Hello,
I’m very happy to hear that Android 6 will soon arrive on my Fairphone 2 but I’m very sad too to hear that the lock screen Clock widget will disappear at the same time! I particulary appreciate the “Your piece of mind lasted…” and “Your Fairphone since…”. I know it can seem a bit “cosmetic” but to me, it really makes sense with what Fairphone is. Am I the only one to think so ? And will there be a solution to keep it alive while upgrading ?
No you’re not the only one.
The plan is to release the code for these FP specific features under a FLOSS license so the community can maintain them as apps to be published on F-Droid.
I don’t know if anyone is already working on that plan though.
@paulakreuzer Thanks !
I’m not one of those able to do such a thing… I hope the community will be strong enough to do so…
It’s great that FP2 will get Android 6.0, but…
They removed the “Mood Changer feature” - which I liked!!
My beloved transparent back cover broke - I got a black matte as replacement.
And now they Clock widget will removed too - I liked “Piece of mind” and “Your Fairphone since…”
So the easy visible design features (software and hardware) which made the Fairphone 2 unique, disappearing now. My FP will look more and more like any other smartphone. Questions like “Hey, this seems to be a pretty cool phone you have. May I have a look?” will be gone in the future … and so potential customers.
Why is it not possible to give an option to turn these features on or off?
That “Mood Changer feature” was already removed before Android 6.
The hardware of your phone will not be changed. So, hardware-wise, the phone will not look like any other smartphone. You can still take off your back cover, take off your screen and show the parts to other people and demonstrate how special your phone is.
I have also the opinion that these features should have a switch to turn them on or off.
I have always argued for switches too, but FP decided to drop features that are not necessary as developing, maintaining and bug-fixing them takes up resources that could be used better.
@stargazer I totally agree with you !
@TobiasF Talking about “hardware”, it’s not only the technical part but also the most visible one, and that’s exactly what the transparent cover is.
I think it’s very important that Faiphone stay coherent : different on the inside AND on the outside (everything immediately visible from cover to interface). I’m a bit afraid to see this hard to keep balanced situation might soon be lost…
@JackyF
You have explained my point about the “hardware” much better. Thanks!
@TobiasF
Yes, the mood changer was already removed before Android 6. With my statement I wanted to describe that the process to remove the unique features has already started in the past.
I hope the clock stays more vanilla. I would like the clock on the lockscreen to be able to display the seconds how ever 
@stargazer I totally agree with you. I had my translucent cover replaced with a slim blue one. First I thought “wow nice feels good, much less bulky!” but seconds after I started missing the cool unique “show the guts of my phone” look.
Now with Android 6 it was a similar experience from “wow nice” to “I miss the cool customizations” …
I understand that the Fairphone team needs to free some resources for the known reasons, but the phone should stay stylish out-of-the box.
A transparent or translucent cover starts conversations. Cool features make the phone unique. And I think a happy owner it the best advertising.
Very sad that the ‘peace of mind’ thing went - it was starting to become a pretty important feature for me! And I agree with JackyF, that it feels important to the essence of Fairphone
Yes, it’s somehow not so special any more. The screens all look like my backup “unfairphone” now. Missing edgeswipe and the extra screen room it provided and annoyed that the home screen seems to have to be on the extreme left, not the middle.
Still vanilla android … easy to maintain, few silly quirks, not all bad.
I miss the peace of mind app too! And the ones that told you how long you had your fair phone for and the battery prediction. It was always one of the things I showed people whenever I told them about my fairphone. Hopefully, the developers will listen to us and add this feature in future releases.
I also miss that lock screen widget very much, please bring it back or update here once there is an alternative way to install it again.
Bringing the Lockscreen widget and other FP specific #features back will have to be a community effort: