Android 5.0 Lollipop added a ton of great features to Android this year, highlighted by its gorgeous new Material Design UI. However, some Android fans on Reddit are already looking forward to 2015 and are making wish lists of features they want to see Google and Android OEMs add to make their favorite smartphones even better. Below, we’ve summarized the most popular suggested features posted to give you an idea of what Android fans really want to see out of Android phones by this time next year.
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- Better battery life. This is a perennial gripe from smartphone users, and it doesn’t seem to have lessened with the launch of Google’s battery-saving initiative “Project Volta” this year. The message here seems to be that Google and Android OEMs should stop trying to compete with Apple to see how much thinner they can make phones and instead work on making phones that are slightly thicker but that deliver more juice. Given that we’re now seeing phones that are literally too thin to support a standard headphone jack, we may be reaching the limits of thinness anyway.
- The death of $600 phones with just 16GB of storage. This is another common complaint that we also see Apple fans make about the 16GB iPhone and we pretty much agree. Given how much more people can do with smartphones these days, 32GB should be the minimum amount of storage offered on a flagship smartphone model.
- Qi Wireless charging. Wireless charging has become a very desired feature in smartphones and has even lead some desperate Android users to build their own makeshift wireless chargers encased in cardboard. While this would obviously be a great feature to add to all Android phones, we’ll be surprised if we see it this year.
- OIS technology in all flagship phones’ cameras. Optical image stabilization really boosts smartphones’ picture-taking capabilities, particularly in low-light situations. Many high-end Android phones already use OIS for their cameras such as the Galaxy Note 4 but many fans would love to see this as a de facto feature on every major new Android handset.
- Double-tap-to-wake on all phones. Again, this is something that already exists on Android phones such as the HTC One (M8) but Android fans think it’s something that should be on everyone’s devices. In particular, Android fans want Samsung to adopt this technology with the release of the Galaxy S6 next year.
- Stronger control over app permissions. Basically, Android users want app developers to have to justify why they need access to, say, your smartphone’s camera and microphone. Even better, they want to be able to deny access to certain permissions on the app and still be able to run it.
