Holo-themed & ICS-optimised apps

[Vulk]

I love apps that are Holo-themed or designed for Android 4.0. One of the more fun and exciting things about having an ICS phone is watching apps get updated for the new interface. But the process is a slow one.

Recently, in a fit of boredom, I started to wonder just how much progress the developers have made, and I thought to use my own selection of apps as a sample. It's obviously not a representative sample of the overall Android ecosystem, but I thought it would be interesting nevertheless. So I used something called App List to compile a list of every app on my phone, and then I counted how many of them are optimised for ICS. (Note that I'm using the weaker term "ICS-optimised" rather "Holo-themed" - I would classify something like Instagram as being "ICS-optimised" even though it isn't Holo-themed, simply because it uses the on-screen menu button and won't display that ugly grey bar on HTC One-series phones.)

Here's what I found: out of roughly 106 apps that I have installed, 39 are optimised for ICS, 43 are not, and 25 are not applicable (this last group includes things like keyboards, live wallpapers, and games).

In terms of raw percentages, this is pretty good. However, looking at the ICS-optimised apps on my phone, I notice that many of them are either first-party apps made by Google, or relatively small and simple apps made by independent developers. Most of the "big-name" apps are still not ICS-optimised, which is pretty shameful considering that these developers, by definition, have more resources available to them to push out UI updates.

To illustrate the point, here are some examples of "big-name" apps that are optimised for ICS: Gmail, Google Maps, Chrome, Pocket, Evernote, Soundhound, Foursquare, Dropbox, IMDB, Google+, Google Drive, Google Reader. (Notice a pattern?)

And here are some "big-name" apps that are not optimised for ICS, and still use the old Gingerbread theme and/or the legacy menu button: Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Flipboard, Wikipedia, Last.fm, Winamp, Tapatalk, Google Currents(!), Google Goggles, Grooveshark, Aldiko.

Most of these apps are badly in need of a redesign. Facebook and Twitter desperately need developers who will design apps for Android's UI guidelines rather than just recycling their apps from iOS. (It's interesting that they can do this for Windows Phone but not for Android.) Winamp is so slow and jerky on ICS that I've been forced to stop using it in favour of the stock Google Music app. Last.fm is incredibly ugly and missing tons of functionality from the website. Incredibly, both Flipboard and Currents still use the legacy menu button, even though the former was launched in the post-ICS era and the latter is developed by Google.

Here are some resources I've found for ICS apps:

A semi-outdated list of Holo-themed apps on The Verge forums: http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/8/2933271/android-holo-themed-apps-organized-list

Holo Everywhere, a blog that reviews new Holo-themed apps: http://www.holoeverywhere.com/

Android Niceties, a tumblr that showcases Android apps that are well-designed. Not all of these are ICS apps, but many of them are: http://androidniceties.tumblr.com/

Does anyone have any other great ICS apps to recommend?

 

[Vulk]

So, since I made this post, Flipboard has come out of beta and been released on the Play Store. The new version uses ICS UI paradigms such as the action bar and on the on-screen menu button, even though it still very much uses its own style rather than anything resembling the Holo theme. Still, I think we can safely switch this one to the "ICS-optimised" column. See what I mean about Android 4.0 being exciting?

On the other hand, a new version of Winamp came out today, and while they've (thankfully) improved the scrolling performance in menus somewhat, it still feels rather laggy compared to the stock ICS player, and they still haven't gotten rid of the legacy menu button. I think I'll keep Winamp around for its wifi syncing capabilities, but I'll keeping the stock player to actually listen to my music.

I also see that Nike+ is finally available for Android. I'm weirdly excited about this, even though there already lots of apps that do similar things, just because I was a big Nike+ fan several years ago back when I had a 3rd-generation iPod Nano. But once again, it's another brand-new app on the Play Store that uses the legacy menu button and is optimised for Gingerbread rather than ICS.

On a side-note: whenever the issue of Android updates comes up, there are some people who make the argument that it doesn't matter, because the majority of "normal" users don't need or care about the new features in ICS, while power users who do will either install a custom ROM or buy a Nexus-branded phone. But of course, even those of us who are on Android 4.04 still suffer from the slow pace of updates, because it weakens the entire Android software ecosystem. When only 7% of phones are on ICS, it's so surprise that many developers will continue to design their apps primarily for Gingerbread.