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A comment on Android 16 Is Here. Parent comment

Re:Android 16 Is Here by demosthanos on Tuesday June 10, 2025 @03:26PM (#44240454)
This knee-jerk reaction is correct more often than not (see the terrible iOS redesign announced earlier), but in this case it seems like it might be incorrect?

I looked through the highlights linked here and the full "What's New" page [0] and am pleasantly surprised to see a few new features but no major overhauls of existing ones.

[0] https://www.android.com/16

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Android 16 Is Here by butlike on Tuesday June 10, 2025 @03:59PM (#44240808)
The issue is this reaction never sticks. Everyone's up in arms, but would you really want to go back to Android KitKat or iOS 2? Probably not for more than novelty, right?
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Re:Android 16 Is Here by layer8 on Tuesday June 10, 2025 @04:10PM (#44240939)
I would really want to go back to something like the look of iOS 1-6, with clearly discernible UI controls vs. content and labels. Not the real-world-mimicking skeuomorphism, but the look of the standard UI controls.
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Re:Android 16 Is Here by Pxtl on Tuesday June 10, 2025 @04:30PM (#44241132)
Web ruined everything. Got everybody thinking that flag rectangles were cool and consistent ui frameworks were old fashioned.
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Re:Android 16 Is Here by bigstrat2003 on Tuesday June 10, 2025 @04:12PM (#44240959)
Yes, of course I would. Android UI has been horrible ever since 12.
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Re:Android 16 Is Here by FirmwareBurner on Tuesday June 10, 2025 @04:02PM (#44240839)
Bad faith argument. The opposite of Android 16 enshitification isn't going back to Android 2, but around Android 10-12 or so it was already good enough IIRC. Why not keep it like that?

Similar to Windows 11. The opposite isn't going back all the way to Windows 3.1, but Windows 7 or so was kinda peak.

So please, justify me the progress, or more exactly, have UI designers justify it, because I'm not seeing it. I've mostly seen change for the sake of change, wrapped in fluffy artsy BS jargon, making it sound like each UI change is the second coming of Christ and fixes world hunger.

Because I can justify you how for example KDE 3 and similar apps of that era including on Windows XP-7, were visually easier and more intuitive to use, than those flat modern looks of KDE 5/Windows 11 today.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Android 16 Is Here by legitster on Tuesday June 10, 2025 @04:07PM (#44240910)
More and more features are getting added, so the UI has to get reorganized to accomodate for them. A lot of the changes for Android 16 are to accommodate wearables and folding phones and etc while keeping the controls more consistent between them.
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Re:Android 16 Is Here by FirmwareBurner on Tuesday June 10, 2025 @04:10PM (#44240938)
Cars have also gained new features, but the steering wheel, shifter, pedals, mirrors are still in the same places since >50 years. You don't need to get a new license and re-learn how to drive every time a new model comes out because they moved the steering wheel on the ceiling to install a 32 inch LCD screen.
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Re:Android 16 Is Here by kllrnohj on Tuesday June 10, 2025 @07:42PM (#44242723)
And my android phone still has "back", "home", and "recents" buttons in the exact same place they've been since they were literal hardware buttons. Core navigation (aka, "steering") is unchanged, no new drivers license required
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Re:Android 16 Is Here by Izkata on Tuesday June 10, 2025 @08:59PM (#44243199)
Originally there was a 4th button, "menu". Android had a standard grid-shaped menu that apps could implement, that would pop up from the bottom of the screen.

Also "recents" wasn't its own button, it was reached by long-pressing "home". The other button was "search".

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Re:Android 16 Is Here by izacus on Wednesday June 11, 2025 @03:25AM (#44245063)
This hasn't been the case for literally decade though.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Android 16 Is Here by int_19h on Tuesday June 10, 2025 @09:34PM (#44243372)
Last I checked you had to flip a switch in settings to have all those buttons back like that; it hasn't been a default in stock Android for some time now.
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Re:Android 16 Is Here by throw10920 on Tuesday June 10, 2025 @11:53PM (#44244048)
> Bad faith argument.

Citation needed, and you're violating the HN guidelines besides.

> Assume good faith.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Android 16 Is Here by FirmwareBurner on Wednesday June 11, 2025 @01:54AM (#44244578)
>Citation needed, and you're violating the HN guidelines besides.

You want a citation for my own opinion? Are you OK?

I explained my reasoning for the bad faith argument in the comment. Did you read it? Because there's no violation of HN guidelines to provide an argumented option.

> Assume good faith.

I assumed good faith, but then I used critical thinking and decided it's in bad faith then explained why. You don't need to agree with me on this.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Android 16 Is Here by justsomehnguy on Tuesday June 10, 2025 @04:50PM (#44241307)
I can live another decade without an app what groups three options (one of it is "About") under a hamburger menu on a completely blank screen.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Android 16 Is Here by pas on Tuesday June 10, 2025 @05:17PM (#44241553)
yes, who cares, let me launch apps and put widgets on the screen, what else?

I like a lot of the new features, but the visual (mis)communication language is terrible.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Android 16 Is Here by dzikimarian on Tuesday June 10, 2025 @05:19PM (#44241573)
While I like new notification management or control buttons on top of the drawer, I really wouldn't have problem using them in Holo design.
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Re:Android 16 Is Here by unethical_ban on Tuesday June 10, 2025 @07:09PM (#44242518)
The interface of Kitkat and the UI design is fine! It looks like what Apple is moving to.

Of course I want accessibility, security and technical improvements.

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Re:Android 16 Is Here by timewizard on Tuesday June 10, 2025 @07:58PM (#44242832)
Seems fine to me.

https://developer.android.com/about/versions/android-4.0-hig...

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Re:Android 16 Is Here by AndroidKitKat on Tuesday June 10, 2025 @08:46PM (#44243125)
If it was usable with the apps I need today, I would switch back to Android 4.4.2 or iOS 6.1.3 in a heartbeat. Not sure how long I would stay before the rose tint in my glasses returns to normal, but I would certainly love to try.
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Re:Android 16 Is Here by danieldk on Tuesday June 10, 2025 @03:54PM (#44240765)
Yep, I just installed on my Pixel 9 and it looks barely different from Android 15. Most of the changes seem to be in the plumbing. Material Design Expressive will only arrive in the next quarterly release.
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Re:Android 16 Is Here by nsriv on Tuesday June 10, 2025 @04:38PM (#44241212)
Yeah I think this is being lost in this rollout (and a little bit in these comments). Expressive is in the next update, since this year is a big hike up in the calendar for phone release.
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Re:Android 16 Is Here by petee on Tuesday June 10, 2025 @08:30PM (#44243033)
But thats also just what they're trying to advertise. They always make more changes than listed.

And its the sneaky ones that get through...like when I upgraded to 15 my home button no longer exists when the screen is locked, which effectively makes google maps navigation stuck on the screen unless you stop navigation by pressing back repeatedly

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Re:Android 16 Is Here by demosthanos on Tuesday June 10, 2025 @10:23PM (#44243614)
This is never how the marketing around the big UI overhauls that OP is worried about works. A sneaky UI overhaul that's launched with no fanfare doesn't get anyone promoted, so why bother?

> like when I upgraded to 15 my home button no longer exists when the screen is locked, which effectively makes google maps navigation stuck on the screen unless you stop navigation by pressing back repeatedly

Smaller things like this, sure.

FYI, swiping up from the bottom will get into the lock screen and then once unlocked into the home screen.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Android 16 Is Here by petee on Wednesday June 11, 2025 @05:44AM (#44245821)
Its actually a big change, as swiping up just opens the Google Maps bottom menu. The home row replaces gesture nav (which I can't stand...another UI feature they've been slowing pushing)

My current workaround is to trampoline off another program, like Spotify, or the BT settings, that has a constant notification then i can click that which opens the lock screen.

But even a small sounding change can be significant. After the last Gemini push, the alarm clock now would "stop" on voice command, but it would activate for random noises you made, cancelling my alarm for work; the settings were hidden in another app, not the alarm. It wasn't even promoted so nobody knew. This release mentions even more Gemini integrations...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Android 16 Is Here by demosthanos on Wednesday June 11, 2025 @10:42AM (#44248155)
> Its actually a big change, as swiping up just opens the Google Maps bottom menu.

On my phone there are two swipe zones at the bottom. The one that's actually on the screen opens the Google Maps menu. But if I swipe from off screen up it works as I described. Maybe your phone doesn't have enough surface area below the screen to distinguish the two?

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