130
Samsung drops Android 16 beta for Galaxy S25 with more AI you probably donβt want
(arstechnica.com)
this post was submitted on 29 May 2025
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Android
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Shit, Samsung dropped a recent update that turned my S24 into an iPhone. It's the most annoying update and makes me want to root my phone.
Being able to revert back to OneUI 6.1 would be so delightful. OneUI 7 is trash. Too bad, at least on the Qualcomm variants (so US and most of world) there's no way to unlock, no way to sideload, no way to roll back. You're just stuck with whatever pile of shit they choose to feed you.
Oddly, one of the most annoying aspects of OneUI 7, is how damn slow the phone locks from the time when you press the power button to screen-dark. Half the time I figure I didn't push the button, so I hit it again, and launch the camera in my pocket instead of locking the screen.
Thank God I'm not the only one who absolutely hates this. Over a decade ago, I used an iPhone for a month before returning it for an Android because I hated it so much.
The OneUI update? You can undo most of the annoyingness. But the overall look change is downright annoying I'd agree.
Battery charge status is now on the bottom instead of the middle, oh dear, now you have to make sure nothing is covering that part of the screen. Battery pill: dumb.
The swipes/gestures/resizes can be disabled, but then unless you theme it, you're stuck with their iOS icons. And if you haven't noticed, say you turn off the iOS Control Center (quick settings on Samsung) gesture to get back double-swipe to quick settings, they changed the touch point to make that happen, and you can now pull down quick settings from the middle of the display accidentally, as well as being more sensitive in general.
OS seems slower and chunkier, even on S24.
Redoing all the lock screens to be more Apple-like with Apple-level widget limitations and removing the ability to see notifications/icons is annoying as well. There's one that puts the time towards the upper left that used to just have a cute little row of notification icons to let you know what was going on. No more! Now it's this neutered garbage.
Samsung used to be pretty reliable at releasing OS updates that didn't break core Samsung behavior, and actually try to be unique.
Now their phones are just like one of those Chinese iPhone knockoffs.
I wouldn't say it looks like an iphone that much, what do you not like?
I've got the update waiting to be installed. I read the reviews and haven't installed it. But it nags me every few hours.
I hate it so much, it's so bad...
I use nova launcher. My Samsung phone still pretty much looks like android from 10 years ago.
Just be careful, Nova Launcher is owned by a user telemetry collection company now and the majority of the original dev team was kicked from the project not too long ago.
That was enough reason for me to lose trust in them and switch to something else. If the app hasn't gotten shady yet, I feel it is only a matter of time.
I am aware. I haven't noticed anything yet but I do plan on looking into an alternative next time I have to buy a new phone. My note 20 ultra is 5 years old at this point, but I don't have a reason to upgrade yet. I like my pen and SD card.
Install something like Rethink DNS or DDG App Tracking Protection to see what telemetry the app is sending without your knowledge.
Any suggestions ?
I use Kvaesitso, it is one of the better open source launchers with a lot of customisability and a very clean design.
I'm using Niagara personally, but I know it's a radically different experience and probably not something I'd recommend to anyone looking for something comparable to Nova. Niagara is also not FOSS if that is a priority.
I know there are some FOSS launchers out there with similar features to Nova that folks on Lemmy have recommended in the past, but I don't know them offhand and haven't used them myself enough to be a judge of quality.
It's probably not even bad sticking with Nova, because at least to my knowledge they haven't gone sketchy yet, but it's something to keep an eye on. Analytics companies typically aren't very trustworthy, especially when it comes to user privacy.
Yup and there is no way to roll it back.
If I wanted and apple product I would have bought an apple product. This is my last Samsung device after being all in on Samsung - tablet, earbuds, phone, watch, no more...
Funny/sad thing is, even Apple lets you downgrade your OS for a couple of weeks after a major release.