What are your impressions of Android L?

[Issemann]

I wonder when devs will be able to get their hands on L and begin building some beta versions for my M7!!

 

[VDub2174]

I wonder when devs will be able to get their hands on L and begin building some beta versions for my M7!!

^^ This but for my Note 3

 

[machzk]

I like the new multitasking interface. Visually, L looks evolutionary rather than revolutionary. But I think that's a good thing.

Android had it´s revolutionary makeover in the Honeycomb/ICS days. Apple had theirs with the transition to iOS7. I think at this stage updates are going to be evolutionary. I agree with you, that is a good thing. No need for jarring changes every year.

 

[haikallp]

My main concerns are mostly on the UI. I love 70% of the UI changes, but some are weird and frankly, ugly

THE UGLY
1) The navigation bar. It looks childish and isn't informative. The current navigation bar is perfect IMO.
2) The notification shade. If you guys head over to YouTube and search for,"Android L Hands on", there's a video showing the notification shade in action. It looks disorganixrd . Again, the current notification shade looks better. All they need to do is add connectivity shortcuts at the top and change the font and pallet here and there.

THE "REMAINS-TO-BE-SEEN"
1) The redesigned multitasking interface. Now, you have to scroll through a carousel to jump to the previous app and if you have multiple chrome tabs open, there's more scrolling. I won't say the current style is perfect, but it seems to be more intuitive.
2) The animations. Sure some are really eye-pleasing but there seems to be a little to much; especially the ripple effect on button presses.
3) The actionable lockscreen notifications. Again, I feel that it could have been done better. Google should take a page from 3rd party apps like 'DynamicNotifications' and 'Peek'. To early to give judgment, so we'll see how it pans out.

THE GOOD
1) Project Volta. Stock now comes with battery saver mode. A little late to the action, but a welcome addition.
2) ART as default. Expected, but still a nice change.
2) The rest of the UI elements. E.g. Gmail, Gallery, Settings.

That's just my opinion. Its not final since I've yet to use it

 

[Howard Sylve]

Then maybe it's time to look at other platforms?

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Howard Sylve]

Both of those devices are passed their 18 months guaranteed upgrade periods.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Ry]

Android had it´s revolutionary makeover in the Honeycomb/ICS days. Apple had theirs with the transition to iOS7. I think at this stage updates are going to be evolutionary. I agree with you, that is a good thing. No need for jarring changes every year.

..but "jarring changes" is what everyone expects ever year.

 

[zedorda]

Can't wait to see all those new APIs. It will be like opening my first pair of boobies.

 

[Aquila]

Doesn't seem too bad so far...

Posted via Android Central App on nexus L

 

[machzk]

What do you guys think about the new multitasking view? I like the cards theme, but I think would make life difficult when using information from one window to populate fields in another.

 

[leegreg81]

That's 90 minutes btw.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[ferriman]

The notification bar have some issues IMHO. You need two swipes to fully open it. In kitkat you can open all notifications with a single up to down swipe, now, you must do two actions.

 

[jrsnively1]

I agree with you 100%, I flashed it today, and the animations are ugly, the notification menu, and multitasking were both steps backwards, and ugly, and the keyboard is horrendous! Thank goodness for the openness of android, cause things are gonna get changed, whether goggle does it or not lol.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[thatguy97]

Performance and app comaptibilty are great but what got butchered is the notification bar and keyboard no lines on the keyboard really made it tough for me so I installed Swiftkey the second after I typed my google account in setup lol but overall performance is great on my end the snapdragon s4 pro really stands up good almost 2 years later ( of course some thanks goes to google for software optimization) but overall its nice let's just hope OEMS don't butcher it

Posted via Android Central App

 

[thatguy97]

I don't like it all the animationa are too strong and kind of get in the way IMHO

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Aquila]

The option to revert to the oldest and second oldest keyboard layout is still in the advanced options of the keyboard

XTNiT-1060 through spacetime.

 

[tcee-]

is anybody having trouble running the native twitter app? mine crashes as soon as i open it "unfortunately twitter has stopped working"

 

[AustinIllini]

is anybody having trouble running the native twitter app? mine crashes as soon as i open it "unfortunately twitter has stopped working"

Twitter crashes always and I also had Dropbox crash but recover after login.

 

[tcee-]

Twitter crashes always and I also had Dropbox crash but recover after login.

ah that's disappointing. oh well, guess this is a developer preview after all. also, my backed up photos aren't showing up on my device, anyone have insight on that? i think i might revert back to kitkat over the weekend, nothing here that is intriguing enough for me to put up with the early adopter bugs lol

 

[Aquila]

ah that's disappointing. oh well, guess this is a developer preview after all. also, my backed up photos aren't showing up on my device, anyone have insight on that? i think i might revert back to kitkat over the weekend, nothing here that is intriguing enough for me to put up with the early adopter bugs lol

Open Google+, click on "Everything" under your name and select photos and have it load from there. After that it should load from the Photos icon.