SanguinePar

Likewise. I use Total, and I have 12 folders on my homescreen, each of which can be swiped up, down, left or right to open specific apps or run specific actions. So, 48 options without ever leaving the home screen :-)

I very rarely have to even open a folder, let alone the app drawer (in fact Total doesn’t really even seem to have a built in app drawer, although it exists somewhere in the background)

Nova in its heyday was just exceptional. It’s so sad to see it brought almost to its knees.

But, but, they assured us that that wasn’t going to happen? You mean they lied??

JFC, what a fall from grace for Nova. Sad to see.

Total Launcher does both of those. It’s massively customisable, although a bit daunting-looking in places. I love it though.

Fingers crossed you don’t get burned!

Isn’t there a risk that the number you reply to might be a premium rate number, and replying at all might land you a big charge?

I don’t get many of these types of messages, but I always just block them.

Yeah, that was a particularly egregious one! Triumph? Triumph?!? Ok then…

That’s really interesting, I didn’t realise the problem was that bad. I did the quiz at the bottom, tried to answer honestly and only got 5 out of 14 correct.

The purpose of this community is not to get things fixed, it’s to have a place to complain about things that are mildly irritating. For all you know, OP did raise a ticket. That doesn’t mean they can’t also complain about the issue here.

No, not at all, I’m not sure where you got that idea from.

What I’m talking about is when developers (or anyone else designing a public interface) utilise something which produces unintuitive results - in this case it’s the idea that when a user clicks in a box in the middle of the screen, the next thing that happens is that typed text appears somewhere other than where they clicked.

That’s not a bug, that’s just bad design.

I was sympathising with the OP who encountered this particular example, but also making fun of a general trend for this sort of thing, where companies and designers sometimes seem to think that regardless of what the user did, they should be railroaded into doing what the designer wants them to do.

It’s the wrong approach IMO, and leads to frustrating interactions with software. Or at least mildly irritating ones.

But don’t you know? The software developers know better than you do what you want. Resistance is futile. Comply citizen. Comply.

They don’t mind, as long as they can call you Betty.

“All” superlatives? ;-)

Was offered Gemini for the first time this morning after saying Hey Google. Turned it down, as not sure if I can try it but then still go back when Gemini turns out to be crap.

EDIT - answering my own question…

https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/14554984?sjid=8086039825660807195-EU

Switch back to Google Assistant

You can switch back to using Google Assistant as your primary assistant on your phone in your settings. To do this:

Open your Gemini mobile app.

At the top right, tap your Profile picture or initial and then Settings and then Digital assistants from Google.

Tap Google Assistant.

Bear in mind, if you’re switching back to Google Assistant as your primary assistant:

When you say, ‘Hey Google’, or activate your mobile assistant by touch (like when you press and hold the power button), Google Assistant will respond.

If your Web & App Activity is turned on, data from your interactions with Google Assistant will be saved to your Google Account. Learn more about how Google Assistant works with your data.

Data saved in your Gemini Apps activity will not automatically be deleted, but you can review and delete it at any time.

😁

Yes, that’s true. I don’t know why I said “originally”. I guess I meant that its recent popularity can likely be ascribed to TITC. But you’re right, it was a thing before that.

Just for info, in case you don’t know… the phrase “Have you tried turning it off and back on again” is (or at least originally was) a reference to British sitcom, The IT Crowd.

The show follows the IT department of a largish company and whenever anyone has any kind of computer problem of any sort, the advice given is to turn it off and on. Surprisingly this actually works most of the time.

So, I don’t think the OP was trying to annoy you, just make a pop-culture reference that they assumed you would get :-)

Shudder…

It’s a work thing for me, I wouldn’t use it otherwise.

I find it useful for what it’s actually meant for, but they keep trying to force other functionality into it, it’s so frustrating.

Agreed, it’s infuriating. As are Skype’s continual efforts to get me to follow interest channels. Why can’t it just be a communications app, and leave it at that? Aaaaarrrggghhh!!!