Nothing, please do not create your own system apps

hexagonal707x · 2024-01-07T12:14:26+00:00

Google apps are enough. Why do you want another calculator app or gallery app. This is the problem it creates. Now companies like Nothing, Oneplus, Samsung have to create their own versions of the same app you already got from Google. The difference is Google updates their app and companies like Nothing, OnePlus don't update after some time. After a few OS upgrades, your phone will be having an older version of the app while the newer phone models of these companies will have the latest version of the app. And they don't even bother to update their own system apps. Then also people will be complaining why aren't these companies not updating their system apps for older phones. That's why sticking to Google apps are better. that's why stock Android is better. I have a Nothing Phone 2. Previous Pixel Owner. My dad has OnePlus. I can tell you right now. Telling companies to make their own version of system apps is a bad idea. They'll be lazy and never update it for older phones whereas Google apps will be always the latest on any phone. OnePlus was shit when it came to their Oxygen OS. Same with Samsung. Duplicate apps.. Google photos and Gallery app, files by Google and File manager by OnePlus. Well guess what OnePlus never updates these apps. I think Carl Pei already knows the duplicate apps situation. I don't think he's gonna make a nothing gallery app or calculator app. And that is a good thing. Whatever Nothing is doing now is literally perfect. Perfect amount of their apps that doesn't create situation of duplicate app. I hope Nothing keeps it like this. UI experience is clean and simple. If you're going to be committed to the whole design philosophy. You gotta make it reach to every phone you ever created. For example Nothing themed apps just like how Google apps update even on their old phones. Else stick with what you're doing right now. And people stop asking for a Gallery app. It will be start of duplicate apps. If you want a gallery app that much, it should atleast have Google photos and iCloud integration. Without it, it's so pointless. Don't turn this company into Samsung and OnePlus with their boat load of duplicate apps. Thank you.

yethuck

Agree with the opinion. But some people over here is crying loudly for nothing styles appa. Most important thing they have to do is to polish the current nothing appa and the OS itself. Still the pictures from the device is too much unreliable and the image processing is too much digital in look. The OS needs more refinement for the performance and so n so. Instead of already available Google apps they could release a community app of nothing 🤷.

Ant-e-so-shial

adbo If I could wish the impossible then Nothing should go the Apple route. They should just create their own complete OS and apps. But that’s quite impossible for now. Best way to go with it would be expanding the teams and hiring a lot of freelancers, create OS and apps, after freelancers and Nothing teams are done with the job then with the remaining team they should maintain the apps.

But it’s easy to say than do idk how it’ll work practically

RahulPegwal

hexagonal707x start

hexagonal707x if it is so then nothing should have given stock android instead of nothing os, because their os is based on NDOT font and google apps are very fake or don’t match with nothing os, we are fan of nothing so I want nothing apps if you like google apps you can go with pixel device

oliverwhite2711

adbo There’s only two apps. To be fair I’m not on a nothing phone right now so it’s prob not showing cos I don’t have the right hardware to run them.

sean (1)

In principal I’m not against Nothing creating branded apps, but:

at this stage resources are better spent improving the OS, or –
partner up with a developer and re-skin their existing, feature packed apps.
must be no less secure or private
must be able to uninstall them

GabrieliusMarkauskas

hexagonal707x in my personal opinion, I think they should make the most needed apps like dialer or texting apps and maybe even make an intervation with Google’s stuff to move from Google or icloud to nothing. It’s pretty much just a preference thing.

I’m really looking forward to see how this company evolves, I’d love to see some more redesigned stuff in the os as well. Maybe change how the power menu looks when you press and hold the power button.

kleiber_arts

I’ve used Redmi Note’s files app (explorer) and I think Google one’s is inferior to it tbh…

oliverwhite2711

kleiber_arts exactly my point. Literally every Google app is so unadvanced.

Anonymous931

kleiber_arts My other phone is a Redmi, I have that File Manger, and when comparing them detail to detail, side by side, the only feature that Files by Google doesn’t have or can’t do is FTP. Literally the only thing.

They both have:

Quick Share directly in the app at the front/land screen
Private files (Google’s is better)
Ability to see detailed folder and file info (Google’s is better)
Ability to sort by (Google’s is better because it has “newest first” and “oldest first”, Xiaomi’s doesn’t)
Search and search history (but Google’s has indexing, Xiaomi’s doesn’t)
Creating and extracting archived folders/files
Categories clearly visible when you open the app (Images, Music, Video, Apps…)
Favourite files and/or folders (Google’s is better, more customisable)
Show hidden files and folders
Clean(er) (Google’s one is better than Xiaomi’s junk)

What Files by Google has over Xiaomi’s File Manager :

Cleaner interface
Ability to view folders and files as tiles (with thumbnail and details too, not just as a list
Direct “Back up to Google Drive” (and a whole Google Drive integration)

What Xiaomi’s File Manager has over Files by Google doesn’t:

Ads directly in the app, if you don’t block them
FTP

Versions of both, screenshots taken this moment:

oliverwhite2711 exactly my point. Literally every Google app is so unadvanced.

If you define unadvanced as less in-app bloat and less clutter then yes, they are.

CMF1_hacker

waste of limited dev resource. leave it to the third parties … I use N Dial, N Cal, N Keyboard and some other apps that keep with the theme of NOTHING. The Gallery app is OK, but I’d rather had the import of LUTs fixed rather than N Cal wasting dev resource.

this is considered bloat on other OSs (Xiaomi, Red. POCO, 1+, Samsung)

keep it simple and app-less from NOTHING

I mean, isn’t this point of the community, to provide the dev resource for un-important tasks?

oliverwhite2711

CMF1_hacker that makes so much sense. Even with my age I’m already making so many apps and websites it’s unreal. Plus my business pet-paths.site I would absolutely love to help the nothing Dev team with development but BC of my age I probably won’t be allowed. 😭 Also I just have no idea how I would get into that sort of thing.

CMF1_hacker

Anonymous931 the real argument is do we need both. We’re getting Google whether or not we want it. Do we need NOTHING’s versions of similar Apps, I’d argue no.

If you don’t want Google in Europe buy a Fairphone5 (I this FP5 better than the FP6 personally.)

oliverwhite2711

CMF1_hacker real. I don’t like how Google use legal force to have there apps on android, but I suppose it is their right to have Google apps on their own os.

Anonymous931

CMF1_hacker And I’m fully with you on that matter, yes. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Google’s one, especially when you consider its speed and overall integration in the whole system (plus the “Smart Search” feature). It’s a rock solid starting point to cover 99.9% of everyone’s needs. For everything else, and/or for customisation - there is a ton, like hundreds, of different options in Google Play store itself, so anyone can download whatever they find to suit their taste (or needs).

oliverwhite2711 I don’t like how Google use legal force to have there apps on android

By being the owners and creators of Android. Can we get Android 16 before Google creates it and releases it? Rhetorical question. They don’t need any legal force, they are literally making the system for everyone else and if those others desire to take it all out - they can. But they don’t because it makes no sense to remove perfectly usable, functional and great apps just because someone doesn’t like them. It’s like saying that Microsoft is using legal force to have their file manager, or Power Shell/CMD, or Photos app, or Notepad, or… you name it …in Windows.

Edit: I find it quite amusing how many people around this forum/board want to get rid of all Google apps, but simultaneously they want (actually they NEED) material expressive 3 and blur and colours and everything that Google Pixel has including all PIXEL-EXCLUSIVE features - they need those now, this moment, “add it Nothing team, please!!” 🙃

CMF1_hacker

Anonymous931 I think the anti-google desire breaks down by market. When I was in China, obviously there was no Google. India seems more in the middle, and they possess the tech know-how to roll out their own OS. I still haven’t wrapped my head around the Indian market, which is difficult to do without living there (and actually being integrated).

oliverwhite2711

Anonymous931 actually they DO use legal force sometimes. Google it. 😭

Anonymous931

oliverwhite2711 Right… So let’s see what Google have to say about it…

https://developers.google.com/android/

When you go through the link, you see that Google doesn’t legally mandate anything at all for Android OEMs, like to preinstall apps. There is MADA (Mobile Application Distribution Agreement) and EMADA (European Mobile Application Agreement) that require OEMs to include certain Google apps to actually make the system work in order to access the Google Play store.

Now if Google is lying and if everything is such a conspiracy then, hell, I’m lying too, but I Googled it just as you said 😳

Edit: Forgot to include the link for MADA: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/containers/fix380/1495569/000119312510271362/dex1012.htm

Do a Ctrl+F for “legal” and you will find it just once - in the word ILLEGAL - everything else is “Google Legal Contact” and such:

Amudhan_Sundararajan

Just throwing in my two cents since this thread’s still kicking. A lot of people here think stock Google apps are enough, but honestly, for some of us, they’re just bloated placeholders. I disable most of them right out of the box—Photos, Files by Google, Dialer, Messages—you name it. Either they’re limited, ad-driven, cloud-dependent, or just bad.

The “duplicate app” complaint only makes sense if you have to keep the Google versions. Personally, I’d rather Nothing (or any OEM) build their own apps and give users the option to remove Google’s. Let the users decide what’s actually useful.

Also, about updates—people act like Google updates = magic. But those updates don’t care if your hardware can keep up. I’d rather have an older, stable gallery app that works offline than a shiny cloud-syncing mess that chokes on weaker processors.

Some of us even flash custom ROMs without GApps. Not having Google in everything is a feature, not a bug. If Nothing wants to make their own apps, great—just make them good and optional. That’s real user-focused design, not just shipping everything with “Made by Google” stamped on it.

Stereobasic

Amudhan_Sundararajan google photo is a catastrophe, it’s bad on every part for me. I’m very happy Nothing have done they own gallery. If they have not i will have instantly buy the oneplus 13 instead. So i can say that the fact they have gallery app was big part of the fact they won a new customer.

oliverwhite2711

Stereobasic that’s so real

CMF1_hacker

Stereobasic I gotta disagree. NOTHING Gallery is useless without a back-up feature to the cloud. Also, it has zero editing tools with the exception of that double-tap to copy. Whereas, Magic Eraser from Google is great for quick touch ups and removal of NPCs in my photos. Sure, NOTHING Gallery looks slightly nicer, and might actually run faster, but functionality-wise, I find it quite poor and a distraction of dev talent.

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