I updated my FP5 to Android 14. LED Blinker still is working fine. This might be a workaround for people missing the AOD Feature. Disadvantage: Like AOD it consumes more battery power. In my opinion battery consumption of LED Blinker is lower than on Android 13.
I donât think removing AoD benefits anyone:
People who DONâT use the feature: No change, no extra battery life for them.
People who DO use it: -1 feature, + battery life.
However, these people are very aware of the cost of this feature and still decided to have it on! Now their phones can do less for longer, might as well turn it off and only turn it on for 5 minutes in the morning and evening, gonna last a week! - Better yet, force them to do that, just to make sure everyone gets a full week of battery lifeâŚ
Fairphone: Fewer support requests; but also fewer customers⌠not exactly business savvy decision imho.
⌠yeah I donât get it.
Reply from support below, we are children and taking away a feature is business as usual. Everyone can take away from this what they want, for me this was the last nail.
With the release of Android 14 we have removed the always-on display feature from the Fairphone 5.
Since launch, we have been receiving reports where battery performance on the Fairphone 5 was significantly lagging. For some of these cases, the always-on display was enabled and was causing this decreased performance.
Weâve been working diligently in the meantime, internally and with our partners, to turn this around with several tweaks to the (lower level) software. In addition to this, we adjusted the labelling on the device and communication via our support articles.
Unfortunately, neither of those managed to improve this to a satisfactory level, and after much consideration, we decided to remove this feature so that your Fairphone will last even longer on a single charge.
While we continuously work on improving the performance of the device now and in the future, we currently do not see it feasible to re-introduce the feature without compromising on battery performance.
Thanks for sharing.
I really wonder who this âweâ is exactly. Who exactly at Fairphone gets to such a decision after a thought process, and perhaps after a discussion in a team?
This is so obviously bad and unnecessary as well as so predictably inviting deserved backlash ⌠just wow. Unbelievable.
I hope they reconsider, but a lot of damage is done.
Indeed. It has no dependency upon the hardware. This is solely a feature of the shell (if using AOSP; otherwise, if using something like PMOS, the DE).
They better react to this ASAP or the company is done soon.
Telling your users what to do and deleting features then claiming to be for enthusiasts is the fastest way to bankruptcy.
Hi, folks;
My case is an outlier, as I am in Seattle, but since applying the upgrade, I have only been able to make calls using WiFi. I am disabled, and havenât made the effort yet to go wander around the neighborhood or city to determine whether it is a local connection issue, so I donât know yet which problem it is that Iâm trying to solve.
Would it make any sense for the update to have affected something as basic as connecting a call, given that I am out here in the N American network, and possibly running on somewhat different protocols?
Iâve seen a number of people here that are very grouchy about losing AoD. While I didnât understand that choice either, the fact that you can find apps to provide similar functionality makes it seem a little silly to talk about walking away from FairPhone entirely.
As far as I know, any efforts to produce repairable phones in the core market brands are so far just empty gestures. Accountability in the supply chain still doesnât seem to be a primary concern either, and Iâm not aware of any companies doing more to advance either of those issues than FP is. They are, however, a comparatively small fish in a very large pond. It seems like some level of patience and understanding would be appropriate.
My first instinct is to say that if you feel so strongly over something that can be worked out with an app temporarily, and will likely be fixed based on feedback, then you might have been a bit too impulsive in getting this phone in the first place.
However, I donât want to push anyone away from it. Maybe consider a little self-examination and impulse control. Iâve found that itâs much easier for me to figure out how to accept something than it is to try and change the world to meet my expectations.
consider checking in the US Fairphoners thread, Fairphone owners in the USA (FP2 FP3 FP4 FP5) - #388 by redbob16
Thank you; I had skimmed that and not seen much that seemed specifically helpful, but at a second glance, the latest little exchange there about changing the preferred network type seemed worth trying.
A first test does calls working again after limiting to 3g, finding no network, trying 4g with the same result, and then seeing back to 5g with the toggle for 4g services also on.
To me, this still feels more, on-topic here than in the N. America section, but obviously a moderator is welcome to make that call. I can also repost there if there would be any point.
Thanks!
That was just an idea based on a thought that it might be more likely to find some users with similar experience there.
I am not a mod, just a simple humble user so apologies if i sounded like telling you what to do
And it led to a solution! Thanks again for the extra nudge in that direction; it feels like a direct example of how discussions like this help solve problems.
My last comment was just acknowledging that I donât actually know where my posts fit best sometimes: in the local section, or not. Just because I am having a problem while out here in the wilderness doesnât mean that other people over in the civilized world arenât seeing the same thing.
I would be glad if any of the AoD app would work. Tried the top five of them in store, including the suggested one CryptoWake, all of them produce the same bug. Phone is unable to go to sleep and the screen turning black then back on. Whatever they did to disable it really disabled it. (if it works for anyone with any app pls write a post about it) So unfortunately it canât be solved with an app.
Off topic a bit (if itâs too much, mods please delete just below):
I get that Fairphone is a small company and the Fairphone 5 itself is a niche product, even if itâs the 5th.
Firstly the problem is this type of behavior is not he first from this company. For example:
FP3+ got an Android update that overall removed the usability of the fingerprint sensor. It was badly communicated, and after a lengthy forum post, and stopping rollout of the update multiple times. The solution was âThey canât re enable fingerprint sensor, Google lowered the security rating of itâ and âsorry we failed to mention it in the first update notesâ.
Failing to mention it was NEVER the problem. Although communication is key in this situation, and beta tester knew of of the problem long before. It was a whole debacle you can read more about in these forums.
Secondly, you can absolutely be salty and should be angry about something that they remove with a software update from a (any)device you purchased. You payed for a phone with a featureset. Now because they think so it is unable to do something. This is not even about security like FP3, itâs just âwe donât think you need itâ. That is unacceptable, and doubling down on it is just sad. Completely undermines the whole software support for a phone for X year. Because now the question is, in what state? Technically if you can call somebody with your phone, but every other nice feature is disabled, does it still count as âsupportedâ phone?
I donât even like to start with the state of the FairPhone4 when it first was sold, calling it pre-alfa is generous. It got better, but to me it seems it got lost between the cracks, overall forgotten.
After this itâs normal to choose not give your money to the company. Thatâs the whole point of voting with you wallet. Whatâs happening with this AoD is just bad karma that the company piled on itself over the years.
Iâm really disappointed and hope they change their mind. But as you said I canât do anything about it⌠except not buying anymore of their stuff and raising my voice not to trust everything they say.
Youâre right, perhaps I misjudged where Fairphone would target FP5 to land on the âmainstream - ethical consumerâ spectrum vs where I am. Maybe itâs just not for me.
This is not only about the AOD itself (though for me it really is a very essential functionality, now that they got rid of LEDs) but also a lot about how Fairphone communicates and how they treat their customers. To me they very much pretend to not only be fair to the people who produce the phones but also to people who own their phones. And they are just⌠not. They barely communicate, they still donât have a public bug tracker, they leave out major changes in release notesâŚ
I was very annoyed about the whole disaster with the finger print sensor on the FP3, but decided to give them another chance an bought a FP5. And it didnât even take a month for them to do something super grating again. And this time they donât even have the excuse of âGoogle did itâ.
As for âyou can simply find apps to do thisâ⌠I really havenât found one that works well. LED Blinker will just send me right to the playstore instead of starting (I suppose because I didnât install it from there?), NotifyBuddy (?) just literally doesnât do anything. CryptoWake (?) mostly works, but most times when I unlock the phone with it, the CryptoWake app will be open and I have to quit it before doing anything else. I also had to turn off Face Unlock because otherwise it never shut off the camera when locking the phone. Using any of these also forces me to trust a third party with all my notificationsâŚ
Wait, where do you get the âwill likely be fixedâ from? Did I miss something?
You did not, and this was just a general assumption on my part. The level of frustration Iâm seeing feels like something a company would feel obligated to respond to, eventually, and in some format.
I have only had a FP5 for around six months, and have not had any significant interactions with the company in that time.
I would have agreed with you about 2.5 phone iterations ago. But in my experience (I had a FP 1, 2, 3 and now a 5) the company has changed a lot. And very much not for the better in how they react to their customers grievances. They went from âoops, yeah, sorry, we are working on it. Might take a while thoughâ to âhaha, nope, not doing that. better luck with the next phone, busy writing marketing blabla (or just silence)â
I will very much not recommend this phone company to anyone anymore.
At least the hardware is solid. Matter of time I get fed up and try Lineage, with the assumption that itâs just a more polished, better cared for, objectively better OS.
When you do eventually get fed up, @Nabalazs, consider CalyxOS as well. Weâve had A14 since January on the FP4 and it combines some Lineage stuff (like limiting battery charging to a fixed %) with thoughtful security features.
I have read about a few issues on the forum that I didnât even know existed, because I never used the stock OS. Switching OS will allow you to actually talk to developers, have a constructive dialogue, and get your feedback incorporated⌠as opposed to getting a canned âwe will pass this onâ response. The fact that the experience on volunteer/non-profit driven OSes is equal or better than the stock OS is proof that Fairphone is setting the wrong focus.
If you look at Fairphoneâs newest financial report, youâll see that theyâre very unhappy about their (lack of) brand awareness. Ironically, their way of making up to investors for the unbalanced R&D/Profits ratio is to spend more money â but on marketing.
I feel like theyâre undercutting the best form of âgenerating brand awarenessâ that way: making sure their software teams have every resource they ask for so they can create a good user experience (Iâm 100% sure theyâre understaffed and overworked). Let word of mouth do the rest.
This sounds harsh, but at the same time, as you said, the hardware is still good. The half-baked software doesnât change the fact that we got schematics and source code (which we canât actually build but itâs better than nothing).
Rant over :P
I didn´t find anything when I had a quick glance, so if you happen to know: Does CalyxOS support AOD on Android 14 (for the FP 5)?
I am think about changing OS instead of updating to FP stock 14