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Android has really been annoying me lately. Maybe I didn't care before but now that I can't root my phone I am forced to deal with it.

Still can't disable or customize to stupid "share" menu that puts you one click away from accidentally sending something to a stranger you contacted once on sms or facebook messenger or email.

Still can't revoke certain permissions from apps (like vibration). There is zero reason why my browser should need to ever vibrate or use the accelerometer/gyro.

Still no good system wide ad blocking solution. (not likely, but one of the biggest things I miss from having a rooted phone)

How about those superpowers, Google? I have been an Android user since 2010 but I am quite sure my next phone will be an iPhone (with a headphone jack).

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So you're upset about not having enough niche power-user knobs, so you're going to a device that has basically zero power-user knobs? How does that make any sense? Why not just flash an AOSP-based ROM that does what you want, which Google officially supports for their devices?

Exactly. I need to customize, so I'll go to Apple, the most user-infantilizing software company on the face of the planet, world-renowned for their repeated refusal to let users tweak the user experience of their $1000 phones on the grounds that some people in a board room in Cupertino know what's best for you better than you do.

I'm happy with my relationship with Apple and their products over the years.

I trust them to do the right thing, and they usually do - for my needs. Obviously many other people feel the same way too. I don't want to customize anything, I want things to work and work well. I don't want to be in the driver's seat, I want to be driven.

Your view of Apple and their relationship with their customers is very skewed. The same thing that seems to infuriate you is the thing that makes them so incredibly successful.

They usually know better. I've been iPhone user for 6 years and I've never wanted to customize something. Android, on the other hand, would need a complete customization, redesign and rewrite which I don't have time to do.

> zero reason why my browser should need to ever [...] use the accelerometer/gyro

It might not be a good reason, but I made a game a while back that used tilt input instead of arrow keys on mobile: http://nfriedly.github.io/space-jump/

A bit related, do ad companies use the tilt/gyro to guess if someone is actually looking at the video? It seems they could adjust payout based on if there was an actual view, or at least get some metrics on which ads people actually pay attention to.

Not sure.. it wouldn't surprise me though.

I suspect their UX people nixed the whole "revoke individual permissions" thing because then aunt Tilly would accidentally revoke something and complain that her phone is broken.

Seen the same kind of reasoning play out in other contexts where user customization has been curtailed.

They could have put it in the developer menu for goodness sake.

> Still can't revoke certain permissions from apps (like vibration).

You can revoke individual permissions from apps. Settings > Apps & notifications > App permissions on Oreo. I think this has been in since Marshmallow (6.0).

You can manage individual notification settings (including vibration) from Settings > Apps & notifications > Notifications.

I'm not sure about accelerometer/gyro settings for apps. I feel a bit different about this one. Why should I care if my browser uses the accelerometer/gyro?

You can't revoke a lot of permissions (such as vibration) from apps, even in that settings menu.

Try this app[1] for customising your share menu. Lets you remove a lot of the cruft that clogs up your share menu too.

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.andmadesof...

Last Updated: January 21, 2013

Pretty much abandon-ware.

It still works though (and looks nicer than in the screenshots). No need for an update if it already works as described.

>Still no good system wide ad blocking solution.

Theres multiple non root solutions that use a local vpn to accomplish this.

> Maybe I didn't care before but now that I can't root my phone I am forced to deal with it.

Why not?

maybe it is a company phone

it locked by by his carrier (eg verizon pixel)

he wants to use android pay\netflix\other apps that detect root

etc.

There are many reasons.

All of which can be summed up as "don't work with shitty companies".

give me an alternative to android pay and netflix on a google device

You can use the VPN api, and run a local vpn server on the handset, with adblocking. That's what I do, without root on my new phone.

DNS66 is super annoying if you regularly use a VPN for anything else.

Is anybody else getting seriously bored of the share menu being totally different in each app?

System wide ad blocking is available on Android. You just need to buy the correct phone (hint: Samsung galaxy).

On a serious note, Samsung is so far ahead of every other manufacturer (including Google) I wonder why people buy anything else. For me, whenever I need to buy a new phone, there are two options to consider: Samsung or iPhone.

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