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    Android Help Community Feedback Thread

    October 30, 2019

    Android Help Community Feedback Thread

    Community Feedback Thread

    Posted: 30 Oct 2019 09:01 AM PDT

    Hello r/Android!

    We're interested in your feedback about the subreddit's rules or anything else. Please fully read this before commenting, we'll try to keep it concise.

    Note that this is a repost, as the previous thread didn't get much attention which kinda defeats the point (link). We'll take all feedback into consideration, no matter which thread you use.

    Our rules have been slightly reworded

    We went over our rules and slightly reworded/simplified some of them. The idea is to make them clearer, and easier to understand, and have the important information in the sidebar. This also makes them more consistent with the way we moderate, and should serve as a point of reference to the rest of this thread.

    What's the rationale behind our most important rules?

    These three rules are often misunderstood, so we tried to clarify them a bit.

    • Rule 2 (not allowing tech support): separating subreddits is the best way to allow users to choose what they want to see, as filters are either lacking or not available depending on the platform/app you're using. Most rule-breaking threads belong in r/AndroidQuestions or r/PickAnAndroidForMe, and we remove those while redirecting users to the appropriate subreddit. Some users don't like the separation as it means their tech-support questions get less attention, which we try to address as much as possible via the weekly threads and our sidebar. We don't think the alternative would be acceptable to most r/Android subscribers -- allowing all posts means users can no longer subscribe to the content they're interested in.

    • Rule 5 (no rehosted content): this is generally to ensure the original article's authors get rewarded for their efforts. The only exceptions we allow are when the source is not in English, or when the article adds substantial information to the original.

    • Rule 9 (offensive comments): this is necessary to keep r/Android a civil place. Criticizing others or their opinions is fine, but don't resort to insults.

    There are two important things to note here:

    • We rely on your reports to enforce most of our rules. Please report posts and comments that break rules, especially for rule 9.

    • We consider rules 2 and 9 especially to be essential to the subreddit, although the way we enforce them may need refining depending on your views.

    What do you think about rule 1?

    Rule 1 (what's off-topic?) has some exceptions that were added after a community poll. Those exceptions are:

    • ... allowing all:
      • Google-related news with some relation to Android even if not direct (e.g. ChromeOS, Google Mini, etc).
      • Discussions about generic phone accessories (e.g. headphones, battery packs).
      • Posts about deals/discounts, SoCs (Snapdragon, Mediatek, etc) and benchmarks.
      • Posts about businesses/finances of OEMs.
    • ... and not allowing:
      • Posts about carriers (Verizon, Sprint, etc)

    We think those mostly make sense, but it might be a good idea to revise them. Would you be interested in another community poll? What should it contain?

    What do you think about our sticky threads?

    Especially for the weekly threads, would you like to see any changes or additions?

    What do you think about our rules in general?

    Would you like to see something changed? Please explain why.

    If you're going to suggest any changes to rule 2, please keep in mind our rationale explained above, as any changes should ideally keep it possible for users to subscribe to the content they're interested in.

    Any other general feedback about the sub?

    Is there anything you think we should be doing better? Do you have any other suggestions?

    What's next?

    This thread will be stickied for a few days. (We won't sticky it during the first few hours due to Reddit's algorithms and threads not showing up in Hot in that case.)

    There will be follow-up threads/polls depending on the feedback and suggestions you guys raise, probably during one (or more) of the coming weekends to allow most people to participate.

    Why did you remove my post / why do you never approve my posts?

    Probably because of rule 2. There should be a removal reason left by a mod on your removed thread explaining the reason, and redirecting you to appropriate subreddits sometimes. Also, sometimes we make mistakes, so get in touch if you think that's the case.

    Thanks! — The r/Android mod team

    submitted by /u/GermainZ
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    Google Tasks finally has a widget!

    Posted: 30 Oct 2019 06:21 AM PDT

    LG G8X Dual Screen review: better than you might ThinQ

    Posted: 30 Oct 2019 07:08 AM PDT

    Hands on with Microsoft's Project xCloud: Putting cellular cloud gaming to the test

    Posted: 30 Oct 2019 04:11 PM PDT

    Value-for-money Galaxy M30s with monstrous battery launched in Europe

    Posted: 30 Oct 2019 09:38 AM PDT

    Pixel 4 review from a longtime iPhone user. No bashing of any brands or OS!

    Posted: 30 Oct 2019 11:57 AM PDT

    Needed a workphone line, and my work is all Chromebooks and google based, so decided to get a Pixel 4. My personal use phone is an iPhone Xr. I've been iOS since the 5. The setup of the Pixel was super simple. everything I needed from my iPhone transferred to the pixel in minutes. Phone and apps updated, and everything was a go in literally less than a 1/2 hour. Facial recognition works really well. Too well. I sit down near my phone and it unlocks! That's not a huge problem for me, I don't have financial apps on the Pixel. Everything on the Pixel moves as smoothly as my iPhone. Gestures are similar, and so many apps are cloud based today that there really isn't much of a difference. I set up some email widgets and other tweaks needed for work. Played with the camera for a few minutes, and took some night pictures of the freezing cold sky. Very little light pollution in my neck of the woods. Night photos are amazing. Overall, it's a very nice phone, and I could easily see it as the "transition phone" for those wanting to switch to Android without losing much of the Apple polish. Android fans that are tempted to switch to ios for the simplicity might like the Pixel 4. It really is style and substance.

    Reviews detracting for battery performance aren't far off. I'm not living through my phone, so I'd say moderate use. Mostly inventory management and correspondence, plus other work tasks. So far, the battery drain seems to be moderate, but it's not been as bad as some reviews made me think it would be. It'll last all workday, but it'll need a little pick-me-up by the time I get home. Honestly, that's all I really need.

    Hope this helps someone.

    submitted by /u/Webzphotomania
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    Japan's NTT docomo to shutdown 3G on 2026/03/31

    Posted: 30 Oct 2019 08:20 AM PDT

    [APK] Samsung’s Galaxy Labs suite of apps lets you optimize your phone

    Posted: 30 Oct 2019 06:13 AM PDT

    Initial lengthy review of Nvidia Shield Pro from someone who's never owned one.

    Posted: 30 Oct 2019 07:44 AM PDT

    Why Shield

    I have owned Chromecasts (Gen 3), Rokus (Streaming Stick+), Amazon Fire sticks etc in the past but decided to try the Nvidia Shield in hopes of simplifying the setup and improving the overall experience. I regularly have babysitters over so needed something easy to use and Chromecast isn't easy or reliable enough on its own. My Chromecast Gen 3 was acting up so I figured it'd be better to invest in the best and give away my Roku. I obviously haven't had time to test everything but figured this would be a good overview for those who also have never owned a Shield.

    Shield TV vs Shield Pro

    I opted for the Shield Pro mostly because the $50 wasn't a big deal to me for something I use almost every day and plan on keeping for years. Nvidia's track record on updates has been very good so I figured I'd go for the better model. The extra gb of RAM was alone enough for me if it made anything faster. I also would like to try the browsing experience. I figured the 3GB of RAM might make a noticeable improvement. I also thought the USB ports might be handy if I wanted to plug in peripherals. I should also mention I don't yet have a 4k TV, so I can't speak to upscaling. I also don't game much, but will probably grab a controller and try out a few games. However, it wasn't not really a factor when buying it.

    Plug in and Signing in

    All that's needed is a proprietary power plug (included) and HDMI cable (not included) to get started. Once I powered it on, it had a nice backsplash and music and it felt really well designed. Unfortunately, the "Quick Start" process failed multiple times. It got stuck on a step of "copying account" which I'm unsure of what it was copying or why it failed. I ended up setting it up manually which all worked fine but I had to use the onscreen keyboard which was tedious. There was an update available for both the system and accessories that I had to install before continuing.

    There are also lots of agreements that you must agree to in order to continue. These are all more or less expected. Google Assistant requires permissions, Nvidia requires permissions, location is requested (YouTube TV needs location for sports/local channels).

    Installing the apps it easy enough. Removing apps is also easy but require long pressing on the center button on the app. Not hard, just good to remember this action is how you remove and move your favorite apps around.

    Signing into all the different accounts is tedious and inconsistent. This isn't the fault of the Shield, it's just a pain to type in all passwords. Some of them use a web interface on your phone's browser (much easier) while some require using the onscreen keyboard or you can type via the Shield app on your phone. I use a password manager so my passwords are long strings of nonsense, so this part was definitely not fun.

    Navigation & General Use

    Overall I found the interface easy to navigate and no more difficult than the Roku and certainly better than the Fire (albeit I got rid of mine a couple years ago so things might have changed). The Roku's interface is much larger and might be easier for some to navigate, but I think the Shield is plenty easy for almost everyone.

    The Shield Pro is incredibly fast. This by itself makes it worth it to me over a Roku or Fire TV. The menus load instantly. Done watching a show? Pressing the home button and the home screen is immediately loaded and ready to navigate. I tried the voice commands to launch Netflix and the voice assistant doesn't even finish saying "Opening Netflix" before it launched. It literally cuts itself off at "Opening Net...". They should probably fix that, but it gives you an idea of how fast it is.

    I noticed there is a Play Next category below your favorites list. It seems not all apps are support to be added to Play Next, so I disabled it entirely.

    Remote

    The remote is very nice. I like the feel of it and it seems well built. I don't love the button layout. It's not really intuitive so you have to look at it to remember where the buttons are - it seems like it would have made more sense to make the forward/reverse on the same row and the volume up/down on the same row with a bigger Play/Pause button that spans it own row. The backlight does make it easy to find the keys at least. The Netflix button can be remapped but I haven't done this yet, not sure what my most used app is so I'll leave it for now.

    I also tried ringing the remote in case it's lost. It's a nice touch. I rang the remote from the Nvidia app. It's plenty loud to find under a cushion.

    Chromecast

    The Shield has a 4k Chromecast built-in. This was a major selling point for me because it's still the best way to watch and queue up YouTube videos. The first couple of times I connected it seemed very slow. I restarted everything and then it was blazing fast in comparison to the Gen 3 Chromecast I was using. I'll have to keep an eye on the consistency. I was having issues with the Gen 3 getting relatively slow wifi speeds (~40mbps, while my phone was getting 250mbps+). This is no longer an issue. The Shield and Chromecast are both getting 200+mbps. Obviously this is overkill especially since I don't have a 4k TV yet but it's good to know I won't have a bottleneck in the future. I plan on hardwiring in the future, so the included ethernet jack is nice.

    One issue is that this is not a full fledged Chromecast. The casting action is exactly the same, but you do not have nearly the same number of options within the Chromecast itself (accessed via the Home app). One particular annoying missing feature is the ambient display does not work to display Good Photos albums as background. It's an option in the Chromecast settings via the Home app, but does not work. So if you liked to stream your Google Photos albums as a background, this does not currently work. Supposedly there are workarounds via a third party app?

    Settings

    I love all the settings.

    It'll take me a while to understand them all but I'm always in favor of having more options. As you'll see, there are a ton of tweak. I'll mention just a few I did to give you an idea of the level of control. I turned off the video and audio previews on the home page. The Pro has a green light that shines. I don't really care for the gamer-look of it, so I turned it off. You can also lower the brightness if you so choose. I have the Shield plugged into an AV receiver so I turned on CEC which instantly made the volume on the remote control the receiver's volume. I setup the Harmony remote to also work with the Shield which was very easy. Now, either remote will work. Harmony did warn that I should turn off CEC if I'm using their integration, but I'll let it ride until I see an issue. I'm hoping to figure out if the power button on the Shield remote can turn off both the TV and AV receiver (trigger a Harmony activity), right now it just shuts of the receiver. Fortunately, the voice command works great to shut everything down. I also appreciate that the Shield is easy to put to sleep/shutdown. I felt like the Roku stick and Chromecast were always running hot wasting energy, although I have no idea how much in comparison.

    Final Thoughts

    Obviously I'll need to spend more time to test for consistency but overall if you're looking for a better experience than your current device, I can almost guarantee the Shield will be a welcomed improvement. It's excessive even for me but an overall small expense given how much I use it. The speed alone really does make it so much better than the Roku I was using. The out of the box experience is perfectly fine for most, but as with most things Android, there is lots of opportunity for tweaking.

    Things I plan on trying out: * Sideloading apps * Finding what apps I'm not using that might be useful * Programming/mapping remote buttons to be more useful, * Looking into the SmartThings smart home integration * Installing Chrome or another browser. Brave, Firefox, and Puffin seem to be the other popular choices.

    Any other tips, things I should try, questions?

    submitted by /u/43556_96753
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    OnePlus 7 Pro on sale for $649 - 8+256 variant

    Posted: 30 Oct 2019 09:17 AM PDT

    I wanted to post a screenshot but the subreddit doesnt allow.

    Click to see for yourself 8+256 variant at $649 and it comes with type c bullet headphones.

    I'm getting it tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!

    https://www.oneplus.com/oneplus-7pro?from=op7pro_header

    submitted by /u/285Tech
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    Xiaomi shows off Mi Watch UI and Mi CC9 Pro’s 50x zoom capability

    Posted: 30 Oct 2019 02:09 AM PDT

    Just a PSA: if you have Amazon installed, make sure its not chewing through your data! It used almost a whole gigabyte of mobile data on my phone in the background.

    Posted: 30 Oct 2019 04:14 AM PDT

    I don't watch videos on Amazon or anything of the sort. I use Google fi, so i try to watch my data usage bc I like to make my bill as cheap as possible. I have turned background/mobile data off for Amazon to see if that helps.

    submitted by /u/wilso850
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    Samsung Introduces Galaxy XCover FieldPro: A Rugged Smartphone that’s Built Tough and Field Ready

    Posted: 29 Oct 2019 11:23 PM PDT

    Google Pixel 4 XL review - GSMArena

    Posted: 30 Oct 2019 04:17 AM PDT

    Samsung Galaxy Fold re-review: here we go again

    Posted: 30 Oct 2019 06:56 AM PDT

    Nokia 8 Update!

    Posted: 30 Oct 2019 11:15 AM PDT

    I wasn't thinking this would ever come but the Nokia 8 (2017) just got an update on my end to update to Google Security Patch 2019-10 currently one month ahead of my Samsung Galaxy S10e! Only took 4 months of no updates... But I thought the last update was the end of the road for support of the Nokia 8 phone so do check your phone's for updates! It could be there

    submitted by /u/ggalinismycunt
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    Pixel 4 (Smaller) review after a week [Xpost from r/GooglePixel]

    Posted: 30 Oct 2019 07:04 AM PDT

    Let's be real about Google Rewards

    Posted: 30 Oct 2019 06:05 PM PDT

    I know I'm going to get some flame from those who beer money but, I searched and didnt see any discussion on this topic.

    So here goes, like many others have made a reasonable amount off of mostly answering silly location and sales questions. Generally paying out between 0.15 and 1.00 for < 1 min of work. I've found some exceptions of true studies performed using the system but they are very few and far between.

    So here's my conclusion, I'm fairly confident that the whole program is built to boost play store sales numbers and lure developers.

    I'm not even sure this is a problem but it is a bit dishonest, I'm unsure of how unethical it would be as a marketing mechanism either. Evidence is the shear number of simple location and demographic questions when there isn't much need for Google to even ask these in the first place.

    I couldn't find total rewards given away vs app store sales figures, but it would be very cool to trend those two together.

    Tldr, do you think Google Rewards is just a mechanism to stimulate the play store with sales?

    Would love some thoughts.

    submitted by /u/ximfinity
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