The new Android Lollipop preview finally fixed all the bugs that kept me from the previous version
On Friday, Google released new Android Lollipop preview images for the Nexus 5 by LG and the WiFi-only 2013 Nexus 7 by ASUS. I was a little hesitant about flashing Lollipop onto my Nexus 5 because – let’s be honest – it wasn’t exactly smooth sailing the last time around.
When Google first decided to release preview images for Android L, I jumped on the opportunity to test out the new software before most of the rest of the world could. After all, this was one of the reasons I got a Nexus device, right? So I could be one of the first with the latest and greatest from Google.
Unfortunately, it was just too buggy for me to use it as a daily driver, so I quickly reverted back to KitKat. I understand that everyone has their own “make it or break it” features, and some people have been using the previous developer image as a daily driver for months. It just wasn’t possible for me, though – this is what caused me to break down and downgrade:
- MMS functionality was broken. For T-Mobile customers, and I believe AT&T customers as well, it was not possible to send or receive MMS messages while connected to WiFi. SMS worked fine, but you could only use MMS when connected to mobile data. Unfortunately, if you spend most of the day on WiFi like I do, there was no way to know whether or not you had messages waiting until you disconnected.
- Incoming phone calls were flaky. For some reason, my screen would only come on some of the time when I would receive an incoming phone call. Worse yet, there was no way to manually turn on the screen when my phone was ringing. Since my phone is primarily a phone, this just didn’t cut it.
- Tethering was broken. I don’t tether a lot, but I occasionally travel for work – in these instances, tethering is a must. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work in the last Android L preview, and since I had to travel for work since then, I had to go back to KitKat.
Luckily, I am happy to report that the new Android Lollipop preview is indeed my daily driver, because all of these bugs are fixed. MMS works great, I haven’t missed a call yet, and I’ve sent dozens of MMS while connected to WiFi with no issues at all. If any of these have kept you from trying Lollipop yourself, I encourage you to give it another look – I couldn’t be happier that I did, and I haven’t had a single hiccup yet.
