Google’s new Android 5.0 update could be the most hotly anticipated Android update yet. Similar to iOS 7 last year, Google’s Lollipop update for Android features an exciting redesign that people can’t wait to get their hands on. While Android 5.0’s user interface overhaul isn’t quite as extensive as Apple’s iOS 7 update in 2013, the new look of Material Design is beautiful and it truly modernizes Google’s mobile platform.
Unfortunately, Android users who have gotten the update already have to deal with what appears to be a fairly serious and annoying bug.
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Android device users have taken to Reddit and the comments sections on several Android blogs to complain about what is either a major bug or a troubling omission on Google’s part.
According to the complaints, the new Android 5.0 Lollipop completely removes Android’s Silent Mode feature. Silent Mode quiets all alert sounds and vibrations, and it had previously been enabled by pressing the volume down key repeatedly. Lowering the volume to zero enables a vibrate-only mode, and then pressing the volume down button one more time used to put the phones in question in Silent Mode.
One Reddit thread discussing the matter currently has more than 415 comments.
Android 5.0 includes a new Priority Mode that is able to block all notifications on a user’s smartphone or tablet, but users accustomed to enabling Silent Mode with the phone’s volume button don’t see Priority Mode as a viable alternative.
Of note, Google’s own Nexus 9 tablet running Android 5.0 still has a Silent Mode option accessible by repeatedly pressing the volume down button. This has led many Android fans to believe that the feature’s omission on phones is a bug rather than an intentional change.
