alt Hacker NewsThis is precisely why I left Android.
Google can't seem to decide on a direction and stick with it. Years of new features that inevitably ended up abandoned 2 versions later resulted in a constantly changing and unpredictable user experience.
It was fun while I had free time in college and enjoyed flashing ROMs, but as I got busier with life this lack of refinement pushed me away.
The RGB leds were one of my favorite features of early Android phones. I even backed a terrible Kickstarter campaign that synced those colors to an RGB wristband (this was before smartwatches were a thing).
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Conversely, I was surprised to learn that the temperature sensor introduced on the Pixel 8 Pro in 2023 was only removed this year. No one knew why it was there in the first place.
> Google can't seem to decide on a direction and stick with it. Years of new features that inevitably ended up abandoned 2 versions later resulted in a constantly changing and unpredictable user experience.
I'm guessing cultures that reward shipping new products (e.g. 67 different messaging apps) don't turn out great for consumers.
> The RGB leds were one of my favorite features of early Android phones. I
Right man. I had forgotten that my nexus 7 had this kind of LED and I really liked it and missed it later.
On BlackBerry i had an app that could do colour patterns, rhythms and so on depending who contacted you on which medium. Got a mail from you boss? Blue led. Got an sms or call? Red alarm. U could also group people and or mediums together (this was a basic feature of blackberry os)
Its a smartphone feature and not operating system feature. This is like saying "I left Windows because my Windows Laptops doesnt offer fingerprint scanner anymore"
Google only controls Pixel, but why did Samsung, and Lenovo, and Xiaomi and Motorola remove the LEDs?