and I just don't like the OS.

In a perfect world, I wish apple would be number 1 and Wp number 2 and blackberry(without the android) as number 3. The Os is just unattractive and material design makes it less so but even then from those screenshots, it still is ugly to me.

Furthermore having a choice is great. I love having a choice but sometimes I want to grab something and know it works without much hassle and fiddling nor am I really lacking much from this phone to the next.

I love Apple's Uniformity because they provide the BEST USER EXPERIENCE with no compromise with their phones. If I left Windows Phone for good today, it would be for an apple product because the user experience is hands down the best.

I don't care about openness...most users don't. I don't care how easy it is to customize...most users don't.

I care about it working consistently and no matter what device I choose within that OS, there are no compromises in hardware and software features.

Yes, Material looks decent for android....I still prefer the UI to Windows Phone and iPhone way better

I agree with everything you say except the iPhone being the best user experience. Win phone has them beat. Just MS don't spend billions on marketing, mind control techniques, etc.

 

[Nogitsune Micah]

I agree with everything you say except the iPhone being the best user experience. Win phone has them beat. Just MS don't spend billions on marketing, mind control techniques, etc.

I have to disagree. Yes windows phone user experience is overall superb but what I love about apple is the entire os feels complete. Windows phone as is does great yet there are parts of the os that still feel a work in progress. And with the new ios 8 handoff features with Macs and iPad I do feel like apple definitely has windows beat by a slim margin. THough the new windows 10 ffeatureseems to be on opar with apples take.

 

[thesachd]

I meant that you said Microsoft copied the notifications from Samsung for their action center. That isn't the case, though, since TouchWiz is a cluttered mess and Microsoft's isn't.

Pull out a screenshot of TouchWiz from a few years back, it had pretty much identical power toggle placement and "settings" button placement as Windows Phone 8.1's implementation.

Now copying isn't a huge deal, all OEMs are accused of doing it. However the notification centre is just many of the examples where Windows Phone users said that they didn't need something Android had, but as soon as it arrived everyone went crazy.

Android has always been a mess to me and tbh I didn't realize why I used it then I remembered my options were Blackberry(had the storm...ugh) and Windows Mobile devices back in like 2010 and I liked android at the time.

The OS just does way too much at one time and it just looks a mess. People showing their homescreens, it looks tacky and ugly to me and i'm like no...just no. It looks too busy and looks ugly. A hot mess.


Windows Phone doesn't need to step up its game in comparison to Lollipop because I see nothing about Lollipop that I really want/care for

Lollipop and android is a non-factor to me. I for starters refuse to anything about google(excluding youtube) and I just don't like the OS.

In a perfect world, I wish apple would be number 1 and Wp number 2 and blackberry(without the android) as number 3. The Os is just unattractive and material design makes it less so but even then from those screenshots, it still is ugly to me.

Furthermore having a choice is great. I love having a choice but sometimes I want to grab something and know it works without much hassle and fiddling nor am I really lacking much from this phone to the next.

I love Apple's Uniformity because they provide the BEST USER EXPERIENCE with no compromise with their phones. If I left Windows Phone for good today, it would be for an apple product because the user experience is hands down the best.

I don't care about openness...most users don't. I don't care how easy it is to customize...most users don't.

I care about it working consistently and no matter what device I choose within that OS, there are no compromises in hardware and software features.

Yes, Material looks decent for android....I still prefer the UI to Windows Phone and iPhone way better

To each their own, I find the Metro UI quite a bit displeasing especially on smaller screen devices. Apart from just on screen buttons taking up place in some devices, the fonts used throughout the OS are usually just too damn large and the text beneath the large fonts can be extremely tiny.

Also I could never get around to using the live tiles, I like having a pages system where I know what widget and app is on which page. I suppose when the 8.1 notification centre came out I was no longer going crazy to look for a notification I had received, but live tiles IMO are a hot mess. But again, you might like them.

Plus I feel that live tiles are more likely to be accused of trying to do too much at once. Live tiles generally serve to replace icons and widgets, yet they aren't as functional and many of them update 30 minutes, which is terrible if you are using a battery monitoring app, or maybe a facebook statuses tile, etc.

I agree with everything you say except the iPhone being the best user experience. Win phone has them beat. Just MS don't spend billions on marketing, mind control techniques, etc.

Actually Apple provides a level of quality that I haven't come across in Windows Phone. While in some ways an iPhone could be overpriced, the software and top of the line hardware truly makes up for what you pay.

The notification system is something iOS has implemented pretty we'll, maybe not as good as Android but definitely better than Windows Phone. Same goes for the lockscreen and widgets and apps and games.

 

[cbobb123]

Android has always been a mess to me and tbh I didn't realize why I used it then I remembered my options were Blackberry(had the storm...ugh) and Windows Mobile devices back in like 2010 and I liked android at the time.

The OS just does way too much at one time and it just looks a mess. People showing their homescreens, it looks tacky and ugly to me and i'm like no...just no. It looks too busy and looks ugly. A hot mess.

Whether an os looks messy is subjective. It's the opposite for me. I find windows homescreen a mess compared to Android.

My Android homescreen.

 

[thesachd]

Whether an os looks messy is subjective. It's the opposite for me. I find windows homescreen a mess compared to Android.

My Android homescreen.

Woah. Nice.

Mine is even simpler, but I have more widgets displayed on pages to the right, but I generally like to keep my screen organised more than it being filled with widgets.

 

[EBUK]

Whether an os looks messy is subjective. It's the opposite for me. I find windows homescreen a mess compared to Android.

My Android homescreen.

What's on the other home screens? If there's nothing on them, what's the point of having them? IS it still the case that the stock launcher doesn't allow you to delete empty / superfluous screen? Or add more screens if the others are full?

That's an example of a mess.

 

[tgp]

IS it still the case that the stock launcher doesn't allow you to delete empty / superfluous screen? Or add more screens if the others are full?

I've never seen that. Every launcher I've used, stock or otherwise, allows you to delete empty screens and add more. Which launchers are as you described?

 

[thesachd]

What's on the other home screens? If there's nothing on them, what's the point of having them? IS it still the case that the stock launcher doesn't allow you to delete empty / superfluous screen? Or add more screens if the others are full?

That's an example of a mess.

Your views, like many other people here suggest that it has been years since you've used Android as the ability to add more screen and finish existing ones is extremely easy.

Here is a list of of my screens, some I use often. Some I don't. But I feel that widgets are more useful than live tiles and screens are better arranged than a huge start screen.

 

[thesachd]

 

[EBUK]

Moto G 4G (XT1039) GB Retail. Uses the stock 4.4.4 launcher.

How do I remove or add home screens? I have the device in my hands right now and would LOVE to have just one home screen.

 

[EBUK]

Your views, like many other people here suggest that it has been years since you've used Android as the ability to add more screen and finish existing ones is extremely easy.

Your post suggests you are confusing the STOCK Android launcher with the 'DEFAULT' launcher on your device; more than likely you are using the Google Launcher (Google Experience Launcher, Google Now Launcher, or whatever Google has decided to call it this week) or some other launcher. Third party launchers do allow home screen to be deleted but why should I have to install one to undertake such a basic task?

STOCK does not mean DEFAULT.

My Android tablet also running STOCK Android 4.2.2 has 5 home screens, none of which an be deleted.

This issue shows just how fragmented Android can be. Even those devices that claim to offer a stock Android experience do NOT offer a truly stock experience. This fragmentation leads to the Android 'mess' that frustrates so many of us, and what ultimately makes Android a BAD experience.

 

[thesachd]

Your post suggests you are confusing the STOCK Android launcher with the 'DEFAULT' launcher on your device; more than likely you are using the Google Launcher (Google Experience Launcher, Google Now Launcher, or whatever Google has decided to call it this week) or some other launcher. Third party launchers do allow home screen to be deleted but why should I have to install one to undertake such a basic task?

STOCK does not mean DEFAULT.

My Android tablet also running STOCK Android 4.2.2 has 5 home screens, none of which an be deleted.

This issue shows just how fragmented Android can be. Even those devices that claim to offer a stock Android experience do NOT offer a truly stock experience. This fragmentation leads to the Android 'mess' that frustrates so many of us, and what ultimately makes Android a BAD experience.

There are certain Android devices that don't come with the Google Now Launcher installed, but they still share much of the same functionality.

To remove a homescree, remove all the apps on it. I don't think it should be that hard. If the screens don't still dissapear, change the launcher or don't scroll left or right. I don't understand why someone is making such a big fuss over this.

The thing about Android that most people misinterpret is that it's complicated, but fail to understand that the OS can be as easy as you want it to be or as clumsy or detailed.

 

[EBUK]

To remove a homescree, remove all the apps on it. I don't think it should be that hard. If the screens don't still dissapear, change the launcher or don't scroll left or right. I don't understand why someone is making such a big fuss over this.

So in other words, you might be able to get rid of unwanted home screens, or you might not. It depends on whether your device runs a non-stock launcher. However, if you can remove home screens, how you do it depends on the device's launcher. Stock devices aren't stock because they have a non-stock launcher; near-stock devices may have a stock launcher.

Android isn't a mess?

Removing and adding additional screens is NOT part of stock Android.

Your views suggest you know diddly squat about Android, yet you still try to belittle others with your ignorance.

 

[Soulstream]

So in other words, you might be able to get rid of unwanted home screens, or you might not. It depends on whether your device runs a non-stock launcher. However, if you can remove home screens, how you do it depends on the device's launcher. Stock devices aren't stock because they have a non-stock launcher; near-stock devices may have a stock launcher.

Android isn't a mess?

Removing and adding additional screens is NOT part of stock Android.

Your views suggest you know diddly squat about Android, yet you still try to belittle others with your ignorance.

diffences in Android implementation is both the beauty and the curse of Android. Am I getting tired of Samsung's flavor of Android? Jut go to HT, or LG or Sony. The same, different.

Also a launcher is an app like any other for Android. Again this comes with advantages and disatvantages. Like an app can be designed in many ways, so can a launcher. Also, because the launcher is an app it can receive updates whenever necessary not just when the OS is updated.