Google's Android a few. 0 Lollipop release provides lots of good items going for it -- but like many significant OS releases at their particular start, the software has its share of sigh-inducing quirks and glitches.
Since Lollipop slowly makes their way to more gadgets, let's hope Google treatments these pressing issues quicker than later:
1 ) Memory supervision
I'm not typically the guy to pinpoint typically the source of the trouble, but something's clearly astray with memory management about Android 5. 0. I actually first experienced it although reviewing the Nexus being unfaithful and possess since seen that (and read countless additional users' reports of it) happening on other gadgets at the same time.
In short, Lollipop -- on some gadgets, at least -- looks to have trouble preserving processes running in lively memory. Because of this, you'll at times experience such things as recently applied apps "refreshing" and starting up from scratch once you go back to them, music-streaming programs like Google Play Audio or Pandora randomly concluding when they're running inside the background, your home display screen taking a moment to be able to "redraw" itself when an individual come back to it, and system-level actions like loading typically the Overview list acting fewer responsive than they need to.
The fact that these items are now happening about multiple devices -- which include both those designed regarding Lollipop and people that failed to have such issues before to running Lollipop -- seems to indicate it's far a broader OS-level concern as opposed to anything at all limited to a particular established of hardware. And the reality is, that isn't a very good thing.
2. Silent mode -- or lack thereof
Lollipop's new notification product is plenty powerful, but is actually lacking one fundamental alternative: a simple way to be able to set your phone to be able to silent.
In past types of Android, you might both just lower a device's volume all the approach down or long-press typically the power button and employ the direct shortcut right now there to activate silent function. On Lollipop, lowering typically the volume all the approach on a phone becomes you to a vibrate-only state -- but body fat way to move coming from that to silent. In addition to the power button step-around is no longer current in any way.
Instead, you have got to first press your current device's volume-up or volume-down key and then find the new "None" notifications establishing -- which isn't in any way intuitive and is proceeding to confuse the terrible out of most common users. And on leading of the, the "None" announcements setting prohibits even alerts from sounding, while a new traditional silent mode really does not.
Typically the search for silent function on Android 5. zero
The only other alternative you could have is to change Lollipop's "Priority" notifications establishing so that it'll enable alarms to sound nevertheless nothing else. That's loads of00 work for something of which should be so basic, though -- and once more, it's something most common users aren't gonna physique out.
(On tablets, bafflingly, you can still stimulate a silent mode by simply lowering the volume just about all the way until typically the device goes into vibrate-only and then pressing volume-up once from there. Move figure. )
This may possibly be less bug in addition to more of an strange design decision -- nevertheless whatever you want to be able to call it, it takes to be able to be fixed.
3. Overloaded Review
Lollipop's expanded method to multitasking is one regarding those things that's fantastic in theory although not pretty there yet the truth is. Typically the basic idea is of which the Overview button -- the command next to be able to the Home button, likewise sometimes known as Latest Apps -- brings upwards a scrolling set of playing cards with all the techniques you've used recently about your device. You could then jump directly to be able to some of those tasks about demand, regardless of wherever you are in typically the system.
Portion of that implies that Overview will no longer includes only apps, because it performed in previous versions regarding Android; instead, it today splits apps apart directly into multiple steps, they are all which often is represented by a new separate card. If an individual open Gmail and and then start to compose a fresh message, for instance, likely to see a card inside the Overview list regarding both Gmail itself in addition to for the individual concept.
The thing is that the Review list quickly turns directly into an enormous mess regarding overlapping items that's even more overwhelming than useful. Zero exaggeration: The Overview checklist on my Lollipop-running Motocicleta X has 80 playing cards within it right now. 80 cards! After i was looking at the Nexus 6, that had 60 cards inside the Overview list from one point -- twenty-two of which were different cases of a Google lookup process. The Overview checklist never generally seems to clear alone, either, even if you turn typically the device off.
Dozens upon lots of often-overlapping cards -- there needs to be a new better way
(As I actually noted in my overview of the OS a new couple months ago, an individual can swipe items apart one by one to be able to dismiss them -- but that isn't really a scalable solution, and you as the user shouldn't have to worry about playing custodian throughout the day. )
The new Overview list could be a wonderful thing. With its current implementation, though, its unmanageable nature acts as a source of frustration and severely limits its productivity potential.
4. Nonfunctional notifications
Lollipop introduces a new type of notification known as a "heads-up" notification. It's meant to provide a less distracting way for you to see pertinent information, but in reality, it often does just the opposite.
With the new "heads-up" notification system, alerts for things like incoming calls, text messages, and calendar events appear as floating cards at the top of your screen -- on top of whatever else you're viewing. You can either tap them to open them or swipe them away to dismiss them.
Lollipop's new "heads-up" notifications
The issue with this is two-fold: First, the "heads-up" card shows you only a tiny snippet of message-oriented notifications and provides no way to expand them and view their full contents without switching over to the source app (e. g. Hangouts, Gmail, or whatever is sending the alert). That's a step backwards in functionality from the old Android notification system, in which incoming messages would appear in their entirety within the top-of-screen notification panel (using a subtle scrolling mechanism when needed).
And second, if you're in the middle of doing something else on your device and don't want to deal with an incoming "heads-up" notification right away -- but do want to keep it around so you'll remember to deal with it later -- your only choice is to stop what you're doing and wait about 10 seconds until the card disappears on its own, at which point it'll move up into your notification panel as a regular alert. If you swipe the card away, the notification will get dismissed for good.
For the "heads-up" system to work, we need (a) a way to expand incoming notifications and view them in their entirety (similar to the way we can swipe down on normal notifications in the notification panel to do just that) and (b) a way to push incoming notifications upward to get them off the screen but keep them available in the notification panel. The current system just doesn't cut it and frequently feels like a worse version of what we had before.
5. Lock screen oddities
Along with Lollipop's new notification system comes a revamped lock screen that shows your pending notifications and lets you deal with them right then and there.
That's convenient in theory, but the current implementation has a couple of irksome quirks. For one, if you use a security pattern, password, or PIN, the new lock screen requires you to take an extra step every time you want to unlock your device: You first have to swipe away the initial screen -- where any notifications are displayed along with a large clock -- before you can input your code. Even if you disable lock screen notifications altogether, you still have to swipe away the clock before you can get to the security prompt.
Given how often most of us unlock our devices, that extra step can get annoying fast -- and there's no reason that disabling lock screen notifications shouldn't also disable that superfluous initial screen.
Even with lock screen notifications disabled, you have to swipe away an initial screen (at left) before you can input your code (at right). Why not just put the clock above the security prompt?
Beyond that, the Lollipop lock screen has a weird behavior in which swiping upward unlocks the device -- which makes sense -- but swiping downward takes you to a full-screen view of your pending notifications (essentially the same thing you were already looking at, only without the clock). The latter is quite confusing, particularly since there are no visual cues to indicate that'll happen and the behavior itself doesn't seem to serve any purpose.
Déjà vu: When you swipe downward on the main lock screen (at left), you see a full-screen view of your notifications (at right)
On my initial moments with Lollipop -- even as someone who's used Android for ages and spends hours every day dealing with mobile devices -- it took me a few minutes of trial and error to figure out what was going on with the different lock screen swiping behaviors. I saw the same thing happen to several family members and friends when they first got Lollipop on their devices, too, only accompanied by even more confusion (along with a puzzled glance pointed in my direction).
A little tweaking would go a long way in simplifying and improving that user experience.
All things in perspective
As we wrap up this list of quibbles, let's be clear about one thing: Lollipop represents a foundational shift for Android, and by and large, it's an enormous leap forward for the platform. From its gorgeous visual overhaul to its numerous new features, the software truly is the start of a whole new chapter for the operating system -- one that presents ample cause for optimism and excitement.
But it's very much a beginning -- and particularly now that we've had more time to live with Lollipop and experience it on a variety of devices, it's clear that Google still has some work left to fine-tune the software and iron out the kinks. The good news is that the issues are all perfectly solvable -- and in the grand scheme of things, they'll likely become mere bumps in the road of Android's evolution.
With any luck, that pavement will be smoothed out soon.
Android 5. 0 Lollipop PreviousNext Got Lollipop? 10 cool things to try with Android 5. 0 Android 5. 0 deep-dive review: Exploring Lollipop's many layers Currently reading Broken Lollipop: 5 things that need to be fixed ASAP with Android 5. 0 5 important things to know about security in Android 5. 0 Hands on: How Android 5. 0 will soon keep your Chromebook unlocked Android 5. 0, Lollipop: The complete FAQ Despite some reported Lollipop rollout delays, Nexus users should still get OS this month