Android M preview thoughts from the members of DroidForum

[pc747]

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Yesterday the talk was about Android M and thanks to Google's preview of the software many of us are running it on our devices. All over the community we are hearing about what others think but the main story is what our members think as this is about you. So for the brave souls who sacrificed their devices to beta test, what are your thoughts about Android M (likes/dislikes)?

I'll list my 3:

1. For those who miss the old style volume control, it is back. Google heard you and they delivered. But for those of us who liked the "do not disturb" you can find that in your pull down menu.
2. Data restore is a big plus though it has been hit or miss with certain apps but it could be an isolated issue.
3. Dark/light theme.

I could go on but I still have some more digging plus I want to allow room for others to comment. I will post some screen shots below.

In case you missed the features that will be in Android M check out the news article here.

 

[pc747]

 

[dgstorm]

Woohoo!

If Google can fix all of the bugs, then Android M will make Lollipop a distant fading memory. (I wonder if Google is now going to become like Microsoft used to be... practically every other OS was alternating between good and terrible.)

 

[pc747]

Woohoo!

If Google can fix all of the bugs, then Android M will make Lollipop a distant fading memory. (I wonder if Google is now going to become like Microsoft used to be... practically every other OS was alternating between good and terrible.)

Based on the preview it looks like Google have been saving all the fixes and gripes from lollipop and putting it on M while adding just enough to keep us happy.

The theme engine is basic, enough to give us something while keeping it simple. The app/data restore was a complaint many had for awhile but will be interesting to see how they will be able to pull it off. Personally I would like to get where once I sign into my phone it auto restores apps and data so I do not have to sign back in to every app (ie tapatalk, twitter, etc) minus banking apps. Hopefully in the later builds Google is able to make that a reality.

@CJM and @bkdodger are running this as well so definitely wanting to see what they dug into.

 

[pc747]

Volume control changes

 

[PereDroid]

Sounds like quite a few things I would like but I can't possibly even get excited about M when I haven't even seen Lollipop yet, probably won't for a few more weeks, M won't even be mainstream for months and then I will be exceptionally lucky if it even comes to my device and if it doesn't then I will probably be looking at N by the time my contract is up.

In other words... meh.

 

[cr6]

Love the option for dark theming! Nice to see they've listened to their customers.
That's all I really cared about, everything else is icing on the cake, but isn't really all that important to me. That glaring white background was enough to keep me from upgrading to Lollipop....Hopefully M will come to the S5. (I'm not holding my breath though)
Thanks @pc747!

S5 tap'n

 

[pc747]

Love the option for dark theming! Nice to see they've listened to their customers.
That's all I really cared about, everything else is icing on the cake, but isn't really all that important to me. That glaring white background was enough to keep me from upgrading to Lollipop....Hopefully M will come to the S5. (I'm not holding my breath though)
Thanks @pc747!

S5 tap'n

I don't like the vertical scrolling but that is one of those things that can go either way. Plus it is so minor, if they get everything else right and that is my only beef, I'll just use nova launcher.

 

[FoxKat]

I don't like the vertical scrolling but that is one of those things that can go either way. Plus it is so minor, if they get everything else right and that is my only beef, I'll just use nova launcher.

You know, it's funny. I loved the vertical scrolling on the OGD, and on other phones. It feels only natural to me considering that when reading content on a webpage you're scrolling from top to bottom by sliding the screen upwards. Swiping from left to right with your thumb or finger seems a lot more cumbersome to me. Also, since the apps are sorted in alphabetical order, the natural flow of the alphabet from top to bottom is far more intuitive. With side words growing, you have the alphabet starting at the top left and going to the bottom right in your screen but the next pain you move over you have to start at the top left again to continue in the alphabetical order. Just seems backwards to me. So I'm actually glad they went back to the vertical scrolling. Also I definitely like the ability to keep the apps in alphabetical order with the alphabet letter on the left and the ability to scroll sideways within the particular application if it has multiple screens. I think that was very intuitive and ingenious.

 

[pc747]

You know, it's funny. I loved the vertical scrolling on the OGD, and on other phones. It feels only natural to me considering that when reading content on a webpage your scrolling from top to bottom by sliding the screen upwards. Swiping from left to right with your thumb or finger seems a lot more cumbersome to me, so I'm actually glad they went back to the vertical scrolling. Also I definitely like the ability to keep the apps in alphabetical order with the alphabet letter on the left and the ability to scroll sideways within the particular application if it has multiple screens. I think that was very intuitive and ingenious.

True,
I guess I just got use to scrolling horizontally and now Google is wanting to go back vertical. Maybe they can make that a setting where you can choose.

 

[FoxKat]

True,
I guess I just got use to scrolling horizontally and now Google is wanting to go back vertical. Maybe they can make that a setting where you can choose.

Yes, and another thing about vertical vs horizontal scrolling is that with vertical scrolling in one fast swype you go from the top of the list to the bottom. With horizontal scrolling you have to page several pages over if you want to get to the tail end of the alphabet so its multiple swipes sideways vs one quick swipe up upwards.

Over time you can get pretty good at approximating where you want to be in a long list of apps by scrolling quickly and then thumb planting in the middle of the scroll to stopping at about where you want to be. Over time I had gotten pretty good at landing within perhaps just a few apps or more of where I wanted to be with one quick scroll so time saving as a minimum.

 

[CJM]

I've been running it since Thursday and I'd say it's ok. I don't know why they're calling it M. It could've been the next version of lollipop

 

[droidprincess]

I need to look into this more.....but I am liking the dark mode

sent from my fabulous Note 4♡

 

[dezymond]

I'm looking forward to Google Now on Tap, and Doze.

They claim that a Nexus 9 on M vs Lollipop, the M version got twice as much battery, that's a pretty bold claim. What I'm wondering is why they didn't test this on a Nexus 6 with services activated, that's the real test imo. Majority of Android users are phone users, so why did they test it on a tablet that probably didn't even have data service (if I missed that part lmk).

 

[dezymond]

Here's a top 5 from MKBHD and a bit of a small preview provided by his own Nexus 6: