Allow option for stock Android UI
ehorodyski
Enthusiast - Level 1

This is a suggestion I hope finds it's way to Verizon's Android team.

The latest Android update on my Galaxy S7 forced Samsung's new system UI without the ability to use the Android native UI.

What resulted is an ugly clash of styles and system overrides that directly affect me as a mobile developer. Samsung has re-skinned Android's system UI, from the status bar, to alert dialogs, even to core applications like Settings, Phone, and Clock. Due to these changes, I cannot properly test the software I write as I cannot be certain the same design or features will work on other Android phones not produced by Samsung.

I reached out to Samsung, and they WILL NOT implement a way for users to change from their system UI to the Android stock UI. What's more, Samsung offers different setting options and defaults for text, spacing, etc. -- again, this makes my work life extremely tough.

I would like Verizon, as the largest carrier in the U.S., to pressure Samsung into allowing users to have the option to use the stock Android system UI. The user experience since the Nougat has, personally, been awful, and the inability to revert system fonts is inexcusable -- in my eyes. What's more, family members have been having issues as well. A relative is dyslexic and relied on one of the more stylized system fonts for ease of use. My mother needs increased text and the Samsung UI does not properly scale in accordance to the text settings provided.

This is of no fault of Verizon's, but I am hoping they will read this and sympathize with my experience, and those of my family, and push back on Samsung to allow users to use Android's stock system UI.

Tags (1)
Re: Allow option for stock Android UI
Ann154
Community Leader
Community Leader

If you wanted the stock UI, why didn't you purchase a phone that has it by default?  You can also use an alternate launcher instead of the Samsung UI.  Verizon has no influence to change how Samsung designs their UI.

I had the chance to use a Samsung phone years ago.  I hated the UI then and used a different launcher to make the phone tolerable as a daily driver.  I was happy to get rid of that phone when it was time to send it back.

I'm most definitely NOT a VZW employee. If a post answered your question, please mark it as the answer.

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Re: Allow option for stock Android UI
ehorodyski
Enthusiast - Level 1

I found Samsung had the best performance after trying HTC and Motorola.

Yes, through another launcher like Nova Prime, I was able to get stock icons, but Samsung never went so far as to override your system fonts or deviated so far away with the rest of the system UI.

I'm talking about using a thin condensed font on all dialogs, alerts, and the status bar, using sizing that does not match what you set, or the rest of the Android experience that developers write their apps for. They overrode ALL that. I think you're thinking of the UI in a lesser sense than the entirety of the operating system.

It's not a huge deal, I get it. There's poverty and sickness in the world. But as a software developer who transitioned into mobile development, it sucks. I don't know who else is unhappy with this, but since Samsung won't do anything about it I thought I'd try to voice my displeasure here. If I don't try, no one hears me at all.

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