Bring back the old People Hub!

[jefbeard911]

Ok, I love the Preview for developers 8.1 upgrade. But the new 8.1 People Hub sucks!

First off, the clean minimalist look is gone. It's now cluttered with boxes and is cramped, plus its using a smaller font. The right side page bleed too far into it.

But my main gripe is you have to have FB app installed! What made the old People Hub so cool was it gave me 80% of what I wanted to see from FB in a nice, clean location without needed the app. Now, not only do you have to have FB, it launches into it whenever you want to read a comment. You can't read the entire comment in the People Hub, ya gonna read it in FB! It's screwing up the entire UI experience....MS just couldn't leave well enough alone. Hate it!

 

[Xpider_MX]

LOL... No!!!!

I love most of the new things, filter contacts with phone, new integration (like the 4th & mayor app), etc.

People: please! WP8.1 release will be in weeks, system apps will receive updates before launch.

 

[Im_Q]

The only thing they seemed to have changed aesthetically, to me, is that the title text (eg. people) and section headers (eg. what's new) are smaller and pictures are larger. Almost all of other text are the same sizes and weights. It's possible it feels more cluttered to you because the old hub title and section headers were so big and it created a lot of negative space at the top of the screen. Furthermore, the "right page bleed" is no more than it has been in previous versions (at least on a WXGA screen.) I'm a dev that focuses mainly on WP UX and the next section on the right peeks through the same width as it did previously.

I'm not going to get into whole integration with facebook as it's a more technical aspect of the people hub's change and there's plenty of other discussions about the matter.

 

[jefbeard911]

The only thing they seemed to have changed aesthetically, to me, is that the title text (eg. people) and section headers (eg. what's new) are smaller and pictures are larger. Almost all of other text are the same sizes and weights. It's possible it feels more cluttered to you because the old hub title and section headers were so big and it created a lot of negative space at the top of the screen. Furthermore, the "right page bleed" is no more than it has been in previous versions (at least on a WXGA screen.) I'm a dev that focuses mainly on WP UX and the next section on the right peeks through the same width as it did previously.

I'm not going to get into whole integration with facebook as it's a more technical aspect of the people hub's change and there's plenty of other discussions about the matter.

I appreciate all of your technical detail. As a developer you know way more than me.

The change in the look I can live with but the FB integration thing is a big deal. Regardless of the technical issues as a user its a less satisfying experience and one that moves away from the original intention of the People Hub..just my opinion. I'll live with it.

 

[Alex Rodriguez Jr.]

The change to allow individual apps to run independently needed to be done. Microsoft needs to have the ability to change as much as possible without carrier interference. Allowing any app to integrate also gives us great choices. No longer are we restricted to predetermined choices

 

[jefbeard911]

The change to allow individual apps to run independently needed to be done. Microsoft needs to have the ability to change as much as possible without carrier interference. Allowing any app to integrate also gives us great choices. No longer are we restricted to predetermined choices

Lets agree to disagree..lol

Understand and agree with what everyone says about not being tied to carriers ect, but the fact remains, the People Hub now forces me to use the FB app (so much for independence) and kills the flow of the original PH.

 

[Xpider_MX]

Lets agree to disagree..lol

Understand and agree with what everyone says about not being tied to carriers ect, but the fact remains, the People Hub now forces me to use the FB app (so much for independence) and kills the flow of the original PH.

Well, the fact is the old method is not the better. And you are judging a unfinalized product. Wait for the launch, with more apps integrating data in people hub. Just think about it, Whatsapp integration? Twitter integration? what about Intagram integration? You can have all your contacts, from all the services, in a place.

 

[prasath1234]

Buy the Facebook loads slowly it takes few seconds to post comments or like compared to old people hub.

Sent from my C2305 using WPCentral Forums mobile app

 

[Xpider_MX]

Buy the Facebook loads slowly it takes few seconds to post comments or like compared to old people hub.

Sent from my C2305 using WPCentral Forums mobile app

Well, now it load slowly, but remember that developers have a little time with WP8.1 preview, they need time to optimize.

EDIT: People can't understand that WP8.1 API is totally new, developers need to learn the new things.

 

[Man Kit Ching]

Well, now it load slowly, but remember that developers have a little time with WP8.1 preview, they need time to optimize.

EDIT: People can't understand that WP8.1 API is totally new, developers need to learn the new things.

You keep saying that it's preview and things "will be" optimize. Well we can never be sure about that. Just take a look at the Facebook app for example. There's been frequent updates to the app over the year and yet it is still lag far behind other platforms. And one thing is a fact, that native app/function that integrated with the OS will ALWAYS run faster than third party app. There is no way around it. Just look at the Xbox Music app, yes it receives updates and one day it might gets all the functions that users want. But the trade-off is speed. It will NEVER run as smooth and quick as the music hub we had in 8.0.

WP8.1 is like a completely new direction, it gets rip off all the quick/instant integration, the "I don't need app because this function is already built-in" selling point is gone. Now WP has become like an advance app launcher. You lose the speed, but you "may" get more functions in the future.

Some might prefer the speed, some might prefer functions as well. It's not a right or wrong preference, but I do think Microsoft really took a big gamble with WP8.1.

 

[DJRedLine]

The only thing I miss from the people hub is the ability to post to both Twitter and Facebook at the same time

 

[anon5997296]

I like the look of the old hub.. It was clean, in 8.1 it is cluttered..

 

[jefbeard911]

Well, the fact is the old method is not the better. And you are judging a unfinalized product. Wait for the launch, with more apps integrating data in people hub. Just think about it, Whatsapp integration? Twitter integration? what about Intagram integration? You can have all your contacts, from all the services, in a place.

"Better" is subjective. It's certainly not better for me. Like i said - Agree to disagree.

Good point about waiting for the "official" launch. I can do that. But its not looking good from my perspective. The change is fundamental so I dont see it working much different . As far as WhatsApp and Twitter intergration I dont use them much. If they force me into using the native app its more of the same. Dont forget how crapping XBox Music is now. Much worse than before.

Anyway, we'll see..

 

[herbertsnow]

I don't want old people in my hub. Sick.

 

[mary beth hale]

I don't want old people in my hub. Sick.

LMAO! (I am one of those "old people"). Very clever.

 

[Mellifluous]

I understand the need to shift focus to the apps rather than constantly update the OS with new features.

However, they could have at least retained the BASIC functionality of Facebook. It seems an unnecessary step that when browsing the hub for people's updates and want to comment on a photo, that you cannot do it there and are taken to the app. They should at least have a toggle which offers a choice about how the hub approaches this.

The same for the Messaging hub. I know it was complicated and not implemented great. And notifications would be duplicated in the Facebook and Skype apps as well as the Messaging hub. But again, it would be nice if they had offered toggles to allow users to make a choice, rather than stripping them out from the hub.

Although not 100% perfect, the hub concept is one thing that differentiated Windows Phone from Android and iOS and focusing just on the apps is going to highlight more how they lag behind these other OS.

 

[TheJoester09]

The old implementation of the People Hub had a fatal flaw: it had the potential to be broken any time Facebook or Twitter decided to make a change, and then an entire OS update would be required in order to fix it. I agree that launching into apps can be a pain, but broken integration won't be a problem with this method. Certain trade-offs had to be made in order to work around this, but I think once things get implemented like MS envisions, a lot of this lamenting will go away. I prefer the old way myself, but you also have to understand the reason behind the change, and the potential that the new system has. In the long run, this will be better.

 

[chezm]

i wish someone posted the differences so i could see 8 vs 8.1 people hub

 

[Mellifluous]

@ TheJoester09: I do understand that, but the hubs have been working fine for the past 3-4 years without any breaks. Also, is the hub still part of the OS or is it now an app like Games, Music etc? Because if they've app'd it then surely they could just update the people hub should Facebook make changes that 'break' the integration.

Then again I don't know so much about this area.

 

[tk-093]

The old implementation of the People Hub had a fatal flaw: it had the potential to be broken any time Facebook or Twitter decided to make a change, and then an entire OS update would be required in order to fix it. I agree that launching into apps can be a pain, but broken integration won't be a problem with this method. Certain trade-offs had to be made in order to work around this, but I think once things get implemented like MS envisions, a lot of this lamenting will go away. I prefer the old way myself, but you also have to understand the reason behind the change, and the potential that the new system has. In the long run, this will be better.

This is correct, but I'm not sure the OP really wants the OLD hub, as much as some of the old features. For example, the 8.1 hub still shows my Facebook status messages, as well as how many comments it has. Since it is still pulling in my updates, why not pull in the comments for me to read? Sure if I want to reply to any of them, take me to the app. I'm cool with that, but just give some people some more "read only" stuff. And maybe that is coming.