The UI for Fenix is dated. Some things need a little bit of love and others just don’t make sense at all, like when you paste a URL, you can’t see the URL or the Paste and Paste & Go options because the system pop up gets in the way.
Material Design and by extension Android moved away from pop ups and toasts and adopted elements like bottom sheets.
The custom share sheet is a nuisance and there’s not even a way to get to the native share sheet.
Firefox for Android works, but it doesn’t look or feel like a modern browser that was designed for modern Android.
So being that Android design has evolved so much since Fenix last got a lick of paint, I’m wondering, has anyone heard of anything in the works? Seen any commits or mockups? Screenshots? A mention on Matrix or the mailing lists?
That’s super interesting. One of my friends on mastodon is still using Android 7, so the necessity for backwards compatibility is definitely a thing. An unfortunate thing but a thing nonetheless. That said, doesn’t Android itself provide the backwards compatibility enabling designers and developers to focus on modern apps? Otherwise wouldn’t everything just look like a throwback?
Google does this via Play Services, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the same devices they’re worried about compatibility with don’t have Google Play either.
Look at the other response, all the recent UI components are available even for Android 4. Android 6 user here with no intention to ever upgrade past 7 (because of enshittification of the OS), a bunch of apps are available and working (in F-droid) that use recent UI design
Slightly off topic, but are you not concerned about OS level security threats?
I’m careful with what apps I install and what websites I visit, other than that a newer android version won’t protect me against attacks that come from the cellular network operator.