Help Android 4.4 (KitKat) help/discussion

kylecummins · Oct 31, 2013

Engadget
HTC: Android 4.4 KitKat coming to the One within 90 days, Google Play edition within 15 days
HTC: Android 4.4 KitKat coming to the One within 90 days, Google Play edition within 15 days

Hadron · Nov 3, 2013

You won't be forced to use Hangouts. This article I think casts a little light: KitKat SMS Situation Revisited: New SMS Rules Ensure There Is One App In Charge Of Your Messaging History, But Everything Else Is OK

If I've read it right, KitKat's changes include setting one messaging app as "default", message handler, but any qualified app can request to be default. So there's nothing to stop you making the HTC message app the default if you prefer (or Hancent, Chomp etc I assume, once all of these are updated for 4.4). I'd expect other apps can view messages, and that you can send from other apps. So while Google may just bundle Hangouts as a single messaging solution, there's nothing to stop HTC keeping a separate SMS/MMS app (whether Google will provide the APIs to let you use Hangouts messaging from another app I don't know).

ktg13 · Nov 30, 2013

Whoa Hadron. I just missed typed your user name. It's funny what happens when you mix a couple letters up...But I digress.

Anyway the glitches are that web pages close without warning or freeze up. Sometimes I can't press radio buttons and it is impossible to manually insert my curser where I want. Instead I have to use the volume buttons.

You are right. The software download option is back today and I'm in progress. I think it may be actually working this time because the wait time is a lot longer. I've got 2 minutes left. Fingers crossed...and it seems to be installing now! Yay! Patience does work!!!

I've noticed a few cool updates but I was hoping for more.
-The best is you can now turn Blink Feed Off meaning you can make it go away completely! Great move HTC!
-The google now feature works better. You no longer have to press the mike to speak.
-There is an emoji addition to the keyboard but it is still not swipeable. If you have Kii, then you can swipe but you can't have the emojis. Frustrating.

marctronixx · Nov 30, 2013

thread has been trimmed of old outdated posts now that 4.4 is rolling out. please keep chatter to a minimum on on topic.

@kth13, those "features" you speak about are already out on 4.3/sense 5.5. thats not new or specific in 4.4.

gibbs1984 · Dec 1, 2013

Running KitKat now and no you don't need to use Hangouts, the Message app is still there and works fine.

It's still Sense 5.5 and there's very minimal design changes.

henryka · Jan 28, 2014

I got 4.4.2 and Sense 5.5 OTA today in Norway

I can’t see the big changes yet. The fonts and design of the PIN-code menu has changed. Under NFC there are option for using it to pay. I don't remember seeing that before.
It’s to early so say anything about the battery. I have had it for just a few hours.

godzilla932 · Jan 28, 2014

Can you let us know how you like it and what changes do you see ? Has it done anything to your battery life

Ok I don't know what I was thinking when I asked about the battery, after you've had it for awhile let us know how you feel about your battery life. Thanks

marctronixx · Jan 30, 2014

Rooting discussion moved here :

http://androidforums.com/internatio...ot/824581-rooting-discussion-4-4-kit-kat.html

aliveon2legs · Feb 1, 2014

I just downloaded and installed the update for my Sprint HTC One. According to Google, the following feature is present:

"Just say “Ok Google”
You don’t need to touch the screen to get things done. When on your home screen* or in Google Now, just say “Ok Google” to launch voice search, send a text, get directions or even play a song"

Android - 4.4 KitKat

This does not work for me AT ALL. If I'm on my home screen and say "Ok Google", absolutely nothing happens. If I'm in Google Now and say "Ok Google", it recognizes it and starts listening, but not matter what I say, it just does a web search for it. So, if I say, "Ok Google, text Paul", it will search the web for "test Paul". If I say "Ok Google, play Pearl Jam - Even Flo", it will search the web for Even Flo.

Is anybody else having this problem?

Honestly, this is the only supposed feature in Kit Kat that really impresses me, and it isn't even working.

Edit - Okay, just before submitting I saw the fine print where it only works on the home screen on the Nexus 5. That's dumb, but whatever. The other features should still work inside of Google Now, but don't, at least for me.

ProAc_Fan · Feb 1, 2014

Hmm I tried out the google now myself and it worked great for text, email and phone calls. I didn't say OK Google before using the voice feature though.

EDIT:

I've had the problem with the noise cancelling microphone since day one with my One. I've been forced to use speakerphone , had to forego sound with videos or using google now. Updated to 4.4 this morning and my problem disappeared. That microphone is now static free and works great.

Mike

sikclown · Feb 1, 2014

aliveon2legs said:
I just downloaded and installed the update for my Sprint HTC One. According to Google, the following feature is present:

"Just say “Ok Google”
You don’t need to touch the screen to get things done. When on your home screen* or in Google Now, just say “Ok Google” to launch voice search, send a text, get directions or even play a song"

Android - 4.4 KitKat

This does not work for me AT ALL. If I'm on my home screen and say "Ok Google", absolutely nothing happens. If I'm in Google Now and say "Ok Google", it recognizes it and starts listening, but not matter what I say, it just does a web search for it. So, if I say, "Ok Google, text Paul", it will search the web for "test Paul". If I say "Ok Google, play Pearl Jam - Even Flo", it will search the web for Even Flo.

Is anybody else having this problem?

Honestly, this is the only supposed feature in Kit Kat that really impresses me, and it isn't even working.

Edit - Okay, just before submitting I saw the fine print where it only works on the home screen on the Nexus 5. That's dumb, but whatever. The other features should still work inside of Google Now, but don't, at least for me.

I just intalled the update on Sprint. I open up Google Now, say OK Google then Text (Insert Name) and it asks me to set up Contact search and then it finds my person and let's me dictate a text and send it. It works great for me.

rottonj · Feb 2, 2014

Downloaded Kit Kat for Sprint, stock non rooted. The music has a visualizer with the lyrics. This is new I think, love it. Movies have closed captioning as well,gonna try that out too I have a couple of icons on my home screen now, they are the green android icon, one says people and one says phone. Both say app has not been installed. I have to look into these. Still using the Nova launcher, as I don't use sense.

godzilla932 · Feb 2, 2014

aliveon2legs said:
Hmm... I can't seem to find it in the Play Store.

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rottonj · Feb 3, 2014

SolApathy said:
If you are using custom icons you will run into this issue, you just need to reassign the apps to the custom icons again. Had this happen with my dialer app and a custom icon theme with Nova.

Thanks, I don't know about custom icons so I don't think I am using them. I'm thinking these could possibly be features not offered with this phone, maybe for Nexus 5?

Adar · Feb 3, 2014

SolApathy said:
Updated main page with latest Sprint update.

Sprint: February 1, 2014 - MAJOR UPDATE KIT-KAT 4.4.2

Version: 4.06.651.4 (535.78MB)

-Kitkat 4.4.2 Update
-Security enhancements
-Cloud print enhancements
-Bluetooth enhancements

Not many details on all the updates, but hopefully this includes some fixes for the camera...

..Camera is definitely better in my opinion... I look forward to anyone else's opinions on this

I don't see any major improvement in the camera. Granted, I don't do a lot with it, but I have noticed I still have the purple tint in semi-low light conditions, which is annoying. When I say semi-low light, I mean, in my livingroom with just one light on, which I think barely qualifies as low light.

Of course, I also haven't had any other issues with the camera, so I'm not sure whether it made improvements or not. In another thread, I just now realized they removed the zoom bars, and now it just uses pinch to zoom, which apparently has been that way since at least 4.3

dibblebill · Feb 3, 2014

godzilla932 said:
It only works with the gel experience launcher on the home screen

I use my own build and same Google Apps package, same launcher, between tablet and phone. One works, the Nexus 10, and the other, the One, doesn't

Hadron · Feb 4, 2014

Adar said:
I don't see any major improvement in the camera. Granted, I don't do a lot with it, but I have noticed I still have the purple tint in semi-low light conditions, which is annoying. When I say semi-low light, I mean, in my livingroom with just one light on, which I think barely qualifies as low light.

I thought that was a hardware issue which affects some handsets. I don't expect anything other than replacement to fix that one.

jiggy79 · Feb 6, 2014

has anyone noticed their battery use decline dramatically, my battery sucks now all from this kitkat upgrade. Do you think a factory reset will fix it?

gibbs1984 · Feb 6, 2014

jiggy79 said:
has anyone noticed their battery use decline dramatically, my battery sucks now all from this kitkat upgrade. Do you think a factory reset will fix it?

Yeah I think it was due to the Google Services, seems to be fixed in 4.4.2.

sully5981 · Feb 6, 2014

Initial thoughts, lock screen widgets/dock widgets were messed up (i run nova) but it was a quick fix. Also I'm not a fan of the battery bar up top going white. I liked it better when it was green. It looks like a 1990's video camera battery status bar. Also there is new security certificate features s which I liked but it said foxfi is bad(it does intercept traffic). So far I can't really tell much difference.

ckar · Feb 7, 2014

HELP! The day after update I'm getting the SIM icon with an exclamation point in my notification bar and losing all connectivity! Anyone else having this issue? :mad:

jiggy79 · Feb 7, 2014

gibbs1984 said:
Yeah I think it was due to the Google Services, seems to be fixed in 4.4.2.

Nope mine is still turned on, is their a way to revert back to the previous android version (ice cream?). Maybe a root of the previous version would do the trick, my battery life sucks major..before the update I had no problems with the battery and it would last me all day long with ease.

dibblebill · Feb 8, 2014

jiggy79 said:
Nope mine is still turned on, is their a way to revert back to the previous android version (ice cream?). Maybe a root of the previous version would do the trick, my battery life sucks major..before the update I had no problems with the battery and it would last me all day long with ease.

Google around for HTC guru and his stock ROMs. I used one to go back to the stock 4.1.2 to get s-off

speedfan · Feb 8, 2014

el viejo said:
Lock screen: swipe from right to get menu for adding widgets.

Does anyone know how to disable this?

Hadron · Feb 11, 2014

speedfan said:
Does anyone know how to disable this?

If you don't want the widgets, don't use it and you'll never notice.

If you want the old lockscreen then that's not a matter of disabling but replacement. Probably not possible without root, cannot guarantee it would work without downgrading as I've not tried. You could try a 3rd party like WidgetLocker if you don't like the new version.

Help Android 4.4 (KitKat) help/discussion

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