7 things we wish would happen in 2025 (although we know they are unlikely to)

So here comes the New Year. And while there will be the usual “new year, new me” resolutions from many of us (we are working on ours), we do not expect the world of tech to change dramatically. Yes, there will be new devices, but most of them would be basically a ‘plus one’ variant of their 2024 avatars, and most battles are likely to be fought over specs and prices. So, instead of talking about what will be released in 2025, we decided to get a little utopian and come out with a list of things that we wish would happen in the year.

Honestly, there is not much chance of any of them really happening (after all, this is utopian stuff), but if even one of them happens to a small extent, it would make a massive difference to the world of tech. Or so we think.

So, without further ado, here is our list of seven things we wish would happen in 2025, even though we know that the odds are that they won’t:

The return of simple, addictive, crazy casual games

When was the last time a simple, easy-to-play game caught the world’s fancy? We honestly cannot remember – perhaps it was Wordle in the Covid era. From an era when addictive yet casual games like Angry Birds, Temple Run, Plants vs Zombies, and Fruit Ninja ruled the roost, we seem to have come to a time when the only games that grab attention on phones are the likes of PUBG, Genshin Impact and Call of Duty.

Yes, there are some who stubbornly stick to Candy Crush Saga and roll digital dice in Snakes and Ladders and Ludo, but by and large, the casual game genre has taken a backseat in the mobile gaming world. Well, it would be awesome if casual gaming got back into the mobile phone gaming spotlight in 2025. Of course, it would need a special title to make it happen, but really, it is about time the world went mad about a game that did not need the sort of system resources that would make a PC blush.

The comeback of heavy, feature-laden Android skins

We know this will annoy and even shock some folks, but we have really have had it up to here with all the “clean” Android skins that brands have been inflicting on us over the past couple of years. One of the greatest features of Android was the OS’ flexibility in letting manufacturers tweak the look and feel of the interface. And in its initial years, it was this that made Android phones so special – many of us bought HTC phones just because of their very different interface.

2023 and 2024, however, have seen most brands get into bland UI mode with marginal differences. In fact, we actually have developed a soft corner for Vivo and its much-maligned (and oddly named) FunTouch OS simply because it dares to be different in a sea of software sameness. Leave clean Android to Google (who owns it anyway) and Nothing (which gives it a nice retro feel), please. The rest should go get messy once again.

The arrival of Phones that come with “with charger” and “without charger” options

We are not going to go into how happy or sad Mother Nature is at chargers being kept out of phone boxes, whether this actually makes a difference to the environment, or even if it is a deep, dark conspiracy to make us all buy third-party chargers. No, we are simply going to hope that brands finally graduate to offering models with and without chargers, letting the consumers decide for themselves. It would be wonderful if most phones came without chargers by default at lower price tags, with consumers getting the option to purchase a charger (either from the phone brand or by a third party) by paying an extra amount.

Of course, it would be naive to expect this option to come across all price segments, but it would be great to see it at middle and premium price points, and it would be better than the current arrangement where brands seem to decide at random to conserve the environment, without the paying consumer having a say in the matter.

Brands deciding to not release the same phone under different names

There is no law against it; it might give the consumer more to choose from and might be made with commercial compulsions of online and offline markets in mind, but we really wish brands would stop the practice of launching the same darned device under different names, often in a sub-brand’s portfolio.

We have lost the number of times we have seen very similar devices from Poco and Redmi, Vivo and iQOO, and Samsung’s M series and F series, with some cosmetic changes and minor spec tweaks. Yes, we know that there are reasons for this, but it is incredibly un-innovative and lazy, similar to seeing the same book with different names in different editions!

The inclusion of longer cables with TWS and power banks

A pet peeve this. Why do TWS and power bank brands think that 3-4 inch USB Type-C cables are enough to charge them? These tiny cables are fine if one is charging from a notebook or a power bank but are absolutely useless if one is using a regular power outlet, which remains the primary charging source for many of us.

Yes, most of us have longer cables for charging our phones, which can charge these wireless sound buddies just as well (long live USB Type C, and praise be to the EU), but why bother having the Type-C cable in the box then? Give us proper 1m cables or shave a few bucks off the price!

A choice of more Type C earphones and headphones

The 3.5 mm audio jack has been on its way out for a while, but we still cannot fathom why we are not seeing better earphones with USB Type-C connectivity. The options currently available, with a few exceptions (such as the value-for-money JBL Tune 310) are of generally mediocre quality and sometimes even have compatibility issues. Would it be too much to expect audio brands to give us some good options with Type-C connectivity in 2025? Not all of us use TWS.

The comeback of metal backs in phones

They were the rage about 6-7 years ago, and then along came glass, and suddenly most phone backs were either glass or glasstic (as some prefer to call plastic that looks like glass,) and metal in phones got reduced to a supporting role on frames. However, 2024 saw OnePlus drag metal back into the phone zone with the rather good-looking OnePlus Nord 4, and it reminded us of just how much more solid phones with metal backs were.

Given the fact that most glass backs do try to give the impression of being metallic in appearance, it would be great to see metal make a comeback (pun intended) to phone backs. We do not know the impact it would have on performance (evidently, some radio receivers have issues) and on costs, but if OnePlus could do it on the Nord 4, surely others can, too.

And one more thing: Instagram finally having a proper large display mode

I mean, come on, it REALLY is about time. This is a network that is designed for photographs and videos, and it does not play nicely with tablets and notebooks. This is 2025, fellas!