Google I/O: The Android Deep-dive

With Google I/O one week behind us I’ve had some time to think about the new Android and Wear OS (now known as Wear) updates that should be coming in the fall. My Google I/O reaction was a summary of what I thought to be the most notable features coming to these two systems. Now, I want to elaborate on the ideas I mentioned in my earlier post and start mentioning some of the Niche features that are coming to Android 12. As for Wear I’ll be sharing some of my fears and skepticism in what seems to be an overwhelming wave of optimism. Let’s start with Wear. 

 

Wear 
 

Wear OS is dead, long live Wear. Name change aside, huge changes are coming to the platform the biggest of which is the partnership with Tizen. Tizen is Samsung’s Watch OS that is currently powering its flagship watches such as the Galaxy Watch 3. This is supposed to bring better battery life, better animations, and overall, more stability to an OS that has been plagued with bugs. It also brings some more niche changes such as the ability for any developer to create tiles; I’m looking forward to a Todoist tile for my Fossil sport. However, here’s one thing I realized while listening to all the I/O coverage: not all watches are getting this update. 

 

Tizen watches have been given up to 3 years of software support with no word on whether the new Wear platform is coming to these other watches. This means Galaxy Watch 3 will have roughly 3 years of support while the watch Active 2 will possibly get only 1 year (because that’s how math works?). The same goes for existing Wear OS watches. There have been no reports, no blog posts, and no updates on if existing watches are getting this new Wear. I suppose wear 3100 and up will grab the update but with no official confirmation we don’t know if existing Galaxy Watches and Wear OS watches (such as my fossil sport) will receive this update. 

Image Credit: 9To5Google

The hardware on my wrist might already be obsolete; I’m not ok with this. Making existing products obsolete (maybe an exaggeration) isn’t the way to welcome a new OS it the paving way for outrage. Maybe the new Wear is savior of what was once Wear OS but starting an updating game is just not the best way of getting underfoot. 

 

Image Credit: Android Authority

Other than that, concern I really can’t wait to see if other vendors, such as OnePlus, Google, and not really anyone else start investing in watches. It’s sad to see that at this point the only phone companies I could call on to feasibly produce a Wear watch has boiled down to 3 companies. I suppose that having dedicated watch brands and oddball companies such as fossil and mobvoi brings some comfort but its starting to look like the Wear market will mirror the current phone market. 

 

Android 12 

It’s time to go deep into the Android Material You UI. Deeper into some more niche features. And widgets; don’t ever forget the widgets. In that order, no exceptions, starting now. 

 

Material You seems like a confusing name for speaking and even worse for writing but the principles behind the design language are: 

 

• Customizable colors across the UI 
• Pastel and bubble everything 
• Bigger everything 

 

This is leading Android away from what many saw as “Stock Android” especially considering this is the Pixel demo at I/O. Having the Pixel push the design principles doesn’t mean Samsung or OnePlus are just going to abandon their respective UI choices. It means that gradually, just like how material design has slowly creeped into the Android since 2014, the new material You is what Google wants Android to look like in 2 years. 

Image Credit: Google

These design choices might look different on a Galaxy as they would on a pixel but eventually, we’re going to see those three elements, colors, bubbles, and size be adopted across the ecosystem. Assuming this goes according to plan. 

 

Image Credit: Google

Another point in which Material You is changing the game is in the notifications and quick settings panel. Now it’s full screen and incorporates the home controls (at least from what I could see) and the Google pay panels from the power menu into quick settings. I think the power menu was an excellent Android 11 feature that I’ll miss in Android 12, but I do see why they removed said power menu. A universal Google assistant key (the power button) allows for a seamless alternative to the swipe from the bottom buffoonery we had in Android 11. 

Image Credit: Google

 

Material You is not what I was hoping for and yet I’m pleasantly surprised. This bubbly, colorful, and somewhat childish (good childish) UI is a happy continuation of a successful design philosophy that has grown to influence Android for the better. I hope Material You continues that tradition. 

 

Niche features lighting round: 

 

1. AVIF support: 

For those of you not currently celebrating AVIF is a new image format that offers higher detailed images over JPEG at lower file sizes. This isn’t replacing JPEG (yet) but it’s a step toward an alternative. 

 

2. Android TV remote built-in: 

This is a new built-in remote interface that will work with any Android TV devices and the Chromecast with Google TV. As a loyal Roku user this doesn’t really matter to me but it’s still an interesting feature. Having a remote in your pocket always makes me panic less when I inevitably lose said remote. 

Widgets 

Wrapping up this article is a walk into the space of widget philosophy. Yes, I’m talking about the new widget designs previewed in Android 12. These are mostly round, mostly pastel, and mostly useless. Not to say I don’t like them, but I prefer my widgets interactive. Although the widgets are informative Google never showed how third-party complex widgets such as my Todoist or Notion widgets were supposed to be integrated. This informative “glance” approach is fine for smaller widgets, but the example widgets provided in the videos and presentation take far too much space for the info they provide. 

 

Image Credit: Google

However again, the principles of material You apply to widgets. It’s about aesthetics not functionality and google is trying to move away from the wild west of widgets that we’re currently in. The widgets I’m seeing are not the interactive widgets I use and they're not the discombobulated widgets most app devs chuck into the widget shelf. 

My impressions are overall very mixed because I haven’t been able to play with Android 12 personally. Widgets in Android 12 are not a failure google is just not supplying a way forward for anything more complex than a clock. Complexity is what makes Android widgets more useful (IMO) and unique and I hope google won’t destroy that. 

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