Google is preparing to roll out a new shortcut for launching Google Wallet, and it could arrive in this year’s Android 16 update.
Google is preparing to roll out a new shortcut for launching Google Wallet, and it could arrive in this year’s Android 16 update.
This type of thing has just about killed any desire to continue using Stock Android for me. Couple years now it seems they’re half-assing all new features: Either they bring a years old feature back (that they shouldn’t have killed in the first place) as a shadow of its former self, or they add a feature that does the bare minimum, then take multiple updates for it to have functionality that should have been there from the first release.
* Circle to Search is just rehashed Google Now with a whole lotta marketing and less functionality.
* Lock Screen Shortcuts have been a thing forever, but only NOW in A13 they made a proper UI to let you customize then, previously you only could in custom ROMs, Root, ADB Trickery or the SystemUI Tuner. And how many shortcut options do you have? 8.
Why is Google insisting on making these features have 0 third-party support???
On Apple, thanks to their App Intents API third-party apps can expose quick actions on the Control Center, as a Lock Screen shortcut and a one-press action for the Action button.
Android has let third-party devs add custom Quick Setting Tiles for years, so you’d think expanding this API so they can also define Lock Screen shortcuts and Power Double Press shortcuts would be the obvious way forward but NOPE!
8 puny little Lockscreen Shortcuts and that’s it.
Google Assistant and Camera for the Double Press Power. Now they’re adding Wallet, upping the total to 3, how impressive.
How the fuck is Apple doing customization better than Android???
* Multitasking is so clunky it might as well not even be here.
Previously you could Split Screen your current app, drop to your launcher and select another one to take the remaining space, then they removed this for no reason, so if Split Screen your current app and the other one you want to use isn’t already running, you gotta cancel the action, launch it, then start setting the Split Screen again, all in all it’s such a slow, workflow interrupting process that 9 times of 10 I don’t even bother.
The best AOSP is annoying as hell to use (and all they’d need to fix it is undo one boneheaded change) meanwhile all the other OEMs are doing Floating Windows on their skins. Even Motorola who keeps their skin close to AOSP did it.
Why the fuck hasn’t Google? They’ve had a half-broken implementation of this for years in the dev settings but are moving at an absolute snails’ pace with it, and I really think it wasn’t the Pixel Fold and Tablet they wouldn’t even bother finishing it.
* What’s new in A15? So little it should have been called 14.1
At this point I’ve given up on Google ever bring true new innovation in AOSP.
When they’re not tweaking things for the worse, they’re
Swear I’m gonna jump to OneUI on my next phone and I’m not even very fond of Samsung’s offerings 😒