Android 16 review: Post-hype
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That's it right there. When a client calls me asking if this-or-that is legit, I ask them to snap a pic with their phone and text it to me. The way a message is displayed often tells me more than its contents -- and getting a user to describe the display context is difficult.
Notifications are a disaster without careful curating. One innocent, ill-informed click on a site popup affirming notifications* opens a wormhole directly to the desktop that can then display any garbage of that site's choosing. What could possibly go wrong?
* Most muggles don't really know what notifications are. But for some reason many are inclined to click allow.
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Notification spam is one big reason why I strictly control the apps on my phone. I use the web version of the service whenever possible.
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Yes, accessibility needs to be more of a focus for all technology. I tried out the screen reader in MacOS (VoiceOver) and while it's there it is more made for completely blind users with no in between features for just you know, reading the text on the screen out loud. All of us will experience some kind of disability throughout our lives and tech still focuses on the young and shiny instead of the boring and useful.
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Notifications have become the absolute Achilles heal of Android. When I got my S25 Ultimate I was pretty amazed and dismayed by the numbers of notifications for shit out of the box. Stuff there was absolutely for advertising and a complete abuse of what notifications are for. As a iOS user I was pretty taken by surprise that my phone being used as an advertising vector.
The main thing missing from Android is still a iMessage equivalent -- the patchy support for RCS just doesn't cut it. This has took too long to get stood and still doesn't work anything like as frictionless as I would expect. Samsung to Samsung worked fine (provided both are relatively up to date) but anything else is a crapshoot.
The main thing missing from Android is still a iMessage equivalent -- the patchy support for RCS just doesn't cut it. This has took too long to get stood and still doesn't work anything like as frictionless as I would expect. Samsung to Samsung worked fine (provided both are relatively up to date) but anything else is a crapshoot.
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This change isn't that minor. If you accept it, your Dexcom blood glucose monitor app (for most, the only interface) will just stop working. There are a lot of people (at least on reddit) that lost core medical functional because they though the update was "minor."
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His first computer was in the late 90s, an awful AMD K6 with those disgusting all onboard mobos.
Then he got a G4 Mac Mini, a 2007 aluminum iMac and then a 2015 iMac. After Apple stopped supporting the 2007 iMac, I installed Debian with GNOME, put 4GB of RAM and a SSD, installed a Dock-like application launcher and it is all good. He is also happy that his USB bus-powered Canon document scanner works perfectly under Linux and Canon stopped releasing updated drivers 10 years ago.
My grandpa still drives quite well, too. He got a car with collision prevention (blinks and beeps if he is approaching an object fast and not braking), and a very nice 360 degrees view on reverse.
He spent 41 years in the Army and still got a quite healthy social life. It's awesome. I travelled with my grandparents 28 years in a row, all over the world, which is probably a record. He doesn't want to go abroad anymore now that my grandma passed away, but we are still set to go on a 2 week road trip next month. =)
He is the kind of guy that really gets a boost in life with good tech and gets furious when things are set in an idiotic way: tiny buttons, 27 types of screws. Last year, he replaced the gear belt of his drying machine on his on, because it has a nice maintenance manual.
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Hopefully they're a little more successful with getting app support than previous tablet efforts.
As an example of weak support, this weekend I had no internet due to a Comcast issue (see previous article this week about why they're losing customers...), and I wanted to use my S22 to play Netflix on the TV so I thought to use DEX, and it turns out Netflix does not support being maximized - I don't imagine Googles implementation really makes a difference there.
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I get the impression your first experiences with a phone involved wires. Yeah, me, too.
But I think it depends on how one defines "exciting".
High pucker-factor updates that nerf, hose, cripple or otherwise fuck up one's phone can be filed under "exciting", and there've been a lot of those since Android 2.
Anecdotally, I just got updated to Android 15, which I expected a clusterfuck of issues, having read up on it and not having a top of the line flagship phone. Fortunately, I was raised on phones physically attached to walls, and had virtually all devices turned off by default anyhow with only phone and limited SMS turned on, it turned out that none of the BS AI crap that was supposed to be included could even turn on, let alone run. So my angst was a nothing-burger.
But it had me pretty excited up to that point. Not in a good way, but physiologically it was the same.
And there have been updates in the past with cool new features, though IMHO, Android 4 was probably where it started to plateau a bit wrt "exciting". Since then, functionally, it's been mostly the same, with improvements in speed and tech, but the OS hasn't really been more than tweaked, and sometimes not in a good way.
Not being a fan of change just for the sake of change, I'm FINE with not having future updates being "exciting". They seem to think they have to pee in the soup every couple of years, but IMHO, unless there's a USEFUL reason to change things (AKA: new, improved tech, functionally useful features, etc - things that so far they haven't had a lot of in the last seven or so updates), security updates are all we'd need.
I mean, people lived for decades with a phone attached to their walls. Mobility itself is still something of a miracle for those of us who thought a slimline phone was modern and cool. So, while I may sound like an old fuck Luddite, IMHO, if the phone is secure, as long as the way we use it doesn't significantly change, the OS doesn't NEED to change as much or as often as it does.
Just offer user customizable themes on top of good security and be done with that. It kind of sounds like that's the direction it's going in. As long as they drive a fucking stake through the heart of AI, I'm good with that.
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Why would Google turn this off? The sole reason for the existence of Android is to place a device in people's pockets which tells Google where they are and what they do, in order to serve them better ads?
Google is an ads company. The only reason they give you "free" tech is because you are the product that is being sold.
I thought we established this a decade ago?
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I was born an old man.
The day I booted Debian and tried an "ifconfig" and saw that it was not there, I went to FreeBSD. I want to learn new skills to get more things done, not get around rewriting millions of scripts or dealing with idiotic interface changes. I also hate buttons without a "3D" look. It just takes more phospate in the brain to find UI elements when there's no texture to them. I am colorblind and also hate when the color scheme is "too pastel" and not changeable.
In what world is this:
and improvement over this:
Seriously, wtf were they thinking??? I am all in for saving screen real estate, but then what's the deal with the settings app?
edit: I am aware that you can expand the window to see the labels, but then you end up with a huge window and a lot of wasted screen area.
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This is the first time my phone did an Android version change without me realizing that it was a new version. Apparently all the effort has moved over to AI slop.
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Same but Lxqt/LxDE for me. And I want that look/UI for Wayland, too. Please!
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from the looks of the landscape I believe you are correct.
Keep wanting my phone to do less.
Keep wanting my phone to do less.
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See, this is what I actually appreciate about what Samsung did with TouchWiz (originally) and OneUI (now). I've been using Galaxy phones since the S2 (yes, that long!). I like the consistency that Samsung Android devices have managed over the years, and even their OneUI 7.0 refresh for Android 15 doesn't break absolutely everything. Google could learn a thing or two from Samsung.
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As a mobile app developer who has "rolled his own" UI on personal efforts, or defaulted to that of the OS for years, I have always cast a wary eye at UX designers. I'm always hoping never to have to work with prima donna types. While many of them indeed have made computing a better experience, I really think some out there are making changes for the sake of making changes, or of doing the bidding of some suit higher up who wants to see something "different", just to justify the salary they earn. I like how Android has matured since it bowed on the world stage in 2008, and I'm fine with slight tweaks at this point...or even no tweaks. Let Big Tech get creative at finding an (ethical) revenue stream elsewhere.
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I had a very good UI designer who talked to you what the app should do and listened, and would create exactly the design that I would have wanted if I had been a bit better at design.
The only difference was that if I had tried to implement this I would have been told to not waste my time, or worse yet totally waste my time by creating what my boss wanted, while with this designer I could take all the time needed to create what I wanted anyway.
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Debian is great - even when they make changes they almost never prevent you from using the old way. The only thing that changed was a line in my notes for installing new computers:
From repository, install:
net-tools (contains ipconfig and route, etc)
cron-apt (probably - this runs a nightly update and download)
exim4 (Buster and later - no mail server install by default)
dnsutils (contains nslookup and dig)
rsyslog
These were the only default install changes that I cared about; it's certainly a lot easier than switching from Linux to FreeBSD.
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My in laws are in their 80s, but they wanted a way to talk to their relatives overseas without the obscene telephone international charges, so the relatives suggested one of the popular chat apps, which works great except....
We got them the "it just works" iPhone. And man, what I wish for a way to have an "old person" interface. basically just the 2 apps that they need with big giant icons ( phone and chat app) that could be absolutely locked down in their given positions without some kind of "parental control lock".
They can't really see the small icons very well, and their old shaky hands are constantly pressing the icons to activate "move/delete this icon" instead of simply only opening the app. Twice a week we get phone calls talking about how the icons have disappeared and the phone is broken and other things, solely because they simply don't have the physical acumen anymore to handle tapping and swiping things correctly.
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Samsung users have always had to wait for Samsung to finish its suite of me too apps as well as randomly rearranging the settings.
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Depends on where you started with unix. I started with BSD in 1983 with 4.1a on a VAX and had my own machine running 4.2 in 1987. BSD has been my daily driver (FreeBSD now) since that first machine. I'm currently running 7 FreeBSD machines and 3 Linux machines. BSD has been far more stable over time wrt system management from the command line, e.g. I now have to run both apt and snap to update the Ubuntu box.
Going back to the OPs message, when you bring up a new box and the network doesn't work, the first thing you want to type based on your long history with unix is ifconfig, which isn't stock on Linux and you need a working network to get it.
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They're not interested in being consistent, easy to use, logical or efficient. That stuff's all irrelevant. Google is a big trashy advertising agency, nothing more. Their only interest is in whatever they think will sell. 100% marketing sociopaths, every single person working there. Therefore form with disregard to function, at all times. Also, idiot-developer types who know nothing about how humans operate or interact - as expected, since they're not really human;
that's why they're so technically proficient in fact, because they think more like computers. These morons are still the ones making all the design decisions, apparently. Exactly the same with Windows. It has the modern functionality of course but absolute garbage illogical UI, glaringly missing like 100 obvious basic features; just as it's been since day 1.
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Finally getting to the point where hardware is the reason to upgrade vs new features. I have a Pixel 9 and haven't even looked at the AI stuff. Couldn't care less about it. I wanted a newer camera than the Pixel 4a so I upgraded. I'm comfortable with things staying mostly the same from a UI standpoint. Just keep fixing the bugs and security holes and keep upgrading the chips and I'll get a new one again in 4 years.
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In one hand, I have an iPhone 16 Pro, running iOS 18.5.
In the other hand, I have a Pixel 9 I picked up new at a steal price of $249 (which is why I picked it up; I had a Pixel 7a at one point running Android 14 as well, I like keeping up with the technology on both sides).
I’m glad the UI isn’t a massive change for Android 16. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I think I have a slight difference in The copy to clipboard action but otherwise it’s much as I remember.
While iOS has been my primary for some time, and there are a few integrations I’ve grown accustomed to (AppleTV remote, Apple Pay with Apple Card) this is the first time in a long time that I’ve felt like everything is so close it barely matters which I use. The Pixel 9’s camera loses, but it’s fine for most uses. The screen, face and fingerprint unlock of the Pixel are snappy, and the 120Hz display makes one almost angry that Apple didn’t at least do 90Hz on the iPhone 16e. The titanium of the iPhone is a premium finish, but the phone (subjectively) feels like double the weight whereas the Pixel 9 isn’t as premium, but the lightness when using it is refreshing and it’s durable enough, especially in a case. In day to day use, the Pixel never feels slow; in fact, in comparison, the iPhone 16 Pro never feels fast.
I don’t trust Google’s information sharing; that said, while Apple may be more privacy focused, their inability to deliver an improved Siri hinted at in the 15 generation and promised in the 16 generation should erode trust in other ways -though I can have an ad-blocker app that shields me from a number of things Android won’t (mind you, I installed Brave browser immediately and set it as default on the Pixel).
In the end, it almost makes me wish a third party would enter the game again, with another OS and a different philosophy. Innovation is dying in a mostly two-party market. —and if I could get 80-85 percent of this iPhone for 25 percent of the cost (admittedly on a big promotion), what’s the reason to spend big money on incremental improvements?
In the other hand, I have a Pixel 9 I picked up new at a steal price of $249 (which is why I picked it up; I had a Pixel 7a at one point running Android 14 as well, I like keeping up with the technology on both sides).
I’m glad the UI isn’t a massive change for Android 16. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I think I have a slight difference in The copy to clipboard action but otherwise it’s much as I remember.
While iOS has been my primary for some time, and there are a few integrations I’ve grown accustomed to (AppleTV remote, Apple Pay with Apple Card) this is the first time in a long time that I’ve felt like everything is so close it barely matters which I use. The Pixel 9’s camera loses, but it’s fine for most uses. The screen, face and fingerprint unlock of the Pixel are snappy, and the 120Hz display makes one almost angry that Apple didn’t at least do 90Hz on the iPhone 16e. The titanium of the iPhone is a premium finish, but the phone (subjectively) feels like double the weight whereas the Pixel 9 isn’t as premium, but the lightness when using it is refreshing and it’s durable enough, especially in a case. In day to day use, the Pixel never feels slow; in fact, in comparison, the iPhone 16 Pro never feels fast.
I don’t trust Google’s information sharing; that said, while Apple may be more privacy focused, their inability to deliver an improved Siri hinted at in the 15 generation and promised in the 16 generation should erode trust in other ways -though I can have an ad-blocker app that shields me from a number of things Android won’t (mind you, I installed Brave browser immediately and set it as default on the Pixel).
In the end, it almost makes me wish a third party would enter the game again, with another OS and a different philosophy. Innovation is dying in a mostly two-party market. —and if I could get 80-85 percent of this iPhone for 25 percent of the cost (admittedly on a big promotion), what’s the reason to spend big money on incremental improvements?
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While I'm absolutely sympathetic to the use case here (I use a MiniMed insulin pump that relies on a mobile app), isn't this the device manufacturer's fault for not having a day-zero update available? Surely their dev team would be aware of any upcoming impactful changes.
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Android updates have never once improved my experience. We lost nav buttons that were always available and couldn't burn into the screen. We lost root giving us actual total control of our phones. We lost the ability to use a single ADB overscan command to make a broken screen usable by not rendering on the broken part. We lost Google Maps and Navigation running as two separate apps you could use independently. We lost being able to use your phone as a Mass Storage USB device and actually access one folder while copying files out of another. We lost having granular control of which apps can and cannot access the internet.
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Android UI was always a mess which every OEM made even worse.
I mean, even the UI on Roland / Boss guitar multieffects and synths is better
I mean, even the UI on Roland / Boss guitar multieffects and synths is better
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Settings > Accessibility > Assistive Access
Or some combination of the hundred other accessibility options which you would know about if you had actually looked, asked someone about, or googled…but no.
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Hear hear! I noticed, that as I get a bit older, I too struggle a bit more with every new UI update. Often wondering why they did it anyway. Then again, if you get an ancient smartphone up and running, you are grateful for all the improvements they made. Well... I guess Android has more or less converged to an optimum. As a lot of people point out... this may actually be good. Oh well, time for coffee.
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It doesn't really matter what Android 16 has... it's not like we can upgrade anyway. I'm (for example) still stuck on Android 13 and parents on even older versions. If we could just upgrade then maybe I could get hyped about new features, but as it is... they'll be on like Android 20 before I can even try it, so no point even seeing what the new features are.
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Yes =) I am aware. For a few servers, I installed net-tools, dnsutils and rsyslog and kept going.
But I got upset, moved to FreeBSD, and never looked back (I hardly ever game and for that I still boot Windows when needed, or to run my photo scanner)
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I always joke that with each new Windows release it requires one additional click to open Control Panel.
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The biggest problem now is the inability to delete Gemini & keep it off your Pixel.
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