I do and I kind of don't miss it. It was fun back then, especially if you were in the custom rom scene and had acess to new versions every other week. Now though I just need my stuff to work. An update suddenly overhauling everything and breaking more things than it improves legitimately scares me nowadays. For reference, I had a Pixel a few years ago that launched on Android 11 and it was amazing. I saw Android 12 announced and was so excited for it, but after the update my phone became a shell of its former self. Worse battery, worse performance, just janky all around. It wasn't until Android 13 a year later that finally brought it back to how it felt on Android 11 but that was an entire year of a lackluster experience and bugs. I don't need that in my life and work now 😞
And then your phone's performance halves because there's dozen more features and massive UI improvements. 😅😂 Dang the year per year Chip and performance upgrades before were huge.
@@RohinNair that's exactly how I felt with OxygenOS 12 based on Android 12... thankfully I wasn't stuck with v12 for a whole year 😅 OxygenOS 13 fixed everything
I would say degoogling and privacy respecting rom is more than good enough reason. "Saying privacy does not matter cause I have nothing to hide is like saying freedom of speech does not matter cause I have nothing to say"
Uhm, you still got nothing close to full tasker functionality on stock rom. Also, most stock roms can't be customized as much as most custom roms can be (not as important as tasker but important nonetheless). They have some semblance of Tasker in stock now but it's like 5% of the functionality. Tasker can be hacked to work as if it has root via adb but it's cumbersome and unreliable. Anyways, it's ok if you never needed to take full advantage of root but don't falsely claim stock brings you everything rooting or custom roms do. I just went from stock to paranoid android in my current phone after trying to do the locked bootloader and stock way of doing things for months. You can do a lot now but stock is still severely hamstrung by Google. It's not even close to the same.
11 to 12 was a big overhaul also, but I agree. Nothing beats the changes that android lollipop brought, back in 2014. Shit, it's been 10 years! Time flies
Still have that on my Galaxy E5 . My A10 is 11th max, so I love switching between ( but e5 is only basic photo/music device, it lags super hard , costs same as today's Tecno Spark 20pro+ or redmi 12 pro. ) Devices scale fast. Same price of my A10 you can get better specs from sammy themself ( A05 )
@@wombat7961 it still is!! you theyre just more like codenames now. you cant really find them by looking in the os itself but its in the code. i cant remember them all but android 14 is upside-down cake and android 15 is vanilla ice cream.
lollipop was like a paradigm shift i remember when all i want was to see my phone on android 5 lollipop i went on to root and install custom ROM i was using one Samsung pocket android,i can't remember the name. soo nostalgic
The dessert names are technically not dropped, they just don't say them in the brand's name anymore. If I remember correctly, Android 15 is vanilla ice cream.
Companies have realized that the 7 years of software update promise might not be as easy to implement as they realized. By fragmenting software features away from otherwise normal OS updates and making them "hardware" exclusive, they can bring minimal improvements and software reskins to these devices and as long as the version counter goes up, the manufacturers will have fulfilled their promise.
That's fine honestly. As long as we still get the maintenance patches and the general updates to quality, that's still better than abandoning the device after just 3 years
Not too many people know about QuickShare because the people who actually use it already assume that its just common knowledge at this point. Some like me, used to just use apps for transferring files, heck even messenger works if you just compress the file first, I imagine most Android users that doesn't know of this feature just does it the same way they've always done it and doesn't make a "big" deal out of it, it's just a way to share files anyway :)
Yup. The biggest leap was definitely Android v1.0 (experimental Blackberry-esque) then to Cupcake v3.0 (shipped iOS-esque). Few people know about that. For some people the real leap came from Android 2.3.7 in the weird Nexus S to the likes of Android 4.0 ICS. The whole custom rom scene exploded, me included. But it wasn't until Android 4.0.3 until it was stable. Android 4.1 was good, and the last decent one. It got more bloated after that, and tablets got worse. That is until 64bit support came with the likes of Kirin 950, Snapdragon 820, and Exynos 8890. And we got Android 5.0 Lollipop to drop. A huge upgrade over 4.1-4.4 iterations. Again as you point out it was buggy as heck. It wasn't until 5.1 or 6.0 that they fixed a lot of things. Since 6.0 we have not had any upgrades to Android. Nothing big. It has been smaller incremental updates and even downgrades in some instances. We definitely lost some of the magic and wonder. Most phones are good enough, and a simple root access would be enough. We can't access root for most new phones, and custom roms are extremely rare. Google Pixel phones are some of the worst phones you can buy, but it's the only place where root is encouraged and custom roms are a thing. The Samsung Galaxy S25 will compete directly with the Pixel 9 and it will be laughing matter at how much slower and inefficient Google's expensive flagship will be. The leaks for the Pixel 10 only have it competing against the S23 in terms of chipset, so they're still at a 2-3 year deficit behind Apple and Qualcomm. Despite the price tag.
Stop caring? I just stopped noticing after Android 12 since both my daily and all the old ones in my collection stopped getting OS updates 1-2 years ago. Future versions of Android will be useful to optimize functionality as more flagships transition to flips, foldables, & expandables. A "universal desktop mode" that actually runs ARM64 apps & games native to Windows, Mac, and Linux would be really nice too.
@@handlemonium The thing is though, they barely do, it's barely changed since 12. The updates are iterative, they improve the functionality ever so slightly but being real, it's really not enough for most people to care, even now. Like big quality of life changes would be welcome but like.. we're not really not getting anything substantial with the updates because.. I guess, there's really just not that much that Google thinks can be done with it and honestly, whilst I'd like a lot more QoL for functionality, ease of use, productivity and time save.. I really don't have many ideas for improvements that would really revolutionise Android, even for me. I suppose they can make remote desktop features more easy to use and maybe that would be a big step but would most people realistically care.. probably not.
As a samsung user, the biggest update was android 9, because it's when samsung introduced One Ui. It changed my S8 completely, and i used to be SO excited.
I hate that stupid design. Very monotone and everything is too round now with every app sharing the same set of color schemes kinda kills creativity. Now we either have webpages disguised as apps or all apps looking the same because of material.
I hate that there are no grid lines in material ui makes the light theme look too ugly and also it has become too white. Usually apps never used pure white as color it is supposed to be a lighter tone.
I feel the same. I remember when I bricked my Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini almost every week to get the latest version of Android or another ROM with a different feature set. Today, I don't care if CalyxOS is still on Android 14. I much prefer a stable experience, even if it would take another year for them to upgrade to 15.
So true. Only reason I went with pixel phones were because of fast and latest updates. I stayed for the picture quality and the simplicity of it finally. Would love to go with another brand though but then only phone that interested me was a Chinese phone.
Android version aside, the software update that exited me the most in the past was when HTC released Sense 5. It's soo clean while still being soo feature packed compared to Sense 4.+ or vanilla android in that time.
Smartphones peaked in 2019. Everything after that were minimal upgrades. The only thing and this is only the thing that still is an issue are the cameras. For some reason all smartphone cameras go bad after 2-3 yrs. About the 2019 thing, Loaded Oneplus 6T with latest lineageOS custom Rom Android 14 and boy it is just as smooth and consistent as an android phone in 2024.
I rock a Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite from 2019 with LineageOS installed and couldn't care less about modern smartphones as they are bulky, blocky or heavy and I don't understand why. I will only upgrade to a phone that matches this design with better battery life and thinner display borders. Sadly since 2019 no one came close to Iphone XS, huawei p30, xiaomi mi 9 and other phones from that period
Got my Pixel 5 a 2020 phone and it is just about perfect. It is fast enough takes good photos. I am probably going to stick with it till the pixel line stabilizes a little. Picked up a Oneplus 6 and the hardware is nice it feels solid despite being a couple of generations older.
Someone on r/Android recently said Android has become a lot like the Linux Kernel, where it's just barebones basic things? API changes, drivers, etc. Whereas it's the OEM derivatives where the real features come. Like with a Linux distro. Especially with features coming with Google Services instead of Android updates.
@@slimysomething Indeed, but the comparison is to illustrate the now barebones essential position of the AOSP project compared to a fully fledged Android OS like OneUI or the Pixel Experience.
Linux distros are still using shared libraries when it comes to ui elements as in gnome kde cinnamon flavours are available for multiple distros but you will never see samsung releasing a phone with miui
Sometimes kernel updates can bring user facing features, such as support for the WireGuard VPN protocol, which is faster, lower overhead, and more energy efficient compared to something like OpenVPN. WireGuard began as a Linux kernel module and got integrated into it starting with kernel 5.6. Another example might be something like KSMBD, a lightweight alternative to Samba for Windows file sharing. Just to name a couple of things off the top of my head.
Tbh the main thing I want from updates is for the OS to be more lightweight, for the battery gains as well as lessened processing power+ram requirements
@@itsAlzatron 1. Which year are you in, 2017~18? Face unlock has been pretty much dependable from 2020 onwards I'd say and with the Pixel 8 series, Google made the face unlock just as secure as the iPhone implementation, so that even banking applications have started using it as a way to authenticate. 2. Face unlock as a whole is a convenience feature, not secure at all. Someone who looks like you, maybe your sibling, father, mother, evil twin could pretty easily bypass iPhone's supposedly secure face unlock. Compare that to the fingerprint, which is unique to 1 in 64 billion or something. A proper ultrasonic fingerprint reader is super secure, reliable, and convenient than whatever face unlock nonsense Apple throws at you.
@@curious_banda Quick Share doesn't only use Bluetooth, it also uses Wi-Fi. Bluetooth is only used to discover and connect to your phone. Both Bluetooth and Internet is being used (idk if it's simultaneously or only one of the two) for the actual file transfer. KDE Connect is a good alternative if you use Linux, but on Windows, Quick Share would be more straight forward as Quick Share is preinstalled on Android.
the main thing i noticed with android 15 is huge uplift in efficiency. easily hit 10+ hours on one charge. i actually do believe that there are little to no way to drastically improve the experience. nowadays companies have to artificially force you to upgrade and lock certain useful features under never models, even if older ones are just as capable.
@@shayaanmirza5445 a little correction-its 10+ of screen on time. If you actively use your phone less than 5 hours a day than its easily a 2-days of use battery life
I think going from touch whiz (Android 8) to one Ui (Android 9) on my note 9 was the most insane update I have ever experienced. That was almost 6 years ago now.
Android 7 and 8 were already redesigned Samsung Experience UI, cleaning up most of TouchWiz. OneUI refined it with a new design language and better one handed support
@@xirruz Quick share doesn`t ship with windows directly you need to download and let running in the background + it doesn`t smoothly as localsend or link to windows, I've found myself troubleshooting like 30% of the times I use it
I think it wasn't fully implemented before Android 10, the android 9 version was the pill thingy that you kind of tugged on to make stuff happen. Android 9 was also when Samsung got one UI, which was a huge upgrade for Samsung users at the time. Possibly the largest ever.
This comment isn't directly related to this video, but I have to say that I love the fact that for the most part, Android developers make it so the latest versions of their apps can be used on much older hardware and software. Back in 2018 I decided to pick up a 1st gen iPhone SE as a secondary device to see what the other side is all about. Well, imagine my surprise when recently I went to update the Ebay app, but couldn't because the newest version requires iOS16 and the SE tops out at 15. As a main Android user, this really surprised me that the iPhone couldn't get the latest version because iOS15 isn't even that old. I know all apps are different, but by and large, support for older versions seems to be much better on Android.
Jelly Bean's Project Butter making the GNex and other modern Androids at that time run nice and smooth was a game changer for me. Especially coming from the iPhone which felt soo much better before then
I remember phones offering RAW photos before Google made it official on the nexus phones. So, brands are always ahead of google implementing new features to android, so much that at this point it doesn't matter if you have or not have the last version. For example Huawei pura 70 ultra is running android 12 at its core and no reviewer has miss any feature (aside google apps)
I realized that after seeing one plus take on cyanogen I list interest in vanilla android, Niagara Launcher became my default. Pro version is best though
You are totally right. Android 15 seems identical to Android 14 on my pixel 9. What i really want to see from Android is a GOOD wireless screen share with any TV
HEAVY on the casing to a tv. my phone is the only one in the house that can't because I'm the only pixel user.. so annoying. even my brother's iphone 11 connects flawlessly to our Samsung TV.
Instead of relying on major software updates that happen infrequently, Google has shifted its focus to smaller, more frequent updates called "Feature Drops" (or now, "Pixel Drops"). These quarterly updates provide users with a continuous stream of new features and improvements, keeping the excitement and anticipation high. This approach contrasts with the traditional model of large, infrequent updates, such as those used by iOS, which can sometimes feel stagnant in between releases. By delivering smaller updates more often, Google aims to create a more engaging and dynamic user experience.
02:28 I use app pairs. I'm a student and sometimes I have online lectures. Instead of taking out a notebook or notepad, I just enable the split screen on my Samsung. This allows me to be in the online class while taking notes below in the bottom half of the screen without leaving the class to do so. Very useful feature for multitasking I must say.
I agree completely. I used to even get excited to see what the next version would be called. The changes to your phone would usually be quite something along with the new features. I loved HTCs version of Android and the animations etc. Was sorry to see them go. Samsung always produced a good version too. My last Samsung was an S7 but I've used a couple of the A range and they're great value. I'm currently using a Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel watch and Google made them old tech pretty quickly by releasing the 8 and 9 phones and watch 2. Wasn't happy about that. But at least I've got Android 15 which is as you say underwhelming. Thanks for the video. I'm glad I'm not the only one feeling lacklustre about Android. Yes it's a great os but we need excitement back.
You're quite right. I watched one of the many videos doing the rounds about the "new" A15 features and realized my Galaxy A33 can already do all those things. It's sad really that we're just getting updates for the sake of getting updates now.
Or yesteryear's Pixel A-series. Fairphone is the gold standard though if you want a device ecosystem like Google but Fairtrade, sustainably sourced, certified ecosocially conscious, and ultra repairable/modular.
Huawei's "circle to screenshot" + Google Lens comes pretty close despite the 2-step process. Wouldn't be surprised if Google begins merging features between the default camera app, Photos, Lens, Assistant Search, and Snapseed at some point.
The best new idea for me would be to make 'Digital Wellbeing' easy to uninstall! Refusing all permissions and stopping it doesn't stop it starting up in the background sneakily at random and you dont know until you check 'running apps'. If notifications are turned off and you clear the cache and data notifications turn back on and have to be stopped again. Useless and not wanted and where is our choice not to have it?
I remember when i was 13, I got really into rooting my Galaxy S4 just so i could get the early builds of android KitKat and Lollipop, every new build of android felt like such a huge and substantial step. Nowadays i barely even notice when a new update comes out. However: I actually think this is a good thing, we're in a really good "it just works" state with android, i think a lot of what made me so eager to upgrade back then was that those older android builds were honestly riddled with laggy software, so the prospect of having a smoother experience on my current device was significantly more tantalising than it would be today.
Fun fact: I dropped this comment on Simple Alpaca's channel about the Note 20 Ultra (which I still have and use it vigorously) and it pretty much sums up this video perfectly. "The vast majority of non tech enthusiasts and non tech savy peoples wouldn't be able to tell the difference between Android 10, Android 11, Android 12, Android 13 and the upcoming Android 14. Let alone the UI versions. People's needs are to be able to make phone calls, texting, whatsapp and TH-cam and take pictures and record videos. That sums up the population in a nutshell." Cheers 🥂
I currently have a Note 20 Ultra 5G. Its hardware is so good even for today that I could care less if this year will be it's last chance to receive a major software update (Android 13 is more than usable enough for me). I love it to bits and will continue to use it years from now.
Honestly, when Apple introduced AirPlay, I thought we were on the verge of a future where I wouldn’t need a desktop or laptop anymore. I imagined a world where my phone could do it all-where I could simply walk up to my desk and a wireless mouse, keyboard, and display would connect automatically, allowing me to handle everything from my phone just like on a computer. I’m still holding out hope for that future.
@YISTECH It's the closest we have to that. And you can really do anything on android, so yeah... I'm trying to get sth like that for myself if I can't get a pc.
the last couple of Windows Phones had that capacity with Continuum in around 2016/17, with a powerhouse 3GB of ram. worked pretty well, still does actually but security is an issue at this stage.
The 5.0 update was so good that even my shitty local brand phone running on Jellybean, I had to flash a KitKat rom with a bootleg design copy of Lollipop lmao.
Stock Android updates matter because they need to bring features already in other Android skins like OneUI and OxygenOS (Optimized battery charging in Android 15 being one of them) so they’re still quite important.
The biggest overhaul for me Android wise for a while was gesture navigation, but at this point that has stabilized. I really did enjoy getting the buttons off of the screen for more real estate (sadly on most sides only to still be covered by ads…thanks ad blockers)
You were excited to install the rom on your nexus. I owned a moto g2 with kitkat and i isntalled the beta from motorola of android lollipop and when i showed all my friends about how the shadows and the animations are silky smooth they all were intrigued( remeber cynogen i installed those too) The next biggest hit for me was the *material you*. I absolutely love the concept. Still use it and prefer to have a pixel based material you than a samsung one as some parts of it dont do justice with animations and colors, but pixel does. Was thankful for custom rom community as i was able to install on my mi 11x (poco f3 globally) and the amount of satisfaction it gave me with the simplest setup and change of wallpapers by chaning all the keyboard color, accents aroudn every part of ui and those amazing widgets! Man i love being in this android space. Gcam made it even better. Those are my two turning points Lollipop and material you! None the less your right about versions dont matter. As long as the hardware is capable, the device runs almost literally everything these days
Nice video. You are 1000% right about everything. What we (I) actually need after a year or two of using a current phone is actually a change. Every next phone of mine is a different brand, I went from HTC to Nexus 5 to LG G4 to OnePlus 3 to Huawei mate 10 pro to iphone 11 pro to Xiaomi 10t pro to OnePlus to samsung s20 and so on. I'm most excited in the first few months of exploring the new os and after 6-12 months I'm bored and switch to a totally different brand just to experience new os, new UI, new icons and so on. Small changes through 2-3 years of update are nonsense to me, but there are people that actually hate changes and would like the same os and UI for life...
The feature I really really loved, used and can’t find on another phone is Samsung’s separate app sounds, I do not know if this is available in other brands but I switched from Samsung to iPhone recently and I miss this feature so much, its so nice having the song playing in the car while you get all your notifications, calls on your phone, uninterrupted
Ooooof. Cannot agree on the excitement for lollipop. (5.1 was when we started cooking with gas.) Made my nexus 6 a nightmare. Kit Kat was my fav in terms of fluidity and 12 is my favorite visually.
@@queeniegreengrass3513 on pixel? Massively. 12 looked the best it ever did, but in terms of functionality? A LOT of things were broken but I feel like that was less the OS and more the 6 pro.13 cleaned most of it up but 14 got it to where it should've been in the first place.
Android 5 was the Windows Vista of Android. It was so bad, resource draining, that together with overheating flagship SOCs from Snapdragon it made many creative smartphones that was released at that time bad.
Funny was thinking 5.0 too. Great Review. Really hit it from all fronts. Explaining how not much has changed but acknowledging that it's due to feature drops and how much Android has grown. Very well done.
@@Hitesh001100it's only for apps targeting sdk 35, we won't probably see all apps implement it until Google play store increase their minimum sdk target level to 35, which is probably in 2-3 years
@@Hitesh001100it's only for apps targeting sdk 35, we won't probably see all apps implement this now until Google increase their minimum target sdk to 35, which is 2-3 android version from 15, but knowing google they will probably screw this up too and not implement it in their own apps
@@yumni45 lol that's google alright! Although, they already added an API for apps to opt out of the edge to edge mandate! So, we probably will be seeing only a bunch of apps maybe!
Android 13 was HUGE! It slowed down your phone, removed access to much of your file system, completely obsoleted perfectly working apps, and removed ability to get them from the PlayStore! It even added way more non-consensual data tracking and gathering! Wow!
While it may be true that Android versions don't seem to have changed significantly between recent updates, a bigger issue is Carrier and Network support. Australia has previously shutdown the 2G Network and is currently shutting down the 3G Network, forcing everyone onto 4G/5G. If your phone is 4G and can't be upgraded to Android 11 or later due to Manufacturer limitations, Carriers are not supporting VoLTE functions even if the Phone is capable of it. The Government Communications Authority has mandated that Phones "not supporting 4G VoLTE" be disabled for "Safety Reasons", which at the date of 3G Shutdown was over ½ a million Phones!
Funny thing is some developers have to put Samsung-specific fixes to make their apps work. So as long as you use something that is not so heavily modified your apps should run fine, because they're usually tested against Pixel phones.
Yes yes yes! Exactly what I have been thinking watching all the TH-camrs making videos about Android 15....like it's some huge update. It's not. Just like we have seen any innovation in smartphones over the past years. Just little improvements.
Well that's a relief! My Samsung Note 9, got Android 8, 9 and 10... Real world experience felt like 2 years of updates, then high and dry... I used to be a daily ROM flasher back when the glorious NEXUS devices existed. Before Pixel, the iPhone simulator.
Pro tip: Apple feature doesn't need to be used daily to be groundbreaking or so useful that you can't go without it. App pairs is something like the s-pen, it's not something I use every day of even weekly but when it's needed for me it's sorely needed
Three features I would love is 1. Ability to automatically record calls built in. 2. Ability to automatically look at your contacts. If a phone number is stored then show your number. If you have not stored the person then hide caller id. And number 3 on incoming calls automatically search online for what carrior the person is using. And then Adress name and whatever public listed information there is. I would pay for those features lol. Have a s24ultra and missing the heck out of those.
Completely agree with most everything said. I am also using a OnePlus 12, looking forward to the 13, and a Pixel 9 Pro. I recently picked up a Motorola Razer+ 2024, and comments where mainly about how it takes Motorola forever to update Android to the latest greatest OS. To be honest, I like the Motorola Skin on Android 14 and could careless when they update to 15 on that device. It gets great battery life on the Snapdragon 8s processor, and with the 165hz screen and the 12 gigs of memory, feels snappy. I do not see any advantage in upgrading to 15 on that device so whenever it comes, it comes. I also agree that it has been a long time since we have seen anything that wowed us from Android, although the quality of life upgrades over the years have been nice, nothing like in the past. Like when Material U dropped so many years ago. I always appreciate your honest take on things.
*I will always be grateful for Android and Google for making everything simple and accessible and I wish them all the best in their continuous journey of doing the same* 💚
Android 10 on Huawei's HarmonyOS in 2019 was the most significant upgrade in recent times and made me switch back from iOS/iPhone. 12 & 14 were major refinements that sealed the deal for me. I now run an iMessage server for my android phone and my 15 pro max is basically just my on-the-go film rig now.
Im still really pissed off that people on android 14 cant play old apks because of "security reasons" and people running older versions can, which is so mind bogglingly stupid. Why do I lose core features for updating?
As soon as you said flashing ROMs back in the day and overhaul, I subscribed. Because I did the same. Addictive crazy hobby. Testing it all from flashing ROMs and theming.
The thing that I’ve been so happy about some of the later Android updates (more in the 10, 11, & 12 era tho lezbhonest) is the improvements with gesture control; I’ve appreciated gaining my full screen for content without needing to minimize navigation controls or sacrifice space to navigation controls!
I agree, Android 5 Lollipop was the last Android update I was particularly excited about. I ran the beta on my Nexus 5, and was so thrilled about the aesthetic changes. For iOS I felt similarly about iOS 7, and then maybe again when they put out the iPhone X.
2:30 - Yes, I use app pairs on both my Z Fold 6 (daily) and S23 (car phone for nav/music without pairing/unpairing Bluetooth all the time). For the Z Fold, the drawbacks of app pairs largely vanish with the bigger screen, so uses are plentiful and generally awesome. For the S23, I let Waze take up the top 80% of the screen for navigation, and leave the remaining 20% taken up by live monitoring data from an OBD2 scanner (stuff like calculated engine load %, RPM, coolant temp since my gauge cluster doesn't give a number, etc).
I have the same feeling I'm rocking my Samsung note 10+ with android 12 and I don't feel I'm missing out on too much it's full of features and customization to the point where flashing custom rom would be loss of features I'm happy with it , although there's minor details in other OS's that I prefer more than one ui like selecting text from recent apps in pixel and ai features in photos and the big clock on the lock screen but it's just small things compared to the many features in one ui , it's now up to people taste in the ui aesthetics and the minor useful features for everyone to choose from
People shouldn't forget that those "big" updates weren't necessary the best versions to use. 4.0 ICS was a major update, but 4.1-4.3 and 4.4 really rounded it out. 5.0 was massive, but it took IMO till 7.1 to really perfect the concept. After that, it took till 11 again to complete the stuff from 8.0 and 9.0. 12 was once again a bit of a mess.
Biggest change in my opinion was from Android 4.4 Kitkat to Android 5.0 Lollipop, next to this is was from Android 2.3 Gingerbread to 3.x for Tablets and 4.0 Icecream Sandwich for phones.
I used to be so hype whenever a new android update is available. I started with android alpha, and I get so excited to switch and upgrade phones, until android 4.0.4 when we can finally update the software of the phone via the settings. And then from ice cream sandwich to jellybean was so huge, and up to lollipop. And then it stopped being so groundbreaking anymore around android Nougat
I remember getting hyped for Android Oreo in highschool. The album art sound module in the lock screen is so underrated. When I was so hyped waiting for it to be pushed to my Motorola Z Force
I used to work for a company that made Android phones and 2.3.3 to 4.0 was the real game changer, as that's when the UI became hardware accelerated (technically it happened in Android 3 but only a few devices got that, and it was tablet only as I recall). Android 5 was significant but not nearly as big as a leap. That said I was wary of updating my own galaxy s2 to Android 4 given how bad a job Samsung had done of updating it so far (the Australian version of 2.3.3 for that phone would just reboot itself randomly, factory reset did not help, and I ended up combining parts of roms from different regions to fix it), so I'm pretty sure I waited for one of the more popular 3rd party rom makers to release something for it before I updated.
My smartphone is stuck on Android 12. It does not want to update to a later version and shows that the current version is up to date. Dumb question coming now... Is my device sick ?
I remember that 5.0 was so great to me that i bought several devices later on like tablets and such well after new versions that had come out, that had 5.0 on them and i didn't feel like i was missing anything. That's how I feel again now because it's just all so minor.
I used to love stock android but what I don't like about it now is the big Quick settings buttons. Why have a few big ones when you could have even more small ones?
Android 4.2 4.4 and 5.0 you could truly see ux and ui designers doing their job.. with the newer updates you truly see financial management do their job
Back in the day, I could always immediately tell you which version of Android I was running. I had to look up in my settings even to see if I was running Android version 13, 14 or 15
Who remembers when updates used to basically change your phone
I do and I kind of don't miss it. It was fun back then, especially if you were in the custom rom scene and had acess to new versions every other week. Now though I just need my stuff to work. An update suddenly overhauling everything and breaking more things than it improves legitimately scares me nowadays.
For reference, I had a Pixel a few years ago that launched on Android 11 and it was amazing. I saw Android 12 announced and was so excited for it, but after the update my phone became a shell of its former self. Worse battery, worse performance, just janky all around. It wasn't until Android 13 a year later that finally brought it back to how it felt on Android 11 but that was an entire year of a lackluster experience and bugs. I don't need that in my life and work now 😞
And then your phone's performance halves because there's dozen more features and massive UI improvements. 😅😂
Dang the year per year Chip and performance upgrades before were huge.
Samsung still does it
Yeah, new features kept coming.
Now we have all the necessary features, it's time for some AI stuffs and other QoL type
@@RohinNair that's exactly how I felt with OxygenOS 12 based on Android 12... thankfully I wasn't stuck with v12 for a whole year 😅 OxygenOS 13 fixed everything
Android is indeed mature now, several years ago I was so into rooting and flashing custom roms but I don't see much benefits of doing it now.
Unless it is receiving any software updates
I would say degoogling and privacy respecting rom is more than good enough reason. "Saying privacy does not matter cause I have nothing to hide is like saying freedom of speech does not matter cause I have nothing to say"
Uhm, you still got nothing close to full tasker functionality on stock rom. Also, most stock roms can't be customized as much as most custom roms can be (not as important as tasker but important nonetheless). They have some semblance of Tasker in stock now but it's like 5% of the functionality. Tasker can be hacked to work as if it has root via adb but it's cumbersome and unreliable. Anyways, it's ok if you never needed to take full advantage of root but don't falsely claim stock brings you everything rooting or custom roms do. I just went from stock to paranoid android in my current phone after trying to do the locked bootloader and stock way of doing things for months. You can do a lot now but stock is still severely hamstrung by Google. It's not even close to the same.
A lot are getting butthurt with what I said. No one stops you from rooting and flashing your roms. I'm stating my usecase here not yours.
Unless you're on a low to mid end device, in which case custom roms can still be very beneficial.
Android 4.4 to Android 5 was the bigest update ever seen
Next to that was Android 2.3 to android 4.0
11 to 12 was a big overhaul also, but I agree. Nothing beats the changes that android lollipop brought, back in 2014. Shit, it's been 10 years! Time flies
android 12 was dogshit while android 9-10-11 were the very best, with android 9 being the goat, you can also make the argument 11 is too
My first android phone was on android lollipop. The LG lancet for Android
Yeah for me android 11 was peak android yes 9 was perfect too@akilbarboni4198
Lollipop was a complete change in ui design. I remember being excited about it. Good old days.
Back when it was a buffet of desserts
Still have that on my Galaxy E5 . My A10 is 11th max, so I love switching between ( but e5 is only basic photo/music device, it lags super hard , costs same as today's Tecno Spark 20pro+ or redmi 12 pro. )
Devices scale fast. Same price of my A10 you can get better specs from sammy themself ( A05 )
@@wombat7961 After Pie it came 10 :< , Noughats , Oreo.. Oh I'm hungry
@@wombat7961 it still is!! you theyre just more like codenames now. you cant really find them by looking in the os itself but its in the code. i cant remember them all but android 14 is upside-down cake and android 15 is vanilla ice cream.
lollipop was like a paradigm shift
i remember when all i want was to see my phone on android 5 lollipop i went on to root and install custom ROM i was using one Samsung pocket android,i can't remember the name.
soo nostalgic
I'm sad they dropped dessert names
The dessert names are technically not dropped, they just don't say them in the brand's name anymore. If I remember correctly, Android 15 is vanilla ice cream.
@@TrentonMatthewsoh good.
@@TrentonMatthews no, its officially dropped out. Android 9 Pie was the last android version to have an official dessert name...
@@tanzilalislam9939 I'm so out of touch. I totally forgot about the dessert names...Ha Ha
@@tanzilalislam9939well Google still use the dessert name internally
"KitKat to pie" the best android updates periods
Dark mode rocks
Right now I think my favorite versions of Android ever were ice cream sandwich, kit Kat, and Snow Cone onward, because Material You
Pie broke my Motorola G6
@@esmooth919 what is snow cone?
@@shiro3146 android 12
Companies have realized that the 7 years of software update promise might not be as easy to implement as they realized. By fragmenting software features away from otherwise normal OS updates and making them "hardware" exclusive, they can bring minimal improvements and software reskins to these devices and as long as the version counter goes up, the manufacturers will have fulfilled their promise.
I... I never thought about it that way...
That's fine honestly. As long as we still get the maintenance patches and the general updates to quality, that's still better than abandoning the device after just 3 years
Or maybe it's just about maturity of the software, they chose what they want to be and stuck with it
@@joshuaprecious i feel its both
Or the software is mature enough and modular to the point where you don't need OS updates to deliver major features, just a few APKs.
2.x Gingerbread to 4 Kitkat, and from there to 5 Lollipop.
Starting from 10/11 everything began to feel like small updates.
Yessssd
11 is feature complete if we talk about features
12 to 15 felt like small patches and QoL updates
2.3 to 4 was absolutely unimaginable
i am stuck in android 11. didnt feels the need to android 15. but i do need more features from one ui 3.1 above. very help everyday use
Same.
At 7:00 you talked about a "Google version of AirDrop". Isn't that QuickShare that's currently available on Android and Windows?
Right
Scrolling to find this comment.
Guess not everyone knows QuickShare
I was going to add exactly the same comment. Plus it works very well !
Not too many people know about QuickShare because the people who actually use it already assume that its just common knowledge at this point. Some like me, used to just use apps for transferring files, heck even messenger works if you just compress the file first, I imagine most Android users that doesn't know of this feature just does it the same way they've always done it and doesn't make a "big" deal out of it, it's just a way to share files anyway :)
Android versions don't matter until specific features are gated behind versions. 🤷♂️
Exactly
Like what?
@@benjamindover4337 private space.
@@benjamindover4337 Banking apps
which feature has android released latey?
Android 5 was extremely buggy on my phone back in the day. Version 5.1 fixed most of the bugs.
Yup.
The biggest leap was definitely Android v1.0 (experimental Blackberry-esque) then to Cupcake v3.0 (shipped iOS-esque).
Few people know about that. For some people the real leap came from Android 2.3.7 in the weird Nexus S to the likes of Android 4.0 ICS. The whole custom rom scene exploded, me included. But it wasn't until Android 4.0.3 until it was stable.
Android 4.1 was good, and the last decent one. It got more bloated after that, and tablets got worse.
That is until 64bit support came with the likes of Kirin 950, Snapdragon 820, and Exynos 8890. And we got Android 5.0 Lollipop to drop. A huge upgrade over 4.1-4.4 iterations. Again as you point out it was buggy as heck. It wasn't until 5.1 or 6.0 that they fixed a lot of things.
Since 6.0 we have not had any upgrades to Android. Nothing big. It has been smaller incremental updates and even downgrades in some instances.
We definitely lost some of the magic and wonder. Most phones are good enough, and a simple root access would be enough. We can't access root for most new phones, and custom roms are extremely rare. Google Pixel phones are some of the worst phones you can buy, but it's the only place where root is encouraged and custom roms are a thing.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 will compete directly with the Pixel 9 and it will be laughing matter at how much slower and inefficient Google's expensive flagship will be. The leaks for the Pixel 10 only have it competing against the S23 in terms of chipset, so they're still at a 2-3 year deficit behind Apple and Qualcomm. Despite the price tag.
ANY ANDROID VERSION BY DEFAULT ARE BUGGY !!!
I stopped caring after A10
Lies
Stop caring? I just stopped noticing after Android 12 since both my daily and all the old ones in my collection stopped getting OS updates 1-2 years ago.
Future versions of Android will be useful to optimize functionality as more flagships transition to flips, foldables, & expandables. A "universal desktop mode" that actually runs ARM64 apps & games native to Windows, Mac, and Linux would be really nice too.
android 11 and goes on doesn't add much, i remembered android 9 to 10 was good bcos i get a nav gesture lmao
I still love a10 even though animation a little janky.
@@handlemonium The thing is though, they barely do, it's barely changed since 12. The updates are iterative, they improve the functionality ever so slightly but being real, it's really not enough for most people to care, even now. Like big quality of life changes would be welcome but like.. we're not really not getting anything substantial with the updates because.. I guess, there's really just not that much that Google thinks can be done with it and honestly, whilst I'd like a lot more QoL for functionality, ease of use, productivity and time save.. I really don't have many ideas for improvements that would really revolutionise Android, even for me.
I suppose they can make remote desktop features more easy to use and maybe that would be a big step but would most people realistically care.. probably not.
As a samsung user, the biggest update was android 9, because it's when samsung introduced One Ui. It changed my S8 completely, and i used to be SO excited.
Yea same I love the s9 plus
one ui 1-1.5 really just had basic feature. it getting better in 3.1 above but still lack feature from 5.1
Material Design introduced in Lollipop back in 2014 still getting implemented today...5.0 was the biggest update
I hate that stupid design. Very monotone and everything is too round now with every app sharing the same set of color schemes kinda kills creativity. Now we either have webpages disguised as apps or all apps looking the same because of material.
I hate that there are no grid lines in material ui makes the light theme look too ugly and also it has become too white. Usually apps never used pure white as color it is supposed to be a lighter tone.
Dark theme looks ugly with most colours too. Just bad ui in general, often barely usable too
5.0 also changed the runtime under the hood.
I feel the same. I remember when I bricked my Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini almost every week to get the latest version of Android or another ROM with a different feature set.
Today, I don't care if CalyxOS is still on Android 14. I much prefer a stable experience, even if it would take another year for them to upgrade to 15.
So true. Only reason I went with pixel phones were because of fast and latest updates. I stayed for the picture quality and the simplicity of it finally. Would love to go with another brand though but then only phone that interested me was a Chinese phone.
Im going to iphone if google don't increase hardware stability
If you recovered it, it wasn't bricked.
Bricked means it's broken beyond recovery through usual recovery means, like flashing a new ROM.
@@majorgnuThere are two type of bricks , soft brick , hard brick I have experienced both ,it's preety hard to come out of not gonna lie ..
Android version aside, the software update that exited me the most in the past was when HTC released Sense 5. It's soo clean while still being soo feature packed compared to Sense 4.+ or vanilla android in that time.
Yes! HTC Sense was elite.
Once I had Sense UI 3 on HTC Sensation XE, which Touchscreen got defective within 1 month of use. Still I love that UI until today
*excited
exited = past tense of "to exit"
Smartphones peaked in 2019. Everything after that were minimal upgrades. The only thing and this is only the thing that still is an issue are the cameras. For some reason all smartphone cameras go bad after 2-3 yrs. About the 2019 thing, Loaded Oneplus 6T with latest lineageOS custom Rom Android 14 and boy it is just as smooth and consistent as an android phone in 2024.
seeing this on a s9+ I def say anything later than that is nolonger jawdropping
I rock a Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite from 2019 with LineageOS installed and couldn't care less about modern smartphones as they are bulky, blocky or heavy and I don't understand why. I will only upgrade to a phone that matches this design with better battery life and thinner display borders. Sadly since 2019 no one came close to Iphone XS, huawei p30, xiaomi mi 9 and other phones from that period
@@RealMakarov ayy s9+ gang.
Got my Pixel 5 a 2020 phone and it is just about perfect. It is fast enough takes good photos. I am probably going to stick with it till the pixel line stabilizes a little. Picked up a Oneplus 6 and the hardware is nice it feels solid despite being a couple of generations older.
Someone on r/Android recently said Android has become a lot like the Linux Kernel, where it's just barebones basic things? API changes, drivers, etc. Whereas it's the OEM derivatives where the real features come. Like with a Linux distro. Especially with features coming with Google Services instead of Android updates.
terrible comparison honestly. Android OEMs are more like petty fiefdoms than freely shared distros.
@@slimysomething Indeed, but the comparison is to illustrate the now barebones essential position of the AOSP project compared to a fully fledged Android OS like OneUI or the Pixel Experience.
@@ccolorsplitwhat’s funny is that Pixel experience is basically AOSP with a couple of Google apps preinstalled.
Linux distros are still using shared libraries when it comes to ui elements as in gnome kde cinnamon flavours are available for multiple distros but you will never see samsung releasing a phone with miui
Sometimes kernel updates can bring user facing features, such as support for the WireGuard VPN protocol, which is faster, lower overhead, and more energy efficient compared to something like OpenVPN. WireGuard began as a Linux kernel module and got integrated into it starting with kernel 5.6. Another example might be something like KSMBD, a lightweight alternative to Samba for Windows file sharing. Just to name a couple of things off the top of my head.
Yea but you don't need to change for the sake of change
Yea i really like my pixel i don't really need a massive ui change
Well said
"If it's not broken, don't try to fix it"
That goes for phones too. Most have little to no functional difference
yea, but how safe is it to use a phone that doesnt get sec updates anymore?
Tbh the main thing I want from updates is for the OS to be more lightweight, for the battery gains as well as lessened processing power+ram requirements
Android introduced features early on and improved it steadily. iOS didn't give you basic features till iOS 18.
Some features don't even need an entire OS update to be added.
Let us know when face unlock on Android is secure enough to not be bypassed with a printed photo then we'll talk about basic features..
bro this aint 2013 face unlock @@itsAlzatron, newer android phones have much better face unlock security
@@itsAlzatronhappened in 2018. Check the Pixel 4xl
@@itsAlzatron
1. Which year are you in, 2017~18? Face unlock has been pretty much dependable from 2020 onwards I'd say and with the Pixel 8 series, Google made the face unlock just as secure as the iPhone implementation, so that even banking applications have started using it as a way to authenticate.
2. Face unlock as a whole is a convenience feature, not secure at all. Someone who looks like you, maybe your sibling, father, mother, evil twin could pretty easily bypass iPhone's supposedly secure face unlock. Compare that to the fingerprint, which is unique to 1 in 64 billion or something. A proper ultrasonic fingerprint reader is super secure, reliable, and convenient than whatever face unlock nonsense Apple throws at you.
If your computer supports bluetooth, you can then install Quick Share on your Windows laptop and share files with your phone that way.
Name me a computer that doesn't support bluetooth
@@AzureRT456 older towers, people who cheaped out on motherboard, the list goes on.
@@AzureRT456my old lenovo g480.
Bluetooth speed sucks. Just use KDE connect it works everywhere.
@@curious_banda Quick Share doesn't only use Bluetooth, it also uses Wi-Fi. Bluetooth is only used to discover and connect to your phone. Both Bluetooth and Internet is being used (idk if it's simultaneously or only one of the two) for the actual file transfer.
KDE Connect is a good alternative if you use Linux, but on Windows, Quick Share would be more straight forward as Quick Share is preinstalled on Android.
the main thing i noticed with android 15 is huge uplift in efficiency. easily hit 10+ hours on one charge.
i actually do believe that there are little to no way to drastically improve the experience. nowadays companies have to artificially force you to upgrade and lock certain useful features under never models, even if older ones are just as capable.
I totally agree.As from my pixel 6 Pro here, i have noticed significant battery efficency.
which device are you using? 10 + hours on a single charge is a dream to me
@@shayaanmirza5445 pixel 8a
@@shayaanmirza5445 a little correction-its 10+ of screen on time. If you actively use your phone less than 5 hours a day than its easily a 2-days of use battery life
@@smail2507 which phone are you using?
I think going from touch whiz (Android 8) to one Ui (Android 9) on my note 9 was the most insane update I have ever experienced. That was almost 6 years ago now.
This!! To this day I still wish they kept the samsung experience Icons.
Note 9 still is my daily driver (together with a Surface Dual 2 phone)
Android 7 and 8 were already redesigned Samsung Experience UI, cleaning up most of TouchWiz. OneUI refined it with a new design language and better one handed support
Android already has Airdrop through calibration with Windows. It's called Link to Windows. It's built into most Android models, except Pixel.
Quick Share as well.
@@xirruz Quick share doesn`t ship with windows directly you need to download and let running in the background
+ it doesn`t smoothly as localsend or link to windows, I've found myself troubleshooting like 30% of the times I use it
"All smartphones eventually bring unhappiness."
- Aristotle.
That nigga did not say that😂
"Be excellent to each other… and party on, dudes!"
-Sew-crates.
The last thing that really excited me was gestures, so android 9, I think.
I think it wasn't fully implemented before Android 10, the android 9 version was the pill thingy that you kind of tugged on to make stuff happen. Android 9 was also when Samsung got one UI, which was a huge upgrade for Samsung users at the time. Possibly the largest ever.
This comment isn't directly related to this video, but I have to say that I love the fact that for the most part, Android developers make it so the latest versions of their apps can be used on much older hardware and software.
Back in 2018 I decided to pick up a 1st gen iPhone SE as a secondary device to see what the other side is all about. Well, imagine my surprise when recently I went to update the Ebay app, but couldn't because the newest version requires iOS16 and the SE tops out at 15. As a main Android user, this really surprised me that the iPhone couldn't get the latest version because iOS15 isn't even that old.
I know all apps are different, but by and large, support for older versions seems to be much better on Android.
Jelly Bean's Project Butter making the GNex and other modern Androids at that time run nice and smooth was a game changer for me. Especially coming from the iPhone which felt soo much better before then
Agree
I remembered when updates used to change how your phone looks. The animations, features and so on. I even install custom roms just to be updated.
I remember phones offering RAW photos before Google made it official on the nexus phones.
So, brands are always ahead of google implementing new features to android, so much that at this point it doesn't matter if you have or not have the last version.
For example Huawei pura 70 ultra is running android 12 at its core and no reviewer has miss any feature (aside google apps)
Android 12 was the biggest aesthetic change recently but the biggest functionality and visual change was probably from 4.4 KitKat to 5 marshmallow.
5 lollipop*
Marshmallow was 6
@rising_fredo_pixel haha thanks for the correction.
I miss the Google now launcher.
True. I miss having that Google Now news feed in the left hand size home page. Now I have to open the "Google" app for that.
@@ex0stasis72we still have that in India.
Me too
I realized that after seeing one plus take on cyanogen I list interest in vanilla android, Niagara Launcher became my default. Pro version is best though
@@ex0stasis72huh? my samsung still has a google news feed on the left
You are totally right. Android 15 seems identical to Android 14 on my pixel 9.
What i really want to see from Android is a GOOD wireless screen share with any TV
HEAVY on the casing to a tv. my phone is the only one in the house that can't because I'm the only pixel user.. so annoying. even my brother's iphone 11 connects flawlessly to our Samsung TV.
Instead of relying on major software updates that happen infrequently, Google has shifted its focus to smaller, more frequent updates called "Feature Drops" (or now, "Pixel Drops"). These quarterly updates provide users with a continuous stream of new features and improvements, keeping the excitement and anticipation high. This approach contrasts with the traditional model of large, infrequent updates, such as those used by iOS, which can sometimes feel stagnant in between releases. By delivering smaller updates more often, Google aims to create a more engaging and dynamic user experience.
02:28 I use app pairs. I'm a student and sometimes I have online lectures. Instead of taking out a notebook or notepad, I just enable the split screen on my Samsung. This allows me to be in the online class while taking notes below in the bottom half of the screen without leaving the class to do so. Very useful feature for multitasking I must say.
I agree completely. I used to even get excited to see what the next version would be called. The changes to your phone would usually be quite something along with the new features. I loved HTCs version of Android and the animations etc. Was sorry to see them go. Samsung always produced a good version too. My last Samsung was an S7 but I've used a couple of the A range and they're great value. I'm currently using a Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel watch and Google made them old tech pretty quickly by releasing the 8 and 9 phones and watch 2. Wasn't happy about that. But at least I've got Android 15 which is as you say underwhelming. Thanks for the video. I'm glad I'm not the only one feeling lacklustre about Android. Yes it's a great os but we need excitement back.
You're quite right. I watched one of the many videos doing the rounds about the "new" A15 features and realized my Galaxy A33 can already do all those things. It's sad really that we're just getting updates for the sake of getting updates now.
I think it’s time for the yearly update to come to an end. For both hardware and software.
For hardware yes, software no
@@peterimade6025 software too.
We are now in the golden age. All you have to do is get a samsung galaxy and you are completely set
Or yesteryear's Pixel A-series.
Fairphone is the gold standard though if you want a device ecosystem like Google but Fairtrade, sustainably sourced, certified ecosocially conscious, and ultra repairable/modular.
All those updates yet add basically changes nothing at all 🫡
get an iphone and you will never have to worry about the software
Nobody wants those laggy animations😂
@@handlemoniumThing is the Fairphone isn't perfect and have a lot of shortcomings
Imagine circle-to-search would come with A15. That would make it one of the best os updates.
Huawei's "circle to screenshot" + Google Lens comes pretty close despite the 2-step process.
Wouldn't be surprised if Google begins merging features between the default camera app, Photos, Lens, Assistant Search, and Snapseed at some point.
Airdrop for Android? Isn't it called Quickshare? It's available on my Galaxys, Pixels and Motos
It is. Not sure what he is on about in that regard.
The best new idea for me would be to make 'Digital Wellbeing' easy to uninstall! Refusing all permissions and stopping it doesn't stop it starting up in the background sneakily at random and you dont know until you check 'running apps'. If notifications are turned off and you clear the cache and data notifications turn back on and have to be stopped again. Useless and not wanted and where is our choice not to have it?
I remember when i was 13, I got really into rooting my Galaxy S4 just so i could get the early builds of android KitKat and Lollipop, every new build of android felt like such a huge and substantial step. Nowadays i barely even notice when a new update comes out. However:
I actually think this is a good thing, we're in a really good "it just works" state with android, i think a lot of what made me so eager to upgrade back then was that those older android builds were honestly riddled with laggy software, so the prospect of having a smoother experience on my current device was significantly more tantalising than it would be today.
Software updates reduce the performance than improving it actually.
Fun fact: I dropped this comment on Simple Alpaca's channel about the Note 20 Ultra (which I still have and use it vigorously) and it pretty much sums up this video perfectly.
"The vast majority of non tech enthusiasts and non tech savy peoples wouldn't be able to tell the difference between Android 10, Android 11, Android 12, Android 13 and the upcoming Android 14. Let alone the UI versions. People's needs are to be able to make phone calls, texting, whatsapp and TH-cam and take pictures and record videos. That sums up the population in a nutshell."
Cheers 🥂
You miss location services, casting, sharing and some productivity tools.
I currently have a Note 20 Ultra 5G. Its hardware is so good even for today that I could care less if this year will be it's last chance to receive a major software update (Android 13 is more than usable enough for me). I love it to bits and will continue to use it years from now.
Honestly, when Apple introduced AirPlay, I thought we were on the verge of a future where I wouldn’t need a desktop or laptop anymore. I imagined a world where my phone could do it all-where I could simply walk up to my desk and a wireless mouse, keyboard, and display would connect automatically, allowing me to handle everything from my phone just like on a computer. I’m still holding out hope for that future.
You can buy a Samsung and you will have dex
@@megamanmegaman6568not really the same. It's more like a beefier phone. It's still a phone.
@YISTECH It's the closest we have to that. And you can really do anything on android, so yeah... I'm trying to get sth like that for myself if I can't get a pc.
the last couple of Windows Phones had that capacity with Continuum in around 2016/17, with a powerhouse 3GB of ram. worked pretty well, still does actually but security is an issue at this stage.
USB OTG hub. I used to do my school assignments during covid with my Nokia 6.1.
Upgraded to 15 the other day. I had no idea what had changed. Thanks for telling us and realising that they're rubbish.
The 5.0 update was so good that even my shitty local brand phone running on Jellybean, I had to flash a KitKat rom with a bootleg design copy of Lollipop lmao.
Stock Android updates matter because they need to bring features already in other Android skins like OneUI and OxygenOS (Optimized battery charging in Android 15 being one of them) so they’re still quite important.
Stability and original evolved features are more important than new build numbers and devolvement we see today.
The biggest overhaul for me Android wise for a while was gesture navigation, but at this point that has stabilized. I really did enjoy getting the buttons off of the screen for more real estate (sadly on most sides only to still be covered by ads…thanks ad blockers)
The most recent one I can think of is Android 12 because of Material You but that was a redesign, not that many "real" new features.
You were excited to install the rom on your nexus.
I owned a moto g2 with kitkat and i isntalled the beta from motorola of android lollipop and when i showed all my friends about how the shadows and the animations are silky smooth they all were intrigued( remeber cynogen i installed those too)
The next biggest hit for me was the *material you*.
I absolutely love the concept. Still use it and prefer to have a pixel based material you than a samsung one as some parts of it dont do justice with animations and colors, but pixel does.
Was thankful for custom rom community as i was able to install on my mi 11x (poco f3 globally) and the amount of satisfaction it gave me with the simplest setup and change of wallpapers by chaning all the keyboard color, accents aroudn every part of ui and those amazing widgets! Man i love being in this android space. Gcam made it even better.
Those are my two turning points
Lollipop and material you!
None the less your right about versions dont matter. As long as the hardware is capable, the device runs almost literally everything these days
Nice video. You are 1000% right about everything. What we (I) actually need after a year or two of using a current phone is actually a change. Every next phone of mine is a different brand, I went from HTC to Nexus 5 to LG G4 to OnePlus 3 to Huawei mate 10 pro to iphone 11 pro to Xiaomi 10t pro to OnePlus to samsung s20 and so on. I'm most excited in the first few months of exploring the new os and after 6-12 months I'm bored and switch to a totally different brand just to experience new os, new UI, new icons and so on. Small changes through 2-3 years of update are nonsense to me, but there are people that actually hate changes and would like the same os and UI for life...
What is the point of change just for change sake?
The feature I really really loved, used and can’t find on another phone is Samsung’s separate app sounds, I do not know if this is available in other brands but I switched from Samsung to iPhone recently and I miss this feature so much, its so nice having the song playing in the car while you get all your notifications, calls on your phone, uninterrupted
Ooooof. Cannot agree on the excitement for lollipop. (5.1 was when we started cooking with gas.) Made my nexus 6 a nightmare. Kit Kat was my fav in terms of fluidity and 12 is my favorite visually.
Is 12 different from 14? I jumped from 10 to 14.
@@queeniegreengrass3513 on pixel? Massively. 12 looked the best it ever did, but in terms of functionality? A LOT of things were broken but I feel like that was less the OS and more the 6 pro.13 cleaned most of it up but 14 got it to where it should've been in the first place.
Android 5 was the Windows Vista of Android. It was so bad, resource draining, that together with overheating flagship SOCs from Snapdragon it made many creative smartphones that was released at that time bad.
Funny was thinking 5.0 too. Great Review. Really hit it from all fronts. Explaining how not much has changed but acknowledging that it's due to feature drops and how much Android has grown. Very well done.
The only thing I'm excited from Android 15 is edge to edge enforcement
I’m excited for my edge protection
Which kinda doesn't work!?
@@Hitesh001100it's only for apps targeting sdk 35, we won't probably see all apps implement it until Google play store increase their minimum sdk target level to 35, which is probably in 2-3 years
@@Hitesh001100it's only for apps targeting sdk 35, we won't probably see all apps implement this now until Google increase their minimum target sdk to 35, which is 2-3 android version from 15, but knowing google they will probably screw this up too and not implement it in their own apps
@@yumni45 lol that's google alright! Although, they already added an API for apps to opt out of the edge to edge mandate! So, we probably will be seeing only a bunch of apps maybe!
Android 13 was HUGE! It slowed down your phone, removed access to much of your file system, completely obsoleted perfectly working apps, and removed ability to get them from the PlayStore! It even added way more non-consensual data tracking and gathering! Wow!
I'm using an android 11 phone from Xiaomi and I have all these features 2:00 I get to upgrade to android 13 or 14 I think but I refuse to
same here
While it may be true that Android versions don't seem to have changed significantly between recent updates, a bigger issue is Carrier and Network support.
Australia has previously shutdown the 2G Network and is currently shutting down the 3G Network, forcing everyone onto 4G/5G.
If your phone is 4G and can't be upgraded to Android 11 or later due to Manufacturer limitations, Carriers are not supporting VoLTE functions even if the Phone is capable of it.
The Government Communications Authority has mandated that Phones "not supporting 4G VoLTE" be disabled for "Safety Reasons", which at the date of 3G Shutdown was over ½ a million Phones!
0:21 Nexus 4! That so reminds me of high school 🥲
I had nexus 5
Funny thing is some developers have to put Samsung-specific fixes to make their apps work. So as long as you use something that is not so heavily modified your apps should run fine, because they're usually tested against Pixel phones.
Yes yes yes! Exactly what I have been thinking watching all the TH-camrs making videos about Android 15....like it's some huge update. It's not. Just like we have seen any innovation in smartphones over the past years. Just little improvements.
Well that's a relief! My Samsung Note 9, got Android 8, 9 and 10... Real world experience felt like 2 years of updates, then high and dry... I used to be a daily ROM flasher back when the glorious NEXUS devices existed. Before Pixel, the iPhone simulator.
Pro tip: Apple feature doesn't need to be used daily to be groundbreaking or so useful that you can't go without it. App pairs is something like the s-pen, it's not something I use every day of even weekly but when it's needed for me it's sorely needed
What is that monitor mount at 6:45?
Three features I would love is
1. Ability to automatically record calls built in.
2. Ability to automatically look at your contacts. If a phone number is stored then show your number. If you have not stored the person then hide caller id.
And number 3 on incoming calls automatically search online for what carrior the person is using. And then Adress name and whatever public listed information there is.
I would pay for those features lol. Have a s24ultra and missing the heck out of those.
1. Is already there in most phones.
2. What?
3. Truecaller?
1. Cube ACR (it's free) and many other free apps.
2. What?
3. Truecaller?
Completely agree with most everything said. I am also using a OnePlus 12, looking forward to the 13, and a Pixel 9 Pro. I recently picked up a Motorola Razer+ 2024, and comments where mainly about how it takes Motorola forever to update Android to the latest greatest OS. To be honest, I like the Motorola Skin on Android 14 and could careless when they update to 15 on that device. It gets great battery life on the Snapdragon 8s processor, and with the 165hz screen and the 12 gigs of memory, feels snappy. I do not see any advantage in upgrading to 15 on that device so whenever it comes, it comes. I also agree that it has been a long time since we have seen anything that wowed us from Android, although the quality of life upgrades over the years have been nice, nothing like in the past. Like when Material U dropped so many years ago. I always appreciate your honest take on things.
One major thing can be done is crossplatform functionality, use exe files in android, apk in iOS and vice versa.
7:28 wallpaper link?
*I will always be grateful for Android and Google for making everything simple and accessible and I wish them all the best in their continuous journey of doing the same* 💚
Android 10 on Huawei's HarmonyOS in 2019 was the most significant upgrade in recent times and made me switch back from iOS/iPhone.
12 & 14 were major refinements that sealed the deal for me. I now run an iMessage server for my android phone and my 15 pro max is basically just my on-the-go film rig now.
Im still really pissed off that people on android 14 cant play old apks because of "security reasons" and people running older versions can, which is so mind bogglingly stupid. Why do I lose core features for updating?
You can tho, using adb or wireless debugging. I use shizuku, wireless adb and aShell to install what I want.
64 bit only
@@Rsonny You can still install the apps with adb, which means that they work with 64 bit, Google just doesn't want you to use them
It took from Android 6 to Android 13 and 13.1 to get battery back right. These updates are a joke at this point m
Case simulator at 0:43
That made me so happy
As soon as you said flashing ROMs back in the day and overhaul, I subscribed. Because I did the same. Addictive crazy hobby. Testing it all from flashing ROMs and theming.
Upgrades have a hidden purpose . To heat your phone . To lag your phone . To lower camera quality of your phone.
Who remembers this version of Samsung Galaxy S2 released in 😮2012?! It was my favorite back then ❤
The thing that I’ve been so happy about some of the later Android updates (more in the 10, 11, & 12 era tho lezbhonest) is the improvements with gesture control; I’ve appreciated gaining my full screen for content without needing to minimize navigation controls or sacrifice space to navigation controls!
I agree, Android 5 Lollipop was the last Android update I was particularly excited about. I ran the beta on my Nexus 5, and was so thrilled about the aesthetic changes. For iOS I felt similarly about iOS 7, and then maybe again when they put out the iPhone X.
2:30 - Yes, I use app pairs on both my Z Fold 6 (daily) and S23 (car phone for nav/music without pairing/unpairing Bluetooth all the time). For the Z Fold, the drawbacks of app pairs largely vanish with the bigger screen, so uses are plentiful and generally awesome. For the S23, I let Waze take up the top 80% of the screen for navigation, and leave the remaining 20% taken up by live monitoring data from an OBD2 scanner (stuff like calculated engine load %, RPM, coolant temp since my gauge cluster doesn't give a number, etc).
I used to have "play video on background" Featured in my phone. But now i don't. Can someone explain why?
I have the same feeling I'm rocking my Samsung note 10+ with android 12 and I don't feel I'm missing out on too much it's full of features and customization to the point where flashing custom rom would be loss of features I'm happy with it , although there's minor details in other OS's that I prefer more than one ui like selecting text from recent apps in pixel and ai features in photos and the big clock on the lock screen but it's just small things compared to the many features in one ui , it's now up to people taste in the ui aesthetics and the minor useful features for everyone to choose from
I'm also rocking Samsung Note 10+ with Android 12 and I'm loving it!
People shouldn't forget that those "big" updates weren't necessary the best versions to use. 4.0 ICS was a major update, but 4.1-4.3 and 4.4 really rounded it out. 5.0 was massive, but it took IMO till 7.1 to really perfect the concept. After that, it took till 11 again to complete the stuff from 8.0 and 9.0. 12 was once again a bit of a mess.
Biggest change in my opinion was from Android 4.4 Kitkat to Android 5.0 Lollipop, next to this is was from Android 2.3 Gingerbread to 3.x for Tablets and 4.0 Icecream Sandwich for phones.
7:06 Since few months there's a support for microsoft office files via office 365 on chromeos, so it doesn't sound impossible
I used to be so hype whenever a new android update is available. I started with android alpha, and I get so excited to switch and upgrade phones, until android 4.0.4 when we can finally update the software of the phone via the settings. And then from ice cream sandwich to jellybean was so huge, and up to lollipop. And then it stopped being so groundbreaking anymore around android Nougat
I remember getting hyped for Android Oreo in highschool. The album art sound module in the lock screen is so underrated. When I was so hyped waiting for it to be pushed to my Motorola Z Force
I used to work for a company that made Android phones and 2.3.3 to 4.0 was the real game changer, as that's when the UI became hardware accelerated (technically it happened in Android 3 but only a few devices got that, and it was tablet only as I recall).
Android 5 was significant but not nearly as big as a leap.
That said I was wary of updating my own galaxy s2 to Android 4 given how bad a job Samsung had done of updating it so far (the Australian version of 2.3.3 for that phone would just reboot itself randomly, factory reset did not help, and I ended up combining parts of roms from different regions to fix it), so I'm pretty sure I waited for one of the more popular 3rd party rom makers to release something for it before I updated.
My smartphone is stuck on Android 12. It does not want to update to a later version and shows that the current version is up to date. Dumb question coming now... Is my device sick ?
I remember that 5.0 was so great to me that i bought several devices later on like tablets and such well after new versions that had come out, that had 5.0 on them and i didn't feel like i was missing anything. That's how I feel again now because it's just all so minor.
Where can I find the wallpapers shown in the thumbnail?
Shame on me watched 5 videos straight on this channel, after this video I'll subscribe ❤
Remember when they were called after candies, cakes and trademark sweets?
At 6:56 what is a "pico computer"? 😅
I used to love stock android but what I don't like about it now is the big Quick settings buttons. Why have a few big ones when you could have even more small ones?
Android 4.2 4.4 and 5.0 you could truly see ux and ui designers doing their job.. with the newer updates you truly see financial management do their job
Back in the day, I could always immediately tell you which version of Android I was running. I had to look up in my settings even to see if I was running Android version 13, 14 or 15