Is there an offical android user guide for android 9.0, or any recent version ?

[rogerharrs]

with 135,000 employeers google must have spared 25 to maintain an online user guide ? just to explain all the various details of their operating system ? Like what you get with your car or various electronics devices, TV, hifi etc.. All I can find is an in depth developers guide, and bunch of various quick start guides. No actual normal user guide..

There is one I hope ?

 

[Mooncatt]

I'm not aware of one, which isn't surprising considering I've never seen one for other operating systems like Windows. At best, manufacturers will have user gives for their specific devices that run Android, but the OS itself is fairly intuitive to use. Is there something specific you are trying to find out?

 

[rogerharrs]

I'm not aware of one, which isn't surprising considering I've never seen one for other operating systems like Windows. At best, manufacturers will have user gives for their specific devices that run Android, but the OS itself is fairly intuitive to use. Is there something specific you are trying to find out?

Dont get me started on windows,, there is another culprit and they have more employees than google. The endless questions on help forums for how to do simple stuff shows they need user guides. Im computer science graduate with publications in Ai and know about 20 coding languages. Yet it aggrivates me beyond belief i cant just look up user manual stuff on their systems. Quite a lot of the time the settings terms need explained. Or you just cant find what you need without time out, then searching the web and wasting time on answers which dont work for your version, or just inconsistently explained. Or you cant find it, because your search terms have a boolean clash with something else. So then submitting to lots of user groups. End result, hours of frustration. Your days zen gone, and possibly time, work and projects derailed.. for something that would take minutes with an operating guide.

yes, I have question, its on another android pie thread. How to stop android camera going to sleep when phone isnt set to sleep

 

[rogerharrs]

it will prove my point, if I cant find out the answer to the other question in a day. Already put it on google help forum.. and no luck so far. A very simple thing yet cant find anything about it. Just a boolean clash with all the help for the phone app switching off due to crashes

 

[hallux]

The challenge with a manual for "Android" is that there are so many variables to how it could work based on the developer of the device or the app in question. Take your camera question as an example - the Samsung camera may work different from the Google camera.

 

[B. Diddy]

I used to maintain a basic guide on this forum, but it got so challenging to update it every year with the release of every new Android version that I stopped at Nougat: [GUIDE] Getting Started with Android (UPDATED 2016 for Nougat) - Android Forums at AndroidCentral.com

Remember that Android itself is a base that all manufacturers (including Google) build on. Almost every manufacturer will put their own spin on the OS and the UI, adding various exclusive features, sometimes taking some away. On top of that, carriers may also add their own features or limit others. So there's just no way to have a universal guide.

 

[rogerharrs]

I used to maintain a basic guide on this forum, but it got so challenging to update it every year with the release of every new Android version that I stopped at Nougat: [GUIDE] Getting Started with Android (UPDATED 2016 for Nougat) - Android Forums at AndroidCentral.com

Remember that Android itself is a base that all manufacturers (including Google) build on. Almost every manufacturer will put their own spin on the OS and the UI, adding various exclusive features, sometimes taking some away. On top of that, carriers may also add their own features or limit others. So there's just no way to have a universal guide.

It is possible, it just needs more google staff to customize the online guide with clauses linking to specific manufacturers in those parts of the setup which are most customized. They can request manufacturers submit changes as part of the license agreement. Much like happened with drivers for early windows systems. Its not like its not possible if you have 250 staff to set up the guides for all configuration mappings in say 6 months... then after a year have 50-100 computer science staff updating the guide full time with half dealing with manufacturer license changes. 95% of the basic features are the same across the vendors anyway. The same thing happened with windows even from the early days, it could be heavily customized and reconfigured by vendors, and this didnt stop all the publication guides..

 

[B. Diddy]

But that way, Google would become even more like Apple, locking down Android to a larger extent. I think Google still wants to give enough leeway to manufacturers, since Android is still technically open source.

I'd love to see well-maintained support pages for all devices as well, but at least Google does it for their Pixel phones: https://support.google.com/pixelphone/?hl=en#topic=7078250

 

[rogerharrs]

But that way, Google would become even more like Apple, locking down Android to a larger extent. I think Google still wants to give enough leeway to manufacturers, since Android is still technically open source.

I'd love to see well-maintained support pages for all devices as well, but at least Google does it for their Pixel phones: https://support.google.com/pixelphone/?hl=en#topic=7078250

Am actually hoping that we can have Ai take over all this, have it predict and read every issue you are dealing with and sort everything for you ! Likely gonna happen as life gets increasingly complicated anyway