Honor OS Customization and Smoothness

SamuraiTronVC With due respect, since most of the innovation in phones today is software-led, it essentially comes down to what the operating system offers. And in the future, the feature set will be a differentiating factor, not to say it isn’t already. But once Nothing OS’s basic catch-up will complete, then the next obvious step would be to add more functionality that helps them make their OS offering enriched and more competitive.

No matter how much praise the barebones Pixel devices would get, the fact is that Pixel phones barely sell, and none of the phone vendors trying to retain customers with a barebones OS have succeeded. Google heavily promoted Android One, yet it had the same fate as its predecessors.

I’m not asking or demanding that the Nothing OS look like iOS or something else, but I am interested in more features to be built into the OS. Whatever happened to Oxygen OS was Oppo’s plan to unify the brand resources and reduce their costs. It does not connect with user demands. The OS can still look and feel clean and simple while adding more functionality that people coming from other vendors would definitely be missing.

singhnsk with all due respect, let me add some info to your comment. Before I got the Nothing Phone 2a my phone was a Google Pixel 7a. If it wasn’t stolen I’d probably be using it today.

Android in Pixel phones is far from what I’d call barebones these days. Google frequently adds “feature drops” to their phones, which basically means that users get some pretty unique and useful extra features along the way. It’s amazing how they are able to add really useful features while maintaining a simple visual approach that works so well.

I never said that Nothing shouldn’t add functionality to the OS. It’s quite obvious that we expect more features to be added. What I mean is that Nothing should maintain it’s own identity instead of copying other OEMs.

I know this isn’t easy. But I do know that I liked Xiaomi’s MIUI (HyperOS now) until I got tired of it trying too hard to be iOS on Android. To each their own.

mafcarvalho Fair enough. I didn’t intend to say there aren’t any takers for stock Android. There’s a market for it, but it is rather small. Since it is each person’s preference, I wouldn’t argue, but I want to put forward my opinion that most of the feature drops in Pixel phones are redundant where most of them are limited by markets, and then they are often just catch-ups to things that other OS flavors have offered for years. A good example is the long screenshots; even though Google managed to add it a few years ago after being several years late, it is still way inferior compared to the implementation done by Samsung and others. Yes, Google is doing a fine job with caller enhancements, for example, but only if they’ll readily become available to users globally. I also do not see most of their enhancements as “useful”, but once again it is more of a personal preference. I wouldn’t mind if I’m called a “Pixel-hater” because I have never found a reason to love it in the first place. I’ll personally choose anything else but a Pixel.

I fully agree that Nothing should maintain an identity and add features thoughtfully so that they integrate well into the overall UI experience.

SkynetT1000 if I could only understand wth you mean… where did you see me say that copying from Apple or iOS is a good thing? Let’s calm down the “conversation” right away. I know it’s hard for people to interpret what others wrote. We can’t read minds…

I use Android since v1.6 on HTC Sense. I’ve used more than enough Android flavours to know what I like and what I don’t.

Apple is the most despicable company in the world and I never understood the sheep around their outdated, overhyped and overpriced tech. It’s true that design-wise Nothing phones are quite Apple-esque. In terms of software they’re not and I’m grateful for that.

SkynetT1000 IF NOTHING PHONES ARE not allowed heavy customization than no one should buy any kind of nothing products and only buy Apple product where heavy customization is not allowed . we choose Android over iOS only because of heavy customization.

Not everyone likes “Heavy Customisation”, some prefer minimal customisation like back in the days Nexus had, original OxygenOS had. There’s nowhere written that Android should be heavily customised from the OEMs side. Users can change the look and feel of any Android skin using right app like a custom launcher, icon pack or a widget maker. If someone wants lots of features baked into the OS then there’s other options too. That’s why there are tons of options in the market. If someone likes heavy customisation then they can buy Xiaomi, Honor or some other brand which has baked in lots of features. If someone is buying a phone then that’s their responsibility to do some research about the phone before buying whether it fits the user or not. It’s irrational to complaint about not having high customisation after buying a Nothing phone when they should have noticed it before buying.

Charan_DSCR Nothing is is purely based on Oxygen os so better not to go out of that bruh

Sourav_Satvaya It’s quite simple, you see. If somebody wants to customize more, he customizes more. If he doesn’t want to, he keeps it the default way. Sorted, right?

The OS should provide for features and/or API points where first-party or third-party apps can integrate and expand the functionality. And anybody who’s not interested in spending his time customizing all parts of the OS can just not touch those options.

PS: I am not a customizer. Apart from changing the wallpaper, I’d keep the phone the way it was for years. But I’d be glad to have features and options that I’d probably never use instead of not having them at all. It helps those who need it or maybe my use case changes in the future