What are your impressions of Android L?

[smoledman]

I am disappointed.. The one feature I wanted to see was cloud based backups for apps. The one thing been missing from Android for years and IMO has much more priority than redesigning the UI etc..

I upgrade every two years, sometimes I need to restore.. I have multiple devices.. What I want to see is
a) When I get a new phone or have to restore it will restore my apps with their data
b) If I have the same app on both tablet and phone I want the app data to be synced between devices.

Cmon Apple has had a) for years now.. Google seem to miss some of the most useful things for so long. Remember when you couldn't zoom in on emails in the gmail app? We got it finally but after so long a wait.. This seems to be the same story. You want to encourage people to keep upgrading by making it easier to keep apps with new data on new devices makes it so much easier..

Thumbs down for me..

Windows Phone 8.1 has this feature: Learn about Windows Phone
backup | Windows Phone How-to (United States)

I find it amazing that Google calls themselves a master software engineering company and they can't beat Microsoft to cloud phone OS backup solution.

 

[KevinOF]

One of the problems with Android, and it was a mistake imho, was to allow apps to store data anywhere. It was/is basically up to the app developer to choose where to store the data, what folder to create, where to create it (phone memory, sd card etc). This means that it is a real mess and there is no central place for app data. I believe ios and windows phone don't allow this.

Backup of the os settings and all the apps and their logins is easy enough on Android. Get any locally saved data backed up for every app is not a simple tasks. I'm not sure what Google can do at this stage. One way would be to have a register for app data where the backup task could lookup and find any data but this would require every app and developer to use it.

 

[salmanahmad]

Honesty I like the whole elegance, simplicity and beauty of Android L but pleasing everyone with a whole new design language is virtually impossible.

While I like a lot of what has been done with Android L, I dislike the new Play Store icon and I also dislike the new white background in the app tray.

Apart from this, I'm really enjoying how much more polished and fluid Android L apps are.

 

[scipizoa]

I don't like the lack of dark themes


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[effreyj]

I don't like the lack of dark themes


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You can always use a launcher with a dark theme...

 

[meelisv]

Most things are fine. There is some stuff i don't like that much but i can live with those. My main problem now is the pure horror of media controls on lock screen. Decent looking universal media controls in 4.x are replaced by incredibly ugly widget which seems to be under control of individual app developers to ruin the way they like. I really hope that this is temporary and among those 5000 api's is something that devs can ipmlement which gives us back decent universal media controls.

 

[anon5664829]

Windows Phone 8.1 has this feature: Learn about Windows Phone
backup | Windows Phone How-to (United States)

I find it amazing that Google calls themselves a master software engineering company and they can't beat Microsoft to cloud phone OS backup solution.

Or even Apple.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Oliver Stevenson]

I have to say I'm disappointed there's been nothing more far-flung than the addition of APIs with depth to them. Perhaps I'm the only person with this opinion, but I use the Aviate Launcher and to me that's a real move towards the future, as it intelligently adapts to what you're doing and where you are (a la Google Now but in terms of phone layout and functionality). The app drawer is also infinitely easier to navigate than stock. I realise Google probably want to keep things simple, but I think a move towards an intelligent device that presents what you need when you need it is the next step, especially for Wear.

Otherwise there's been no major strides in the vision of Android for quite a while (unless you count Android Wear, but that's fairly limited atm).

 

[Feldon]

It seems to me like the path forward is to offer heavy animations in L in preparation for 64 bit hardware and powerful GPU's that were talked about in the Google I/O.

But 16 color graphics.

 

[sandra_17]

It's made me learn new things about myself. Like I have an irrational, intense hatred of circles! OMGod, thank you for Nova!

 

[rlb81]

It's made me learn new things about myself. Like I have an irrational, intense hatred of circles! OMGod, thank you for Nova!

lol after 5 minutes in the new gmail app I agree! IMO the design of L is hideous, it doesnt look futuristic at all. It reminds me of a 1960's prediction of what something in the future will look like. It also makes me think of a kindergarten art project. The app backup is a step forward but the 2 stage notification tray is going to be annoying. I am a fan of dark backgrounds, so all of the white is also going to annoy me.

 

[ColbyJvonBrown]

Yeah I love some aspects of android l but the circles for profile picture in the status bar really hate it and all the white!!! I hope they give you and option to go to a black theme other than that I can't wait to get it on my moto g!!!

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[neonworm]

lol after 5 minutes in the new gmail app I agree! IMO the design of L is hideous, it doesnt look futuristic at all. It reminds me of a 1960's prediction of what something in the future will look like. It also makes me think of a kindergarten art project. The app backup is a step forward but the 2 stage notification tray is going to be annoying. I am a fan of dark backgrounds, so all of the white is also going to annoy me.

It's not supposed to look futuristic.

 

[rlb81]

Maybe that was the wrong word, modern is what I was going for. Which is what people seemed to be suggesting in the beginning of the thread.

 

[AlfBriggs]

It's beautiful, I love the animations could be a bit faster in some places however amazed so much of an improvement loving the Material Design apps as well, Google has hit a major nail in Apple's coffin with this one.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[smoledman]

It's beautiful, I love the animations could be a bit faster in some places however amazed so much of an improvement loving the Material Design apps as well, Google has hit a major nail in Apple's coffin with this one.

Posted via the Android Central App

Yet no full cloud backup for the device?

 

[leegreg81]

Re: Opinions on Android L's UI?

The only feature that really caught my eye was the ability to never have a lock screen based on personal identification. It would be awesome if you could carry a little token in your pocket that prevents your phone from locking on you. I just reset an old ipod and it is nice not having to enter a password to use it. If I didn't use my phone for work I probably wouldn't use a lock screen.

I do like the 3d effects but that just seems like a way to require devices to need more ram and faster processors. It never fails, with every new generation of android, there is an old generation of devices that are too old to make the jump, making them obsolete by tech standards. Something tells me the jump to "L" will be the straw that breaks the camels back for many devices lie the nexus 4 and maybe the galaxy S3.

I'll bet you real money there'll be, if there isn't a rough version already, a version of L for the Motorola Defy.

http://m.gsmarena.com/motorola_defy-3514.php

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[leegreg81]

Honesty I like the whole elegance, simplicity and beauty of Android L but pleasing everyone with a whole new design language is virtually impossible.

While I like a lot of what has been done with Android L, I dislike the new Play Store icon and I also dislike the new white background in the app tray.

Apart from this, I'm really enjoying how much more polished and fluid Android L apps are.

You can always install an alternative launcher.

I'm running Nova on stock L on a Nexus 4 rooted with a DPI change to 280.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[salmanahmad]

You can always install an alternative launcher.

I'm running Nova on stock L on a Nexus 4 rooted with a DPI change to 280.

Posted via the Android Central App

Haha thank you, but I've really grown uses to the new app tray because of that awesome new animation.

Also I don't like any launcher beside Google Now.

 

[leegreg81]

Haha thank you, but I've really grown uses to the new app tray because of that awesome new animation.

Also I don't like any launcher beside Google Now.

Nova has Lollipop animations, along with others.

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