With an announcement of Android Ice Cream coming any week now, here's a few not-often-mentioned things I'd like to see added, in either the upcoming or a subsequent release.
More Chrome-like Chrome-lite
Considering that the Android browser is often referred to as Chrome-lite, it surprises me how little it has in common with desktop Chrome. It's understandable that there needs to be major differences between the two, but there's some obvious areas where similarities could be a major selling point.
There's a lot of behaviours that could be the same, but aren't. Like the Omnibox for example - in Chrome you get a drop down list of suggestions when you type a keyword, but Android leaves you wondering what's going to happen next. The browsers greatly lacks tabs, which work well in alternatives like Firefox.
There could be huge potential if data could be synced between the two browsers, I'd like to be able to access my desktop bookmarks without the need for a flaky app.
Google seem reluctant to brand the Android browser as Chrome - maybe to avoid confusion with Chrome OS, but now that almost every other company has made the jump (Firefox, Safari, IE9), I'll be happier when I see the Chrome icon in my Android dock.
Better Web App integration
Native mobile apps are my biggest annoyance with smartphones at the moment. I find it ridiculous that a company would develop an App that only works on one device, though developing for one platform is only slightly better. It's good to see some companies moving to cross-OS web apps, but this is a problem on Android where it doesn't treat them anything like native apps.
Android should allow web apps access to a web-based API to let them specify an App icon, request to add itself to the homescreen and work with Intents to seamlessly work with the OS like a native app. I see no reason why they couldn't be given access to Android features like the camera, notifications or even the phone - all with tight permissions required.
It's probably a long way off but I'd like to see native apps phased out on all mobile OS's and every web app designed to work across all platforms.
Online Hub
The web-based Android market was one of the best things to happen to Android this year, making it much easier to find Apps and manage your account. I'm also a big fan of Google Contacts, which lets you save and manage contacts from your web browser - a feature not many people seem to know about.
It'd be great if Google merged all these browser-based Android management sites into a single online hub, making them more discoverable and easier to manage at the same time. Better still, there's a lot of features they could add - SMS management, phone tracking, cloud file storage and integration with Google Music and Books.
Android Messenger - Huddle?
BBM is one of the main reason that so many people still use Blackberrys, and Apple have already caught on with the upcoming iMessage. With the highest mobile market share it would seem crazy if Google missed out on having their own free messaging system - except they already do in the Huddle App bundled with Google+.
The trouble with Huddle is that it requires a Google+ account, and even G+ users don't seem to be using it much yet. Google should spin it off as a more standalone product, keeping it well integrated with Google+ but allowing anyone with an Android phone to jump on board too. Bundle it as a default App with Android and reduce the focus on SMS to a memory of a time before smartphones.
