My old $200 Motorola G9 Power phone lasted almost 4 years with only very minor scratches. Obviously in that period I have dropped it a few times, especially getting out of the car, where the phone sometimes work itself out of my pant pocket while I drive. But no problem, despite cheap plastic back and Panda glass front.

Then I bought my $800 glass back Xiaomi 13T Pro in January, and I loved the phone for the camera and good specs. But alas after only 4 months, and single drop of just 30 cm while sitting on the porch, the glass back immediately cracked! The back now looks like an ugly mess, and the high water resistance is very likely gone too.

For sure the last time I buy a phone with a glass back!!!

I wonder why glass back is so popular, and I curse the media for reviewing the Samsung Galaxy S2 as "feeling a bit cheap", because the back was synthetic, and drop tests showed it was 10 times as durable as the iPhone with its glass back.

Samsung did it right in the beginning, glass backs are a curse.

PS: I don't use condoms for my phones, if they need that for daily use, it's an obvious design flaw!!!

The glass back is supposedly there to give a premium feel to the phone. But because it's fragile, people have to use a cover, but with the cover, the premium feel of a glass back is gone anyways?
How is glass back not a design flaw?

In addition to Private Space, Android at I/O 2024 is really working to boost the mobile operating system’s theft, security, and privacy protections.

When I want to find an app I haven't pinned to the home screen I swipe up from the bottom of the home screen to bring up a search bar where I can search for an app by name or scroll through list of all apps on the phone.

Thing is the search bar on my new pixel phone is actually a Google search bar that will search apps locally at the same time as providing web results, especially if it can't find the app by name.

It's a nice idea in theory but in practice I find it annoying, especially if I've just made a typo. Also, I'm just never going to use this search bar for web searching anyway because for that I would want my chosen browser so the web results are of no use to me.

I actually remember my old phone used to do what I wanted it to do, then one day it switched to what my new phone currently does and after a long time I found the solution to return it back to it's previous behaviour except now I've forgotten what I did.

I only want to search my phone's local storage for apps matching my keyword when I access the app drawer. How do I get rid of this Google search bar? (I'd love to get rid of the Google search bar from the home screen itself as well but I understand I can't do that without root on stock android.

Hey there, I'm trying to figure out what is wrong with my phone (Zenfone8). As you can see, the picture is alright but when I use the zoom the picture goes all pixelated (uploaded in a comment) I change the camera module but it still does the same :(

Any clue/help please...?

EDIT I rebooted the phone to stock settings and the camera is acting the way it ought to...very weird. I guess there was some apps the camera didn't like...

Hi, I wonder if there is a setting somewhere to setup the default sharpness for all the android photo app.

As you can see in my example the sharper picture is way too sharp and unnatural and it’s horrible with faces.

With FreeDCam I'm able to set that but this app is too complex to use it in the every day use.

I have a Fairphone3 with /e/os but I don't think that's matter.

Any suggestion?

( and it’s not related with the subjecHorrible Pictures Zenfone 8t: Horrible Pictures Zenfone 8 )

This happens all the time. Happens when I go to the app switcher and resets when I go back home. But as soon as I hear back into the app switcher, it moves to the side.

Here it is as I write this post:

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15358017

Google Pay alternative?

Hey there, I'm looking for an alternative to Google pay that'll allow me to use NFC payments etc. Thoughts?

For a search company I can't believe how terrible the Android app search is. I can't even search "bank" for my banking apps, and there doesn't really seem to be any metadata except for the title that goes into the search. Which is absolutely ridiculous given how many companies name their apps something cReAtIvE like "home" or "Resideo" or "Smart Hq." I just want to search GE for the damn GE app. Or "thermostat" for Resideo. Surely there's something beyond surface level here because obviously this is an extensively solved problem. How is there not metadata or description searching at minimum? My only guess is fear of abuse but Google has definitely dealt with that for their entire existence and up until recently, managed to handle it fine.

Google Messages' sent text editing feature has now begun rolling out to beta users, indicating that stable rollout is around the corner.

Option 1: leave everything enabled, & everything works with full spyware enablement too

Option 2: disable everything, but forget basics like mail notifications, yet still resign yourself to invasion from irrevocably disabled services

Option 3: the middle ground. Just kidding, disabling only what you truly don’t need is wildly opaque, and painfully slow: options are split and hidden wherever possible. Forget any “apply to all” graces being given by King Google. Disable the wrong thing, and break a seemingly enabled feature.

Also love how some options are given during setup, while others are only informational: “visit settings later to change this thing - hope you forget!”

So, what’s left: Option 4, root your phone and hope Magisk will work when you need to use your bank app?

I just want my cell provider to spy on me because physics. (Govt banning sale/sharing of that data would be epic, maybe some day in the far future.) Extra spying in the shadiest ways is bad and Google should feel bad.

Review of Android 12

Google Messages wants to make sure you don't see texts from blocked contacts anywhere with this upcoming feature.

In recently purchased Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro with MIUI I see the message app isn't available for many popular apps, those messages usually show when the android version is old but I have android 13 so I don't understand why I see those errors so much in the play store.

Just thought I'd share. Probably nothing new or fancy, but may help some of you find a way to repurpose devices that aren't worth repairing into home servers or something: e.g. op5 I've used has better CPU compared to raspberry pi 4, can run linux (postmarketos, albeit with some caveats), and costs less if bought with broken display (or nothing if you have one lying around)

So I'm interested in buying a Pixel 8 to install GrapheneOS in it but I'm also interested in rooting it and from what I've read rooting your device with a privacy focused custom ROM like GrapheneOS beats the purpose of installing it, so I don't know if it's actually posible to do it or if it actually has any grace, honestly I just want to be able to install some Xposed modules and be able to auto-update my Droid-ify apps in the backgrounds without user interaction.

Excuse my ignorance in the subject, I have never rooted or installed a custom rom before.

About time!

I haven't installed or tested in any way.

I've used notification cleaner for years but it's dead. Anyone recommend alternatives? This has been difficult to find online

Is there any way to install and use the Gemini App without the Google App and forced association of the account with my Android phone?

I have a specific Google account just for Gemini, but I neither use the Google app nor desire for my phone to maintain this alt google account as one of the phone associates accounts. I think many folks would prefer login stay within the app itself.

I have some apps which I need them to synchronize in the background but they don't, even with battery optimization turned off. I've tried using an app called PhoneProfilesPlus but I don't need whole profiles, I just want an app to be opened and that's it.

Another problem I have and this may be at purpose for Android security reasons, is that even with PhoneProfilesPlus, when I set up an app to be opened in the background, the app only opens specifically when I turn on my screen, and for some dumb reasons the apps that I mentioned need to be in the main screen to be synchronized.

Hey guys, I am somewhat new to android (went straight to grapheneos) and am a bit annoyed with this widget.

It looks good, but the skip buttons are tiny and my gorilla fingers have trouble hitting them reliably. Is there a way to change to a different layout with bigger buttons or even gesture support?

I am aware that most music apps come with a widget for the home screen but I specifically need the one shown on the lock screen and pulldown menu to change.

Thanks in advance!