Yay! Got upgraded to 11!

[MoodyBlues]

The other day I noticed an alert and followed it, and I now have shiny new Android 11 on my phone!

I stepped through its 'new features' intro, and it looks like they've really added a lot. How much of it I'll actually use is anyone's guess, but it's nice to have anyway.

Oh, it's a Motorola One Hyper.

Anything in particular you think I might want to check out?

 

[ocnbrze]

for me on my note 10+ 5G i have mainly noticed some tweaks within google apps like maps and and the chrome browser. i have not really seem any other major additions other then icons, fonts and some new looks.

 

[The_Chief]

I LOVE the gesture navigation - no more buttons on the bottom!

 

[Milo Williamson]

Well on my moto edge plus, finally got back the magic circle on my lock screen! With the time and date, no more weather, that is alright. Additional is battery level yay! Easy navigation through ADW like always, as well as much more surprises for customization too!

 

[Hadron]

I LOVE the gesture navigation - no more buttons on the bottom!

But that was introduced with Android 10. Or did Samsung wait until 11?

Losing the buttons is nice, but there are things about the gestures I've not been impressed by. For one thing, it's a blatant copy of iOS gesture navigation: the bar at the bottom, the recent apps gesture, the home gesture, the swipe on the bar to switch to previous/next app are all identical. The only difference is the back gesture, since iOS doesn't have a system-wide "back" feature (though it does have a "swipe back" within an app, so the only real innovation in Google's version is allowing you to swipe from either side). Frankly I find this very weak of Google.

Another is that its interaction with 3rd party launchers is still flaky after 18 months, which tells me that Google don't care. I don't see that as a good sign for the platform to be honest.

And of course there was the famous clash between the back gesture and the side-swipe to reveal menus. I realise that Google are starting (18 months later) to phase that latter out, which removes the conflict but that simply removes a very usable feature: where I have the same app on Android and iOS the lack of that gesture on iOS is a clear usability win for Android, whereas Google's replacement (which in the Play Store is "reach to the top of the screen and tap on your account avatar") is not.

So overall I think that Google did a lazy, imitative job with these gestures and didn't put enough thought into them. They do get rid of the buttons, but they could have been done better (e.g. it is inherently slower and less fluid than the previous systems because you have to pause to distinguish the two upward-swipe gestures), or made it more user-configurable (e.g. I'd rather have removed the back swipe on one side to eliminate conflicts, or set the heights at which different swipe gestures worked). So I can't help but feel that "making the gestures as familiar as possible to iOS users" was the main design driver.

 

[sullencab]

The new version is really great. I'm happy you experience the same.

 

[MoodyBlues]

I LIKE the buttons at the bottom, and would feel lost without them, so in my case, they're staying!

 

[Milo Williamson]

I LIKE the buttons at the bottom, and would feel lost without them, so in my case, they're staying!

Same here, I have loved the three buttons too

 

[Hadron]

I never really got into the 3 button interface. When it was introduced I had a phone that had actual capacitive buttons rather than on-screen, and since I keep my phones until they no longer do the job I skipped through the heyday of that particular navigation setup. And by the time I did get it (with the Pixel 2 on Android 8) it both seemed rather retro and it ate into screen space, which didn't endear it to me! When Android 9 introduced the "pill" interface I jumped on that: it was simple and unambiguous (press for home, swipe up for recents), though Google missed a trick in not adding "swipe left for back" - instead they added a back button on one side, resulting in an ugly asymmetry. But while I occasionally give the gestures another spin I still tend to revert to the 2 button interface, because it is faster and more accurate and works properly with any launcher.

Of course I only have that option because of the age of my phone - I believe it is dropped on more recent ones. And I suspect that at some point that will happen to the 3 buttons as well, if it hasn't already. Also I don't think that the 3 buttons are a good ergonomic match to modern "all screen" designs: reaching a thumb right down to the very bottom of the phone is a bit awkward anyway, but reaching across at the same time (either to near or far side) is a nightmare: for me it would require I use a phone two-handed just to use those buttons, and one-handed use is a non-negotiable requirement. So even if navigation buttons are retained in future I don't see me using them unless bottom bezels come back into fashion - I'm afraid that for this reason I do regard the elimination of the "chin" as a triumph of looks over ergonomics, but that's the society we live in.

 

[MoodyBlues]

Also I don't think that the 3 buttons are a good ergonomic match to modern "all screen" designs: reaching a thumb right down to the very bottom of the phone is a bit awkward anyway

Want to hear something funny? I don't use my thumbs on my smartphones! Can't use my right one--I broke it when I was 17, and the joint fused, so I can't bend it normally. So I've never used thumbs for typing (or anything else) on a phone.

I really appreciate your explanation of how/why you prefer what you do. The 3-button thing is all I've known since starting with Android. My current phone is an all-screen phone, and I don't find the buttons to be intrusive or anything. Right now, I have no plans to scrap them because they just work for me. But it's nice hearing about other preferences and options.

 

[Milo Williamson]

Want to hear something funny? I don't use my thumbs on my smartphones! Can't use my right one--I broke it when I was 17, and the joint fused, so I can't bend it normally. So I've never used thumbs for typing (or anything else) on a phone.

I really appreciate your explanation of how/why you prefer what you do. The 3-button thing is all I've known since starting with Android. My current phone is an all-screen phone, and I don't find the buttons to be intrusive or anything. Right now, I have no plans to scrap them because they just work for me. But it's nice hearing about other preferences and options.

Speaking of thumbs, my left one is double jointed

 

[Hadron]

Want to hear something funny? I don't use my thumbs on my smartphones! Can't use my right one--I broke it when I was 17, and the joint fused, so I can't bend it normally. So I've never used thumbs for typing (or anything else) on a phone.

This really does underline how ergonomics are individual!

(Actually I'm often wary when I read the phrase "ergonomically designed": as a left-hander, or at least a left-biassed ambi, that phrase often means "not designed with people like you in mind").