8.1 observations

[Kisuke-CZE]

Well, I am ptertty disappointed with 8.1. It does not comes with 8.1 features like possibility for better battery management (https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-limit-app-background-activity-in-android-oreo/)

I stopped using Gemini after more than 6 months with it. Battery life was pretty trerrible with 7.1 (cannot get more than 1 day). So I was looking forward to better battery management in 8.1 and ability to disable background running for apps which does not need it (most apps does not need to run in background, it makes sense basically only for IM/mail app and VPN Client). I do not get why is Gemini missing this feature introduced in android 8. I have two other phones at home - Pocophone F1 and old OnePlus 3, both have it.

In case of Pocophone F1 i made adjustments of background running to enable it only for apps where it makes sense. With mild usage I can get 3-4 days of battery life (original before adjustments were about 1-1,5 days), which is very good. But PocoPhone has even smaller battery capacity compared to Gemini.

I did not tested Gemini as main phone after update to 8.1 yet. I will, but I am skeptical... That's my reason why I did not backed Cosmo yet...

[graynada]

Another thing I have noticed is that I don't get battery usage data, it always reports 'battery usage data not available'.  Anyone else seeing this 'feature'?

[Dixit]

The Gemini switches itself off if the battery is empty. Of course, after a charge it will need a restart with the rotating planets and so on.
That was already the case with Android 7.

However, now with Android 8.1 it also switches back to the UK keyboard (and I have a US keyboard).
I need to run the Gemini keyboard tool at least twice, selecht US English and the US English keyboard.
This Gemini app then deletes the Gemini's default language (Dutch), which I need to add again and select as first option (swipe it on top of US English).

This 'feature' has been reported earlier, by people actually running Android 7 (and needing Norwegian), but I never had it with Android 7.
That's actually strange: the Gemini's seem to share a common list of bugs, but it is never known when those bugs pop up.

The silver button for Google Assistant suddenly stopped under Android 7. Now it works (again). Nobody knows why...

[Piloti]

Hate it, hate it, hate it.
I have never been a fan of Android / Google and only use it because I don't have the confidence to flash the device with something else......
But I have spent the last year or so making my Gemini exactly how I wanted it, disabling as much Google as could be and having the desktop set up..... just right.
Then I go and do the migration to A' 8.1 and so much has changed. The biggest single gripe of have is that the menu with the circle/square/triangle will now NOT auto hide. Not a small issue one may think, but actually, it is visually quite intrusive, takes up a disproportionate amount of screen space an impinges on other applications.

I wish, I really wish, I had never migrated to A 8.1. If anybody else is thinking about it...... DON'T.

[Kero]

wifi-only version

Pro:
 - full screen usage
 - rooted (couldn't with previous release; now I can run f.lux again)

Con:
 - because of full-screen, I have to use Alt-Tab a lot. Thus triggers Caps all too often.
 - there is a strong tendency to kill apps when I Alt-Tab away from them, so they have to restart. this usually takes more CPU than leaving it be. At least Termux manages to survive 100%, otherwise this would be unbearable.
 - despite this tendency, these "dead apps" are kept around for me to Alt-Tab to (so they restart)
 - there is no telling me what the "default #background processes is" and I cannot raise it above four.
 - when I activated my sleeping Gemini, it takes sometimes takes up to a second  before it actually shows the screen
 - settings widgets are cyan on white (i.e. undistinguishable from each other)
 - Nova ceased to function
 - Yalp ceased to function
 - text underneath app widgets gone
 - there is a battery usage warning, but I cannot do anything with the info
 - one of the two apps using battery is the AppBar, which shouldn't be doing *anything* unless I open it.
 - wifi selection app made a few small tweaks, all for the worse.
 - NO-SIM icon still there

Something's amiss with the balance, here.
 -

[RJL]

Con:
 - because of full-screen, I have to use Alt-Tab a lot. Thus triggers Caps all too often.

Fn + A and Fn + D replicate two of the navigation buttons.

- Nova ceased to function

Nova Launcher works fine for me with 8.1. Have you got the latest version of Nova?

--
RJL

[Kero]

Ah, had not found Fn+A, useful.

Tried to reinstall Nova, to check the version (although assuming it had to be latest).
Let is take the Laumcher3 config this time. seems to work now.
Solves the cyan-on-white issue, too.
Edit: Solves the text-underneath-icons issue, too!

Thx!

[gidds]

Can anyone else confirm whether Yalp Store works in Android 8?  (I don't have a Google ID, so that would be a showstopper for me.)

[Piloti]

Had cause to reflash back to 7.1.1 (see my other thread about the microphone here).

Found that my serial number appeared to be real (i've not confirmed it is, but it's not a simple string). So perhaps the 8.1 update simply cannot read it & suppresses it to a default value.

Can you post how you did the reflash back to 7.1 ? With any links etc?
I've been having no luck at all trying to flash mine back to 7.1 from 8.1. Does not seem to want to work on a windows machine or Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.
Thanks.
P.

[mibry]

Can you post how you did the reflash back to 7.1 ? With any links etc?
I've been having no luck at all trying to flash mine back to 7.1 from 8.1. Does not seem to want to work on a windows machine or Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.
Thanks.
P.

Go to "https://support.planetcom.co.uk/partitionTool7.html" you can get the scatter file android, debian, kali and sailfish.

[novaldex]

Can you post how you did the reflash back to 7.1 ? With any links etc?
I've been having no luck at all trying to flash mine back to 7.1 from 8.1. Does not seem to want to work on a windows machine or Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.
Thanks.
P.

I had to wipe my device completely as part of flashing back to 7.1. This wasn't a problem for me due to the issues I was having.

mibry's link to the v7 partition tool is correct, although I already had the files from a previous flash exercise.

[wyrm]

wifi-only version

Pro:
 - full screen usage

I love this too! There is however one major issue with that. It seems that there is no way of navigating back in Google Chrome. Does anyone here know of a method of assigning a key to the back function?

Help is appreciated

[Kero]

I love this too! There is however one major issue with that. It seems that there is no way of navigating back in Google Chrome. Does anyone here know of a method of assigning a key to the back function?

Help is appreciated

Using Hermit, which uses Escape.

[Murple2]

wifi-only version

Pro:
 - full screen usage

I love this too! There is however one major issue with that. It seems that there is no way of navigating back in Google Chrome. Does anyone here know of a method of assigning a key to the back function?

Help is appreciated

Alt+Left arrow key

[Varti]

I have today noticed another issue on Oreo, I don't know if this was already mentioned elsewhere in the forum: when using the front camera and rotating the screen to portrait mode, the image from the camera is shown upside down. No issue when the screen is in landscape mode.

Varti