Can’t wait for Android 15 that looks almost exactly like Android 12
More updates = better, of course!
Most of the updates seem to be features or UI changes that nobody asked for.
We’re excited that we’ve removed the ability to close apps!
Some of them have been pretty nice. However, the release’s are more frequent without the changes and improvements. I like all the new APIs and theming but those aren’t something you can do in 3 months.
Y’all don’t understand semantic versioning.
Google does a major release pretty much yearly.
Major releases are for breaking changes.
That’s exactly what we’re complaning about. Major release cycle used to be much longer. Now they have this need to break things all the time. I hate the new bubble settings UI, and that everything keeps getting worse to use instead of better.
Then…don’t upgrade?
I’m sorry I don’t see what the problem is here. This is a typical release schedule.
iOS has the same schedule (major release yearly). At least Google supports and patches for over 3 years. Apple is supporting 17 and 18 and that’s it. Android is still patching 12-15.
Mobile hardware is probably the fastest developing
corner of consumer electronics…between processors, screens, and battery technology. Of course software will have to change fast to keep up.Not upgrading is not an option if you don’t want your highly connecting device to remain secure.
Why does software have to change to keep up with any of those? Old software can run on new hardware just fine.
Only if the old software happens to have drivers compatible with the new hardware, which it almost certainly doesn’t.
If only the people pushing the new software had complete control over their old software, the new software, and the new hardware. Oh well. Clearly there’s no way to preserve backwards compatibility here, it’s not like Google controls every detail of their manufacturing lineup.
They could make driver updates. They don’t have to make a whole new OS version.
Now what does that say about regular major releases?
You might not notice it but us Android devs do.
And we hate it… Alot.
It’s a wild Alot!
It’s the worst treadmill. By the time I finish implementing/refactoring something, they replace it with a new standard and deprecate the old way.
New devs: “wow a new sdk version”
Old devs: “Ah fuck I’ve gotta change how we request permissions again”
Move fast and break
thingsdevelopersYeah I’m still pissed about them removing the menu button that all of my apps used to depend on back in the day. Now it’s the whole selective file permissions dance giving me a headache.
Skill issue
This is creepy. I was just thinking this an hour ago. Android used to have incremental updates (8.1.2 amirite) but now theybjust brand it as a new version when there’s like one or two new “features” no one will use.
Lucky MF, all my androids at least 3 years out of date
Manufacture Android is often way out of date. They rarely even ship security patches
Pixels get 7 yearss of updates. Most other androids are trash, including Samsung imo
Well I don’t want a Pixel. Lineage OS it is then.
I use GrapheneOS, which is the best security focused ROM out there. It only supports Pixels.
I personally would avoid Graphene as they have had a lot of controversies. Use what ever works for you though. For me I don’t really care to have Graphene OS and I don’t like Pixels.
Fair enough
Yeah, they look almost the same. I can’t remember the last time I got an update and noticed it.
Got Android 15 recently. The volume bar is twice as big now! I thought it was just a visual difference but volume is now more finely tuned, as in it goes from 0 to 20 instead of 0 to 10 and steps by 1. (Not sure of the real numbers)
Last update that had a noticeable GUI change for me was when they switched navigation default from 3-button to gesture. Fortunately they still have the option for 3-button.
I liked the introduction of gestures, so much screen space was lost to those buttons.
I’ve dabbled with them, but I find myself accidentally triggering them, so I’ve always gone back to buttons.
I can remember updating but it is almost a pointless exercise. (lineage OS requires manual version updates)
users complain about major ui changes os stops doing major ui changes often it looks the same
Wait until you find out that Android 16 is coming out in Q2 2025.
And it will be exactly the same as 15,14,13…
You weren’t even joking. Dev previews coming soon
Android looks good. Why do they have the change the look again when not nearly every app is even using Material You?
I’d rather performance, power, and more capabilities like desktop mode.
Because if they slow down people won’t upgrade as fast because the manufacturers pledge “X number of versions” updates not years. So if Google slows down manufacturers would have to support longer. Gotta keep that money flowing in because Google gets a cut of sales.
Wut? The major manufacturers I’ve paid attention to, who’ve made update support promises, have done “X years” not “X versions”
What? I’ve never heard of that in my life. Years, yes.
I’ve observed this substantially more with iOS updates vs. Android.
It’s not true for either one. Both Apple and Android OEMs pledge support for years not versions.
I never claimed they did, but the fact remains that my iPhone 4S was rendered nearly unusable after the iOS 7 “upgrade,” which had such a massive system load that only one app could run at a time.
More children to exploit in those cobalt mines! Can’t stop now!
They are hurting themselves in the long run. People get bored of continuous updates and it means that each release gets way less attention. They should do minor version bumps if anything. Do a 14.1, 14.2 and so on
They finally have multiline app names in beta for the pixel… Idk why it’s taking them so long. My old crusty motorola displays long names just fine; its crazy that it took until Android 15 just to get a beta of that.
It’s probably something like “why would you want to waste precious resources on something so small” or whatever, which just leads to shitty messes everywhere
And in Nova it’s a simple setting you can toggle for every screen separately.
People justifying their jobs. Can’t wait for these megacorps to be broken up
So you are advocating for slowing down the work on Android, or for keeping the pace the same but witholding the updates for longer before a release? Or something else?
I’m saying Android is too big and the updates are becoming more anti-consumer
I agree, but that has nothing to do with the release cadence.
I have a pixel phone running GrapheneOs. I just realized i’m running Android 15.
Android 15 isn’t out yet16 isn’t out yet
I’m over here still on Android 14. Yay prepaid phones!
Bigger number = better = money.
I can’t wait for the next version with even more hard to disable messages about apps sending late number of text messages (I know I’m sending thousands, I wrote the dam program, no I won’t be charged)
So you are a telephone scammer?
We are on to now Mr. Crabs
no, I just wanted to harass my friend more effectively than his script that basically did the same thing.
The telephone company hates you and probably is taking note. Sending out that many SMS messages is highly sus
and I hate att, if a company says “unlimited talk and text” then I should be allowed to be in a phone call 24/7 and send as many texts as I want. They already set arbitrarily low data caps and charge just enough for it to be tolerable, coupled with them only allowing select phones on their 5G network verified via IMEI something that is almost illegal to change and having a long list of phones that aren’t allowed due to lack of LTE calling.
Following Apple’s steps
Does Apple do this? I though they were slower to release new major versions
Apple releases a new major version every year, usually in September. What has Googles cadence been?
Yearly, October typically.
They are doing a major release every year. . Then they do 2-5 feature releases every year. The they do constant bug fix releases/and security updates.
Often they change shit just for the sake of changing shit with no apparent rhyme or reason. I tried to figure out how to multi-task on my work iPad. Every release they change it and it’s all hidden commands. I finally just disabled multi-tasking and use my phone as an extra screen.
It’s seriously much worse than my android phones. On my pixel I install a launcher, set it up how I like it and never see most of the changes between versions.
I was referring to the marginal changes between consecutive releases replying to:
Can’t wait for Android 15 that looks almost exactly like Android 12
