Since v1.6, Obtainium has switched to using Material 3 Expressive for its UI.
Personally, I don’t like it as it uses up more space to show less information. The old UI (v1.5 and below) had everything visible and was easy to navigate.
But what do you think? Do you like it? What would you want improved or changed?
i like the new design. looks nicer
Oh, it’s an open source tool, that I really enjoy. If they change some optical blobs, idc.
Unnecessary UI and layout redesigns are one of my biggest pet peeves with software. Just as users get comfortable and build muscle memory, developers push an update that completely scrambles the layout, forcing everyone to re-learn basic workflows.
A recent example is the Samsung built-in photo editor—it used to be simple and efficient, but recent UI updates ruined the experience to the point where I’d rather just export to GIMP.
Software should follow the core Unix philosophy: Do one thing, and do it well ~Doug McIlroy Apple and Google lost the plot on this years ago. When users rely on a product, constant arbitrary layout changes destroy usability. If developers insist on overhaul updates, the absolute bare minimum should be providing clear release notes or documentation explaining the new layout idk just me I guess good app tho.
It needs to be fixed. I was literally looking at it last night thinking WTF the top 25% of my screen is being wasted. There’s nothing in it. Also clicked the update/install button assuming it would save me needing to manually press update on every app. It wanted to install a bunch of deleted apps that are still in the list. Sure they could improve the visuals and feel but this isn’t it.
This is an app i use probably 2 minutes a month. The efficiency of the layout is so not important
Change for the sake of change. The new ui seems like a waste of time.
Source for that claim? My understanding is that the changes were for usability purposes.
Thats an opinion, not a claim.
It’s also just your opinion that the change was for the sake of it.
Yes an opinion based on nothing but my feels.
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Is it similar to ObtainX? I’ve been using that for the past few weeks as a replacement and have really liked it.
Somewhat but also not. I tried ObtainX when obtainium was still using the old UI and I got along fine on obtainx. Obtainx does use more of the expressive material design language but it makes sense to me
But somehow when obtainium changed to this new UI I just can’t get my head around it. So weird.
Interesting
Build Verification* — cryptographic checks (F-Droid/Izzy reproducible builds and GitHub Release Attestations) flag manipulated binaries before install. ObtainX’s own updates carry GitHub attestations too
Although some of the options, as a guess, seem to use AI (?).
Seems like a win though if thw dev can be trusted.
I don’t know as I’ve never used ObtainX, but from screenshots I saw its F-Droid page, it looks similar. I wished they kept the previous UI or at least an option to switch back.
Looks more complete alongside the rest of my apps which mostly use the same theme.
I don’t hate the new aesthetics! I too preferred the previous design, but this is fine too.
With that said, to illustrate how grateful I am to ImranR98, I’ll add this: I’d be using this app of his even if it looked like an old plain text document. 😁
I prefer the new design personally. Might be imagining things, but I feel like it’s been less buggy/felt easier to use too.
It seems easier to update multiple apps at once from the main screen, which makes it good enough for me.
the small progress bar makes no sense. either use a piechart next the name, or use the full width with a big progress bar under every app.
I have never really understood it - no matter which version. I just guess and tap somewhere, and then usually I succeed after a while.
