If you could add/change one thing about Android what would it be?

[Teddy Jenkins]

I have just recently bought my first Android phone (Samsung S4! WOOOHOOO)

One thing I think android could do better is integrate Google Drive to your Android account a bit better - and example would ISO with icloud. you can store your music on the icloud and it doesn't take any of your space up - whilst still storing your photos and other items on the free Storage space they give you.

Also coming from a Windows phone to android - the one thing I can find rather tedious and maybe annoying at times, is the amount of customization you can do - sometimes there can be too much choice?? having to work through loads of apps and settings to get what you want taking up a lot of time? This is only sometimes though.

For example - finding the right keyboard for your device - so many good options but some bad ones as well, I love the A.I Type Keyboard for customization themes, layouts and of course Emoji's but Swiftkey prediction and Gesture typing is Amazing but lack of Smileys and emoji's can really make me think twice, however Swiftkey is a solid keyboard in terms of stability and how well built it is.


What do you think????

could be interesting to see others opinions.

 

[EvilMonkey]

Music: Google has Google Music to store your music on (you get 20,000 song storage for free).

Photos: Google+ gives you 15GB for photo storage for free. And only full-sized photos count against that (bigger than 2048x2048px). Anything less than that doesn't count against your storage. The storage is shared across Drive, Gmail and Google+.

As for customization, I'd rather have too much than not enough. Who is to say that the "bad" keyboards you mention aren't someone else's favorite keyboard? I admit it can get a bit overwhelming finding what works for you....like if you like Swiftkey, don't worry about the rest.

I guess if I could change one thing about Android, is I'd like all manufacturers to have the choice of running their custom ROM or just plain/vanilla Android, rather than having to jump through hoops rooting and unlocking bootloaders and flashing ROMs just to get a pure vanilla experience.

 

[garublador]

I'd definitely like to see some sort of integrated backup system built in. I don't need my phone 100% backed up, I can do the media myself, but settings and texts should be automatically backed up in Android rather than me having to do it manually. I'll probably end up making my own in Tasker before they get to that, though.

My biggest one is already being implemented in 4.3, individual app permissions. As much as Android people like to talk about how iOS tends to implement stuff after Android has it, Android got beaten to the punch super early on this one and IMO it's a very important feature.

Better battery life reporting is also needed. More apps are doing more things to suck up more battery and it's virtually impossible to diagnose and control what's going on without just disabling lots of features. It would be really nice to be able to tell exactly what's using the battery and to be able to shut it off on a feature by feature basis rather than just uninstalling apps and turning stuff off willy-nilly and hoping it helps.

 

[garublador]

I guess if I could change one thing about Android, is I'd like all manufacturers to have the choice of running their custom ROM or just plain/vanilla Android, rather than having to jump through hoops rooting and unlocking bootloaders and flashing ROMs just to get a pure vanilla experience.

That would be cool, but there really isn't a "pure" Android. For example, what resolution screen does "Android" run? Does it have to support all resolutions? What about external SD cards, IR blasters, types of RAM, specific audio chips, WiFi modules, NFC modules, proximity sensors, temperature sensors, barometers, camera modules, phone radios or any other peripheral that a phone maker has put into a phone? To make Android "pure" you'd have to support everything, which would add more "bloat" than what OEM's add now. Manufacturers and carriers do have the opportunity now to do what you're asking, and only make the hardware they have work without adding their own stuff, they just choose not to.

 

[Diarmaid]

Hi Teddy - I went from a Blackberry to the Samsung Stratosphere (basically the Galaxy, but with a slide out keyboard), and the first thing I missed from the Blackberry, besides a much better keyboard (I can type MUCH faster on the Blackberry than on the Stratosphere) is a little light that blinks when you have a message. The Blackberry has a little red light that blinks. The Stratosphere doesn't, so I have to actually check the home screen to see if I have any messages - it's annoying.

 

[garublador]

Hi Teddy - I went from a Blackberry to the Samsung Stratosphere (basically the Galaxy, but with a slide out keyboard), and the first thing I missed from the Blackberry, besides a much better keyboard (I can type MUCH faster on the Blackberry than on the Stratosphere) is a little light that blinks when you have a message. The Blackberry has a little red light that blinks. The Stratosphere doesn't, so I have to actually check the home screen to see if I have any messages - it's annoying.

That's sometimes something you can set up in the messaging app. IIRC there are apps that control the LED for notifications as well. In other words, what you're asking for has been in Android since at least Froyo. It's also one of the things people generally like about Android over iOS.

 

[Teddy Jenkins]

Music: Google has Google Music to store your music on (you get 20,000 song storage for free).

Photos: Google+ gives you 15GB for photo storage for free. And only full-sized photos count against that (bigger than 2048x2048px). Anything less than that doesn't count against your storage. The storage is shared across Drive, Gmail and Google+.
.

Oh ok I didn't think that was the case with Google drive, but I think how ISO make it work is so much simpler, how its is all integrated so very well with out having to download that app, its just built in to the software making it pretty much flawless - haha im starting to sound like an apple fan now!

I'd definitely like to see some sort of integrated backup system built in. I don't need my phone 100% backed up, I can do the media myself, but settings and texts should be automatically backed up in Android rather than me having to do it manually. I'll probably end up making my own in Tasker before they get to that, though.

My biggest one is already being implemented in 4.3, individual app permissions. As much as Android people like to talk about how iOS tends to implement stuff after Android has it, Android got beaten to the punch super early on this one and IMO it's a very important feature.

Better battery life reporting is also needed. More apps are doing more things to suck up more battery and it's virtually impossible to diagnose and control what's going on without just disabling lots of features. It would be really nice to be able to tell exactly what's using the battery and to be able to shut it off on a feature by feature basis rather than just uninstalling apps and turning stuff off willy-nilly and hoping it helps.

That very feature your speaking of is certainly something I cannot wait to get in 4.3 update - do we have any ideas with the non google edition of the S4 will get 4.3?

Better battery reporting is a must in all phones these days, and being able to tell what drains your battery would be a very handy thing to have day to day.

 

[Teddy Jenkins]

Hi Teddy - I went from a Blackberry to the Samsung Stratosphere (basically the Galaxy, but with a slide out keyboard), and the first thing I missed from the Blackberry, besides a much better keyboard (I can type MUCH faster on the Blackberry than on the Stratosphere) is a little light that blinks when you have a message. The Blackberry has a little red light that blinks. The Stratosphere doesn't, so I have to actually check the home screen to see if I have any messages - it's annoying.

You don't have that on your phone? how strange, its on most phones. it wasn't on my Lumia which was annoying.

 

[EvilMonkey]

Oh ok I didn't think that was the case with Google drive, but I think how ISO make it work is so much simpler, how its is all integrated so very well with out having to download that app, its just built in to the software making it pretty much flawless - haha im starting to sound like an apple fan now!

It's impossible to sound like an Apple fan when you're referring to iOS as "ISO"

One of the reasons it's so "simple" on iOS is because Apple has complete control over everything and it only works on Apple devices, whereas Google needs to make it work with all devices and OS's (I can use my Google Music and Google Drive and Google+ on my iPad or my Windows computer or my Android phone). It doesn't go the other way with iCloud, as it only works on Apple Devices.

So there's inherently more complexity there by needing it to work on all devices and all ecosystems. But there's also more flexibility, as I can seemlessly transition my Google services throughout all my devices that I use. It's a tradeoff, and iCloud certainly has a bit of an advantage for ease-of-use, but only if all of your devices are Apple. That being said, I certainly don't find Google's solutions complicated or anything...but I'm also a technical user so I'm sure it's a bit more confusing to someone not as technically-inclined as others.

 

[Teddy Jenkins]

It's impossible to sound like an Apple fan when you're referring to iOS as "ISO"

One of the reasons it's so "simple" on iOS is because Apple has complete control over everything and it only works on Apple devices, whereas Google needs to make it work with all devices and OS's (I can use my Google Music and Google Drive and Google+ on my iPad or my Windows computer or my Android phone). It doesn't go the other way with iCloud, as it only works on Apple Devices.

So there's inherently more complexity there by needing it to work on all devices and all ecosystems. But there's also more flexibility, as I can seemlessly transition my Google services throughout all my devices that I use. It's a tradeoff, and iCloud certainly has a bit of an advantage for ease-of-use, but only if all of your devices are Apple. That being said, I certainly don't find Google's solutions complicated or anything...but I'm also a technical user so I'm sure it's a bit more confusing to someone not as technically-inclined as others.

Haha, well I'm glad you pointed that out

yeah I guess its true, I mainly use drop box only because of the deal Samsung made that deal with them to give new S4 owners free 50gb of storage for 2 years. its amazing really.

can you stream music from drop box do you know?

 

[EvilMonkey]

I think it's also worth pointing out Google's efforts to streamline its services to make them simpler. For example, Picasa (photos) is merging with Google+. Talk has merged with Hangouts. And just today, Messenger is gone, also replaced with Hangouts. Also today you can get to Drive from Google+. Navigation has merged with Maps. Your free and purchased storage is shared across their services now.

Some of it's still a bit messy (like Google Talk had functionality that's not yet in Hangouts, for example). Anyways, it's still a bit of a transitional period as their services all start (apparently) merging under the Google+ dome. So it is a bit tricky keeping up on what's available, what's been merged with other services, what's coming up, etc, but it's pretty obvious where it's all heading. It's just going to take another year or so to get there as they merge their disparate services under one umbrella.

And again, it make sense. Is it more confusing to have Talk, Voice, Messenger and Hangouts, or does it make more sense to merge everything together under Hangouts to avoid confusion? Hangouts is obviously going to be the answer to Apple's iMessage and Facetime services (even if it's not quite there yet with SMS/MMS sorely missing), but that's obviously where it's going.

 

[Rule9]

freedom from carrier controlled updates is the most important spec of all IMO.

 

[_X_]

That is really not an Android limitation but a vendor. For instance my note has an LED notification light.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Teddy Jenkins]

freedom from carrier controlled updates is the most important spec of all IMO.

I will certainly second that one!

 

[Teddy Jenkins]

I think it's also worth pointing out Google's efforts to streamline its services to make them simpler. For example, Picasa (photos) is merging with Google+. Talk has merged with Hangouts. And just today, Messenger is gone, also replaced with Hangouts. Also today you can get to Drive from Google+. Navigation has merged with Maps. Your free and purchased storage is shared across their services now.

Some of it's still a bit messy (like Google Talk had functionality that's not yet in Hangouts, for example). Anyways, it's still a bit of a transitional period as their services all start (apparently) merging under the Google+ dome. So it is a bit tricky keeping up on what's available, what's been merged with other services, what's coming up, etc, but it's pretty obvious where it's all heading. It's just going to take another year or so to get there as they merge their disparate services under one umbrella.

And again, it make sense. Is it more confusing to have Talk, Voice, Messenger and Hangouts, or does it make more sense to merge everything together under Hangouts to avoid confusion? Hangouts is obviously going to be the answer to Apple's iMessage and Facetime services (even if it's not quite there yet with SMS/MMS sorely missing), but that's obviously where it's going.

Yeah I think they are certainly heading to the imessgae type of concept.

They do need to clean up and merge what they are going to merge sooner rather than later - can be confusing.

I am rather keen on the Android having an imessage type feature as myself or partner can go abroad often and at separate times. imessage is completely free to use along with face time if you are in a different country - No data charges at all unlike Whatsapp etc.

 

[gone down south]

Some control over wakelocks at the system level.

 

[Sizzers]

Control of running apps and apps which automatically load up regardless.

That is what I loved about Symbian: load an app and when you?ve finished with it simply close it, just like on your PC. Of course if you have a frequently used app/s you could always leave it/them running in the background, but a lot of earlier Symbian phones had notoriously low RAM which obviously could cause other problems but that?s a bit of a side issue. Apps which were left open were actually still running ? not frozen ? and so were always instantly available as required, and Symbian?s battery management system was so excellent it never really impacted on battery life (there were exceptions when they specced particularly low battery capacities, but again that?s another issue).

I just hate crap loading up which I never/rarely ever use and have no control over but apart from that I?m quite happy with Android. There are a couple of other things I could also mention but I don?t want to go off-topic as it asked for one thing to change, but this is the biggest one thing for to change for me.

 

[kalo88]

It's maybe not what I'd change about 'Android' itself but I wish carriers wouldn't get involved in updates... Manufacturer releases the update and boom job done!

Oh... and no bloatware! NO ONE WANTS CARRIER APPS and if they do they can just download them.

 

[jaboop]

Except for rocker and power button no more buttons.... i like where its built into the software im not sure what its called i would say soft keys?

 

[Teddy Jenkins]

Except for rocker and power button no more buttons.... i like where its built into the software im not sure what its called i would say soft keys?

I dunno I like the whole idea of still having a few hard keys on the outside. But I think we are heading away from that idea now everything is touch.

Also, carriers staying out of the update loop would be brilliant.

Bloatware is one of the worst things in smart phones. The crap the decide to pile onto the internal memory is pointless.

my shiney new S4