Android used to have a dedicated menu key that would always bring up a menu. It was removed to chase Apple's 100% screen design.

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andechs 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Long-press and the ••• menu in the overflow is a far superior UI paradigm than having a purpose built menu button.

90% of the time, even in Android that was pre-Honeycomb, the menu ended up just showing what would have been in the overflow anyways.

Android really did end up doing a lot better on the UX side that iOS with the contextual action bar and long-press to select. The idea of selection mode on iOS is still a weird process, and it's been mostly worked around since with higher PPI screens and touch sensors, instead doing a small area to "select" items on iOS

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dbgobrrr 3 hours ago | parent [-]

For me, long-press is one of the most infuriating UX features of mobile. Probably the top on the offenders list for me is the copy-paste with the handles (which of course relies on long-press to trigger).

Hard buttons beat soft buttons for UX any time. You can use them with a glove, you can feel where the are located and you don't accidentally click because your finger was close enough for the capacitive touch sensor to trigger.

	▲	mech422 6 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		God, I hate copy/paste on android. tbh, I hate the whole 'gestures' thing where there never seems to be an actual 'instruction sheet' of what gestures are available. I wish they would make new apps provide a 'manifest' of gestures they support so your phone could have an up to date list based on which apps you have installed.
	▲	skydhash 35 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I’ve replaced the android headunit with a buttons and segmented display one (kenwood) because it was just horrendous. Now, it’s easy to switch sources, skip back and forth, and adjust volume with minimal looking. Tactical feedback and location memory is great UX.

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FreakyT 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

IMO, the old Android menu button wasn't great UX. It ended up just being a miscellaneous laundry list of random functions, and the users would just need to learn "spam the menu button randomly on every screen just in case the needed action is hiding in there."

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frantathefranta 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Just got nostalgic about the 4 hardware buttons on my Sony Xperia Play: back-home-context(option)-search.

Still the best navigable phone I had when coupled with the Nova Launcher gestures.