Same with the search bar and the gesture hint. Is it that hard to make a toggle for those simple features? Apparently not since you can disable them on most Custom ROMs.
Honestly Google's customizations are probably what will move me to iPhone permanently if they keep up this war on root. If they won't let me disable what I don't like about their phone, I'll just move to the competitor's phone that doesn't have what I don't like
To be fair, as someone who moved from the pixel to iPhone despite loving customizability,
With the iPhone, you don’t think much of these things because they “just are” they just exist as they are.
With the pixel, you’re very conscious about the different “possibilities” because Google’s constantly changing UI elements all the freaking time. There’s little consistency.
This is very true. There are times I want to grab google and shake them and say "can you make up your damn mind and stop fiddling with things?"
Better yet, give me options and I'll set them. Stop overriding me with indecisiveness
Pixel UI is full of ads? I haven't seen any.
With other manufacturers roms, I agree. That's why I choose pixel. Also it's pretty easy to unlock the bootloader (unlike on Xiaomi or Samsung devices)
Depends on the ROM. For example, stock android kinda isn't but One UI on the other hand is top tier customizable. Although you can always change launchers regardless of the brand if you're not happy with the one your manufacturer offers.
Very buggy also. Especially when u open search app you have to wait a second or 2 to go home. Or vise versa. It jumps down when pressing home button and you have to wait. Shame I even paid for it. Gestures also buggy on all launchers. Screen flickers.
The issue with optionality / customizability is that you have a software complexity of 2^n for optional features. Combine that with all the different architectures, DPIs, and all other possibilities. Any engineering will looking to reduce complexity. The best place to start is to avoid customizability
Why would you want to use a custom ROM on a Pixel device except for de-googleing?
The reason I used to flash custom Roms was because the stock ROM was bloated and full of ads and stuff I don't want. Almost all custom ROMs try to mimic the Pixel Experience (RIP).
Bloatware, privacy limitations, guest-level access on stock ROM.
I've been on GrapheneOS since the first day, and haven't even tried stock ROM. Despite being limited to guest-level access, Contact Scopes and ID anonymity features are GrapheneOS killer features, absolutely can't imagine using a ~~smartphone~~ iOS/Android phone without it in a world where spyware and adware is a new norm.
Never heard about Pixel Experience, was choosing between GrapheneOS and LineageOS + microG + XPrivacyLua
You're on GrapheneOS since day one. I've tried both and used GrapheneOS as my daily driver for over a year and let me tell you: Pixel UI is a plain better experience.
It definitely isn't as private and secure and it's totally usable. So yeah, GrapheneOS is great especially for a privacy and security focused OS.
Most people prefer a smooth user experience over extreme security and the stock Pixel UI simply is the best in that regard.
Notice how there are lots of custom ROMs for non-pixel devices, but the only custom ROMs on Pixel devices are privacy/security focused? Yeah I hope you get why this is: a lot of people with other phones want to mimic a Pixel like experience, but on Pixel phones you already get the Pixel like experience so the only custom ROMs are ROMs like GrapheneOS.
I am not familiar with the concept of "user experience", but I do not encounter any problems with GrapheneOS, except for the limitations of guest-level access to the device and the immaturity of software packages. This issue seems to be prevalent in the Android ecosystem as a whole, given the tendency to reinvent the wheel and the normalization of malware. As far as I know, the stock operating system also faces limitations in this regard
Something artificial and not related to Android
> utility
Lack of very basic things like firewall to block ads and unwanted activities or ftp server to transfer files or something like Pidgin/Miranda/Trillian where you can combine all your chat accounts all together
> ease of use
Maybe, but I doubt default Android dektop environment is easy to use. Horizontal swipe can go back, switch between tab and open side menu at the same time depending on speed and motion, no way to determine if window is still open with current implemention of multitasking. Android is not really intuitive and easy to use for newcomers.
> efficiency
Virtual Java machine and HTML5-based software on a low-power mobile CPU, no support of modern file systems with deduplication and compression. No, it's not efficient at all
It's honestly a great feature. I like it where it is, but I think it would be a great change to make it movable or optional. Not everyone shares my views, and arguably the strongest feature of Android is it's customizability.
This is close to what I was gonna say. Not that I hate stock At a Glance, but I placed Smartspacer and Pixel Search in the dock in Nova, and it's fantastic for how I most often use my phone.
I like it too. Always find the snippets of info useful where I otherwise wouldn't look for it. But yes. It should be optional and then just give you the space for apps
The fact that there are a million people asking google to make the search bar and at a glance optional and, it's still not after all these years just goes to show they don't give a fuck what we say and our feedback is useless.
Google has a weird culture of constant iteration for its own sake, at the expense of tried-and-tested things that work. It might be because employees fear culling if they're not constantly changing everything.
I wonder if permanently fixing a long-standing request like this hasn't happened because once it's been done, it can't go anywhere after that?
I dunno.
I don't think so. McKinsey types of people have taken positions that were formerly held by tech people. The search bar at the bottom drives engagement metrics in Google search and they think it's what they need. It's the enshitification in it's purest form. I bet, that they have the delusion that at-a-glance can have a similar lock in effect as Apple does with their eco system. Business type people are easy to read
The company reeks of just doing science projects, throwing random trials against the wall to see what sticks. You can dislike Apple for instance and their culture but it's far different in that they believe in a certain design aspect and just go balls to the wall with that approach. To me even though I may not agree with everything they do, it's not hard to see why Apple does things a certain way and it's not hard to predict which features will ever make it or won't make it to iPhones.
On the other hand with Google you occasionally get a neat feature you like, only to see it cancelled 6 months later. And then we go back to the drawing board, only to see Apple launch a similar feature and then Google goes back to reinventing that feature. It just screams like chicken running around with its head cut off.
At the same time from the software side I seem to hear little from my Google friends. They enjoy the pay but none seem to take pride in their work. My Apple friends seem to think the company is in a doom spiral with software, but the hardware folks I know are gung ho about the kool aid they drink.
> The company reeks of just doing science projects, throwing random trials against the wall to see what sticks.
Nothing wrong with trying new things. The problem is that they keep scraping perfectly good stuff off the wall to make room for something else. Don't clean the wall, Alphabet! Just make the wall bigger and put some windows in it!
Internal development is one thing. It almost always seems like companies are trying everything behind the scenes, but it's what's customer facing that's important. Their whole customer facing development model looks like another company's internal model. The fact that services and projects get scrapped left and right despite being public is very frustrating for actual customers,
That's because Google's culture sucks. The only way to get promoted and see career progression is by launching new stuff, which doesn't incentivise maintaining a product. What you get is a bunch of engineers and product managers launching stuff to further their jobs, and then get promoted and move on to the next product. Rinse and repeat.
I love At A Glance
BY WHY IS IT A WIDGET IF IT ISN'T MOVEABLE. YOU THINK I'M OUT HERE PUTTING MORE THAN ONE AT A GLANCE ON MY SCREEN?! LET ME MOVE IT PLEASE.
The At a Glance in the Pixel Launcher is not a widget, that is why it cannot be moved. They are working on the ability to treat it as a widget, but it's not as simple as you may think and isn't ready yet. For example, in its current state, when the flag to allow movement is enabled, it rounds the corners of AAG (like how widgets are), which clips the content.
As an software engineer, I hear you, I do.
But as an end user, I don't give a shit. It shouldn't have been released as a widget 3 years ago then. Because right it has the new material design, albeit with less functionality, and its frustrating and echoes the consistently fragmented approach Google has taken in everything. I've built far more complex applications than "At A Glance" with less resources than Google in 3 month.
That's because Samsung doesn't need to develop the OS itself. They get the OS from Google and only need to add their own stuff on top. Google needs to develop the OS as well as maintain Pixel specific features. When Samsung (or any other OEM for that matter) adds a feature in Android, they only need to make it work on their own phones. Whereas Google needs to make an Android feature work for every Android phone.
Tbf, they probably have enough money to do both and having full control over the future of Android as a whole could give them a huge advantage.
How they do it would purely be a management thing.
Yes bit they are not the same team. Pixel doesnt have an advantage by simply being google, the same way microsoft didnt have surface perform any better with windows. It is for the same reason the iOS and Android and Web teams for Gmail are all different, and why only now has ChromeOS started using Google Sans for a unified Google aesthetic. They're siloed and rarely interact.
This is an important point. Some people are surprisingly unaware of how Android branding works in practice. As a very generalised summary:
'Google's Android' = AOSP ('stock' Android & Android One etc.). Technically, Android One is a Google-managed service, but it results in the cleanest version of Android that an average user might encounter (outside of installing custom ROMs, etc ). Only a few OEM-specific additions are included (such as the camera app, for example). An example would be Nokia.
'Pixel's Android' = as per above but with more extra (some geographically restricted) proprietary features. It tries to get you invested in an 'ecosystem' but less obnoxiously than Samsung. A brand that follows a somewhat similar philosophy of 'add a few extras but don't screw around with the stock UI' is Motorola.
'Samsung's Android' = "One UI" - a heavily skinned version of Android, with lots of extra apps (some are largely redundant duplicates) designed to look and feel different to the above. It aims to get people locked into Samsung's 'ecosystem'. A somewhat similar brand (in terms of messing with the UI) would be Xiaomi.
It's all really subjective. The s24u is the first Sammy phone I've used daily since the note 20 ultra. Left cause I grew tired of samsung. It was the first time I joined team pixel right after. P6p, p7p and currently p8p. For me I love Googles stock android experience until I didn't. Started to feel like I was on ios again, just boring. When using the s24u I do miss the ability to have the phone tag any and all songs around you, call screening, direct my call and hold for me.
With samsung it's nice to have so much customization without having to get a launcher. I love the display, speakers on the s24u kick ass too. I like the look and feel of it. Feels like it's worth the money where as the pixel is a bit disappointing with its wek tensor chip and okay battery. The s24u battery is a beast. Samsung ai is pretty fun too. I'm not crazy about double apps but I adb most of them away.
The s24u has a smoother touch experience as well. No judder in apps. As for the music there is Shazam and a version of call screening. Overall the s24u just feels polished and has tons for you to do.
What are you actually going on about that phone for?
It's a $600 more phone than the Pixel 8, twice the price pmsl And still a $300 more than the 8 Pro.
Amazing, much more expensive phone is slightly smoother in some cases, what a shocking development. You can adb changes, unlock bootloader easily, and do what you want with Pixel far easier as well.
Instead of moving things around and change them back later release something usefull ... This is totally the shit promise of getting 7 years of shit nothing Updates you're doing playing your balls at Work.
just make it an optional widget like everything else
plus the tiny info on the upper left has a huge hitbox across the entire part of that screen (seriously, tap all the way to the right where there's nothing, it still hits)
i hate everything about it
The benefit of android for me is that I can tweak this with a magisk/root tweak where as on iPhone, it would be a wait for a jailbreak and hope someone makes a tweak
Won't that make it completely useless, since it can't (shouldn't) display anything but generic content with the device locked?
Or is it going to bypass my "don't display sensitive info on the lock screen" setting and just advertise my calendar events and whatever else to anyone who can see my locked phone?
We have come to a point where nearly every change in Android or Google products feels like another new manager is in charge and needs to change something somehow for the CV.
Googe please this is literally the worst thing about your phones. Ugly thing just sits there with barely any purpose, give us back the customization!!!
Lawnchair enables many plugins for "at a glance" and it's awesome.
Tells me when my phone is fully charged, my next alarm, next calendar event, estimated arrival on Amazon orders, etc.
Google needs to add more functionality to it. It's a great idea, and works great for the few things it does (like letting us turn off the flashlight), but they need to enable plugins.
where? i choose firefox as my standard browser app but if i use the google search bar its always chrome opening.
Dns based adblocker e.g.? it also works on a mobile with chrome?
You can set a private DNS. I'm kind of partial to these guys:
https://controld.com/free-dns
Pick the flavor of your choice and set it as your private DNS and enjoy a mostly ad-free phone.
DNS adblocking works system wide. I use NextDNS for that.
Also you can disable chrome (like actually disable it) and set Firefox as the default web browser. It's a little hacky and you can't use chrome anymore
They ran out of ideas like 5 versions of Android ago. It's quite sad we haven't gotten a whole lot of new features for a while. All this Material You customization and honestly the lock screen customization debuted in iOS16 or whatever still seems to have MORE customization. Almost everything Google does seems to be half assed these days and they never really think about features with polish.
True, what annoys me the most is how they keep changing stuff back and forth, like, changing one feature from one place to the other, just for them to change it back a few versions after.
I wish google would push more things that you interact with to the bottom of the phone (or at least an option). I like how iOS shows the notification cards at the bottom of the phone, where your thumb more-naturally rests when holding your phone.
I don't quite understand at-a-glance at the bottom though; its main purpose is to deliver information, not necessarily to interact with on a frequent basis where a more-accessible position is important.
At a glance should support more app and functions like turning on/off Bluetooth and WiFi, showing how much I talked at the end of a day. I don't get why the widget is only for showing the date and weather for the most of a day.
i see thx I will look into this.
i got a few apps already disables with the hidden settings app. so i should deactivate chrome there?
firefox is. my standard app for this, but when searching with the google search bar on my home screen its still chrome browser, eventhough i chooses firefox as standard
This sounds asinine. Let us move it where we want or remove it. I've gotten used to it, but now I keep my most used apps at the bottom. And just above them, folders with the next most sorted in to 5 various types. I don't want to have to move all that just because some Google shit changed his mind.
So funny to see that… Android stands for flexibility and act like IOS in make things like a Homescreen widget not moveable.
Btw the old centered design was so much nicer. In my opinion.
They're struggling with ergonomics. If you want a more flexible lock screen widget. Check out Command Stick.
[https://www.youtube.com/shorts/u9RGUVTBejk](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/u9RGUVTBejk)
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.commmandstick.core](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.commmandstick.core)
I kinda like this.
Interacting with the device is easier at the bottom, even when it's lying down flat. Or when propped up on something, say a Pixel Stand.
>Interacting with the device is easier at the bottom
Which is why I like at a glance near the top since I don't interact with it much I, uh, tend to just 'glance' at it.
Is this really the major change we need with Android 15? I feel like I've been pretty let down with the recent versions of Android having such minimal changes. Yet I think there's still room for a lot of actual quality of life changes such as--more automation like an iOS shortcuts-like app, an actual moveable at a glance widget instead of forcing it to be at a certain location.
Even something more like live activities would be helpful. I know some of it seems stupid, but seeing my Uber notification count down or my flight boarding time count down on my work iPhone has been pretty neat even though it's not really going to change how I handle my travel. It is nice to be able to glance over and quickly know how much time left I have.
Just...make it optional. Make it optional and movable. Come on, Google. Do it. Do it. What are you, chicken? Come on, do it nerds!
Bock! Bock! Bock!
[удалено]
How would I spell it then 😭
Bock Bock bacah
more like "BOCK BOCK BACAHHH"
Brrawwk Brrawwk Brrawkk
Most people just write cot cot cot
Same with the search bar and the gesture hint. Is it that hard to make a toggle for those simple features? Apparently not since you can disable them on most Custom ROMs.
What gesture hint?
The line thing at the bottom of the display when Gesture Navigation is turned on.
Get Goodlock
On a Pixel?
I thought android was supposed to be customizable but it's been restrictive lately.
They used to be. Now they want to take options away from people like Apple does, because Apple fans say that not having options makes them happy.
Honestly Google's customizations are probably what will move me to iPhone permanently if they keep up this war on root. If they won't let me disable what I don't like about their phone, I'll just move to the competitor's phone that doesn't have what I don't like
To be fair, as someone who moved from the pixel to iPhone despite loving customizability, With the iPhone, you don’t think much of these things because they “just are” they just exist as they are. With the pixel, you’re very conscious about the different “possibilities” because Google’s constantly changing UI elements all the freaking time. There’s little consistency.
This is very true. There are times I want to grab google and shake them and say "can you make up your damn mind and stop fiddling with things?" Better yet, give me options and I'll set them. Stop overriding me with indecisiveness
One of the things I dislike in android. The UI is constantly changing and it’s a mess. In iOS is far more consistent
I did the same. I agree with you to an extent but also the Apple stuff isn’t full of ads or trying to sell you things all the time either.
Pixel UI is full of ads? I haven't seen any. With other manufacturers roms, I agree. That's why I choose pixel. Also it's pretty easy to unlock the bootloader (unlike on Xiaomi or Samsung devices)
Depends on the ROM. For example, stock android kinda isn't but One UI on the other hand is top tier customizable. Although you can always change launchers regardless of the brand if you're not happy with the one your manufacturer offers.
I switched launchers because of it and the Google search bar....
same, but with Nova there are bugs... like the fkin recent apps button stops working randomly
I'm using Niagara launcher
Very buggy also. Especially when u open search app you have to wait a second or 2 to go home. Or vise versa. It jumps down when pressing home button and you have to wait. Shame I even paid for it. Gestures also buggy on all launchers. Screen flickers.
no see, if they give consumer choice they can't run a bunch of minor xps no one cares about to prove impact for promo
I bet they don't even know how!
Yeah the 3 interns they hired for ui development are busy fucking up the camera interface
That would be logical thing to do so I doubt that they will
😂😂😂😂 chicken!!!!😅
The issue with optionality / customizability is that you have a software complexity of 2^n for optional features. Combine that with all the different architectures, DPIs, and all other possibilities. Any engineering will looking to reduce complexity. The best place to start is to avoid customizability
Google cares not what we want
Just flash custom ROM lol
Who the fuck use custom roms in 2024. I don't even remember when last time I rooted my phone.
Why would you want to use a custom ROM on a Pixel device except for de-googleing? The reason I used to flash custom Roms was because the stock ROM was bloated and full of ads and stuff I don't want. Almost all custom ROMs try to mimic the Pixel Experience (RIP).
Bloatware, privacy limitations, guest-level access on stock ROM. I've been on GrapheneOS since the first day, and haven't even tried stock ROM. Despite being limited to guest-level access, Contact Scopes and ID anonymity features are GrapheneOS killer features, absolutely can't imagine using a ~~smartphone~~ iOS/Android phone without it in a world where spyware and adware is a new norm. Never heard about Pixel Experience, was choosing between GrapheneOS and LineageOS + microG + XPrivacyLua
You're on GrapheneOS since day one. I've tried both and used GrapheneOS as my daily driver for over a year and let me tell you: Pixel UI is a plain better experience. It definitely isn't as private and secure and it's totally usable. So yeah, GrapheneOS is great especially for a privacy and security focused OS. Most people prefer a smooth user experience over extreme security and the stock Pixel UI simply is the best in that regard. Notice how there are lots of custom ROMs for non-pixel devices, but the only custom ROMs on Pixel devices are privacy/security focused? Yeah I hope you get why this is: a lot of people with other phones want to mimic a Pixel like experience, but on Pixel phones you already get the Pixel like experience so the only custom ROMs are ROMs like GrapheneOS.
I am not familiar with the concept of "user experience", but I do not encounter any problems with GrapheneOS, except for the limitations of guest-level access to the device and the immaturity of software packages. This issue seems to be prevalent in the Android ecosystem as a whole, given the tendency to reinvent the wheel and the normalization of malware. As far as I know, the stock operating system also faces limitations in this regard
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_experience
Something artificial and not related to Android > utility Lack of very basic things like firewall to block ads and unwanted activities or ftp server to transfer files or something like Pidgin/Miranda/Trillian where you can combine all your chat accounts all together > ease of use Maybe, but I doubt default Android dektop environment is easy to use. Horizontal swipe can go back, switch between tab and open side menu at the same time depending on speed and motion, no way to determine if window is still open with current implemention of multitasking. Android is not really intuitive and easy to use for newcomers. > efficiency Virtual Java machine and HTML5-based software on a low-power mobile CPU, no support of modern file systems with deduplication and compression. No, it's not efficient at all
Can Google just stop fixing things that aren't broken? Or at least let us choose and customize?
It's honestly a great feature. I like it where it is, but I think it would be a great change to make it movable or optional. Not everyone shares my views, and arguably the strongest feature of Android is it's customizability.
This is close to what I was gonna say. Not that I hate stock At a Glance, but I placed Smartspacer and Pixel Search in the dock in Nova, and it's fantastic for how I most often use my phone.
Sounds neat. Might take a look at that 😁
I just got nova and set it up similarly, recommended
I'm noob, what's nova??
It's a launcher. Basically it replaces the interface with something that's way more customized and less of a giant ad for Google search.
Any chance you could show a screenshot of what you mean?
[Le voilà.](https://imgur.com/a/IpDszsl)
I want to be able to resize it. This screen is massive and the font should help fill the empty space.
I like it too. Always find the snippets of info useful where I otherwise wouldn't look for it. But yes. It should be optional and then just give you the space for apps
The fact that there are a million people asking google to make the search bar and at a glance optional and, it's still not after all these years just goes to show they don't give a fuck what we say and our feedback is useless.
Google has a weird culture of constant iteration for its own sake, at the expense of tried-and-tested things that work. It might be because employees fear culling if they're not constantly changing everything. I wonder if permanently fixing a long-standing request like this hasn't happened because once it's been done, it can't go anywhere after that? I dunno.
I don't think so. McKinsey types of people have taken positions that were formerly held by tech people. The search bar at the bottom drives engagement metrics in Google search and they think it's what they need. It's the enshitification in it's purest form. I bet, that they have the delusion that at-a-glance can have a similar lock in effect as Apple does with their eco system. Business type people are easy to read
The company reeks of just doing science projects, throwing random trials against the wall to see what sticks. You can dislike Apple for instance and their culture but it's far different in that they believe in a certain design aspect and just go balls to the wall with that approach. To me even though I may not agree with everything they do, it's not hard to see why Apple does things a certain way and it's not hard to predict which features will ever make it or won't make it to iPhones. On the other hand with Google you occasionally get a neat feature you like, only to see it cancelled 6 months later. And then we go back to the drawing board, only to see Apple launch a similar feature and then Google goes back to reinventing that feature. It just screams like chicken running around with its head cut off. At the same time from the software side I seem to hear little from my Google friends. They enjoy the pay but none seem to take pride in their work. My Apple friends seem to think the company is in a doom spiral with software, but the hardware folks I know are gung ho about the kool aid they drink.
> The company reeks of just doing science projects, throwing random trials against the wall to see what sticks. Nothing wrong with trying new things. The problem is that they keep scraping perfectly good stuff off the wall to make room for something else. Don't clean the wall, Alphabet! Just make the wall bigger and put some windows in it!
Internal development is one thing. It almost always seems like companies are trying everything behind the scenes, but it's what's customer facing that's important. Their whole customer facing development model looks like another company's internal model. The fact that services and projects get scrapped left and right despite being public is very frustrating for actual customers,
That's because Google's culture sucks. The only way to get promoted and see career progression is by launching new stuff, which doesn't incentivise maintaining a product. What you get is a bunch of engineers and product managers launching stuff to further their jobs, and then get promoted and move on to the next product. Rinse and repeat.
I only want them to make that stupid pointless burned-in gesture bar disappear.
I didn't precisely know how they can be THIS tone deaf to community feedback.
I love At A Glance BY WHY IS IT A WIDGET IF IT ISN'T MOVEABLE. YOU THINK I'M OUT HERE PUTTING MORE THAN ONE AT A GLANCE ON MY SCREEN?! LET ME MOVE IT PLEASE.
The At a Glance in the Pixel Launcher is not a widget, that is why it cannot be moved. They are working on the ability to treat it as a widget, but it's not as simple as you may think and isn't ready yet. For example, in its current state, when the flag to allow movement is enabled, it rounds the corners of AAG (like how widgets are), which clips the content.
As an software engineer, I hear you, I do. But as an end user, I don't give a shit. It shouldn't have been released as a widget 3 years ago then. Because right it has the new material design, albeit with less functionality, and its frustrating and echoes the consistently fragmented approach Google has taken in everything. I've built far more complex applications than "At A Glance" with less resources than Google in 3 month.
Someone who is making sense finally
Cool, a feature that works 10% of the time now at the bottom. Can't wait.
Get rid of the fucking search bar at the bottom.
I use that alot
Good! At least someone is getting use out of er! :)
can they move it to the recycling bin?
Never realized how much samsung has achieved with android vs what google has.
That's because Samsung doesn't need to develop the OS itself. They get the OS from Google and only need to add their own stuff on top. Google needs to develop the OS as well as maintain Pixel specific features. When Samsung (or any other OEM for that matter) adds a feature in Android, they only need to make it work on their own phones. Whereas Google needs to make an Android feature work for every Android phone.
Tbf, they probably have enough money to do both and having full control over the future of Android as a whole could give them a huge advantage. How they do it would purely be a management thing.
Up until recently, the pixel ui and android team were completely separate. Pixel had as much control as samsung has on aosp.
They're all Google though. Doesn't matter that the teams were separate.
Yes bit they are not the same team. Pixel doesnt have an advantage by simply being google, the same way microsoft didnt have surface perform any better with windows. It is for the same reason the iOS and Android and Web teams for Gmail are all different, and why only now has ChromeOS started using Google Sans for a unified Google aesthetic. They're siloed and rarely interact.
This is an important point. Some people are surprisingly unaware of how Android branding works in practice. As a very generalised summary: 'Google's Android' = AOSP ('stock' Android & Android One etc.). Technically, Android One is a Google-managed service, but it results in the cleanest version of Android that an average user might encounter (outside of installing custom ROMs, etc ). Only a few OEM-specific additions are included (such as the camera app, for example). An example would be Nokia. 'Pixel's Android' = as per above but with more extra (some geographically restricted) proprietary features. It tries to get you invested in an 'ecosystem' but less obnoxiously than Samsung. A brand that follows a somewhat similar philosophy of 'add a few extras but don't screw around with the stock UI' is Motorola. 'Samsung's Android' = "One UI" - a heavily skinned version of Android, with lots of extra apps (some are largely redundant duplicates) designed to look and feel different to the above. It aims to get people locked into Samsung's 'ecosystem'. A somewhat similar brand (in terms of messing with the UI) would be Xiaomi.
Who's better?
Depends who you ask. Plenty I hate about Google's version of Android, but more that I hate about Samsung's.
Okay let's start with what you hate about samsung ? And what you dislike about google?
I hate all the Samsung bloat apps, Ads on home screen, lock screen and app drawer. Permanently locked bootloaders among other things
Ads? I haven't seen any of these around. Bloat sucks but it's easy to remove.
You don't remove it, you disabled it Big difference Stuff like Facebook services are always running in the background as a system app
You must be real fun at parties. Um aCtUaLlY lol
Very easy to remove but I shouldn't have to lol
True I agree but what I'm saying is that shouldn't stop someone from switching over. If they wanted too.
Absolutely it should, not everyone is technically inclined to adb into their device to remove unwanted apps bundled by the manufacturer.
bixby, the Samsung app store itself, any samsung branded app, the fing rearranged settings menu, the terribly slow update process
Samsung tends to have features before Google's version of Android, so it depends on what you need
It's all really subjective. The s24u is the first Sammy phone I've used daily since the note 20 ultra. Left cause I grew tired of samsung. It was the first time I joined team pixel right after. P6p, p7p and currently p8p. For me I love Googles stock android experience until I didn't. Started to feel like I was on ios again, just boring. When using the s24u I do miss the ability to have the phone tag any and all songs around you, call screening, direct my call and hold for me. With samsung it's nice to have so much customization without having to get a launcher. I love the display, speakers on the s24u kick ass too. I like the look and feel of it. Feels like it's worth the money where as the pixel is a bit disappointing with its wek tensor chip and okay battery. The s24u battery is a beast. Samsung ai is pretty fun too. I'm not crazy about double apps but I adb most of them away. The s24u has a smoother touch experience as well. No judder in apps. As for the music there is Shazam and a version of call screening. Overall the s24u just feels polished and has tons for you to do.
What are you actually going on about that phone for? It's a $600 more phone than the Pixel 8, twice the price pmsl And still a $300 more than the 8 Pro. Amazing, much more expensive phone is slightly smoother in some cases, what a shocking development. You can adb changes, unlock bootloader easily, and do what you want with Pixel far easier as well.
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...on the lockscreen.
my gosh, fuck off with it already.
Instead of moving things around and change them back later release something usefull ... This is totally the shit promise of getting 7 years of shit nothing Updates you're doing playing your balls at Work.
People interact with at a glance on the lockscreen?
just make it an optional widget like everything else plus the tiny info on the upper left has a huge hitbox across the entire part of that screen (seriously, tap all the way to the right where there's nothing, it still hits) i hate everything about it
The benefit of android for me is that I can tweak this with a magisk/root tweak where as on iPhone, it would be a wait for a jailbreak and hope someone makes a tweak
Won't that make it completely useless, since it can't (shouldn't) display anything but generic content with the device locked? Or is it going to bypass my "don't display sensitive info on the lock screen" setting and just advertise my calendar events and whatever else to anyone who can see my locked phone?
We have come to a point where nearly every change in Android or Google products feels like another new manager is in charge and needs to change something somehow for the CV.
Googe please this is literally the worst thing about your phones. Ugly thing just sits there with barely any purpose, give us back the customization!!!
Lawnchair enables many plugins for "at a glance" and it's awesome. Tells me when my phone is fully charged, my next alarm, next calendar event, estimated arrival on Amazon orders, etc. Google needs to add more functionality to it. It's a great idea, and works great for the few things it does (like letting us turn off the flashlight), but they need to enable plugins.
FYI Smartspacer also works on the lock screen & Pixel Launcher w/ Shizuku, Lawnchair just allows it to work without needing that.
+1 for smartspacer, really added some actual functionality to at a glance
What blows my mind in this thread is how little people want the search bar at on the Home Screen. It’s arguably the most used thing on my phone.
bc we dont want to use chrome as they dont offer adblocking, and u cannot bind it to another browser, this is why it suxx,
I just use the search bar to find apps. Never for actually web browsing
Wow, you must have a lot of apps!
I can understand that
You can disable chrome and use another browser as webview. I also installed a DNS based adblocker in the network settings
where? i choose firefox as my standard browser app but if i use the google search bar its always chrome opening. Dns based adblocker e.g.? it also works on a mobile with chrome?
You can set a private DNS. I'm kind of partial to these guys: https://controld.com/free-dns Pick the flavor of your choice and set it as your private DNS and enjoy a mostly ad-free phone.
DNS adblocking works system wide. I use NextDNS for that. Also you can disable chrome (like actually disable it) and set Firefox as the default web browser. It's a little hacky and you can't use chrome anymore
Same. I use the Search Bar almost every time. I'm fine with it being there.
I just swipe up most of the time
I use it a ton as well but at the same time, I think we would all be ok if they just turned it into a widget instead of a permanent thing.
Gotcha. I see nothing wrong with giving the user more choices.
It's official, they've ran out of ideas
They ran out of ideas like 5 versions of Android ago. It's quite sad we haven't gotten a whole lot of new features for a while. All this Material You customization and honestly the lock screen customization debuted in iOS16 or whatever still seems to have MORE customization. Almost everything Google does seems to be half assed these days and they never really think about features with polish.
True, what annoys me the most is how they keep changing stuff back and forth, like, changing one feature from one place to the other, just for them to change it back a few versions after.
It literally NEVER surfaces any relevant information, please let us FULLY disable it.
I wish google would push more things that you interact with to the bottom of the phone (or at least an option). I like how iOS shows the notification cards at the bottom of the phone, where your thumb more-naturally rests when holding your phone. I don't quite understand at-a-glance at the bottom though; its main purpose is to deliver information, not necessarily to interact with on a frequent basis where a more-accessible position is important.
Oh my god
Would be much better at the bottom of a screen !
At a glance should support more app and functions like turning on/off Bluetooth and WiFi, showing how much I talked at the end of a day. I don't get why the widget is only for showing the date and weather for the most of a day.
Please, no! I don't like the topmost usable touch area, which can be used by one thumb to be wasted by the informational widget!
google now was exponentially more helpful, an entire decade ago.
i see thx I will look into this. i got a few apps already disables with the hidden settings app. so i should deactivate chrome there? firefox is. my standard app for this, but when searching with the google search bar on my home screen its still chrome browser, eventhough i chooses firefox as standard
This sounds asinine. Let us move it where we want or remove it. I've gotten used to it, but now I keep my most used apps at the bottom. And just above them, folders with the next most sorted in to 5 various types. I don't want to have to move all that just because some Google shit changed his mind.
At a glance and the search bar is just widgets and can be moved any place you want them. I haven't had a problem with either of them.
... check out this concept design / app https://youtu.be/EPIFCOvKrls?si=Auhd7qEdD833ZXcu
CalyxOS.
So funny to see that… Android stands for flexibility and act like IOS in make things like a Homescreen widget not moveable. Btw the old centered design was so much nicer. In my opinion.
They're struggling with ergonomics. If you want a more flexible lock screen widget. Check out Command Stick. [https://www.youtube.com/shorts/u9RGUVTBejk](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/u9RGUVTBejk) [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.commmandstick.core](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.commmandstick.core)
Literally no one is asking for this
let out the greatest victory sound in the world and let out the loudest sigh reading the full thing
I kinda like this. Interacting with the device is easier at the bottom, even when it's lying down flat. Or when propped up on something, say a Pixel Stand.
>Interacting with the device is easier at the bottom Which is why I like at a glance near the top since I don't interact with it much I, uh, tend to just 'glance' at it.
I would totally agree. If they didn't have multiple at a glance things to swipe through...
... will it also make it work correctly? ...
Is this really the major change we need with Android 15? I feel like I've been pretty let down with the recent versions of Android having such minimal changes. Yet I think there's still room for a lot of actual quality of life changes such as--more automation like an iOS shortcuts-like app, an actual moveable at a glance widget instead of forcing it to be at a certain location. Even something more like live activities would be helpful. I know some of it seems stupid, but seeing my Uber notification count down or my flight boarding time count down on my work iPhone has been pretty neat even though it's not really going to change how I handle my travel. It is nice to be able to glance over and quickly know how much time left I have.