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Comment by tryfinally | Hacker News Reader

I fondly remember waiting for new Android releases years ago. I'd jump to the landing page, get excited for new features, plan ahead on getting a new phone. I never noticed when, but at some point this stopped.

My old phone works just fine (...for an Android, that is), and I don't even mind the cracked backplate. The battery capacity keeps decreasing year after year, but even that feels like a feature in disguise. It won't get an upgrade to the new Android (by design, I presume), but I don't care. Have I gotten old? Is it me? Or is it you?

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Mobile OS's have far passed peak change. I think iOS 7 was peak change. Where it went to the transparent UI, swipe up bar etc. Everything since has been a tweak. The next future of "big change" will come in VR/AR || carOS when each OS update dramatically makes the experience better and more efficient. I doubt we will see much in phone OS space in the new few years as VR/AR/ CarOS ramps up.

The next real improvement I’m waiting for is the EU regulation that requires big companies to be compatible (messaging, video / photo sharing).

I don’t care about a solution that copies video from an Android phone to an Android tablet… I need one that works with every computing device and OS.

Android VMs are plentiful. What can't you do?

I thought it seemed that iOS 7 was too long ago, but I looked at the major changes since then and none of them contain nearly as many major changes as iOS 7. I do appreciate the many iterative changes since such as improving notifications.

I think the inevitability of AR/VR is oversold. We have been hearing about the Apple VR project for years now. Hitting the sweet spot between utility and innovation (like iPhone) is an extremely rare occurrence and might not happen for years to come.

They've arguably already hit it. Apple has been testing overengineered features that are suspiciously well suited for AR in broad daylight for a few years now. If they can't pull it off, I don't think anyone can.

have you tried an oculus quest? Its amazing for what it is, and in my opinion its only like an original xbox at this stage.

No, iOS 7 was when the downwards trend started. I remember seeing the screenshots of the beta and couldn't believe it's the real thing that's going to actually ship for real. I saw those icons that looked as if they're drawn by kids, and assumed they're placeholders, that the real ones were just not ready yet.

I hate minimalistic, sterile, flat UI design with a burning passion. We need skeuomorphism and affordances back, and we need it all yesterday.

I am constantly tickled by some new advances in almost each iOS release. When the base UI and interaction works well enough, I don't want major changes for the sake of change.

Some features I really like that aren't glitzy but are game-changing for me:

* The ability to auto-detect and translate webpages in Safari (or SFSafariViewController)

* Advances in the lock screen and control center

* FaceID and no-password FIDO2 sign-in

I'm sure there are similar things for Android (which I haven't touched since my Nexus5). I think the best approach is not to change what works.

Wouldn't this be a sign of a mature or maturing product that's moved closer to maintenance or addressing the longer term health of the platform? I'd argue that most technologies should expect to lose their excitement factor because they've conquered most of their battles and are more like utilities or tools. From an outsider perspective it seems like that is part of the reason it's significant news when there's changes like Google increasing the API level requirements on the store requiring new rework on apps as it shows the platform can't be considered fully stable yet, highlighting a difference in viewpoints.

Similar.

Used to run flagship phones, replaced them on the yearly, ran various Android builds on current phone and/or older phones....

At some point I simply stopped caring, started to get the pixel-A phones, and lived happily ever after. I think my Nexus 6p was the last flagship phone I owned, and I probably swapped the battery in that like ~5 times before I got the boot-loop of death. These days I won't be bothered to replace a battery, unless there is a compelling reason. Just get another phone, and move on.

> These days I won't be bothered to replace a battery, unless there is a compelling reason. Just get another phone, and move on.

Generating less e-waste seems compelling enough.

I fondly remember waiting for christmas. I'd wake up, get excited for new gifts, plan ahead for the celebration, but at some point this stopped.

Bad example. Upgrades became objectively worse (if we’re talking about number of features).

There are some Christmas presents where I'd rather have received nothing than find a way of disposing of some junk.

In some earlier versions, I found there were bit of "must have" improvements over the previous version, but as Android matures, I think it is less so as many of improvements offered by a new version these days are either already possible using an app, or just some nice to have. Occasionally, I do see features that I really want to have but I find they are far from dealbreaker...

Android is a child who never grows up. Is like those children rose by volves.

I feel the same except for the battery life going down feeling like a feature

I’d be perfectly happy keeping my old phone with Android 9 until the battery became useless, except for security upgrades. Old Android versions have some scary vulnerabilities. Doesn’t that concern you?

Is android mainline happened? Like updating many system services, security things and apps through google play without upgrading OS?

Yes. Since Android 12.

Project Mainline was introduced in Android 10 actually.

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