Is Android going in the right direction?

Not really, IMO. As a user of Android since v1.5 Cupcake, it’s disappointing to see how locked down Android has become over the years. I still recall how I took a leap of faith when I ditched the then highly customisable and feature-full Windows Mobile, to the barebones Android - I believed in the opensource nature of Android, thinking how exciting it was to be on what could be a developer’s and power user’s dream mobile platform. Although the Android dev scene at the time was nascent, I could forsee an explosion of root utilities, mods and custom ROMs. And I was right - the early Android dev scene was so exciting. From cool and useful utility such as DriveDroid or Chainfire’s CF.Lumen, to innovative custom ROMs such as Paranoid Android with their per-app DPI, Halo, Pie controls etc, the early Android scene was full of activity and really exciting as a power user.

But even as Android got more and more locked down and killed my favorite apps, mods and ROMs, I still enjoyed following many of it’s developments such as the projects Butter, Svelte, Volta, Treble and Mainline. However, I can’t recall anything major or exciting in recent years.

As someone else here mentioned, nowadays all the good stuff seems to be Pixel exclusives (like motion deblur, 7 years or software updates etc). Plus, Google keep pushing more and more stuff towards their proprietary Play Services stack, encouraging developers dependency on them - including anti-freedom features such as Play Integrity (SafetyNet). All of this makes it increasingly harder to break free from Google’s grasps, and as former fanboy of a company which once claimed to “not be evil”, it makes me sad that the ecosystem I once looked fondly towards, is now something that I’m looking to move away from.

No. Its still more customizable and capable than iOS, but it’s been getting more locked down, with more new features integrated into Google’s proprietary services. I still would get an android phone over an apple one, but that’s only because I can root it and replace it with a better custom ROM.

I got the update recently, and don’t really notice anything interesting? It has been running slower recently though

edit: Some apps are busted now too. Spotify is having playback issues for example

Imo no. Android used to be exciting and customizable.
I think this aspect has been decreasing over time and the development of new features has stagnated somewhat.
Of course, the os is also more mature and you can’t expect such growth forever.
Still, they promised “feature drops”, I’ve had my pixel 7 pro and the pixel watch for a year now and they have added like 1 or 2 very minor features, and most of them are features in Google apps lol.

I don’t like that seemingly everything gets tied to googles own BS now.
iOS seems more and more appealing to me honestly, especially considering all the hardware issues with the Pixel.

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.

Android is maturing. Big changes are becoming increasingly rare, therefore, I think Android and perhaps also hardware vendors should move to a two-year release schedule. I think it’s time to accept that annual releases are no longer necessary.

Now that we fully understand the use cases of the smartphone, I believe Android should provide an advanced mode or power user mode that extends beyond Developer Options for developers. I’d like to hand an Android phone to my grandmother in Basic Mode and know she can’t possibly mess up, but also I want to be more enabled in a Power Mode where not screwing up my device is my responsibility. I think the casual and advanced user are different beasts and should be respected separately.

Finally, I want to see mainline support for desktop mode. Android can increase demand for high-end devices and rejuvenate the premium segment if it shows that it fits new use cases to justify the money. Many users no longer own a laptop computer. Android should move now to capture this form factor.

Written from my Google Pixel 8 Pro.

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This isn’t an Android issue, it’s a smartphone issue in general. We’re reaching the glass ceiling and we don’t want to admit it. With Apple releasing ridiculous features like emergency tow truck and what not you realize that there isn’t a lot of brainstorming going on at Apple HQ. Android 14 basically did uhm… nothing this release? With Google’s recent announcement that the new Pixel will have 7 years of OS updates I now understand why, it’s because previously when a new Android version came out, it almost always broke something on your phone and now that the changes are minor, there is no effect.

I literally can’t tell the difference between Android 12 and 14

Been using android since the first galaxy. Never have I experienced such a fuck up as when I let my pixel 7 pro update to 14. And this is from someone that used to run random custom stuff going back a few years.

Android 14 caused my phone memory to become corrupt and I had no choice but to factory reset, losing everything not synced. Apparently this was due to running two separate user profiles.

Somehow Google was too busy finding ways to get and sell more of our data and forgot to test if this basic feature fucking works.

Not looking forward to Monday when I’ll have to jump through flaming hoops to set up my work micrishaft authenticator / profile / intune crap again.

Other beef with 14, custom launchers are broken. I have never been able to stand the stock launcher, it is like babies first launcher. No customisation options and the stupid search bar can’t be removed. A few apps I use on a regular basis claim to to not be compatible, even though they ran fine for several days in 14 till the whole thing shit itself.

On the UI front I feel as if everything seems to get more bland each release with less interesting customisation than we had circa android 5.

No. Everything went to shit in 12 with material 3/material you. It looks so bad. Bring back material 2.

Also of course there’s the whole privacy nightmare that android with Google services is.

i miss when android was fun tbh i don’t like material; i liked jellybean and lollypop and holo before that. i liked the deserts and robots. bring back that.

I’m some ways yes, in others no.

They’ve been slowly removing power user things that once set Android apart from Apple. For example, a few versions ago, they stopped allowing apps to disable WiFi. I liked having it off when away from home.

What do you think about this latest release?

Like the last few releases, it’s mostly a nothing release since Google put all their effort into pixel exclusive features now. I absolutely detest the current UI and how locked down the whole thing is becoming.

Do you think things are going in the right direction

Definitely not. Google are trying to make the pixels into iPhones, and they’re basically ignoring AOSP.

Is there anything you’d like to see prioritized in future releases

Customisation, especially of the UI. Let us change the size of the quick settings tiles for example so we can make them smaller like they used to be to have more of them.

Which device are you on?

I use an iPhone as my daily phone but I have a S21 Ultra and a Pixel 6 Pro that I use too.

I’m running 13 and it’s been great. I do think overall that Android is going in the right direction.

Material You in particular was a great decision. I love colour this feature adds so much colour to every app. Talk about taking customisation to the next level. 😊

The lock screen customisation in 14 completes that transition.

I also think the improving Google Assistant by adding Bard is a move in the right direction. As long as they roll it out to all phones, irrespective of age. After all, Assistant runs in the cloud, not on the phone so any device should be able to just it.

I am concerned about Google but releasing enough Android features into AOSP. For example the colour picker you use to choose a colour from your wallpaper they originally kept as proprietary forcing OEM’s to write their own. Only later did they release it to AOSP because they released OEM’s weren’t getting it right.

I believe all new Android features most be in AOSP. Only Google specific stuff shouldn’t eg Google apps and gcam.

I have to assume that the Pixel 8 getting 7 years of support means that Android won’t be getting heavier in future, so that it will remain fast 7 years from now.

Which is good news. Android 14 is supposed to be even faster and more efficient they say, but we’ll see. There are still some bugs from what I’ve read so OEM’s will need time to adapt and optimise it. It will be a few months before we really know.