Here’s what you said you want from Android

There hasn’t been huge changes in Android for a while, but you told us just what you’d love to see in upcoming builds – the results were interesting to say the least.

We recently asked you just what you want to see from the world’s most popular mobile operating system. It’s impossible to give every option or cast a net wide enough to ensure that every single option is catered for. However, we had some incredible responses. Our aim was to get people talking – and they did en masse.

Back to the survey, the most popular options seem to be software refinements. We have seen Google do this as Material You is starting to reach its final form. 22% of you put this top of your list of what you want to see from Android.

A higher number of features – something that Android has been sold as having – come in behind with almost 20% of your vote. Reader SubZeroPT gave one of the most popular shortlists of Android features they really want to see. Stacked widgets, windowed apps, dedicated lock screen widgets, and folders in the app drawer are great options to effectively lift from One UI. It’s worth noting that we are talking about AOSP and the Pixel build of Android, as this is the “base” for most other OEM skins.

Another big request has been a DeX-like deskop mode. This seems to have been in the works for years at this stage, but as reader Matthew puts it, we need “more effort” to bring “this to a public release.”

Another tenet of Android has been customization. 18% of you want a little more control over how the OS looks and feels. Reader berto1014 echoes a lot of complaints about how the Pixel and some associated devices with the new Quick Settings toggles should be customizable. It’s one of the biggest controversial UI changes added as part of Material You.

As much as we would love to see some more changes to Android’s interface, it’s highly unlikely that the 14% of you that want to see some big changes. There is one thing that could aid this, though, AI integration. This accounted for just 9% of your vote, but it could open up the ability to have full custom interfaces powered by Gemini – that might be wishful thinking on my part. Austin doesn’t want any AI “garbage” though, so maybe I’m alone in wanting to see how Google tackles the future integration.

11% of you want to see the return of older features. There aren’t too many old functions that haven’t been updated or upgraded over the past few years. It would be good to see custom fonts and app icons return. Just 3% of you want to see more accessibility features. Google has a strong commitment to adding these functions and leads the way in lots of areas most users would never even think about day-to-day.

Personally, I would love to see iOS-style Shortcuts come to Android. Having powerful scripts automates and handles things that take a few apps and services on Android to work correctly.

Let us know what you think or any functions you’d love to see down in the comments section below.