Gripes about UI/UX of Android phones/tablets and so called "openness" that is nonsense to consumers.

If you also have an Android phone, you are welcome to email me your gripes as well. If you don't but you want to buy one, read this blog before you do it. :-)

-- A big fan of Google, not Android

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    Gripes from a long time Android user

    Editor’s notes: this is a guest post from an anonymous writer, including buggy apps (Google Music Beta and Facebook app in particular), inconsistant buttons and icons, ugly looking, and more. Thank you!

    I’ve been a long time supporter of Google Android. I’ve been using it since it was first officially released way back on the G1 and since the G1 I’ve moved around to several different phones and I’ve got several gripes that I want to share. Firstly I’m a big supporter of Google Android and Google I love the way Google handles all my accounts and the way I can customize it. I keep saying to myself well maybe I should go to the iPhone again etc etc.. but the main reason I don’t is because of Gmail etc.

    Here are my gripes. iOS 5 was recently announced and Apple stole Google’s thunder with their demonstration of their new and improved notification panel, they’ve made it slicker, more organized, more customizable and they’ve made the way notifications appear better than what Google Android is currently doing. Secondly the Google Talk application could be one hell of an application but I don’t think Google sees the potential. It is a great application and it allows me to stay in touch with everyone but I don’t have the ability to add photos, or documents or ANYTHING. Major pain in the ass. Going back to previous articles you’ve mentioned the applications on Google Android are awful. Most of them don’t work properly, they all use different notification icons, none of them follow any guidelines. A lot of developers haven’t updated their Froyo notification bar icons to Gingerbread styled icons, developers haven’t optimized Gingerbread icons to be large enough for the Honeycomb notification tray applications are seriously lacking. However I could buy an iPhone and have everything be consistent and organized.

    Also there are a lot of inconsistent issues with Android whether its the hardware buttons (back being the worst) or whether its icons in the operating system - I was recently uploading something to Picasa and got a “failed upload” and the notification icon was Froyo styled when the uploading icon was Gingerbread styled.

    A lot of Google’s applications don’t match other applications like Google Docs. The Google Music Beta application is the biggest piece of s**t I have ever used, it is slow, large, and out right ugly. Honestly I’m starting to think Google doesn’t have any good designers that work at that company. Who ever is making the applications should be sitting down with the Android team and everyone else with an Android app and disgusting consistency and cross version support for all icons (Honeycomb, Gingerbread, and Froyo) f**k I honestly. How difficult would it be for developers of any application available for Google Android to give users an choice for Honeycomb, Gingerbread, or Froyo styled icons? Honestly SMS Popup does it - they even support all the disgusting skins (Sense, TouchWiz, Blur) etc..

    Also Facebook for Android is the biggest piece of s**t, and they’ve yet to impress me. It seems like Google Android is still 10 years behind Apple and Apple is constantly improving their platform when Google trails in behind trying to compete with what Apple has perfect (iTunes, iBooks, etc..) I wish Google would re-focus the entire project from the ground up asking themselves what can we do to continue being open but having a more respectful image? 

    Perhaps giving some developers incentive to make great applications for the platform. Microsoft did it with Windows Phone 7 they gave them money and advertising time etc, Apple does it too (not to the extent Microsoft did it but they still did it) 

    Finally make a side loading application for the people that want rooted apps and what not that way normal people like consumers don’t see them.

    I’ve got more coming but for now I think this is all.

    1. tgadget reblogged this from android-gripes
    2. tecnologia-android reblogged this from android-gripes
    3. 1-mail-order-brides reblogged this from android-gripes
    4. thiago-silva reblogged this from android-gripes and added:
      But stuff like these...best mobile system today.
    5. c4jones2 reblogged this from android-gripes and added:
      keep bringing up...myself about my next phone purchase. The internal struggle
    6. android-gripes posted this