Sense?

[FarmerJohnDFC]

Hey guys, sorry for another noob question, but I haven't been able to find an explicit explanation. What is entailed with Sense? And why does it seem that a lot of ROM's are developed Sense-less? Thanks.

 

[thatton#AC]

Hey guys, sorry for another noob question, but I haven't been able to find an explicit explanation. What is entailed with Sense? And why does it seem that a lot of ROM's are developed Sense-less? Thanks.

Sense is an overlay to the Android OS. It is widgets, menu style, icons, etc. I personally think Sense is gorgeous but the masses seem to disagree with me. Just go to HTC.com and look at the screen shots and compare to a Motorola with Blur or a Samsung with Touchwiz.

 

[Upstreammiami]

sense is awesome i really dont know why people dont like it .. with sense u can upload videos to Facebook tag pictures ect ect ... it also links ur Facebook pics with the contacts automatically.. it makes everything much easier

 

[Mapex]

Expanding on what thatton said:

Stock Android (that is, Android with no bells and whistles) is a very plain and somewhat unintuitive experience for a majority of consumers. It does the job the same way any computer OS does the job, but compare that to how many people love the simplified iPhone and you can see many faults in the Android approach.

Each hardware manufacturer (HTC, Motorola, Samsung, and LG specifically) decided that a great way to combat the computer-ness of Android was to develop their own UI overhaul in-house not only to provide a better user experience but also to provide extra bells and whistles Android lacks or does poorly (i.e. Sense copy/paste owns the in-built copy/paste pre-Android 2.3.x) as well as to differentiate from their competitors in something other than hardware specs (Motorola aims Blur at social networkers and corporate users, HTC appeases mediaholics, etc).

So, what is Sense? Sense is HTC's Android UI/UX (User Interface/eXperience) overhaul that makes the device, dare I say it, as user-friendly as an iPhone while retaining the power user-friendliness of stock Android. It is aimed at social networking and media consumption/creation, two aspects in which most people are interested, but it also provides great behinds the scenes features that make the device that much easier to use.

You will see many custom ROMs retain Sense because it is so well designed, but conversely you will see most custom ROMs shred Moto Blur and Samsung TouchWiz to pieces because they aren't as effective at their purpose. Of course, if you don't like the HTC look and feel (compared to a Nexus One, Nexus S, or Droid 1) then you can wait for someone to make a stock Gingerbread ROM instead.

 

[FarmerJohnDFC]

Wow, thanks for all the help guys. Completely answered my question. I don't have much to compare it to, but I do like some of the features miami mentioned. I guess I'll just look out for a ROM that keeps Sense but gives the ability to remove bloat and control stuff (root I guess?) Thanks again.

 

[heyvov]

sense is awesome i really dont know why people dont like it .. with sense u can upload videos to Facebook tag pictures ect ect ... it also links ur Facebook pics with the contacts automatically.. it makes everything much easier

You can do all of those things with vanilla Android. Sense provides no useful additional functionality, and it's not any easier to use than vanilla (as of gingerbread), it is just a way for HTC to differentiate and market itself. It also absolutely destroys your battery life, and delays updates. It's completely useless.