My list of things KitKat ruined!!!!

[SpecVStrom]

Standard SMS messaging:

1. Replaced the soft, contrasting teal and gray backgrounds for stark, all white ones for all sides of a conversation.
2. Limited text draft writing to 3 lines. This is hugely annoying!!!! I want to proof read longer text messages I write before sending. It is very difficult to scroll through the 3 lines, and it always seems to highlight and want to replace or paste on text I simply want to read.
3. No time stamp on older messages. Just the date. Have to touch the message to bring up a window with the data. Used to just be simply displayed on all messages.
4. Swipe input is gone!! WTF?
5. Carriage return button is gone for starting a new line! Have to press the shift key twice to get carriage return to start a new line.
6. Some of the new smiley's are nice, but I didn't want to give up my old ones! I just want a simple circular smile!!!

Lock screen:

1. Where is the instant silence slider? I regularly used this feature to fully silence my phone, including no vibrate, for meetings etc. Now I have to press volume down for several loud BEEP, Beep, beeps to silence the phone. That's it, you have to be disruptive to try to prevent being disruptive!!

Status Bar and notification LED:

1. Used to have nice soft blue characters. Now an ugly, harsh, grey/white. Yuk again!!!
2. Had nice green notification light. Now an ugly white. Why?

Video camera:

1. Used to work great. Still cam is OK, but video camera not able to focus correctly. Either very slow to focus, or completely unable to focus at all.

Battery Life:

1. My phone has reduced battery life since KitKat. With GPS and auto email checking off, phone on 24 hrs a day, I used to get 4 days out of a charge. Now I only get 3. What did they change??

I LIKED MY PHONE WAY BETTER WITH JELLY BEAN!!
IT IS COMPLETELY UNFAIR THAT THEY FORCE THIS ON YOU WITH NO WAY BACK!!
THIS IS NOT THE PHONE I BOUGHT!!!!

I DON'T THINK GOOGLE IS THIS STUPID, SO THE ONLY CONCLUSION IS THAT THEY WANT US TO HATE OUR PHONES AND GET DIFFERENT ONES!!!!!

 

[Ry]

Here we go again.

Standard SMS messaging:

1. Replaced the soft, contrasting teal and gray backgrounds for stark, all white ones for all sides of a conversation.
2. Limited text draft writing to 3 lines. This is hugely annoying!!!! I want to proof read longer text messages I write before sending. It is very difficult to scroll through the 3 lines, and it always seems to highlight and want to replace or paste on text I simply want to read.
3. No time stamp on older messages. Just the date. Have to touch the message to bring up a window with the data. Used to just be simply displayed on all messages.
4. Swipe input is gone!! WTF?
5. Carriage return button is gone for starting a new line! Have to press the shift key twice to get carriage return to start a new line.
6. Some of the new smiley's are nice, but I didn't want to give up my old ones! I just want a simple circular smile!!!

Motorola's essentially replaced the stock Motorola messaging app from 2012 with the stock Motorola messaging app from 2013. The 2013 app is more in line with the AOSP messaging app (prior to Google revamping Hangouts for SMS support).

Re: Swype input - Maybe their deal with Swype didn't allow them to carry over through the KitKat update. Regardless, Swype is available in the Play Store and Google's stock keyboard supports swipe input as well.

Lock screen:

1. Where is the instant silence slider? I regularly used this feature to fully silence my phone, including no vibrate, for meetings etc. Now I have to press volume down for several loud BEEP, Beep, beeps to silence the phone. That's it, you have to be disruptive to try to prevent being disruptive!!

Hold power button. Select silence.

Status Bar and notification LED:

1. Used to have nice soft blue characters. Now an ugly, harsh, grey/white. Yuk again!!!

This is a part of KitKat.

Motorola did the same thing when they updating their Gingerbread phones (DROID Bionic, DROID RAZR, DROID 4) to Ice Cream Sandwich and eventually Jelly Bean.

Best thing for you is to complain to Verizon and see if they'll swap out to a refurb that doesn't have KitKat. Then you can spend time ignoring the update.

 

[SpecVStrom]

Well, thanks for the info on the silence button on the power-down screen. That was useful.
Otherwise, you are just saying, 'That's what we took, and this is what you get. Shut up and take it!'
It was a better phone with Jelly Bean.

 

[t0ked]

That's your opinion that the phone was better on JB. And maybe your experience justifies it. There is no new phone you can buy that has what you want. All newer phones have the white notification icons of KK and the stock messaging app is similar on all phones on AOSP. The great thing is on Android you can change it if you want. There are numerous texting apps you can use to replace the stock one. You can download launchers to change your notifications to blue if you like. The free on Play Google keyboard has swype functions built in. Now SwiftKey is fully free, too. The video camera on my phone works fine and battery life is very similar as before. Most people have been reporting equal/better battery life.

Bottom line, if you don't like something about Android, search and fix it. That's what makes it a great platform.

 

[markus64s]

It's not just his opinion that Google removed functionality. Pointing out work-arounds is somewhat helpful, but before you didn't NEED workarounds.

Swype is better than Google keyboard (punctuating is a snap), but Google rammed it down our throats and you can't even remove it. It's made texting a pain. Yes, there are alternatives, but why break it in the first place.

No carriage return - this is asinine. Plain text blocks - we went from customizable to only plain or a third party app.

Not every change is a good change. OP is correct. The point of having an android is not to use a number of workarounds to go back to a more functional version after Google fouled it up.

The last update fixed the Google Now battery drain but ruining texting is much worse. I've had to stop and make over a dozen corrections to this post bc Google ruined the functionality of my keyboard. Even Apple never did anything THIS annoying.

 

[Ry]

It's not just his opinion that Google removed functionality. Pointing out work-arounds is somewhat helpful, but before you didn't NEED workarounds.

Swype is better than Google keyboard (punctuating is a snap), but Google rammed it down our throats and you can't even remove it. It's made texting a pain. Yes, there are alternatives, but why break it in the first place.

No carriage return - this is asinine. Plain text blocks - we went from customizable to only plain or a third party app.

Not every change is a good change. OP is correct. The point of having an android is not to use a number of workarounds to go back to a more functional version after Google fouled it up.

The last update fixed the Google Now battery drain but ruining texting is much worse. I've had to stop and make over a dozen corrections to this post bc Google ruined the functionality of my keyboard. Even Apple never did anything THIS annoying.

Damned if you do. Damned if you don't. Maybe Motorola should have just dropped support for this device.

 

[ncmtbrider]

Joined the forum to respond and add to the list of issues ( Razr Maxx HD, best smartphone ever owned prior to KitKat..)...

Google Nav has been changed for the worse..
-Requres 2 additional steps to Navigate anywhere
-Loses GPS signal in places where previously was fine
-Slow to calculate route.. this is a killer when you are rolling and need directions fast

Editing Contacts, cannot add a phone contact.. only overwrite existing phone numbers

Voice Command Widget broken.. forcing download of "google now".

Several Applications have been broken, specifically the way screens are rendered.. pinch zoom no longer functions.

We did not ask for any of this.. Cannot understand how this release cleared QA testing

 

[Lok52]

Damned if you do. Damned if you don't. Maybe Motorola should have just dropped support for this device.

I like the way he is complaining that Google removed Swype and forces him to use the Google keyboard unless he installs some third party app. He apparently doesn't realize that Swype is a third party app. Which is still available to use.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Ry]

I like the way he is complaining that Google removed Swype and forces him to use the Google keyboard unless he installs some third party app. He apparently doesn't realize that Swype is a third party app. Which is still available to use.

Posted via Android Central App

I believe Swype was included by Motorola though.

Posted via Android Central App (Moto X)

 

[Lok52]

Yes it was. Although they apparently modified it, since the version in the Play Store has several differences. Since it was added by Motorola, that means it fits the definition of manufacturer bloatware. With the big difference being it was actually useful.

 

[t0ked]

I've never used Swype since prediction and correction has always been subpar IMO. Especially compared to SwiftKey. Swype was never part of Google/Android. It's a 3rd party app which I for one am happy is gone. So, it's become inconvenient to go to the Play Store and download apps to customize your phone the way you want it to be. It takes maybe 15-20 minutes to download a few keyboards and test them out to figure out what you prefer. SMH.

 

[Ry]

Joined the forum to respond and add to the list of issues ( Razr Maxx HD, best smartphone ever owned prior to KitKat..)...

Google Nav has been changed for the worse..
-Requres 2 additional steps to Navigate anywhere
-Loses GPS signal in places where previously was fine
-Slow to calculate route.. this is a killer when you are rolling and need directions fast

Google Maps is on its own update path.

Editing Contacts, cannot add a phone contact.. only overwrite existing phone numbers

So are you saying you can no longer go into the People app and add a new phone number to an existing contact?

Voice Command Widget broken.. forcing download of "google now".

Google Now = Google Search.

Several Applications have been broken, specifically the way screens are rendered.. pinch zoom no longer functions.

Please list them.

We did not ask for any of this.. Cannot understand how this release cleared QA testing

"We"? I don't think you speak for everyone that is happy getting KitKat. Just because it's new doesn't mean it's a bug.

 

[Lok52]

I've never used Swype since prediction and correction has always been subpar IMO. Especially compared to SwiftKey.

I liked Swype while we had it. Since the update and free SwiftKey, I have to say I'm liking it quite a bit. Not sure yet if I like the punctuation as much as I did Swype's.

 

[markymark]

Damned if you do. Damned if you don't. Maybe Motorola should have just dropped support for this device.

No, it's pretty simple, just give people a choice whether or not to take the upgrade. It's ridiculous how the upgrades are forced on you whether you want them or not. It's my phone, let me decide.

 

[Ry]

No, it's pretty simple, just give people a choice whether or not to take the upgrade. It's ridiculous how the upgrades are forced on you whether you want them or not. It's my phone, let me decide.

Do you want them to start separating out security updates, fixes, and patches too?

 

[linebusy]

An option to accept major releases? That'd be good. I certainly wouldn't be critical of anyone who decided they wanted to stick with the familiar OS.

I think about Maps and how the original version worked better for me, so I kept denying the update to it.

When the UI changes or the featureset changes, many users would be happiest to have the option to remain.

I'd go back today, if I could. Whether it's KitKat, Hangouts or Maps that has created my troubles, I'm not sure, but.... Maps is less stable that it was before. Being on the road so much, I can't afford to have it crash on me while in transit.

To the original topic.... UI is important, stability is important. If both were to the liking of a user pre-kitkat, there should be no surprise when they want to retain it. "Major Release" would be the point at which the carrier could say it's up to the customer.

 

[BigPuddin]

Something borked hangouts for me again. I'm tired of this crap.

 

[rbess1965]

My Bluetooth is screwed. Music skipping. Does it on multiple devices. My Ford Sync worked perfectly for years and now it's screwed. Won't work on my Motorola S705 stereo headset either. I'm either going to root or go iphone. These updates continue to disappoint me. Kitkat gave me absolutely nothing I needed and managed to ruin the one thing I liked the most about a smart phone. Bluetooth streaming to my car. Thanks for nothing Google software developer's, Motorola & Verizon. Thanks for nothing.

And before everyone suggests a factory reset, that's been tried. I read that the Moto X may be having an issue to. Something to do with BLE
Which I the is Bluetooth Low Energy.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[jbrownup1]

That's your opinion that the phone was better on JB. And maybe your experience justifies it. There is no new phone you can buy that has what you want. All newer phones have the white notification icons of KK and the stock messaging app is similar on all phones on AOSP. The great thing is on Android you can change it if you want. There are numerous texting apps you can use to replace the stock one. You can download launchers to change your notifications to blue if you like. The free on Play Google keyboard has swype functions built in. Now SwiftKey is fully free, too. The video camera on my phone works fine and battery life is very similar as before. Most people have been reporting equal/better battery life.

Bottom line, if you don't like something about Android, search and fix it. That's what makes it a great platform.

With all due respect, I'm not so sure you've been reading most f the Motorola and Verizon forums. Battery life for most have dramatically declined. That is everywhere (except maybe here). Circle widgets doesn't clear a text message after viewing it. Yes, I realize that if you select it from the circle widget it clears up, but it was able to recognize it cleared before and it should now. I want to enjoy this, really I do, bit after 2 replacements since the update and clearing caches, multiple factory resets and many safe mode runs, I'm open to any suggestions on how to fix it. To me and IMO, this KitKat has been a downgrade.