Android
HTC One Android 4.4.2 Kit Kat Update Review
Earlier this week HTC and AT&T finally got their acts together and released the HTC One Android 4.4.2 Kit Kat update that brings with it a new version of HTC Sense 5.5. The update offers some nice changes, but the phone features took a couple of steps backwards with a disappearing app, a camera issue and some minor changes that might annoy users.
In various places around the operating system we see some minor changes. One example includes a new settings icon in the pull-down notification area.
HTC Sense 5.5 comes with lots of tiny changes like this updated icon.
When a user connects to a public Wi-Fi hotspot that requires the user to agree to some legalese before logging on, the new interface now shows a button in the notification area. This is a big improvement for those of us who frequent places with Wi-Fi.
The phone app starts finding Contacts the moment users start typing numbers.
In the phone app, the screen where a user types in a number will instantly search the Contacts for people with the same string of numbers in their phone number. For example, if I type 828, then the phone app will find them and show how many people have those numbers in their phone number. Tap the icon to show the list.
Now users can find contacts faster. A user’s contacts list shows the most used contacts at the top.
Add Widgets to the lock screen by swiping left at the top of the lock screen.
A couple of other simple improvements include quickly adding widgets to the Lock Screen by swiping left and tapping the plus icon (see above). We also like the built-in printing feature that makes it simpler to print photos, documents and more from a phone.
Camera & Gallery Changes
The HTC One will create a Highlight from images or videos taken at an event. It picks a theme and adds some music. Now there are new themes and users can add their own music. However, if you liked the old themes, too bad. They’re gone!
In addition users can add links to favorite photo sharing sites like Facebook, DropBox, Flickr and Google Drive. See images saved on those sites from within the app.
Notice the slight purple hue in the upper part of this image taken under low light on a HTC One after the Kit Kat update.
Unfortunately, a few users discovered a degradation of the HTC One camera, which normally shoots nice video and images. Some people see a purple hue in their images. This isn’t a new issue for the HTC One, but phones that didn’t suffer from the problem now do, including mine. Users report that HTC replaced their phone so contact HTC if the update messes up your camera.
Blinkfeed Updated
User can now easily turn off the annoying Blinkfeed. Pinch in with two fingers to show the option. Tap to turn it off.
Blinkfeed shows up when users hit their HTC One home button. HTC changed the menu of news and social sites offered. Many don’t like the feature and now they can turn it off. Pinch in with two fingers and tap on the Blinkfeed ON/OFF button at the top left as seen above. HTC may not like this, but a lot of users will.
HTC Car Dock No Longer Launches Car App
HTC makes a great car dock that holds the phone perfectly on a dash or windshield. Before the update inserting the phone into the dock automatically launched HTC Car. The app offers a customizable grid of easy to use icons and the time, date and weather. One hardwired app launches the tunein app which streams radio.
The HTC Car app offers a nice interface while driving.
The update breaks this functionality, removing the Car app’s icon. After reaching out to HTC, they offered no solution or acknowledgement. We’ll update readers if that changes.
A workaround brings the app icon back, but doesn’t launch it automatically. Download QuickShortcutMaker from the Play Store. The free app will show the Car app under the Applications tab. Tap it and hit Create. This puts the app icon on the Home screen. Now the user can launch the app manually.
Battery Life
HTC claims power enhancements should improve battery life. I noticed no difference since updating. If anything, my battery drained quicker, but that could come from using it more after the update to get used to all the changes.
Conclusion
The update to Android 4.4.2 and HTC Sense 5.5 brings some nice little changes. There’s nothing revolutionary that makes the HTC One drastically better. However, it gives us hope that the upcoming announcement of the updated HTC One M8 will offer even more improvements to make this again one of the best smartphones available on with Android 4.4.2 KitKat.
matthew
03/03/2014 at 9:34 am
I find that if I do not have power to my car dockwhen I put my phone in, the Car Mode app launches without issue. But if the dock is plugged in, it does not launch 99% of the time. Very annoying. Last time this worked without issue was in 4.2.2.
Paul L. McCord Jr.
03/03/2014 at 12:16 pm
How do you update to it? I still have 4.1.2 on mine and I check daily.
Kevin Purcell
03/03/2014 at 1:14 pm
Go into settings and scroll to the very bottom. Look for AT&T software update. Hit check for updates.
Kevin Purcell
03/03/2014 at 1:15 pm
Matthew — I think I’m seeing the same thing. Today I plugged it in without the car running (no power to the dock) and the same happened. Need to test this out to confirm. Thanks for the tip.
Fred
03/03/2014 at 3:13 pm
One big thing that the update messed up, for me at least, was the removal of the enabled flash player in the stock browser.
I’m not too happy about it.
David Martinez
03/03/2014 at 8:57 pm
Battery goes dead really Quick… Can somebody fix that???
Smit
03/04/2014 at 4:32 am
Hi Kevin my name is Smit i am from India i bought my htc one 2 months back i have the recent update of 4.3 but now i am not able to update my phone to 4.4 All my friends had Got this update What should i do ?
Smit
03/04/2014 at 4:38 am
Every time when i go to software update it is telling that your phone is up to date What should i do ?
sam p
03/04/2014 at 2:17 pm
I’m running sense 5.5 on android 4.3 and just about all the features you described are already present. Is there anything in the kitkat upgrade itself that’s actually worth having?
dslate
04/05/2014 at 8:15 pm
Same here, I already have pretty much all these functions. Is there a point in updating?
Fred Hoeppner
03/06/2014 at 9:09 am
Hello Kevin
Hello Kevin, My wife and i both updated to Kit Kat. My phone works fine, but her Gallery App no longer plays video (big problem). Short of factory reset, is there something we can do to fix this (like re-install update)? Thanks – Fred H.
Fahd
03/16/2014 at 9:46 pm
i have htc one running 4.3 in AU. most of the features mentioned are already available including new settings icon, the ability to disable blinkfeed, ability to add widgits on lock scree, smart dialing. i’m confused :s is there actually anything new in the 4.4.2 ??
Mr albalaji
03/20/2014 at 12:34 am
Hi
What does Sign mean that beside wireless signal ( that shape like N) ?
thanks
Robert B
07/03/2014 at 5:02 am
It stands for Near Field Communication. If you turn his feature on and someone else has this feature turned on you can move files (pic and video) back and forth by placing the phones together (back to back). This makes it faster than using message or sending an email with an attachment.
hareth
03/21/2014 at 9:17 am
i think its the NFC
Seana Hodge Holland
03/27/2014 at 5:26 pm
The only issue I have found with this upgrade is that the bluetooth in my car can no longer access my phonebook. anyone have that fix?
Matthew Cox
03/27/2014 at 5:32 pm
If you go into Settings > Bluetooth > settings for the Bluetooth device, do you have “Media” checked?
Peter Stern
03/30/2014 at 4:38 pm
After updating, I no longer have “contacts”. Any suggestions?
David Lantzke
04/14/2014 at 5:32 pm
Since updating HTC One to 4.4.2 it no longer “wakes up” from a power off state to sound wake up alarm. This is a stated feature in the Help menu and a nice one as the iPhone doesn’t do it. Tried rebooting but doesn’t resolve. Have not attempted a hard reset.
Preston
05/11/2014 at 7:19 pm
I updated to 4.4.2 on an HTC one m7 on the att network in the us and everything works fine but the Bluetooth if I’m listening to music and navigating the phone or multitasking, the bluetooths skips or more accurately mutes and it is often and it will even do it if I’m doing nothing
Mike
06/02/2014 at 1:08 pm
I have no issues with the Kit Kat update except 1 that they didn’t need to make. Texts. I have to delete texts one by one. Prior you could delete multiple texts at one time. Do you know how long it takes to delete a text string of 20+ texts one by one.
Every other part of the update is good. This text problem should be fixed. Or when I upgrade it won’t have a Android system.
Fred Roach
06/02/2014 at 7:15 pm
What? I can delete them just fine.. Whole threads and also multiple messages Within the thread. Use the 3 dotted menu bar on the top right. Not much else to say.
Malcom
06/22/2014 at 9:40 am
One major issue I’ve experienced a after this upgrade is the Internet browser doesn’t keep tabs from last session open. It closes all open tabs and reverts to the home page. There’s no setting to open all tabs from last session.
Chrome works fine.
jonathan gero8
06/30/2014 at 6:16 pm
If you haven’t updated yet keep it the new one sucks
adam
07/01/2014 at 10:15 am
I updated to 4.4.2. last week. Since then I try to open texts and it doesn’t open them 90% of the time, just says it’s loading the text but nothing happens. Same with phone book too, won’t sync with contacts properly, won’t ring people s phone numbers in address book, won’t open either. Contacts for my linked email don’t work either, it’s really slow and all my apps are fine, any suggestions? Thanks
Malcolm
07/01/2014 at 11:04 am
I had a lengthy support session with HTC. They recognize that the update has broken many services but don’t have a solution so far. I was promised a call back to help me revert to previous version but nothing so far. If you haven’t applied this ‘update’, please DON’T.
Joe Raney
07/24/2014 at 7:25 pm
wont let me delete my videos I recorded off my sd card ever since the update