Google Helping Devs with ICS: OEMs Must Include OG Unmodified ICS Theme Files & More

[dgstorm]

Google has taken things to a new level with Ice Cream Sandwich, and now they are extending that to additional support for developers. In the past, the fact that multiple OEMs create different add-on UIs to their products has been a source of frustration for developers. Their apps could work fine on a stock Android build, but might get broken by one of the different manufacturer UI overlays, like Motoblur, Sense, etc. Now, instead of having to develop multiple versions for the different UI skins, Google is requiring OEMs to include the original Holo ICS Theme with the device. This should make things easier for devs moving forward, because now they have tighter and more focused standards to follow to make sure their product can work with multiple ICS devices. Here's a quote from the Google Developers Blog:

In Android 4.0, Holo is different. We’ve made the inclusion of the unmodified Holo theme family a compatibility requirement for devices running Android 4.0 and forward. If the device has Android Market it will have the Holo themes as they were originally designed.

This standardization goes for all of the public Holo widget styles as well. The Widget.Holo styles will be stable from device to device, safe for use as parent styles for incremental customizations within your app.

You can read more details on Google's developer blog below.

Source: Google Android Developers Blog

 

[illmatic636]

Thought "OG" was coined for our beloved Droid 1's

 

[johnomaz]

How awesome. Would this also make it easier to strip out the custom UIs too?

 

[Josefius]

The reason I went to the Nexus was because I was tired of Motoblur breaking things.

 

[dgstorm]

Thought "OG" was coined for our beloved Droid 1's

Yep. But it comes in handy at other times. Especially when you have limited space for titles! lol

 

[Spiderwebb71688]

I feel like this is going to delay Moto's release of ICS for the razr... grr. Nice in the long run though!

 

[metalspring]

idk, this is good in some ways but in other ways not so good...
the good- helps with app compatibility, and may possibly get ota updates pushed out faster, will help phone performance because there will be no heavy resource ui like sense
the bad- this kinda makes android more like IOS where every phone will look the same without sense, touchwiz, moto(not)blur, etc, also what about the widgets that each UI overlay has brought? some of them are pretty useful, the phone manufacturers will definitely NOT be happy about this decision
the ugly (possibly)- what will this do to themers now? will themes for custom roms be a thing of the past?, also what about current phones being upgaded? this will most certainly make all of them take longer to receive the ICS ota as the phone manufacturers try to figure out how to fully remove thier UI, and this may also make some older phones that they had planned on pushing ICS to will not be getting due to the extra work involved

 

[Big Ry]

This is great news. Its ridiculous how long manufacturers take to release an OS just cause they want to crap it up. However, as said before there are a couple features here and there that will be missed (but many that won't). And no more crying "fragmentation" from apple lol

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[pandabear]

idk, this is good in some ways but in other ways not so good...
the good- helps with app compatibility, and may possibly get ota updates pushed out faster, will help phone performance because there will be no heavy resource ui like sense
the bad- this kinda makes android more like IOS where every phone will look the same without sense, touchwiz, moto(not)blur, etc, also what about the widgets that each UI overlay has brought? some of them are pretty useful, the phone manufacturers will definitely NOT be happy about this decision
the ugly (possibly)- what will this do to themers now? will themes for custom roms be a thing of the past?, also what about current phones being upgaded? this will most certainly make all of them take longer to receive the ICS ota as the phone manufacturers try to figure out how to fully remove thier UI, and this may also make some older phones that they had planned on pushing ICS to will not be getting due to the extra work involved

Actually, sense/blur/touchwiz etc aren't going anywhere. See this article: Google requiring default 'Holo' theme in Android 4.0 devices for Android Market access | The Verge

 

[metalspring]

Actually, sense/blur/touchwiz etc aren't going anywhere. See this article: Google requiring default 'Holo' theme in Android 4.0 devices for Android Market access | The Verge

Ah, thanks, if that's the case then this is definitely a good step...ultimately it'd be nice to see the manufacturers add in options to "remove manufacturing UI"

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[dja1980]

I LOVE this idea... I was so torn on whether to go with the Nexus or Razr because I felt I had to choose between build quality and Vanilla Android. It sounds like this will make the Vanilla Android issue a moot point!