General improvements to Sailfish 2.0

asked 2015-11-10 13:54:15 +0200

florist
1118 ●11 ●14 ●16

updated 2015-11-10 19:55:57 +0200

Like many of us on the forum, I'm an old time N9 user (bought 3), current user of the first Jolla phone and a tablet backer. So, in many ways I have been a supporter, cheerleader for Jolla to come up with something rivaling the major OSes which are currently ruling the market.

The reason for this is that, I absolutely loved how on the N9, transitioning was almost seamless, the event view was so informative with just a glance, messaging was fully integrated within Meego and how we could enjoy PC-like multitasking. I like to listen to videos while doing other things on the phone and none of the other OSes were providing this back then....and even now. But it's slowly changing.

I also own a Nexus 5 and unfortunately, I feel more and more compelled to using it ever since I managed, thanks to Xposed, to use the youtube app in the background and ad-free. Obviously, the Nexus 5, given its hardware, form factor, does everything better than the Jolla and that is to be expected but if a few things could be changed, my tendencies to use Android would naturally dissolve.

This post is about listing what I'd like to see improved in order to bring me back and hopefully many others to a more frequent and industrious use of Sailfish 2.0 without the feeling that it would be much more easily done on Android.

Sailfish 2.0 is a definitive step in the right direction but:

1 - Users should be able to disable the lock screen. It doesn't serve any valuable purpose besides showing "notification icons", if anything, it slows down direct access to the "information" that is already displayed on the event view. Unlocking should lead directly to the event view. I love how Sailfish 2.0 handles Twitter feeds, it's done to absolute perfection.

2 - Both Event and Multitasking views should have a search field directly accessible as an option, instead of having to open the browser.

3 - Shortcuts accessed by the pulley down menu should be accessible on both views

4 - Web browser should allow for tabs to be opened in the background

5 - Gallery app should be able to play videos while app is minimized

6 - Web browser should continue playing videos/sounds on a tab while having another one opened. It currently pauses any media being played

7 - Chat contacts which are currently available in the contact app, should also be directly accessible from both views and the messaging app, to prevent flipping from one app to another

8 - Possibility to configure the long touch length setting. I find it way too slow for my liking

9 - A proper Whatsapp app, please :)

10 - Add a back button cover for the music app

11 - add direct closing cover buttons at the top of each card

12 - Pulley menu to automatically select the furthest away option when pulling excessively the menu. As of now, whether there is one or more options, users must always carefully pull to accurately select any option.

13 - Universal Copy/paste

Those are minor changes which I believe would greatly improve the user experience. Sailfish is definitely getting there, it now just needs to have the rough edges smoothed out. No one is expecting "Google now" like functionalities, just a fast, efficient, reliable OS.

If it were possible to install Android apps on Sailfish ports....it would be fantastic because the Jolla phone, design wise compared to its competition is now clearly lacking, as it is slippery(TOH design and material) and thick. Or release another phone with a better form factor.

Please see this as a constructive comment because I'd love to just be using sailfish instead of any of the other OSes for all the known reasons mentioned before (privacy, ads, ....)

I will add links to the stand alone subjects for each legacy points and create stand alone subjects for each point mentioned here so we can vote individually for each of them.