A lot of this other than the last point just sounds like a consequence of modern trends and the fact that the phone industry is no longer experimental; I think a lot of iOS people, as well as people who were phone enthusiasts before smartphones feel the same way honestly.
Yep, I was definitely and android enthusiast, flashing custom ROMs and tweaking them. I haven't done that in at least 7 years because it's not as fun anymore. Also, modern android versions are pretty tight, so you rarely (if ever) need to mess with them. So I don't.
@@a4andreiexactly, and pretty much anything than can’t be solved or fixed by the default OS can just be changed by getting a different phone or launcher
it's really a shame how tech these days is so homogenous, but it's something that was bound to happen eventually. tech, specially mobile tech, in the early 2000's to mid 2010's was still a new thing and slowly being adopted, back then people didn't really grasp what the internet was exactly and to which extent it could be used, so that's why phone designs used to be more stylish and have more character, they didn't make people think about the tech itself but instead the aspects that surrounded it, they were designed to make people go "huh what's this funky thing?", now that the internet is widespread and seen as a general necessity people no longer want to buy colorful phones with wacky designs, they just need something that gets the job done, and companies know that, which is why tech design nowadays is so minimalistic and homogenous.
This video perfectly explains what made Android so great back in the day. While modern Android devices are usable, they always felt lacking and identical compared the varied and featured filled devices of the early 2010s. I think it really went downhill once the Android OS and its devices wanted to BE Apple instead of being a more unique option for more tech savvy people.
Great Video, for me personally Android peaked with 6.0. That Software was peak OG Material Design and it is still supported by 95% of Apps till this day. What I am personally most nostalgic about is the old Touch Wiz UI. I loved that UI with its ahead of time features and Design that was a great middle ground of iOS 6' skeuomorphism and Material UI's minimalism. Also for Android 12 - I am just so burnt out of today's minimalism and once again taking away control from the user. The fact that in an UI all about colors, you can't even select your color really, just have to use what the wallpaper provides speaks for itsself.
Interesting you say that, because besides kitkat, my second choice for favorite Android version would be Lollipop or Marshmallow! Yep, I agree, old touch whiz was really amazing too. A lot of nostalgia there. Android 12 is branded as super “personalized” with the whole color thing to distract from the fact that they are really taking away a lot of the actual customization and choice that made android so great.
@@Undefined.100 my favorite thing about the golden age of android were the homebrew games that amateur developers were making. They were fun and really entertaining. Like Hexage studios that really just made the most pleasant and beautiful looking games ever like buka, radiant, and robotek. And of course when angry birds, cut the rope, fruit ninja, and others were brand new and novel. They genuinely wanted to make fun gams that people loved. It was really sad when cyber minimalism took over and the playstore was overrun with shitty gacha games that were just there to spread malware or trick people into spending money. there was no soul anymore and everything was just a vehicle for you to spend money on microtransactions or to cram as many ads and telemetry into everything.
@@lv1543 I'm not very familiar with the homebrew scene at the time, but that sounds awesome. I do however have a lot of Nostalgia for angry birds, cut the rope, fruit ninja, candy crush, geometry dash, subway surfers, etc. You're right in the sense that Mobile games like that aren't really a thing anymore. Now they are like things to do when you'e bored instead of ubiquitous staples of pop-culture (expect maybe clash of clans, but even that was more popular back then). I have a theory that the rise of cheap Indie games on systems like the xbox, ps4 and switch sort of replaced the spot these mobile games held. Among us, of course is sort of an exception to the rule, but not really, because it was more of a social/cultural phenomenon instead of just a mobile game.
@@Undefined.100 you should check out Hexage games on the playstore. These were definitely so underappreciated and overlooked because the market is highly competitive. and i agree about indie games on the ps4 and steam. i also belive that mobile game players were on mobile because they probably didnt have access to expensive hardware but as time went on and they got money and bought new hardware they moved on to games that were more than casual.
I miss Android 4 so much, but not just the OS itself but also what you could add with root and Xposed. There was so much amazing customization and tweaking available that I'd spend hours playing around with. I feel like the tweaking community has kind of died down these days and there's so much less available to do.
I admit a big factor contributing to this is the refinement of OEM skins and AOSP itself, base feature sets are better now almost everywhere. For example I was a sucker for Pie controls but with the gesture navigation system introduced in Android 10 they're kind of redundant now.
I actually had an Asus Nexus 7 tablet in 2013-2016 and those things were so hackable when it came to the OS. I mean, at one point, I actually had a dual boot setup with full desktop Ubuntu and Android on it using MultiROM. Unfortunately, I broke the charging board on it, so I can't really use it anymore. With my current Samsung tablet, I can install a GSI and a custom recovery on it, but not really anything else and to be honest, GSIs are so buggy and unoptimized, I might as well stick with original software.
I actually love Material You. However sometimes i get nostalgic for skeuomorphic design too. I also think Lollipop was great too, i really like Lollipop's colorful aesthetic that is neither completely flat nor skeuomorphic
You put into words what I hadn’t been able to fully describe. I switched from iOS to Android in late 2012 with the Nexus 4 and combined with the HTC One I got after it, those have been my peak smartphone years ever! After that I got an S7 edge that was awesome, but the charm of a new phone kinda wore off and then I got an LG V30 and I kinda hated it, it was good, but it seemed like android had peaked and it actually felt more buggy than the S7. By fall 2019 I switched back to iOS with the iPhone 11 and described Android as kinda stagnant. The IPhone 11 taught me that specs don’t really matter and now I have the 13 pro, but I’ve feel like hardware-wise I’ve peeked. Most likely I’ll keep this phone for more than two years, which being a techie, I’ve never done. I’ve stayed with iOS because of iOS 14, it really made iOS personalization able to compete with Android and made it feel fun for the first time in more than a decade. Android on the other hand seems to be going to extremes to seem personalizable and fun, and has lost it’s charm. I wouldn’t put it as harshly as you did in the video, but I definitely miss old Android
almost the exact same situation here, was on iOS until 2012 when i ditched my iPhone 4s and got an HTC One M7 during peak years of android and fell in love with it. After that it was a Galaxy S6 Edge then Note 8 & 9 which is when i realized i didn’t have have a need for android anymore + it just wasn’t as exciting as it used to be. I came back late 2019 with the iPhone 11 Pro but damn do I miss those days 😢
Maybe i've gotten older but i haven't been excited about newer versions of Android in quite a while. I'm doing the same thing i've been doing for years anyway but every once in a while i gotta learn a new shortcut. Maybe in a few years someone will say android 11 is the golden age. Might be because when you start using a smartphone and discovering all the cool stuff you can do you fall in love with it.
I personally don't really like how Android looked before its 5th version, and I do really like the new Material You design, but I guess that has to do with the first one looking more dated now and I also wasn't using it back then. I do agree that they shouldn't have dropped the use of dessert names, though. And I also think that Android is becoming with each new version a more closed system that respects less the user, and I'm planning on maybe making a video about it. Overall, very good video. I hope that you keep making more. Already subscribed! :)
THANK YOU! I 100% agree with everything you said and I thought I was the only person who felt this way. KitKat felt like the perfected version of Holo; it was simple and straightforward without being obnoxious or overly flat. I loved Roboto, the icons, and the whole laidback aesthetic, it felt super chill. Even little stuff like the art for the headers in the Google Now app was an awesome touch. I really miss the 2012-2014 Android scene, with awesome phones like the HTC One M7/M8, Nexus 4/5, OnePlus One, Moto X, tablets like the Nexus 7 2012/3, and exciting new products like the Chromecast, not to mention that the custom rom and customization community was WAY more active back then, with Cyanogenmod and stuff. I still feel like 2014 was the peak of Android; I remember watching Google I/O that year and feeling so excited. Android 12/13 looks super childish and over-designed to me. It feels like an insecure teenager yelling “LOOK AT ME! NOTICE HOW PRETTY I AM!”. I really miss the cute desert names and all of Android’s personality. Now, it really doesn’t feel all that different than iOS to me. That approach works for Apple, but I definitely miss when Android had its alternative feel. I still love Android though, and I understand that design has to change overtime.
I miss the unique hardware so much it hurts. I wish I could find mid to high end phones with a unique look and a screen size that actually fits my pocket. Subscrbing to your channel right now. T-T
I have to admit, though: from the perspective of a developer, it's way easier to make apps with that boring minimalist look, because there are less graphical assets to worry about, so that's another reason this trend has been going on. I just don't like it, lol.
My favorite tech aesthetic was the Android papercut theme/style and the early Windows 8 semi-areo style. Kind of flat but still has shadows and some transparency with a dash of skiomorphism here and there.
You know the OS still have dessert names internally? Queen Cake, Red Velvet Cake, Snow Cone, Tiramisu, Upside down cake. Add this to it's following video.
@JustASurvivalcraftWolf I'm talking about easter eggs that are related to the Android version's internal name (for example, Android Jelly Bean has the bean flinger as an easter egg)
I actually wasn’t a huge fan of android’s design back in the day and was really excited back in the day when I learned about Google’s new Material design aesthetic and enjoyed that design continued to become more and more minimalist. but after watching this video and other ones you’ve made, I can really see the case for a return or even some kind of mix between these two designs - I hope your videos get really popular so that maybe others can see too there should be a resurgence in more humanistic design. Besides that i also think once things go full minimalist the only way to go back is towards maximalism so maybe we will trend back to some later stage of this aesthetic
The good old days. I remember rooting my Samsung Galaxy Ace to hell back in the day. Changing ROMS almost everyday. My goal was to run Minecraft in it, and play with my friends. Later I realised that it couldn't be solved by software. So they bought me a Motrola G1. This was when Minecraft was still called Pocket Edition. Security got tighten after KitKat. In 5.0 was harder to root your phone but was still possible. It doesn't seem to be that long ago, but in reality 8 years has pass since then. I feel like if it was less.
me too, i had a galaxy ace that i modded to hell and overclocked, running cyanogenmod, i learned a lot from tinkering with my phone in my younger days. i was determined to root every single phone that i own in the future until i had my xperia c which is unmoddable. Then i stopped thinking about rooting because you have to unlock your bootloader first nowadays
@@reidnothing It's possible for the most part nowdays, but it's way too tricky and risky. Maybe I'll do it when my phone gets too old to use and doesn't get any more updates. It actually saved me once, updated from 7 to 10. A bunch of applications got fixed. But my bank application refuse to start because I had the thing rooted.
I love this video so much! I was 10 in 2014 but I was using a tablet with stock android 4.4, it was my first experience with a smart device so that version is so special for me!
Jellybean is definitely when Android started being taken seriously as a competitor. It can’t match iOS’s aesthetic and style but it’s charming on its own. God do I miss this style instead of their bland modern look- good thing for Launchers
honestly I feel the complete opposite, I was never a fan of android design choices, it always looked dated, or cheap and unpolished, and only with the Material 2.0 and Material You Era, that I started to appreciate Google's design choices.
my first device that was actually mine was a tablet that ran on this os, and i can easily say that that was the best part of my life by far. i really, really miss those times. life just seemed to be way better, and whatever these companies were doing with their devices really added onto the atmosphere and now it adds to the nostalgia. i was quite young and idiotic when i had that tablet though, so by the time i got a new device it was almost unusable. like it just wouldnt charge. i honestly feel terrible for the things i did to it. sure, i guess you could say it feeds my nostalgia by really distancing me from the possibility of revisiting it, but it wouldve been nice to browser through my old pictures/apps on a nostalgia trip. idk, im kinda rambling. love the video though. i love all of your videos. recently there seem to be more and more channels showing up based on nostalgia, whether it be older versions of games or older operating systems/devices. im quite glad for that, but it really makes you wonder what kind of path the world has taken for us to yearn for the past so much
I love you for saying out loud that you really miss things we cherish from our childhood. It's so weird being a grown up now and all the tech is changing to soulless.
Excellent video. I just found my old Galaxy S3 with the SlimKat rom loaded onto it. Such nice memories. Probably my favorite Android experience ever. You are right, it was such a great time of things maturing yet being experimental at the same time.
4:04 I’ve been a massive unapologetic android fan all throughout the 2010s. I even had the sticker of this bot on the back of my old car for years. I really, really miss these old days of android where it had such a strong identity and look it was much more exciting being an android user
Finally someone who talks about the good old Android! I miss my old Tablet with 4.4 KitKat on it, such a beautiful OS. I wish Google added texture and depth back to their software, it feels so boring nowadays. I remember the skeumorphic GApps icons, they had so much personality. Not even talking about how Android is getting more and more locked when freedom is what made it so special. Android was a special OS, a beautiful one at that. What happened to it man...
That's also back when everyone jailbroke their iphones. You might like the Plum Gator. It has stock android 11 with oem unlocking, a headphone jack, and a rugged design. Also a microsd card slot for 128gb of expandable storage.
Was also the golden age of the unofficial android development scene with custom roms and kernals being a large part of that enthusiast scene. Users could squeeze a few more years out of aging devices thanks to the vibrancy of the development scenes and the XDA forums.
I wasn't even alive in the 90's, but due to living in a third world country and thus, not having access to the latest tech when I was a kid; as well as looking for different aesthetics as inspo for my graphic design hobby, I was surprised with how much personality everything had. People could customize their PCs (hardware and apps), their web pages, everything, in ways we can't even imagine doing today. Looking back, I remember changing the skins on Winamp or the Windows media player on Windows XP. The art direction of different games of that era as well, such as Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit, NFSU 1 & 2 and many more. I think that this era of android was the last remaining of this charm, personality and possibility of customization, even if it was already really watered down a whole lot. I think this does not only have to do with graphic design trends, but it is also a way to suppress people's personalities and dumbing them down. We can see this with the old internet as well, when people would go out their way to create a web page of their own. I get that today's internet is more practical, but it is also restraining and killing the user's freedom. Apps like Instagram, YT, Facebook and Google itself are the enemy of this freedom and are causing the death of the internet. Went on a rant here, but I really wish to go back to this type of aesthetics and being free of the minimalistic corporate wokeness that you mentioned in the video. You have a new subscriber.
While I like the aero design style of the early 2010s what I really like is the mid 90s to early 2000s era of industrial design which gave us operating systems like Windows 95-XP, OS 9, etc. While I'm not an expert on smartphones, I also feel like the golden age of smartphones was prior to around 2017 before when everything turned into bezel-less design, such as Samsung dropping their beautiful metallic bezel look after the S7
i still remember my first phone htc with android kitkat, it had the vibe and soul, now i have nothing phone although different than other phones but still lack that vibe and soul due to android and its hardware too.
I think the golden age has a lot to do with the hardware also. Easily swappable batteries, sd cars, and sim cards made for great hardware flexibility. And now the hardware feels basically like sealed disposable black boxes.
i absolutely adore andriod kitkat and older andriod OS. i genuinely believe that if i was older back then, i would’ve had an andriod instead of an iphone
as a power user I really hate what google has been doing to more recent versions of android like making ```adb backup``` basically useless and the whole thing with restricting the file system permissions for accessing android/data, android/obb and a few others I can't remember.
i loved trying dozens of custom roms for my mid range android. testing out the new skins, the performance bumps and all that. Right now almost all of the custom roms are just pixel copies. You used to be able to make your samsung phone a sony clone. It was amazing.
i been using Android since eclair and i was a big fan of the stock live wallpapers, there was one called water which was the first lwp in which you could interact with water by touching it,, that lwp is firmly embedded in my brain, they were eventually removed from android after kitkat if i remember correctly
First of all: I love this video! Thanks for making videos in this niche. To be clear: I like the Material You design, maybe that's where some of my following points come from. I just think it's interesting how some of your points are contradictory. Mainly, I think most of the decisions regarding current Android versions has to do with the user base. Like you said, some of them are more on the tech side of things, but Android is by far the most mainstream smartphone operating system. So you can't cater to only that niche group of people. Also, I think Material you is the best attempt to account for individuality while being the most popular operating system. It's Google trying to find a balance between mass appeal and still having a soul (an ever-changing soul, to be fair). And sadly, the end of the dessert naming scheme or the bugdroids might just be _because_ they try to treat their users like adults. Some might've considered these sort of things "nerdy" or weird. All that being said, I'm still curious as to how many people actually like Material You and the bold design. I like it, but that means nothing. It's certainly a very brave move by Google. However, I don't think they're fading out Material Design like you expected in another video. The design will change, but the Material Behavior will stay - hopefully.
someone like me who embraced apple from 2007 till 2015, I am disappointed in myself for not embracing the colorful joys that Android had while i was stuck in the regulated environments that apple provided.
I really miss an older version of the update screen. I loved watching that shape rotate when grandma got a new phone a while ago and it needed an update
KitKat was also the last era when many OEMs made phones with removable batteries AND MicroSd support. In the years after we'd quickly lose the former while the latter died more slowly. IR Blasters were also more common during this era. Everything could be guaranteed to have a headphone jack. You had a true choice in the size of your phone, unlike these days where everything is what we used to call a Phablet. Sure the death of bezels makes a 6 inch screen much more manageable but there aren't very many truly 1 handed flagships like there used to be. And aside from all of that, you could find new apps in the App Store or Play Store that weren't fucking subscription based. At most you'd pay a 1 time fee of $10 (again, at the absolute most) and get a nice, ad free experience. No longer. Now you're lucky if they charge you $10/month for something as simple as a calculator or calendar app. Androids of this era also had decent tablet selection too. Now it's literally just Samsung, and virtually no one buys those tablets either. I doubt this decade will end with anyone making Android tablets anymore. And yes, I'm predicting Google's upcoming Pixel tablet will fail too. You also had a lot greater choice for OEMs. HTC and LG were still a thing. Motorola was riding high with its Moto X and G lines (The X costing probably half of what flagships do today). These days it's 99% Samsung/Pixel with maybe a OnePlus or a crappy Motorola phone thrown in. And you still don't have choices in the hardware like you used to. KitKat was truly the last amazing Android version. 2014 was peak smartphone.
Fact: I still use android kitkat on my old tablet, it’s a shame google ended support to it. (Least TH-cam is still working on the browser chrome) An other fact: android kitkat was the most stable version of android.
I miss it so much... Nothing has a soul anymore. I made so much customisations to my pc and phone to make them look old (good) again. My firefox looks like IE 9.0, my youtube and google looks like it's from 2010, and I would make my phone ook like kitkat, but sadly the launcher doesn't support widescreen. 2008-2013 was the best time to live, but everything went down after 2014.
Absolutely spot-on. This was also the golden age for custom roms, XDA was 🔥until the late 2010s. I had so much fun and learned a LOT from bricking and unbricking my phones, you had to know what you were doing and I'll never forget the creativity and genius of the devs on the scene back in the day. It was wild, I remember having to bridge a solder contact with a paperclip to root one of my phones from this era. It felt like you could do a lot more with early/mid-2010s phones too, you had more control over things cause back then the focus was "this phone has cool features and you can do whatever you want with it" instead of "our pastel colors and soothing animations create a portable safe space, now take some deep breaths and don't install anything we don't approve of". I absolutely hate how android OEMs have locked everything down, that was the one trend I desperately hoped they'd never copy from Apple. I _could_ still root, but the dev scene is all but dead now and with efuses, safetynet, FRP, knox, etc it's just not worth getting locked out of my banking apps and getting told to GFM if I ever need warranty service. I am happy that most of the features I used to root & rom for are built in now, but... I just really miss modding. Kinda kills my soul a little, yes I"m being dramatic lol
My first ever smartphone was a Galaxy Note 4 and I loved that phone to bits 😅 That phone was packed with features and you’d really feel that it was designed for a smartphone enthusiast. Early to mid 2010s was an exciting time to be an android user because there’s a lot of competition from other brands to be the “best flagship ever” and the custom ROM communities were really active. Glad I found this video though!
I'm leaning more toward the early material design of Android 6, but to each their own. I had a tablet back in the day which ran pretty much stock Kit Kat. I had good memories of it.
The thing I really disliked about those early Nexus devices (especially tablets) was bad battery life Also red blinking light of death on Nexus 4 still gives me nightmares
Thank you for this! This video hit right in the feels! Apologies for the incoming boomer-like rant, but "they really don't make 'em Androids the way they used to..." Ah the sweet, sweet nostalgia of the early 2010s Android: the anticipation of new version announcements, the charm of discovering the hidden Easter eggs and the thrill of running risky bootleg mods just for fun! 😪 And the Nexus series is especially close to my heart: I scoured newspapers & Facebook groups for months to find discounts, travelled to a different city where a store had it on sale and used the savings from my first summer internship to buy the Nexus 4. Will never forget the joy of peeling away the plastic covering stickers to reveal the artistic & technological masterpiece that it was - the unebelievably sleek profile, the all-glass body in shimmering black, the incredible hardware (especially the touchscreen & camera) and the polished interface of Kitkat! 😍 I felt like the ape discovering the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey! Simpler and happier times...
Also, the OS is slowly getting locked down too. Third party file explorers are not as powerful as before because of new restrictions and it's sooooo annoying.
I might be the first one to say it but I think I like the minimalist design that android got, more. I feel like the aero design, that you praise in your channel, while charming and nostalgic, does give me horrible clunk vibes due to the hardware it used to run back then. Now android looks more coherent with material design. Does look a bit soulless though, yet, I would not say that it is more childish than older versions. Any disagreement asides, I really like your videos and this one is no exception. Looking forward to the next one!
"And most of all, i miss android." That was a burn. Thank you for making this video. I used android in the past but quickly switched over to Apple from the lack of personality Android used to have. I miss android; This video was truly amazing in so many ways and warmed my heart by letting me know there's someone out there who understands. Edit: Grammar
Do you personally see more personality in Apple products compared to Android? Because, to be honest, I feel that both companies are heading in the same direction in terms of character (among many other things).
@@fl570 I feel the same way, it’s just that I think Android has lost some character in the corporate minimalism and dumbed-down system mentioned in the video.
I can truly identify with this mindset. It's so refreshing to see someone appreciate how companies used to do things obviously corporately and not always ethically, but by still investing in minor things such as branding, marketing, and various other minor details in their products in order to make them fun/cute, charming, and most importantly different from the competition. It showed care was still put into what they made, unlike most stuff that is done today. Please, keep this mature mindset; it's great to see that some people are actually able to think critically and see how things are changing/in what direction they are heading. Thank you again for this. P.S. As a side note, I have been seeing similar changes in a number of other industries other than technology in regards to design, for instance in the automotive industry; do you have any particular thoughts on modern car/vehicle designs, particularly the last wave of ICE vehicles before the trend of EVs started, compared to car design in the 70s/80s/90s/2000s?
Yeah, I loved 4.4, it was simple, it started to feel like a professionally designed UI and then Google just went on a new venture with 5.0 and material.
I ordered an Archos Gamepad 2 tablet running android 4 because I wanted a cheap device to stream my pc games and the relive the old android experience. I miss 2015 man.
As a new entrant to phones, I personally believe that we are entering a new Golden Age. Android 12 has a beautiful design language and pulls the phone together. Android 13 is looking good as well.
I found my old Xperia with kitkat and the huge (compared to modern phones) forehead and chin bezels. I can't lie KitKat still looks good and being able to hold a phone in landscape comfortably is something I would rather have, than what we have now.
Im glad you mentioned the dessert names and bug droids, i remember i got my first android phone in gingerbread, and the marketing as well as a lot of 3d promotional stuff with the droid appealed to the younger me. Same can be said with ios 5 (i think) when everything was skeuomorphic and then ios6 onwards everything has been corporate minminalism, like literally everything else
I recently got into emulating Android which isn't really a terribly popular thing nowadays, but while doing so, I started really getting into the history of Android. I figured out what my first phone ran (KitKat), what I run now (Pie) and how Android itself evolved. I love the look of old Android and now find myself using older emulators such as Jar of Beans and Windroy just for the old Android experience.
I miss so much the icons!! Now they all look the same. The same goes for icons that use the white background on iOS… just makes everything feel so dead :(
I think Google worked hard to cleanse the personality from Android, but part of that is because it didn't want to look like the nerdy alternative to iOS. Especially in the US, where it's not as common. Not to mention people were reskinning their phones all the time anyway. With this minimalist design, phone manufacturers seem more incentivised to leave the design work in Google's hands and just leave it as is. I do miss it though. Kit Kat on Nexus 4 was the bomb, so so cool. And that display was just amazing.
This video really reminded me why i used to be such a big phone enthusiast. I havent cared about phones at all since the LG G3 came out and actually have grown to loath them lol. The variety and spec + design combinations were really fun to choose from. I remember the HTC One with the front facing speakers being insane back in the day.
I have never felt like content was more laser focused on my interests specifically than this video. I had a Nexus 5, and I still have a Nexus 10 stuck on its final update to Lollipop that I pull out and poke at from time to time.
I will never forget during 2008 when my mom had the Galaxy Flip thingy and I would watch Sonic Unleashed videos in 240p and felt like it wad the coolest thing ever. Old android youtube was also black with a yellow bar for the video timing which was neat.
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A lot of this other than the last point just sounds like a consequence of modern trends and the fact that the phone industry is no longer experimental; I think a lot of iOS people, as well as people who were phone enthusiasts before smartphones feel the same way honestly.
But but but capitalism breeds innovation!!!!
Yep, I was definitely and android enthusiast, flashing custom ROMs and tweaking them. I haven't done that in at least 7 years because it's not as fun anymore. Also, modern android versions are pretty tight, so you rarely (if ever) need to mess with them. So I don't.
@@moritzwagner4332 capitalism destroys innovation
@@a4andreiexactly, and pretty much anything than can’t be solved or fixed by the default OS can just be changed by getting a different phone or launcher
@@JoeMemes Then what do you think breeds it? It's certainly not communism.
DUDE FINALLY SOMEONE UNDERSTANDS. AERO ASTHETIC WAS THE BEST ASTHETIC HANDS DOWN
HAHA yep that's what I feel with every new like, comment, and subscriber. Like wow other people agree with me. Thanks for all your comments!
Sorry I didn't use Android KitKat so i prob missed out
@@Undefined.100 I still have my S3 and S3 Mini VE. Good times
rip design 2005-2017 😪
YESSSS, I HAD A ARGUMENT WITH A FRIEND ABOUT IT, AERO WAS THE BEST
you dont understand how much this is near and dear to my soul.
it's really a shame how tech these days is so homogenous, but it's something that was bound to happen eventually. tech, specially mobile tech, in the early 2000's to mid 2010's was still a new thing and slowly being adopted, back then people didn't really grasp what the internet was exactly and to which extent it could be used, so that's why phone designs used to be more stylish and have more character, they didn't make people think about the tech itself but instead the aspects that surrounded it, they were designed to make people go "huh what's this funky thing?", now that the internet is widespread and seen as a general necessity people no longer want to buy colorful phones with wacky designs, they just need something that gets the job done, and companies know that, which is why tech design nowadays is so minimalistic and homogenous.
all you get nowadays is glass sandwiches with chin and fugly camera bumps
You said facts here, the absolute truth
This video perfectly explains what made Android so great back in the day. While modern Android devices are usable, they always felt lacking and identical compared the varied and featured filled devices of the early 2010s. I think it really went downhill once the Android OS and its devices wanted to BE Apple instead of being a more unique option for more tech savvy people.
Great Video, for me personally Android peaked with 6.0. That Software was peak OG Material Design and it is still supported by 95% of Apps till this day.
What I am personally most nostalgic about is the old Touch Wiz UI. I loved that UI with its ahead of time features and Design that was a great middle ground of iOS 6' skeuomorphism and Material UI's minimalism.
Also for Android 12 - I am just so burnt out of today's minimalism and once again taking away control from the user. The fact that in an UI all about colors, you can't even select your color really, just have to use what the wallpaper provides speaks for itsself.
Interesting you say that, because besides kitkat, my second choice for favorite Android version would be Lollipop or Marshmallow!
Yep, I agree, old touch whiz was really amazing too. A lot of nostalgia there.
Android 12 is branded as super “personalized” with the whole color thing to distract from the fact that they are really taking away a lot of the actual customization and choice that made android so great.
@@Undefined.100 my favorite thing about the golden age of android were the homebrew games that amateur developers were making. They were fun and really entertaining. Like Hexage studios that really just made the most pleasant and beautiful looking games ever like buka, radiant, and robotek. And of course when angry birds, cut the rope, fruit ninja, and others were brand new and novel. They genuinely wanted to make fun gams that people loved. It was really sad when cyber minimalism took over and the playstore was overrun with shitty gacha games that were just there to spread malware or trick people into spending money. there was no soul anymore and everything was just a vehicle for you to spend money on microtransactions or to cram as many ads and telemetry into everything.
@@lv1543 I'm not very familiar with the homebrew scene at the time, but that sounds awesome. I do however have a lot of Nostalgia for angry birds, cut the rope, fruit ninja, candy crush, geometry dash, subway surfers, etc. You're right in the sense that Mobile games like that aren't really a thing anymore. Now they are like things to do when you'e bored instead of ubiquitous staples of pop-culture (expect maybe clash of clans, but even that was more popular back then). I have a theory that the rise of cheap Indie games on systems like the xbox, ps4 and switch sort of replaced the spot these mobile games held. Among us, of course is sort of an exception to the rule, but not really, because it was more of a social/cultural phenomenon instead of just a mobile game.
@@Undefined.100 you should check out Hexage games on the playstore. These were definitely so underappreciated and overlooked because the market is highly competitive. and i agree about indie games on the ps4 and steam. i also belive that mobile game players were on mobile because they probably didnt have access to expensive hardware but as time went on and they got money and bought new hardware they moved on to games that were more than casual.
@@lv1543 radiant was great, especially on AMOLED displays
I miss Android 4 so much, but not just the OS itself but also what you could add with root and Xposed. There was so much amazing customization and tweaking available that I'd spend hours playing around with. I feel like the tweaking community has kind of died down these days and there's so much less available to do.
Yeah. I use LineageOS and it’s funny how my motivation is that it offers less, not, as it would’ve been around 2013, that it offers more.
I admit a big factor contributing to this is the refinement of OEM skins and AOSP itself, base feature sets are better now almost everywhere. For example I was a sucker for Pie controls but with the gesture navigation system introduced in Android 10 they're kind of redundant now.
I actually had an Asus Nexus 7 tablet in 2013-2016 and those things were so hackable when it came to the OS. I mean, at one point, I actually had a dual boot setup with full desktop Ubuntu and Android on it using MultiROM. Unfortunately, I broke the charging board on it, so I can't really use it anymore. With my current Samsung tablet, I can install a GSI and a custom recovery on it, but not really anything else and to be honest, GSIs are so buggy and unoptimized, I might as well stick with original software.
The thumbnail alone brings back so many memories
Hey sonic what do you think of hydrocity
@@CreeperG3 Best zone in 3K
I actually love Material You. However sometimes i get nostalgic for skeuomorphic design too. I also think Lollipop was great too, i really like Lollipop's colorful aesthetic that is neither completely flat nor skeuomorphic
Same
Same, I love minimalism
I love Holo
peak kino. love your channel.
Thank you!! :)
You put into words what I hadn’t been able to fully describe. I switched from iOS to Android in late 2012 with the Nexus 4 and combined with the HTC One I got after it, those have been my peak smartphone years ever! After that I got an S7 edge that was awesome, but the charm of a new phone kinda wore off and then I got an LG V30 and I kinda hated it, it was good, but it seemed like android had peaked and it actually felt more buggy than the S7. By fall 2019 I switched back to iOS with the iPhone 11 and described Android as kinda stagnant. The IPhone 11 taught me that specs don’t really matter and now I have the 13 pro, but I’ve feel like hardware-wise I’ve peeked. Most likely I’ll keep this phone for more than two years, which being a techie, I’ve never done. I’ve stayed with iOS because of iOS 14, it really made iOS personalization able to compete with Android and made it feel fun for the first time in more than a decade. Android on the other hand seems to be going to extremes to seem personalizable and fun, and has lost it’s charm. I wouldn’t put it as harshly as you did in the video, but I definitely miss old Android
almost the exact same situation here, was on iOS until 2012 when i ditched my iPhone 4s and got an HTC One M7 during peak years of android and fell in love with it. After that it was a Galaxy S6 Edge then Note 8 & 9 which is when i realized i didn’t have have a need for android anymore + it just wasn’t as exciting as it used to be. I came back late 2019 with the iPhone 11 Pro but damn do I miss those days 😢
Maybe i've gotten older but i haven't been excited about newer versions of Android in quite a while. I'm doing the same thing i've been doing for years anyway but every once in a while i gotta learn a new shortcut.
Maybe in a few years someone will say android 11 is the golden age. Might be because when you start using a smartphone and discovering all the cool stuff you can do you fall in love with it.
if anyone ever says that 'android 11' is good, then they have serious issues.
that's because every version update seemed to have massive performance, feature and ui updates back then
your comments tells me you didn’t even watch the video 😅
I personally don't really like how Android looked before its 5th version, and I do really like the new Material You design, but I guess that has to do with the first one looking more dated now and I also wasn't using it back then.
I do agree that they shouldn't have dropped the use of dessert names, though. And I also think that Android is becoming with each new version a more closed system that respects less the user, and I'm planning on maybe making a video about it.
Overall, very good video. I hope that you keep making more. Already subscribed! :)
THANK YOU! I 100% agree with everything you said and I thought I was the only person who felt this way. KitKat felt like the perfected version of Holo; it was simple and straightforward without being obnoxious or overly flat. I loved Roboto, the icons, and the whole laidback aesthetic, it felt super chill. Even little stuff like the art for the headers in the Google Now app was an awesome touch. I really miss the 2012-2014 Android scene, with awesome phones like the HTC One M7/M8, Nexus 4/5, OnePlus One, Moto X, tablets like the Nexus 7 2012/3, and exciting new products like the Chromecast, not to mention that the custom rom and customization community was WAY more active back then, with Cyanogenmod and stuff. I still feel like 2014 was the peak of Android; I remember watching Google I/O that year and feeling so excited.
Android 12/13 looks super childish and over-designed to me. It feels like an insecure teenager yelling “LOOK AT ME! NOTICE HOW PRETTY I AM!”. I really miss the cute desert names and all of Android’s personality. Now, it really doesn’t feel all that different than iOS to me. That approach works for Apple, but I definitely miss when Android had its alternative feel. I still love Android though, and I understand that design has to change overtime.
Well said! 🎯 I’m really glad you found my channel!
I miss the unique hardware so much it hurts. I wish I could find mid to high end phones with a unique look and a screen size that actually fits my pocket. Subscrbing to your channel right now. T-T
I have to admit, though: from the perspective of a developer, it's way easier to make apps with that boring minimalist look, because there are less graphical assets to worry about, so that's another reason this trend has been going on. I just don't like it, lol.
i honestly like android 12/material you. it has a bit more charm and personality to it than regular material that came before it.
My favorite tech aesthetic was the Android papercut theme/style and the early Windows 8 semi-areo style. Kind of flat but still has shadows and some transparency with a dash of skiomorphism here and there.
You know the OS still have dessert names internally? Queen Cake, Red Velvet Cake, Snow Cone, Tiramisu, Upside down cake. Add this to it's following video.
Sure, but only internal. No ads, easter eggs, or anything.
@JustASurvivalcraftWolf I'm talking about easter eggs that are related to the Android version's internal name (for example, Android Jelly Bean has the bean flinger as an easter egg)
@@supernigerian The jelly bean Easter egg is a leftover in Android P
its quince tart
@JASW363 and 11 is ANDROID GODDAMN CATS
I actually wasn’t a huge fan of android’s design back in the day and was really excited back in the day when I learned about Google’s new Material design aesthetic and enjoyed that design continued to become more and more minimalist. but after watching this video and other ones you’ve made, I can really see the case for a return or even some kind of mix between these two designs - I hope your videos get really popular so that maybe others can see too there should be a resurgence in more humanistic design. Besides that i also think once things go full minimalist the only way to go back is towards maximalism so maybe we will trend back to some later stage of this aesthetic
I like Holo and its wallpapers
The good old days. I remember rooting my Samsung Galaxy Ace to hell back in the day. Changing ROMS almost everyday.
My goal was to run Minecraft in it, and play with my friends. Later I realised that it couldn't be solved by software. So they bought me a Motrola G1. This was when Minecraft was still called Pocket Edition.
Security got tighten after KitKat. In 5.0 was harder to root your phone but was still possible.
It doesn't seem to be that long ago, but in reality 8 years has pass since then. I feel like if it was less.
me too, i had a galaxy ace that i modded to hell and overclocked, running cyanogenmod, i learned a lot from tinkering with my phone in my younger days. i was determined to root every single phone that i own in the future until i had my xperia c which is unmoddable.
Then i stopped thinking about rooting because you have to unlock your bootloader first nowadays
Same but Galaxy Y 😭
@@reidnothing It's possible for the most part nowdays, but it's way too tricky and risky. Maybe I'll do it when my phone gets too old to use and doesn't get any more updates.
It actually saved me once, updated from 7 to 10. A bunch of applications got fixed. But my bank application refuse to start because I had the thing rooted.
I miss the old UI of the 2010's too, but the short life span of the batteries and performance I clearly don't. Official retro UI would be perfect!
holo needs to make a comeback
@@hydra3693 TouchWiz too
I love this video so much! I was 10 in 2014 but I was using a tablet with stock android 4.4, it was my first experience with a smart device so that version is so special for me!
Jellybean is definitely when Android started being taken seriously as a competitor. It can’t match iOS’s aesthetic and style but it’s charming on its own. God do I miss this style instead of their bland modern look- good thing for Launchers
honestly I feel the complete opposite, I was never a fan of android design choices, it always looked dated, or cheap and unpolished, and only with the Material 2.0 and Material You Era, that I started to appreciate Google's design choices.
my first device that was actually mine was a tablet that ran on this os, and i can easily say that that was the best part of my life by far. i really, really miss those times. life just seemed to be way better, and whatever these companies were doing with their devices really added onto the atmosphere and now it adds to the nostalgia. i was quite young and idiotic when i had that tablet though, so by the time i got a new device it was almost unusable. like it just wouldnt charge. i honestly feel terrible for the things i did to it. sure, i guess you could say it feeds my nostalgia by really distancing me from the possibility of revisiting it, but it wouldve been nice to browser through my old pictures/apps on a nostalgia trip. idk, im kinda rambling. love the video though. i love all of your videos. recently there seem to be more and more channels showing up based on nostalgia, whether it be older versions of games or older operating systems/devices. im quite glad for that, but it really makes you wonder what kind of path the world has taken for us to yearn for the past so much
I love you for saying out loud that you really miss things we cherish from our childhood. It's so weird being a grown up now and all the tech is changing to soulless.
Excellent video. I just found my old Galaxy S3 with the SlimKat rom loaded onto it. Such nice memories. Probably my favorite Android experience ever.
You are right, it was such a great time of things maturing yet being experimental at the same time.
i love your content❤️ you deserve more subs!
The updates named after desert were such a good idea, os were so pleasant to look at and now it's just like apple corporate tone
I kinda miss lollipop-marshmallow days, but thank god for global dark theme toggle in Q. that alone was enough to make me want to upgrade
4:04 I’ve been a massive unapologetic android fan all throughout the 2010s. I even had the sticker of this bot on the back of my old car for years. I really, really miss these old days of android where it had such a strong identity and look it was much more exciting being an android user
Finally someone who talks about the good old Android! I miss my old Tablet with 4.4 KitKat on it, such a beautiful OS. I wish Google added texture and depth back to their software, it feels so boring nowadays. I remember the skeumorphic GApps icons, they had so much personality. Not even talking about how Android is getting more and more locked when freedom is what made it so special.
Android was a special OS, a beautiful one at that. What happened to it man...
This is what I've always thought but never put fully into words. Thank you :)
I'm on the far left on that graph. You're one of the few who understand how Android feels.
Thank you very much for this video! I totally agree!
Back then, it was all about 3D icons.
Now, we have moved into the age of flat and 2D icons.
Finally SOMEONE understands why old android was the best.
Also my favourite version is kitkat too
(And ICS with all of those no name tablets)
I have fond memories of getting the android update in the dessert era then checking to see what the cool Easter egg was
That's also back when everyone jailbroke their iphones. You might like the Plum Gator. It has stock android 11 with oem unlocking, a headphone jack, and a rugged design. Also a microsd card slot for 128gb of expandable storage.
Yes
iPhone jailbreak and skeumorphism... Nonstalga
MediaTek CPU? Yeah, that OEM unlocking isn’t worth a dime.
androids 4.1 and 4.4 were my main ones back then... i agree with you so much
Was also the golden age of the unofficial android development scene with custom roms and kernals being a large part of that enthusiast scene. Users could squeeze a few more years out of aging devices thanks to the vibrancy of the development scenes and the XDA forums.
This is the oddly specific content i didnt know i needed until now.
Jesus Christ is this an amazing channel, i just found you 40 minutes ago and am binging all your videos. Great Work!
I wasn't even alive in the 90's, but due to living in a third world country and thus, not having access to the latest tech when I was a kid; as well as looking for different aesthetics as inspo for my graphic design hobby, I was surprised with how much personality everything had. People could customize their PCs (hardware and apps), their web pages, everything, in ways we can't even imagine doing today. Looking back, I remember changing the skins on Winamp or the Windows media player on Windows XP. The art direction of different games of that era as well, such as Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit, NFSU 1 & 2 and many more.
I think that this era of android was the last remaining of this charm, personality and possibility of customization, even if it was already really watered down a whole lot.
I think this does not only have to do with graphic design trends, but it is also a way to suppress people's personalities and dumbing them down. We can see this with the old internet as well, when people would go out their way to create a web page of their own. I get that today's internet is more practical, but it is also restraining and killing the user's freedom. Apps like Instagram, YT, Facebook and Google itself are the enemy of this freedom and are causing the death of the internet.
Went on a rant here, but I really wish to go back to this type of aesthetics and being free of the minimalistic corporate wokeness that you mentioned in the video. You have a new subscriber.
Your channel is so underrated! Love your content so much.
the end kinda made me cry..
This TH-camr has to be one of the best aero nostalgic and times coolest youtuber
Thank you for putting into words what I've felt since 2017-ish.
While I like the aero design style of the early 2010s what I really like is the mid 90s to early 2000s era of industrial design which gave us operating systems like Windows 95-XP, OS 9, etc.
While I'm not an expert on smartphones, I also feel like the golden age of smartphones was prior to around 2017 before when everything turned into bezel-less design, such as Samsung dropping their beautiful metallic bezel look after the S7
i still remember my first phone htc with android kitkat, it had the vibe and soul, now i have nothing phone although different than other phones but still lack that vibe and soul due to android and its hardware too.
I think the golden age has a lot to do with the hardware also. Easily swappable batteries, sd cars, and sim cards made for great hardware flexibility. And now the hardware feels basically like sealed disposable black boxes.
ur makin videos that resonate w me so hard. i still have all my old androids laying around and i tinker weth them from time to time
i absolutely adore andriod kitkat and older andriod OS. i genuinely believe that if i was older back then, i would’ve had an andriod instead of an iphone
as a power user I really hate what google has been doing to more recent versions of android like making ```adb backup``` basically useless and the whole thing with restricting the file system permissions for accessing android/data, android/obb and a few others I can't remember.
i loved trying dozens of custom roms for my mid range android. testing out the new skins, the performance bumps and all that. Right now almost all of the custom roms are just pixel copies. You used to be able to make your samsung phone a sony clone. It was amazing.
not to mention most phones now only have GSIs or nothing at all since they can't be unlocked
I still have a phone who runs Android KitKat, I love it! Btw, i love ur videos they're so interesting, keep up the good work!
i been using Android since eclair and i was a big fan of the stock live wallpapers, there was one called water which was the first lwp in which you could interact with water by touching it,, that lwp is firmly embedded in my brain, they were eventually removed from android after kitkat if i remember correctly
First of all: I love this video! Thanks for making videos in this niche. To be clear: I like the Material You design, maybe that's where some of my following points come from. I just think it's interesting how some of your points are contradictory.
Mainly, I think most of the decisions regarding current Android versions has to do with the user base. Like you said, some of them are more on the tech side of things, but Android is by far the most mainstream smartphone operating system. So you can't cater to only that niche group of people. Also, I think Material you is the best attempt to account for individuality while being the most popular operating system. It's Google trying to find a balance between mass appeal and still having a soul (an ever-changing soul, to be fair).
And sadly, the end of the dessert naming scheme or the bugdroids might just be _because_ they try to treat their users like adults. Some might've considered these sort of things "nerdy" or weird.
All that being said, I'm still curious as to how many people actually like Material You and the bold design. I like it, but that means nothing. It's certainly a very brave move by Google. However, I don't think they're fading out Material Design like you expected in another video. The design will change, but the Material Behavior will stay - hopefully.
someone like me who embraced apple from 2007 till 2015, I am disappointed in myself for not embracing the colorful joys that Android had while i was stuck in the regulated environments that apple provided.
Kitkat was my favourite version of Android because of how it treated the notifications as well as it's lighter footprints.
I miss Google’s old icons for Gmail, Maps, Calendar etc.
I really miss an older version of the update screen. I loved watching that shape rotate when grandma got a new phone a while ago and it needed an update
0:06 “I wish there was a way to know that you are in the good old days before you’ve actually left them” -Andy Bernard
KitKat was also the last era when many OEMs made phones with removable batteries AND MicroSd support. In the years after we'd quickly lose the former while the latter died more slowly. IR Blasters were also more common during this era. Everything could be guaranteed to have a headphone jack. You had a true choice in the size of your phone, unlike these days where everything is what we used to call a Phablet. Sure the death of bezels makes a 6 inch screen much more manageable but there aren't very many truly 1 handed flagships like there used to be.
And aside from all of that, you could find new apps in the App Store or Play Store that weren't fucking subscription based. At most you'd pay a 1 time fee of $10 (again, at the absolute most) and get a nice, ad free experience. No longer. Now you're lucky if they charge you $10/month for something as simple as a calculator or calendar app.
Androids of this era also had decent tablet selection too. Now it's literally just Samsung, and virtually no one buys those tablets either. I doubt this decade will end with anyone making Android tablets anymore. And yes, I'm predicting Google's upcoming Pixel tablet will fail too.
You also had a lot greater choice for OEMs. HTC and LG were still a thing. Motorola was riding high with its Moto X and G lines (The X costing probably half of what flagships do today). These days it's 99% Samsung/Pixel with maybe a OnePlus or a crappy Motorola phone thrown in. And you still don't have choices in the hardware like you used to.
KitKat was truly the last amazing Android version. 2014 was peak smartphone.
Fact: I still use android kitkat on my old tablet, it’s a shame google ended support to it. (Least TH-cam is still working on the browser chrome)
An other fact: android kitkat was the most stable version of android.
I miss it so much... Nothing has a soul anymore. I made so much customisations to my pc and phone to make them look old (good) again. My firefox looks like IE 9.0, my youtube and google looks like it's from 2010, and I would make my phone ook like kitkat, but sadly the launcher doesn't support widescreen. 2008-2013 was the best time to live, but everything went down after 2014.
Absolutely spot-on. This was also the golden age for custom roms, XDA was 🔥until the late 2010s. I had so much fun and learned a LOT from bricking and unbricking my phones, you had to know what you were doing and I'll never forget the creativity and genius of the devs on the scene back in the day. It was wild, I remember having to bridge a solder contact with a paperclip to root one of my phones from this era. It felt like you could do a lot more with early/mid-2010s phones too, you had more control over things cause back then the focus was "this phone has cool features and you can do whatever you want with it" instead of "our pastel colors and soothing animations create a portable safe space, now take some deep breaths and don't install anything we don't approve of". I absolutely hate how android OEMs have locked everything down, that was the one trend I desperately hoped they'd never copy from Apple. I _could_ still root, but the dev scene is all but dead now and with efuses, safetynet, FRP, knox, etc it's just not worth getting locked out of my banking apps and getting told to GFM if I ever need warranty service. I am happy that most of the features I used to root & rom for are built in now, but... I just really miss modding. Kinda kills my soul a little, yes I"m being dramatic lol
i miss the old android
the hip and cool android
the custom root android
the silly tones android
the sam and sung android
hahaha yeah
WE NEED SKEUMORPHISM BACK! FLATS HURT MY EYES FLATS HURT MY EYES FLATS HURT MY EYES! WE NEED 3D DESIGNS BACK!
My first ever smartphone was a Galaxy Note 4 and I loved that phone to bits 😅 That phone was packed with features and you’d really feel that it was designed for a smartphone enthusiast.
Early to mid 2010s was an exciting time to be an android user because there’s a lot of competition from other brands to be the “best flagship ever” and the custom ROM communities were really active.
Glad I found this video though!
Nostalgic. Reminds me of my nexus days. I’ve switched to iOS this year. Feels better than the current android experience
I'm leaning more toward the early material design of Android 6, but to each their own. I had a tablet back in the day which ran pretty much stock Kit Kat. I had good memories of it.
The new Android UI looks like something straight out of Animal Crossing.
The thing I really disliked about those early Nexus devices (especially tablets) was bad battery life
Also red blinking light of death on Nexus 4 still gives me nightmares
Thank you for this! This video hit right in the feels!
Apologies for the incoming boomer-like rant, but "they really don't make 'em Androids the way they used to..."
Ah the sweet, sweet nostalgia of the early 2010s Android: the anticipation of new version announcements, the charm of discovering the hidden Easter eggs and the thrill of running risky bootleg mods just for fun! 😪
And the Nexus series is especially close to my heart: I scoured newspapers & Facebook groups for months to find discounts, travelled to a different city where a store had it on sale and used the savings from my first summer internship to buy the Nexus 4. Will never forget the joy of peeling away the plastic covering stickers to reveal the artistic & technological masterpiece that it was - the unebelievably sleek profile, the all-glass body in shimmering black, the incredible hardware (especially the touchscreen & camera) and the polished interface of Kitkat! 😍
I felt like the ape discovering the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey! Simpler and happier times...
Also, the OS is slowly getting locked down too. Third party file explorers are not as powerful as before because of new restrictions and it's sooooo annoying.
I vividly remember this era. I also had a Nabi which practically ran on Android. This is nostalgic as I turned 8 in 2014.
Lollipop was my favorite since it handles external storage better and still retains the aesthetic.
I might be the first one to say it but I think I like the minimalist design that android got, more. I feel like the aero design, that you praise in your channel, while charming and nostalgic, does give me horrible clunk vibes due to the hardware it used to run back then. Now android looks more coherent with material design. Does look a bit soulless though, yet, I would not say that it is more childish than older versions.
Any disagreement asides, I really like your videos and this one is no exception. Looking forward to the next one!
"And most of all, i miss android."
That was a burn. Thank you for making this video. I used android in the past but quickly switched over to Apple from the lack of personality Android used to have. I miss android; This video was truly amazing in so many ways and warmed my heart by letting me know there's someone out there who understands.
Edit: Grammar
Do you personally see more personality in Apple products compared to Android? Because, to be honest, I feel that both companies are heading in the same direction in terms of character (among many other things).
@@fl570 I feel the same way, it’s just that I think Android has lost some character in the corporate minimalism and dumbed-down system mentioned in the video.
Fair enough, I like the design of android 12-13, a uniform approach to widgets and app design is good.
I can truly identify with this mindset.
It's so refreshing to see someone appreciate how companies used to do things obviously corporately and not always ethically, but by still investing in minor things such as branding, marketing, and various other minor details in their products in order to make them fun/cute, charming, and most importantly different from the competition. It showed care was still put into what they made, unlike most stuff that is done today.
Please, keep this mature mindset; it's great to see that some people are actually able to think critically and see how things are changing/in what direction they are heading. Thank you again for this.
P.S. As a side note, I have been seeing similar changes in a number of other industries other than technology in regards to design, for instance in the automotive industry; do you have any particular thoughts on modern car/vehicle designs, particularly the last wave of ICE vehicles before the trend of EVs started, compared to car design in the 70s/80s/90s/2000s?
Yeah, I loved 4.4, it was simple, it started to feel like a professionally designed UI and then Google just went on a new venture with 5.0 and material.
I ordered an Archos Gamepad 2 tablet running android 4 because I wanted a cheap device to stream my pc games and the relive the old android experience. I miss 2015 man.
As a new entrant to phones, I personally believe that we are entering a new Golden Age. Android 12 has a beautiful design language and pulls the phone together. Android 13 is looking good as well.
Android KitKat is my favourite too. Thanks for being it your favourite.
I found my old Xperia with kitkat and the huge (compared to modern phones) forehead and chin bezels.
I can't lie KitKat still looks good and being able to hold a phone in landscape comfortably is something I would rather have, than what we have now.
Okay these videos are really cool, definitely subscribing
I agree 100%
Kitkat on the nexus 5 was easily the best andriod experience i remember.
Google Nexus 4 was the first phone I bought brand new, it was the GOAT
Im glad you mentioned the dessert names and bug droids, i remember i got my first android phone in gingerbread, and the marketing as well as a lot of 3d promotional stuff with the droid appealed to the younger me. Same can be said with ios 5 (i think) when everything was skeuomorphic and then ios6 onwards everything has been corporate minminalism, like literally everything else
I recently got into emulating Android which isn't really a terribly popular thing nowadays, but while doing so, I started really getting into the history of Android. I figured out what my first phone ran (KitKat), what I run now (Pie) and how Android itself evolved. I love the look of old Android and now find myself using older emulators such as Jar of Beans and Windroy just for the old Android experience.
I also really hope Android starts using fluent design. Looks so much better than material you.
I miss so much the icons!! Now they all look the same. The same goes for icons that use the white background on iOS… just makes everything feel so dead :(
I think Google worked hard to cleanse the personality from Android, but part of that is because it didn't want to look like the nerdy alternative to iOS. Especially in the US, where it's not as common. Not to mention people were reskinning their phones all the time anyway. With this minimalist design, phone manufacturers seem more incentivised to leave the design work in Google's hands and just leave it as is.
I do miss it though. Kit Kat on Nexus 4 was the bomb, so so cool. And that display was just amazing.
This video really reminded me why i used to be such a big phone enthusiast. I havent cared about phones at all since the LG G3 came out and actually have grown to loath them lol. The variety and spec + design combinations were really fun to choose from. I remember the HTC One with the front facing speakers being insane back in the day.
I have never felt like content was more laser focused on my interests specifically than this video. I had a Nexus 5, and I still have a Nexus 10 stuck on its final update to Lollipop that I pull out and poke at from time to time.
5:36 I miss the old Kanye
Straight from the go Kanye
Your channel is so underrated!!
most important reason: it didnt have dumb permissions system (nowadays they block you from using normally actually),it was optimized...
I will never forget during 2008 when my mom had the Galaxy Flip thingy and I would watch Sonic Unleashed videos in 240p and felt like it wad the coolest thing ever. Old android youtube was also black with a yellow bar for the video timing which was neat.