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Google's Next Android Overhaul Will Embrace iPhone's 'Notch' (bloomberg.com)

Posted by msmash on from the up-next dept.

Google is working on a "dramatic redesign" of its Android operating system, Bloomberg reported on Monday. The company has stuck with a single look for its mobile operating system (OS) for quite some time now, but it's now reportedly looking at Apple for inspiration. The new version of Android -- which Bloomberg says is called "Pistachio Ice Cream" internally -- will apparently be designed with the space for a cutout at the top, much like the iPhone X and its so-called "notch." From the report: The operating system refresh, Android P, will emphasize Google's Assistant, a digital helper that competes with Apple's Siri and Amazon.com's Alexa. Developers will be able to integrate Google's voice-based technology inside of their apps. The company has also weighed integrating the search bar on the Android home screen with its assistant, although neither of these changes are finalized for introduction this year, according to one of the people familiar with the situation.

61 of 179 comments (clear)

  1. Good luck on that one... by ctilsie242 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Apple can do a notch because they know the dimensions on what their sensor array is going to be. With Android, this is a different story. An inexpensive phone may just have an IR sensor and a low-end camera. A more expensive phone might have more front facing stuff. Will this be a one size fits all notch, or something that is wider/narrower depending on the device? If it is one size fits all, that may hurt hardware makers. If it is variable, that would stomp on devs trying to make their apps have the right dimensions and contribute to the complaints of fragmentation.

    I wonder how Google will handle this.

    1. Re:Good luck on that one... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Informative

      The Essential Phone has a small notch and runs Android. So clearly it was possible with a bit of work and it looks like Google is just formalizing support for it. Presumably the width of the notch will be manufacturer defined.

      BTW, the Essential Phone was released before the iPhone X. In any case, I doubt anyone is copying anyone here, it's just a question of LCD manufacturers starting to offer non-rectangular shapes. Started with aircraft and car manufacturers wanting round LCDs to replace dials, and then smartwatches.

      --
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      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:Good luck on that one... by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I wonder how Google will handle this.

      I really hope they handle it by throwing in the towel and relegating those ugly notches to the dustbin of history where they belong.

    3. Re:Good luck on that one... by rickb928 · · Score: 1

      Make the notch dimensions a declared variable. Leave the value to the manufacturer.

      This is hard, right?

      --
      deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
    4. Re:Good luck on that one... by cerberusss · · Score: 1

      I'm an iOS developer and it's handled as follows.

      The graphics toolkit is called UIKit. All stuff on the screen (buttons, textfields, everything) descends from a class called UIView. The screen itself is a view, let's call it the main view.

      So anyway, all UIView instances have four anchors (top/bottom/left/right). You can hang these anchors to other anchors, to the edge of the main view, or to the safeAreaLayoutGuide of the main view. And that safeAreaLayoutGuide is the biggest square area of the main view. Meaning, the bottom of the notch is basically the top of the safeAreaLayoutGuide.

      That's all there is to it.

      Where I do see a problem, is that some Android phones have very small notches, just covering a camera. If you use the iOS approach, you'll have a lot of wasted space.

      --
      8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
  2. Dramatic is the right word. by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 5, Funny

    So of all of Apple's ideas, they decided to copy that atrocity...

    --
    If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    1. Re:Dramatic is the right word. by mentil · · Score: 1

      Not sure where the notch hate is coming from. Instead of taking up pixels at the top of the display that could be used for anything, notification icons are now using a tiny amount of space that is unable to fit a full-width image anyway. Thus, putting the icons there means you have MORE vertical display space free for the main image. I'm way more miffed about getting rid of the home button and having to use gestures for all of its functions, in the name of killing the bezel; a 3d touch soft button at the bottom might've been better.

      --
      Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    2. Re:Dramatic is the right word. by rot16 · · Score: 1

      I want my next mobile phone to have a bezel. My old HTC One Mini 2 has two non-glass bars both at top and bottom, also the glass does not touch the sides. I have dropped it numerous times, the glass never broke. I hope there will be options with modern CPUs when it's time to upgrade.

    3. Re:Dramatic is the right word. by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      To be fair, can you think of any recent Apple "feature" that would not have provoked this response?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    4. Re:Dramatic is the right word. by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 2

      Maybe not. I wasn't all that happy with the demise of the 3.5mm jack, but at least the new iPhone is sort of waterproof now, and I got a pair of Airpods... Now there's a product that looks, feels and works like old-school Apple stuff.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    5. Re:Dramatic is the right word. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Depends on the size of the notch. The iPhone notch is terrible for two reasons: first, the obvious, is that it looks bad. Part of this is because Apple decided that the notch must stand out, and their user interface guide requires that the display to the left and right of the notch must be colored and cannot be black. (Except, of course, when it can. Since this is Slashdot and someone will point out that there are times when it is left black, I'll clarify that they say that it must "match the rest of the app" so if the entire app is black or a screen element that is black is behind it, that's OK. But if your app has a blue background, the notch must also be blue.)

      The second, somewhat less obvious one is that it's huge and Apple has to remove elements from the status bar to get it to fit. Gone are "minor" things like the Bluetooth indicator and battery percentage indicator, because they don't fit. Also gone is the display of which cellular network you're on, although I can't tell if that ever displayed anything useful. (Does it display the network you're on or does it display the network your SIM card is for? No one seems to be sure.)

      Remember that the iPhone X has no headphone jack. Because of the notch, the battery indicator for Bluetooth headphones isn't shown because it doesn't fit. How much battery life do your now-required Bluetooth headphones have left? Good question, because your iPhone X won't tell you! (Unless you've enabled the "battery" widget, of course. Or know the secret gesture that causes it to display the old status bar below the notch.)

      People hate the notch on the iPhone X because it's poorly designed. Really the entire iPhone X is poorly designed - you can find plenty of horror stories about it if you go looking.

  3. Makes sense by RavenLrD20k · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because I use devices that compete with Apple with interfaces and features that I prefer to use over anything Apple offers, that MUST mean that I want the platform I use to mimic Apple!

    God dammit!

    1. Re:Makes sense by jareth-0205 · · Score: 1

      Because I use devices that compete with Apple with interfaces and features that I prefer to use over anything Apple offers, that MUST mean that I want the platform I use to mimic Apple!

      God dammit!

      Yeah... nobody wants this. But if the OS is going to support many different devices and manufacturers, it probably needs to have support for weird shaped displays because otherwise the manufacturers will make up their own. I'd rather they proactively do this than wait until there are 10 different implementations like we had with fingerprint security.

    2. Re:Makes sense by dbialac · · Score: 2

      Yep. Now everyone can have a phone that looks like something from "There, I Fixed It".

  4. Oh, FFS by enjar · · Score: 2

    First they copied the stupid "headphone jack delete" idea, now this nonsense. Guess I'll just keep putting batteries in my 6P as they wear since they are evidently out of fresh ideas and have started copying bugs made into features.

    1. Re:Oh, FFS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Android has a long history of copying iOS designs. iOS has a long history of eventually implementing Android features.

      And the zealots of each refuse to acknowledge one of the above sentences while holding tightly to the other.

    2. Re:Oh, FFS by djlemma · · Score: 3, Insightful

      AGREED.

      Removing useful features and giving me more features I have no interest in is NOT progress.

      Give me a phone with plenty of battery life, storage capacity, and the ability to interface with all the things I already own, and I'm happy. But, marketers gotta market, I guess.

    3. Re:Oh, FFS by SuperDre · · Score: 1

      Except Apple weren't the ones who had the idea of the notch first (again a rip-off of other designers), it was an android phone called essential which had it first (way before anything was known about the iPhone X).. And Apple also wasn't the first with the removal of the 3.5 jack, some cheapass android phones already were shipped without it, and to me it certainly is no loss, haven't used it on any of my phones, and never will.

    4. Re:Oh, FFS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Xiaomi Mi A1

      Battery lasts about a day and half with moderate usage (including HD video streaming and some gaming), comes with 64gb of internal storage as well as an mSD card slot that can also be used for adoptable storage, and ships with stock Android that you can fuck with all you like, plus it still has a headphone jack. The only caveat is that the battery isn't user-replaceable (at least not with a decent toolset and a long afternoon), but even then you can get a battery bank for the cost of a spare battery or cheaper.

    5. Re:Oh, FFS by cyberchondriac · · Score: 2

      Finally someone has said it, thank you. The tribal mindset over smartphones is idiotic and second only to the tribal mindset of politics.
      The both copy from each other, they both have pros and cons, but far more pros.
      I happen to use both (one personal, one issued by work) and frankly, as an old fart, the whole idea of a small pocket sized slab of a computer with a killer color display that can play HD movies, take quality digital pictures, make phone calls, play music, and connect to a world wide network through the air is pretty damn impressive; certainly the stuff of dreams and science fiction when I was a kid.
      I remember having a dream when I was a young kid, somewhere around the late '60s or early '70s, where I was walking though a dept store and I had a Magic 8 ball in my hand except where the round prediction window was it was a little round television screen. That was so cool, that as I woke up my hands were groping underneath my pillow searching for it. When I fully woke up and realized it was just a dream, I was crushed. Today we have something far better, for real. The hate just isn't justified.

      --

      Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
    6. Re:Oh, FFS by kalpol · · Score: 1

      Not here - I use the headphone jack constantly in my car, for my stereos, and oh yeah, for headphones. A phone without a jack is a phone I am not buying.

      --
      12:50 - press return.
    7. Re: Oh, FFS by Brockmire · · Score: 1

      Obviously? Fuck off. Citation needed.

  5. Nooooo by fubarrr · · Score: 2

    >will apparently be designed with the space for a cutout at the top, much like the iPhone X and its so-called "notch"

    NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

  6. Already done by Merk42 · · Score: 2

    iPhone previously showed the current time in the middle, and thus, had to be changed for iPhone X's 'notch'. Android doesn't show anything there to begin with, which is why phones like Essential, were able to have a similar, albeit much smaller, notch.

    1. Re:Already done by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      "already done" is a strange way of describing a single phone making a custom workaround to the Android OS which shown no awareness of anything that may protrude onto the screen.

    2. Re:Already done by Merk42 · · Score: 1

      "Already done" is a strange way of describing something that has already been done?

    3. Re:Already done by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Only if you don't read past the first two words I wrote.

    4. Re:Already done by c6gunner · · Score: 1

      Only if you don't read past the first two words I wrote.

      So everyone agrees, then; it's already been done.

  7. copying second place?! by Blymie · · Score: 1

    Apple hardware is very much is second place... by a VERY long margin.

    Android is a resounding success, and people buying Android devices are -- guess what? Choosing NOT to buy Apple products.

    Obviously there is going to be some back and forth of ideas, but if someone at Google thinks that Android needs to 'be more like Apple', well.. the sales very much don't warrant that. If people wanted a 'notch', they'd buy an Apple device...

    1. Re:copying second place?! by Blymie · · Score: 1

      Apple is very much in second place, if you look at the profits of the ENTIRE Android ecosystem. Everyone that makes Android devices.

      And you need to do that, because we're discussing 'phone usage/purchase' numbers' not 'single company profits'.

      It's the same reason that the PC market has far larger profits than Apple. Because it's so huge. Massive.

    2. Re:copying second place?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Well...no, that's completely backwards. Apple's profits are larger than the entire Android ecosystem combined.

    3. Re:copying second place?! by dbialac · · Score: 1

      Mind you, this is Apple's current cycle is to bring out a shittier and shittier phone and raise the price because fewer and fewer people want one. At a certain point, that stops working because people stop buying. For perspective, Apple had to cut sales forecasts for the iPhone X by 40% (50 million to 30 million) because demand was so weak.

    4. Re:copying second place?! by Blymie · · Score: 1

      Well, quite a few smartphone manufacturers don't actually provide revenue/profit information. Chinese companies? Nope.

      What you're reading are glorified press releases, otherwise you'd see that mentioned clearly.

    5. Re:copying second place?! by Arkham · · Score: 1

      Apple is very much in second place, if you look at the profits of the ENTIRE Android ecosystem. Everyone that makes Android devices.

      And you need to do that, because we're discussing 'phone usage/purchase' numbers' not 'single company profits'.

      It's the same reason that the PC market has far larger profits than Apple. Because it's so huge. Massive.

      I drive an Audi. I could drive a Toyota -- they're #1 after all in units sold. But I prefer the Audi because it's better for me in every way, shape and form.

      Android sells more units. That doesn't mean it's better, only that it's cheaper. Poor people aren't going to buy an $1100 phone no matter if it's awesome or not.

      --
      - Vincit qui patitur.
    6. Re:copying second place?! by Dixie_Flatline · · Score: 1

      Yeah, no. What you'd have to believe for your statement to be true is that there's some Chinese company out there that's selling phones and is making at least twice as much money in profit as Samsung in the phone space, and somehow NOBODY KNOWS ABOUT IT.

      It's a ridiculous claim on its face. There's no such company, or group of companies. There are Chinese companies doing well, to be sure, but they sell their phones at razor thin margins so that they can make money on the exclusive services or integrations that they provide.

      Samsung is the big dog in the non-Apple phone space, and unless you have something more concrete to back up your claim, there's no reason to believe any other manufacturer is even close to them, let alone Apple. There's a reason why Google PAYS APPLE so that Google is the default search on iOS—if you want to make money, you have to appeal to Apple users.

    7. Re:copying second place?! by Blymie · · Score: 1

      I'd imagine every CFO, and finance type that reads financial rags professionally -- not as a layman (such as the poster above, and you), knows that many regions in the world don't have reporting requirements like US firms / markets do.

      China is just one.

      I don't need something 'more concrete' to state what I stated.. but, I find it incredibly amusing that when my initial comment was about the sheer numbers of people that use Android devices, Apple fanbois run and shout and start blathering on about profits.

      In terms of search? Google pays everyone to add them as a search as a default. Browsers, apps in cars, you name it. It'd be remarkable if Google didn't pay someone for that.

      As if profits mean that somehow the iphone must therefore be technically superior. Wow, what a great argument for technical superiority, or user choice. Not numbers of units sold. Not types of phones used. Nope, profit.

      If you look at the high end Android smartphone market, it too eclipses iphone sales. People *prefer* Android.

      Get over it.

    8. Re:copying second place?! by Dixie_Flatline · · Score: 1

      So there's no denying that Apple has fewer users. That's always been the case, and it's part of how Apple makes money. There's profit in a perception of exclusivity.

      But you still can't even make the claim that Android is *preferred*. That's too broad a claim. People might choose Android handsets because they're cheaper. There's nothing wrong with that, and there's no reason to always buy the most expensive thing. But we do know that iOS retention is better than Android retention overall. That is, more people leave Android every year for iOS than the other way around. This is partly a consequence of the larger Android user base, of course. Even if retention percentages were the same—so 99% of iOS and Android users are content with the platform and won't leave it—3x as many Android users move to iOS as move from iOS to Android every year.

      At the high end, Apple still overwhelming draws people over. Apple sells far more of its top end phones than Samsung does...and again, Samsung is the only game in town when it comes to real, upscale Android sales.

  8. Pistachio Ice Cream by mentil · · Score: 1

    Pistachio icecream, really? Not Praline, or Pudding, or another P word that's a dessert by itself? You could tack 'icecream' onto any letter. Also, there was already a Froyo and an Ice Cream Sandwich.

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    1. Re:Pistachio Ice Cream by tsqr · · Score: 1

      Pistachio icecream, really? Not Praline, or Pudding, or another P word that's a dessert by itself? You could tack 'icecream' onto any letter. Also, there was already a Froyo and an Ice Cream Sandwich.

      No need to get worked up. From TFA: Internally, Google is calling the latest one Pistachio Ice Cream, but the company typically uses different official names, the people ["people familiar with the situation"] also said. Anyway, "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet", right?

    2. Re:Pistachio Ice Cream by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1

      All of these alphabetized dessert names sound amazingly stupid when referred to in a sentence anyway.

      --
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  9. never update by jbmartin6 · · Score: 2

    This is why I never update. Yet another "upgrade" introducing pointless and gratuitous interface changes. No doubt they will "improve" my user experience by moving, removing, or renaming settings, adding new "features" I can't delete or turn off, and if they are feeling really ambitious perhaps break some of the apps I use and make the device generally slower.

    --
    This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
    1. Re:never update by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Version 1.0 of any software is flawless.

    2. Re:never update by ctilsie242 · · Score: 1

      Depends on the ROM. If a launcher is ugly, replace it with Nova Launcher. This ensures that no matter what Android device I have, be it LG, Samsung, or HTC, it has the same UI as the one I used previously, so I don't have to get used to a new way of working.

      As for bloatware, this is why a rootable/unlockable bootloader is a deal breaker of a feature. With root and a good firewall, an Android phone can be quite private, with only vetted apps allowed to phone home. Without it, a device can be a privacy disaster.

    3. Re:never update by apoc.famine · · Score: 1

      Kids on your lawn again, eh?

      --
      Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
  10. Re:Frosty Piss by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Another shitty clone of a shitty iPhone feature.

    FTFY. Who the hell likes the notch?

  11. How else? by joh · · Score: 2

    Everybody wants to stretch the display over all of the front or at least do that as far as possible. Since there are a few things (like the camera) that have to stay there too, you have to make room for them. So the only options right now are either a "notch" or a "full-width notch" (having the display not cover all of the height of the front). Since you can make good use of the display areas left and right of the notch you get more usable display area this way compared to leaving empty a strip on the top or bottom of the front just to put the camera there.

    What's so hard to understand about this?

    1. Re:How else? by SlaveToTheGrind · · Score: 1

      Since you can make good use of the display areas left and right of the notch you get more usable display area this way compared to leaving empty a strip on the top or bottom of the front just to put the camera there.

      What's so hard to understand about this?

      It's not an issue of understanding. A lot of people (myself included) simply think a notched screen looks stupid.

    2. Re:How else? by lexman098 · · Score: 1

      It's a lot of added complexity for hardware and software just to gain a small extra space for showing status icons (which won't be enough space anyway).

  12. Phone Molestation by mentil · · Score: 1

    Android Overhaul Will Embrace iPhone's 'Notch'

    Can you point at where on the phone-shaped doll that the Android touched you?

    Seriously, wording...

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
  13. Samsung Made Fun Of The Notch by jdschulteis · · Score: 1

    But Samsung already made fun of the notch in that commercial where the guy waiting in line outside the Apple store has that awesome haircut!

  14. Android P, will emphasize Google's Assistant... by nagora · · Score: 1

    That's great as long as I can turn it off. If I can delete it completely so I get the space back, even better; knock yourselves out.

    --
    "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
  15. Isn't the IPhone X dead... by atrex · · Score: 1

    because of the notch?

  16. uhhh.. by SuperDre · · Score: 1

    How is this design based on Apple's iPhone X, even though an Android phone had it first..... The android phone Essential was the first with a notch, NOT Apple...
    But hee, you can see what kind of apple fanboys those techsites really are...

  17. Well, I guess they needed to copy LG by dahlellama · · Score: 1

    The LG V20 has a second screen. I like it.
    http://www.techradar.com/revie...

  18. Re:Frosty Piss by Arkham · · Score: 1

    FTFY. Who the hell likes the notch?

    Nobody likes the notch itself, but the sensors that live inside it are pretty freaking cool.

    We all know that Samsung is working hard to copy Apple right now, because they can't think of anything innovative on their own. In 9 months when you see a dot projector on a dozen Android phones, you'll know the copying is complete.

    --
    - Vincit qui patitur.
  19. Re:Frosty Piss by crypticedge · · Score: 1

    You mean a LG V10 feature that Apple copied.

  20. Dramatic yawn by WaffleMonster · · Score: 1

    Wake me up when they do something useful.

  21. Not even an Apple idea... by sl3xd · · Score: 1

    Didn't Andy Rubin's Essential phone have the notch first?

    Or are they just throwing "Apple" into the story for clicks?

    --
    -- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
  22. Google Assistant - don't want by Toshito · · Score: 1

    The operating system refresh, Android P, will emphasize Google's Assistant

    Well I guess this means that I'll never buy an Android P phone then.

    --
    Try it! Library of Babel
  23. Re:This is why there is a shortage of women in tec by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    What's so horribly sad is your constant need to shit on creimer and whomever else who comes to his defense. Not only on today's comments, but last Friday's comments. You call yourself an adult but you behaved like a child. Sad.

  24. Re: This is why there is a shortage of women in te by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It will never stop! We will SHIT SHIT SHIT until Slashdot is buried in shit. Only then will creimer leave us to our shithole.