5 Common Complaints About Android 5.0

Unless you are a stern IOS fan, there are probably not too many negative things that you can say about Android. Android is friendly, nice to its users, consistent with its updates and the commitment to make our mobile experiences better.

However, being the spoilt and “used to the good stuff”, we, Android users, are happy to find the reasons to complain.

Android 5.0 came with lots of addition, upgrades and improvements, that we have mentioned earlier and are happy to mention them again. Some of the key benefits of Android 5.0 are:

• better interface
• easier navigation
• more extensive command of Google Voice
• better control of notifications
• improved battery saving options
• Guest Mode
• faster and smoother operation
• upgraded camera performance
• and more

Yet, like we have mentioned earlier, we, as users, like looking for trouble – and even with the upgraded Android 5.0, we have been able to find several things we do not particularly like.

Interruptions And The “None” Function

Android 5.0 comes with a better control of notifications and lets you decide which ones are allowed to interrupt you during the day, which ones are given priority and which ones should be silenced. Among all these options, there is a dangerous one, called “None”. It means that for a specified (or unspecified period of time), you will not be interrupted by anything at all – and that includes calls, alarms and any other possible notifications. While there is no reason for not having this feature and it does not seem to be a direct cause of harm – enabling it does come with consequences that you may not completely desire. Forgetting to disable the feature means that NONE of the notifications will make it to your screen, even if it leads to you oversleeping, missing important calls or text messages and more. Why you may want to enable this one in the first place is not quite clear, but if you do – make sure you are aware of what is to follow.

New Power Button Menu

In previous Android versions, long pressing the power button used to bring up a menu with a few options: Power Off, Airplane Mode and Silent Mode. In Android 5.0, the options have been done away with and by pressing the power button, you will only get one option  – Power Off. It doesn’t mean that the other options have disappeared into the ether – they have been moved to the Quick Settings menu and there probably was a good reason for that. However, this move has made the power button menu not so much a menu as a single function and no longer gives quick access to the functions we got so used to.

Recent Apps Stack

One of the most obvious features of the updated OS is the new way to access recently opened apps. They are now presented in the form of a stack of cards – which, let’s admit it, is a very nice option from the point of view of design. However, some users have noted that this has caused system slow-downs – especially when too many app cards are stocked. What’s more, even after swiping away the cards and restarting your device, they seem to reappear and take up memory and speed. When lots of cards are stocked in the menu – navigating through them also becomes complicated and simply finding them in the app drawer seems like a quicker and easier option.

Notification Ticker

Notifications seem to be in the centre of the latest changes of Android 5.0 and while users are happy to welcome some of them, others seem to be a cause for concern. Remember when you used to get a notification (say, about an email) at the top of the screen and then could get a glimpse of the contents of this very notification? This allowed users to get a gist of the message and see whether it was urgent and demanded immediate action or could wait. In Android 5.0 this option is no longer available and all you get is the icon of the notification on the top. It may be a controversial point, but some users do miss the option of getting a glimpse of what the notification holds (notification ticker). However, with no plans on Google’s part to grant this one a comeback, we might as well get over it and get used to doing without it.

Shortcuts To Phone And Camera

All users seem to love having more options on the locked screen and the ability to go directly from it to Camera and Phone applications. However, the road to these applications from the locked screen seems more complicated than it would seem at the first glance. Your natural instinct may be to just swipe the Camera and Phone icons to get the promised instant access to them. However, your gesture has to be much more specific than that – you will need to swipe from the left to the right on the screen. Any upward movement on the screen (even on the Camera and Phone Icons) will act as a screen unlock gesture and take you to the main menu instead of the specific destinations you may be hoping for.

True, we, as users, are being very nitpicky and all the annoyances listed above are nothing more than that – small complaints about an operation system that we love and appreciate. What are your thoughts on the latest update?