I’ve been following Jolla since the first phone and bought the Jolla 2 in first batch. Been tinkering for a bit now, saw the thread and thought pitching in cuz why not;
Love the notification LED! For some reason Android phones stopped having them. No need to tap displays or press buttons or whatever to steal your attention to check if someone spammed you in Insta.
Also love the design and feel of the phone. Really like the orange color!
Setup was really quick and flawless. No problem whatsoever.
UI tutorial was also great.
All in all, it’s a basic phone with web browsing and mail if you don’t need anything else. Most Android apps also work.
Now, before someone rushes to answer “But you just don’t get Jolla! Go back to your Android!“ to what I’m about to say, I’m very aware what I got into when I finally bought the phone but having used it in real life now, it ended up not being my thing. Maybe I’ll look into the possibility of customising the launcher more into my liking.
That said:
The SFOS UI and gestures unfortunately feel a bit unwieldy
It’s sometimes hard to separate which app is which in the home screen, as many screenshots are just white rectangles with text. Could all apps display an icon somewhere e.g. left top corner?
Pressing the display in the home screen to show the top row of the app list is a good start, but would it be possible to make the topmost apps bar sticky as an option? I’d like to have my most used apps more accessible.
Which brings us to how I find the top edge down pull actions like app drawer search a bit gimmicky. The motion seems quite fickle and it’s easy to get wrong or not activate at all
I have a size 13 hand. A proper orangutan gripper. But even I have a hard time to press the top edge buttons or anything at the top of the screen in any case. I’ve probably navigated to the home screen a thousand times when I’ve intended to go back a screen or page or tried to open the top settings drawer or notifications. Could there be an option for screen side swipes to go back and screen bottom swipe to go to home. So at least partially what Android does.
I think having to first go to the home screen and then having to make another swipe to see notifications is not a great solution. Could the notifications be appended under the settings in the top menu as an option? Is there a technical limitation to this?
Would it be possible to open the camera by double-pressing the power button?
Would it be possible to take a screenshot by pressing volume down and power button at the same time? I was helpfully told of how to take screenshots in SFOS
Most Android apps I cannot immediately stop using, work. Unfortunately the most crucial ones, OP and MobilePay don’t. It seems they were broken recently, at least MP. So going to see how things go. Just noting, I know this is not Jolla’s fault But it’s a fact that some people cannot give up all apps and it affects Jolla’s adoption.
I feel the keyboard layout is not a great fit for my typing style. It seems in the recent dev wishlist post here at the forums a keyboard API was mentioned. Great! Maybe another keyboard option surfaces at some point.
In any case I’ve at least supported a worthy cause hope the money goes into good use. Hope most people enjoy their new phones!
When using the pull down menu there is no need to select an item by tapping. You may simply stop pulling down when the desired item appears. And you can simply pull from anywhere on the screen. For short fingers this nice because you don’t need reaching the top section of the screen for using the pull down menu and selecting an item.
I don’t quite follow what you are trying to say here? You can’t reliably open the top menu? You have to remember, that while in app, the top is divided into three: The top corners are close app action and the top middle is the top menu, if that is what you are having problems with.
This also I can’t quite follow. You accidentally keep making edge swipes and bring yourself to the home view when you try to make back/forward swipe? Switch off what in the settings? Swap what with upwards swipe? Is upwards swipe here a bottom edge swipe?
I think there is a setting for left edge swipe to take you always straight to the events view (off by default).
What is home button? If you mean fast open camera from the locked view, you should be able to open camera with bottom edge swipe (setting that is on by default).
Vol Up+Vol Down should take screenshot.
Both of these works.
For OP Mobiili, you need to do one time Terminal/SSH commads:
devel-su sh -c 'echo kernel.yama.ptrace_scope = 0 > /etc/sysctl.d/91-opmobiili.conf'
and then devel-su sysctl -w kernel.yama.ptrace_scope=0
For MobilePay you need to use version 10.16.0 (build 4429694). Go to the Aurora Store page of MobilePay, press the three dots at the top right of the view and enter 4429694 to the prompt to download the older version and don’t forget to install Android Browser to complete the device registration.
It’s a good thing in that sense that it works for all hand sizes yes, but I find it hard to be accurate with selecting something from the pull down menu. By tapping I mostly referenced going back a screen or a menu.
If you pull down far enough (showing all the options and then some), the menu locks open and you can take your time to tap the selection of your choise with finger. @JoOppen already pointed out you, can open the pull down menu by swiping down from anywhere inside the screen, so no need to trying to reach the top, just make sure the page is scrolled to the top.
Be aware that some 3rd party app developers like to put every option imaginable and the kitchen sink to the pull down menu.
It’s both that and selecting something in the menu once it’s open. I always either over or undershoot the selection. It takes a bit of time to “lock in” what I wanted.
You have to remember, that while in app, the top is divided into three: The top corners are close app action and the top middle is the top menu, if that is what you are having problems with.
Okay, this I had kinda noticed but hadn’t really confirmed. Feels a bit complicated and easy to get wrong.
You accidentally keep making edge swipes and bring yourself to the home view when you try to make back/forward swipe?
As an old Android user, I instinctively try to go back a view by swiping from the edge of the display, which takes me to the home screen instead.
Switch off what in the settings? Swap what with upwards swipe? Is upwards swipe here a bottom edge swipe?
Sorry for the confusing sentences, it seems I missed clarifying a tought I had. I meant to ask (mostly rhetorically) if the swipe behaviour could be opened for personalization: screen side swipes would go back, screen bottom swipe would go home. So at least partially what Android does. I’ll clarify my original post.
I think there is a setting for left edge swipe to take you always straight to the events view (off by default).
I see, I’ll take a look
What is home button? If you mean fast open camera from the locked view, you should be able to open camera with bottom edge swipe (setting that is on by default).
Power button, I’ll update the correct naming to the post. I know of the upwards swipe, but that requires activating the display first. I’ve found the power button double press really handy on Android phones, though not sure how it would work with JP2 as it has the fingerprint sensor in the power button.
For OP Mobiili
For MobilePay
Is there a place other than the forums which list these kinds of hacks? I know of OP-mobile - SailfishOS Compatibility but I’d rather not run random commands by random users in this restricted of a discussion space
Gotta go to sleep now, but thanks for the answers!
In Sailfish this is already reserved for instantly locking your device, but I suppose it could be customised. Someone can probably create a patch to do just that.
Are you talking about the pull down menu? Top menu is the one you get with top edge swipe and pull down menu is the blueish menu you get with top to bottom swipe inside the screen.
You can train by swiping from the top edge but not lifting your finger. If the menu shows up, then you are in the middle and if it starts showing the home view, then you are about to close the app. You can cancel the action by moving your finger back up.
Give it a week or two and you get pretty used to the SFOS swipes.
That is probably a can of worms that Jolla don’t want to open. I think there is some kind of patch or app to alter how some of the inside of screen swipes works in AAS.
JP2601 locks down the phone if you double press the Power Button and the phone isn’t locked already. The phone should vibrate and next time you try to open it, you need to either enter the PIN or provide fingerprint.
You might find similar workarounds to some of the issues from custom Android ROM-forums and adapt those, but this forum is the best for the SFOS specific solutions.
It is a good practice, but after you spend a while here you learn kinda who is who of the most active users and you can gauge your trust to their solutions based on that. You can also always ask people to explain what the commands do, or use search engines to find man pages etc.
For these specific commands, you can read Banking apps on Sailfish OS - #123 by myjolla_ph and maybe next 20-30 messages (there are some posts not related to these commands in between the relevant messages) to see it isn’t any malicious script k1dd13 1337 h4x0r stuff and even some of the Jolla staff has commented on it
Basically OP Mobiili made a change about year and half ago that prevents the app from starting in AAS, unless you change the process trace setting from the default setting to less restrictive. The first command saves that setting to a file that makes the change persistent between boots and the second command enables the setting now. Alternatively for the second command you can just reboot the phone.
What I meant was that a private network needs to serve other clients (such as apps) in a way that is fast and secure and only the kernel network stack can provide, with some help from userland.
The standards to make a private connection already exist and are implemented in the kernel you use, be it a Sailfish, Android or any Linux kernel.
The fact that you need to install an app to configure those standards it’s a lie only Android entertains. Here, we are in charge and apps are not needed - except when they can be obfuscated clients to proprietary services. Fortunately, most of VPN services are not proprietary (because of the performance reason that you’d have to have a kernel implementation).
That doesn’t hold true for e.g. music services. Or social media services. Can’t wait for them to become GPLv2 at least… But who am I to know better
15,000 isn’t much on a global scale. Next year’s target is 50,000–100,000 units. Even that is still small compared to phone giants like Samsung and Apple.
Germans are the largest group of buyers, followed by Finland. Sales have also been strong in France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands, says Pienimäki.
Edit. Now I can finally focus again on my life, bothered more than it should have xD
Your opinions mirror mine almost exactly. I mostly knew what I was getting into, but as a Linux user having true Linux phone appeal to me. I like the hardware, visually and functionally. I don’t regret buying it, as you said money for a good cause but I don’t see myself using it as my main phone, for now. And it’s not the usual suspects that people mostly complain, I don’t use services as Android Auto and contactless payments anyway and I can live without bank app. It’s the design of OS itself I find really complicated and unintuitive, especially that pull down to select menu. Minimized apps on home screen should be titled in some way, it’s often hard to recognize them and Android apps are often shown only as black rectangle. Also I wouldn’t mind search function in app drawer. But worst offenders are critical native apps, browser and music app especially are pretty bad and too basic, so I had to install android apps even for that. I don’t like the keyboard, it’s missing my layout and I would prefer the option to have number row, it’s also too brightly colored in all the ambiances. Adaptive brightness doesn’t work too good, it’s too dim when dark but too bright in sun, I have to fiddle with it all the time. I hope Sailfish OS improves with time, I would really like it to succeed.
i think a lot of your issues with the os design and app drawer would resolve themselves with time if you persist. The more you use it, the more you get used to it, if you get what I mean? You can use app folders too (which can be renamed), so you can eg. group app stores in one folder, settings apps in another etc. But on the whole muscle memory kicks in and you remember where apps are, but also you get used to what the icons are.
It must be a huge jump to move to an alien OS, but if the major blockers for most people (contactless payments IMO) aren’t an issue, i think you could come to enjoy the os and find yourself at home here.
The blank Android app cover is a bug which I’m sure they’ll fix, so maybe try again when the next update drops?
I installed couple of music apps, they are all pretty basic and strange to navigate (in one I couldn’t figure out for 5 minutes how to get back to playing queue ). I tried Atlantic browser, for sure it’s an improvement over native, but nowhere near Firefox or Brave. Also I found keyboard with number row, but only in english layout.
but having used it in real life now, it ended up not being my thing. Maybe I’ll look into the possibility of customising the launcher more into my liking.
But it’s a fact that some people cannot give up all apps and it affects Jolla’s adoption.
). I tried Atlantic browser, for sure it’s an improvement over native, but nowhere near Firefox or Brave. Also I found keyboard with number row, but only in english layout.