With iOS 7 needing a complete remodel it wouldn't hurt if Android had a little refresh too, just for good measure.
Lately I've been seeing more of the small inconveniences that come when you become familiar with a device. This is a list of what I would like to see redone in the next version of Android.
A. Better Google Now learning process
My birthday just passed and I didn't get a Happy Birthday message from Google Now even though I did get one from Google on the homepage. What is up with that? Google Now should be going over and going through everything to get me information. I don't particularly care for the way it learns. At the beginning it should send us as much stuff as possible, and then we can change things as it goes. Especially with the interested news section. It should be sending me anything and everything I might like and let me narrow it down. And therefore improving it's results. Instead it waits until it seeing reoccurring searches of a topic before suggesting I get news from it. Users will be less frustrated with too much data than no data.
My birthday just passed and I didn't get a Happy Birthday message from Google Now even though I did get one from Google on the homepage. What is up with that? Google Now should be going over and going through everything to get me information. I don't particularly care for the way it learns. At the beginning it should send us as much stuff as possible, and then we can change things as it goes. Especially with the interested news section. It should be sending me anything and everything I might like and let me narrow it down. And therefore improving it's results. Instead it waits until it seeing reoccurring searches of a topic before suggesting I get news from it. Users will be less frustrated with too much data than no data.
B. Messaging chat system - both Android and Google
This has been a thing for a while now but I didn't get annoyed at it until lately. I've been using the Chrome extensions for Google Talk on the computer and after some regular use you start to understand that it doesn't save the messages! What is this, Snapchat?? Google should really integrate this with Gmail so that all the messages are saved like email threads in a separate, IM only inbox. This goes for the chat in Hangouts as well.
On Android switching between Google Chat, Messages, Messenger and whatever other IMs are used on your phone is a complete pain! Can't this be like iOS where it's all in one app? In fact make it better than iOS and allow us to switch IMs based on our preferences and allow third party integration so that all chat systems can add onto it making it better!
This has been a thing for a while now but I didn't get annoyed at it until lately. I've been using the Chrome extensions for Google Talk on the computer and after some regular use you start to understand that it doesn't save the messages! What is this, Snapchat?? Google should really integrate this with Gmail so that all the messages are saved like email threads in a separate, IM only inbox. This goes for the chat in Hangouts as well.
On Android switching between Google Chat, Messages, Messenger and whatever other IMs are used on your phone is a complete pain! Can't this be like iOS where it's all in one app? In fact make it better than iOS and allow us to switch IMs based on our preferences and allow third party integration so that all chat systems can add onto it making it better!
C. Google Play Music
Well first of all this needs to come to Canada. Seriously its been a year. But more specific to this post, the Android application for Google Play Music is extremely difficult to navigate through and the queue feature is quite confusing. This application needs to be remodeled to fit the holo theme, to have better in-application navigation and to make listing to music/playlists/soundtracks simple.
D. Back navigation
This issue is well described in Armando Ferreira's video. The back button needs to be re-done in Android. There are too many uses for it. Should the back button go to the last page that the device was showing or be used to navigable through applications. In my opinion - both. If the last page is the home screen, why would I use the the back button to get to back to the home screen, I'd use the home button. Also, the top right corner of applications can not double as a back button. We have a dedicated back button for that. That top right button should only be for accessing the in-application menu.
For now, these are few of the annoyances in the Android platform. However, Android is also known for its good self-improvements so I don't expect to see some of these issues being around in the next few years.
Refining Life
~ASKalburgi
PS. I have a few draft blogs that aren't written yet saved on the account. I'm really busy right now but they are there and I won't forget about them.