Wishlist for Android 15, or future versions like Android 20.

I've tried dozens of wallpapers and I've tried the repainter app, but no matter what wallpaper I use and no matter what color I put in as the theme color, the colors that the system picks are always blue and are really ugly shade of pink.

Is there any way to change this without rooting your phone? I'm running a Pixel 7 for reference.

First off, I don't think every single one of Google's decisions regarding Android is good. Hell I actually think they've blundered too many times to count when it comes to bringing new features to Android. That said, for Android to mature further, it really needs to go the "it just works" route that Apple's been nailing.

Things like how you're required to have a Google account to really use an Android phone at this point, and how features like Nearby Share rely on Google accounts garners a lot of hate from the FOSS/enthusiast crowd. And I get it. I really do. That said, I've worked in IT long enough to know that the enthusiasts will find ways around restrictions like this, or they'll simply find another open source app that does the same thing. The average user on the other hand, almost certainly has a Google account, and for that person, this implementation makes sense. You log into one account and can see all your devices? That's about as good as it gets.

Notice how it's gotten progressively harder to install apps from external sources over each iteration of Android? Yeah that sucks, but for the average person, that's stopping them from installing malware disguised as an app. They don't care that there were obvious signs that the source can't be trusted, the fact remains that they found a way to brick their Android phone, while that wouldn't have happened on iOS.

Ever notice how people say Android's just "too confusing"? That's the crowd that Google is trying to win over. We already use Android, and probably will continue to because what other option is there? But emulating what iOS does well and bringing that to Android is going to bring in more people to the OS, and ultimately that's not a bad thing.

After my last post on here asking about convenient streaming options at higher resolutions, I got a few comments recommending Stremio with Torrentio and Real Debrid.

I ended up going through with that and streamed a 4k movie. That said, what's the catch? I'm a little paranoid because I'm not sure if this still counts as torrenting, and if I should be using a VPN while watching something from RD.

No such thing as free lunch, so I'm assuming there's other downsides to this solution, could someone let me know what they are?

I've finally invested in a high resolution monitor, which means 1080p content looks pretty bad, especially on a 32 inch display.

I've been using FMovies so far for streaming, but now that 1080 looks like shit on my display, it's sort of lost it's appeal. Are there any ways to have a convenient streaming setup (that doesn't require too much effort for every new movie/show I want to watch) that also supports 1440p or 4k?

I've got a Pixel 7 on Android 13. Once in a while I read about how it's usually good to factory reset your phone after a software update, so I thought I might when I update to Android 14. That said, I refuse to go through the process of setting up my phone like new again, especially with things like fingerprints and tasker profiles being a pain to setup again.

The Google Backup seems purely cosmetic. I can't think of a single thing it restores every single time I use it. Are there any options to actually back my phone up before an update that don't involve root?

This isn't an iOS vs. Android thread, although I'm aware this might come off that way to some. I've been using Android phones since the Galaxy S4 and at the time it felt like Android was far and ahead the best smartphone OS at the time. It was objectively better than iOS in 2010 in just about every metric apart from UI fluidity.

I'm not so sure about that any more. I still do prefer Android - the UI, the customizability, the ability to sideload apps, etc. That said, why is it that every single time Android gets a feature that truly makes the phone more usable, Google goes ahead and guts that functionality, only for Apple to actually give a shit about that feature a few years later and do it way better.

Just off the top of my head, I can't believe Google screwed up:

• Android Beam
• Google Now on Tap (not to mention all the things it did that Google Assistant can't)
• Hangouts (not necessarily Android but it could have easily been better than iMessage)
• Nearby Notifications
• Android @ Home
• Bump!

I get that Google as a company is out to make money, but do they really have to shut down any functionality that isn't directly generating revenue?

I remember a while back Google unveiled a better photo picker that won't make us go through the file structure to pick images.

Is that something developers need to implement because so far not a single app I use has implemented it.

Just wondering if there's any apps that do?