Android 5.0 upgrade

[Andy_A]

I have (2) email accounts set up using the counter widget.  All was working fine till my LGG3 was upgraded yesterday to Lollipop ver 5.0.1. The notification area would display in  color if there was a new email to view. The indication displays in white only (no color) now. Is there a setting I am missing? Thank you.

[mikeone]

Unfortunately that's a limitation of Google's Android 5.x versions:
With Android 5.0 / 5.1 colored status bar icons are no longer available (since Lollipop forces them to pure white).
> Google's decision...

[Andy_A]

I am not sure if I would agree.  I have weather app (1Weather) and the temperature indicates blue in the notification area.

[mikeone]

I am not sure if I would agree.  I have weather app (1Weather) and the temperature indicates blue in the notification area.

They possibly using a workaround which makes notification icons show in color, but does so with a BIG drawback - by setting the target SDK to lower than Android Lollipop!

However, to solve the "white icon problem" by setting the target SDK lower, the app will not target Android Lollipop, which means that you cannot use Lollipop-specific features.

Have a look at http://developer.android.com/design/style/iconography.html, and you'll see that the white style is how notifications are meant to be displayed in Android Lollipop.

To repeat: > Google's decision... Sorry.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

>> I am not sure if I would agree.  I have weather app (1Weather) and the temperature indicates blue in the notification area

Doesn't count.

Android forces icons to pure white -- for apps that are marked as "designed for Windows XP, ahem, Android 5.0+".

AquaMail is marked that way, and it needs it.

I assume that 1Weather is not marked like that (it's a flag / value in the .apk).

Now, Aqua lets you assign colors to accounts (long press in account list -> choose from popup menu), and on 5.0+, those colors will be used as color accents -- but Android will only show this color in *expanded* (pulled down) notifications, not status bar icons.

[andrewilley]

Another reason for me not to upgrade to Lollipop. Google seem hell-bent on creating a 'trendy' flattened look just for the sake of it, with scant thought for the functionality implications of what they are doing. Rather like Windows 8 - different for difference's sake, rather than an evolutionary improvement.

So I'm going to stick with Kit Kat and Windows 7 for the time being, until there is some compelling plus point for upgrading either of them that outweighs all the user-interface design issues.

Andre

[mikeone]

@Andre
That 1Weather icon in notification status bar (on top of the screen)  is also only white... with Android 5.0.2.

1st screenshot: 4th icon from the left

2nd screenshot: 1Weather "colored" notification ;-)

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Yep, and they're dark too.

Those apps 1) are using custom notification layouts (very limited) and 2) have not been updated for Android 5.0.

And I already wrote some stuff above, I guess you think it's irrelevant or I'm lying or mistaken.

https://developer.android.com/about/versions/android-5.0-changes.html#BehaviorNotifications

( btw, see how the link says "Android 5.0 changes"? )

Notifications are drawn with dark text atop white (or very light) backgrounds to match the new material design widgets. Make sure that all your notifications look right with the new color scheme. If your notifications look wrong, fix them:

Use setColor() to set an accent color in a circle behind your icon image.

Update or remove assets that involve color. The system ignores all non-alpha channels in action icons and in the main notification icon. You should assume that these icons will be alpha-only. The system draws notification icons in white and action icons in dark gray.

But if this is such an issue for you, then you're asking the wrong things on the wrong forum.

The right forum would be Google's Product Support or the Android Bug Tracker.

The right thing to ask would be "Why the hell do you, Google, remove stuff in each major Android update, which us, users, are already used to?"

[andrewilley]

The right thing to ask would be "Why the hell do you, Google, remove stuff in each major Android update, which us, users, are already used to?"

I wish there was some way to plaster this in about 72pt text over every senior manager in the Google Android design team's screen.

I am getting more and more annoyed with the sheer arrogance of Google and Microsoft in making major UI design changes which serve no useful purpose other than to be different to the way things were already working, and then try to convince users that they'll just have to grow to like it. At this rate they might just as well both rebrand themselves as Apple and be done with it.

Andre

[Kostya Vasilyev]

I don't mind design changes, but have a few issues specifically with Google's latest:

- Design has suddenly become the main thing, not something which supports actual features and interaction (I'm sure they would disagree)

- Features get dropped if they contradict someone's "design bullshit bingo":

"white icons provide an elevated sense of awareness which is cleanly rooted in elegant ambiguity while serving as a metaphorical parable of incidental affordance" -- I'm making it up, but maybe it actually goes just like that?

Like not being able to place the icon bar along the bottom of the screen, I mean fuck, why have a bug tracker if it's "working as intended, won't fix" and why drop something that's been there for years. If "it's the new, good, design, we dropped the old, bad, design" -- I will decide that myself, with help from my users.

Or in one word: "arrogance".

- The madness surrounding material design, focusing user attention on largely insignificant, often annoying, and often difficult to implement visual patterns -- "navigation drawer below or over the action bar", "status bar color", "those new checkboxes", etc.

- Oh, and all "material design" apps now look the same -- I can't tell which one I'm looking at.

---

// Climbing down from the soapbox now

[andrewilley]

And of course in a couple of years' time they'll be touting another all-new update, saying how old-fashioned and poorly implemented material design looks. It's not as though this is a seasonal fashion show, form should fit around function rather than the other way around. Having stupid, useless, icons clogging up screens is a perfect example (look at the latest Google Maps for a great example of how NOT to design a clean uncluttered interface, it's getting hard to see the actual map these days!)

Andre

[Kostya Vasilyev]

It's already happened / happening.

The "navigation drawer below or over action bar" saga -- with Google's own apps being inconsistent (better now, but it took a long time).

The light / dark icons over brightly colored action bars (Gmail, Play: "juicy" action bar background, white icons; YouTube: "juicy" red action bar color, black icons that are very hard to see).

The colors themselves. The "material Blue #500" which Aqua uses as its default action bar color is "officially" different since a few months (I like the old color value better), I'm sure they couldn't resist changing some of the others too.

Like I said, when a dog has nothing to do...

[Kostya Vasilyev]

The latest development build has an improvement in how it shows account colors (if any) in notifications.

Long press an account -> assign color.

Unfortunately, this is only in "rolled down" notifications, but still... Hope it's better than nothing...