technology Android skins yay or nay?

[TheMisterManGuy 344]

Google's flagship software platform, Android, has an incredibly customizable nature. Giving the user the power to change nearly every aspect of their phone or tablet. However, this power also extends to the hardware makers. Android OEM's are allowed to drench the platform in a custom UI with added features, to make the device more marketable. This isn't inherently bad, as an OEMs modification can actually add some useful features, and most don't mind it as long as it keeps Android's basic look and feel. But then you have companies like Samsung who's TouchWiz modifications change the platform so much, that if it wasn't for the Google functions, would make Android almost unrecognizable. So what is your stance on Android skins from OEMs?

[Scrubbed user 3,417]

Android is essentially a Linux distro, so it's open-source. OEMs can modify it as they please.

[TheMisterManGuy 344]

Android is essentially a Linux distro, so it's open-source. OEMs can modify it as they please.

True but to understand Android, we need to understand the difference between Google's Android, and the Android Open Source Project. The Android we're familiar with is part of the Google Mobile Services package. Which includes Android's Source code, along with most of Google's first-party apps pre-loaded. The catch is that while OEMs can add customizations to the UI, Google has control over basically everything else, native functions, App retailer (Play Store), accounts, and pre-loaded apps.

 

Then there's the option to license Android by itself, this is the Android Open Source Project. While it doesn't come with Google's stamp, it let's the licensor bypass their influence all together and change Android however they want. Amazon is famous for this with it's FireOS platform, which is a forked version of Android. Google usually doesn't support forked variants, so they licensor has to supply their own alternatives.

Edited December 27, 2015 by TheMisterManGuy

[AmberDust 1,118]

I believe you mean "yay or neigh".

 

 

 

 

I'm sorry.

 

 

 

Anyways, I don't see the problem with making your phone's brand "unrecognizable". making something your own seems like a good thing to me...unless you're supposing that it may hurt the brand?

[TheMisterManGuy 344]

Anyways, I don't see the problem with making your phone's brand "unrecognizable". making something your own seems like a good thing to me...unless you're supposing that it may hurt the brand?

A big problem with heavy skins like TouchWiz is that the customizations are running on top of Android's proprietary code. Unless, the device is really powerful, that kind of heavy alteration can really big down the device. Then there's bloatware, where the OEM or Carrier pre-loads lots of useless and/or redundant apps in addition to the ones Google provides,which can also got down the device as they can stealth run in the background and the OEM or carrier can make them really hard to disable.

 

I don't have a problem with OEMs adding modifications to Android, as long as they're not too heavy and maintain's Android's general look and feel, like how LG or Motorola skin it. It's when they start adding too much bloat for no reason that it get's annoying.

[Jokuc 8,174]

I don't mind of course, I think it's good that users can modify everything how they please. I don't use custom UIs and stuff myself because they often slow down the system but I think it's great that the option is there. I also don't mind that Hardware creators make their own versions of the OS, it just gives us more different things to choose from.

[Krampus 197]

I'll be honest here, when I saw the thread name I was thinking of synths or robots being given skin there for a second.

 

But I like the ability to customize the look and layout of my devices. I have a Kindle Fire, which is basically a dumbed down Android OS, and I like fiddling with the files and changing it's look and such. It makes it seem more...mine.

[Velcorn 279]

To be honest I'm neither a fan of any of the OEM skins nor am I a fan of vanilla Android. I prefer to customize my phone myself. Custom ROMs along with personalization apps and mods usually do the trick. I can't stand being on stock Android for a long time period