Grok Imagine for Android: Bugs, Limitations & Missing Features

8/14/2025

The Android Problem: A Full Breakdown of Grok Imagine's Limitations on Mobile

Well, the dust has finally settled. After what felt like an eternity of waiting for iOS users to have all the fun, Elon Musk's xAI finally pushed Grok Imagine out to the masses on Android. The initial announcement was met with a TON of buzz – free access to a powerful AI image & video generator, right on your phone! The hype was real, & honestly, who wasn't excited to take it for a spin?

But now that we’ve had some time to actually use the thing, a different picture is starting to emerge. It turns out, "The Android Problem" isn't that we don't have Grok Imagine – it's that what we have feels a bit like a beta version that was rushed out the door. There’s a growing chorus of Android users pointing out bugs, missing features, & a general sense of being a second-class citizen compared to our iOS counterparts.

So, let's break it down. What's really going on with Grok Imagine on Android?

The Hype vs. The Reality: A Tale of Two Platforms

Let's be clear: on the surface, Grok Imagine is pretty impressive. The speed is its standout feature. You can type in a prompt, & it spits out images with startling quickness. Select an image, tap "Make video," & within seconds, you have a short animation. It's fun, it's fast, & it’s great for creating quick, shareable content like memes & anime clips. This is likely why the app boasts over a million reviews & a high 4.8-star rating on the Play Store – for casual users, the immediate gratification is a huge win.

But when you start to look closer, especially if you're trying to do more than just generate a funny cat picture, the cracks begin to show. The initial excitement quickly gives way to a series of "Wait, why doesn't this work?" moments that seem to be disproportionately affecting Android users.

The Missing Pieces: Where Android Gets Shortchanged

Here's the thing that's really grinding people's gears: the Android version of Grok Imagine appears to be missing features that are available on iOS. This isn't just about a different layout; it's about core functionality.

One of the most glaring examples is the video generation modes. On iOS, users have access to "Custom" mode, allowing for more fine-tuned video creation. But for a while, even after release notes claimed it was implemented, this mode was completely ABSENT on Android. Users were stuck with "Normal," "Fun," & the infamous "Spicy" mode. To make matters worse, a Reddit user who pays for the Premium+/SuperGrok subscription pointed out that not only was "Custom" mode missing, but "Spicy" mode itself was a letdown. Instead of the "bold, unrestricted creativity" it promises, it often resulted in characters just staring blankly at the camera or producing results indistinguishable from "Fun" mode.

On top of that, the Android app is apparently missing a simple NSFW toggle button that its iOS counterpart has. This means less control for Android users over the type of content they want to see or create. It’s a small detail, but it speaks volumes about where the development priorities lie. It’s a classic case of an app being developed for iOS first & then ported over to Android without the same level of care & attention.

The Bug Report: Annoyances & Frustrations

Beyond the missing features, the Android app is just...buggy. These aren't deal-breakers on their own, but they add up to a seriously frustrating user experience.

Here are some of the most common complaints from Android users:

The Disappearing Send Button: This one is a doozy. If you're writing a longer prompt (around 200 words), the input window can stretch to cover the entire screen, hiding Grok's last response. As you keep typing, the send button gets squeezed by your keyboard & eventually disappears completely, making it impossible to submit your prompt. This forces you to break up your thoughts into smaller, less coherent chunks.
Voice Mode Connection Drops: Voice mode is a fantastic feature when it works. You can have a natural, back-&-forth conversation with the AI. But on Android, users report frequent connection drops where Grok just stops responding. The only fix is to exit voice mode & restart it, completely breaking the flow of the conversation.
The Lock Screen Problem: This is a small but incredibly annoying issue. When using voice mode, the Grok app doesn't prevent your phone from locking after a minute or so of inactivity. This can interrupt the connection & kill your conversation. It's a basic feature that other AI apps like ChatGPT have figured out, making its omission here all the more baffling.

These might seem like minor gripes, but they point to a lack of polish & testing on the Android platform. It makes the app feel janky & unreliable, which is not what you want from a tool you're potentially paying a subscription for.

The Bigger Picture: Grok Imagine's Overall Limitations

Okay, so the Android experience is a bit of a mess. But even if all the bugs were fixed & we had feature parity with iOS, the truth is that Grok Imagine as a technology is still a few steps behind its main competitors.

A review from Mashable put it bluntly: Grok Imagine is no match for Google's Veo 3 or OpenAI's Sora. When tested with the same prompt, both Veo & Sora produced significantly more realistic & coherent videos.

Here’s where Grok Imagine falls short in general:

Image-to-Video, Not Text-to-Video: Unlike true text-to-video systems like Sora, Grok Imagine requires you to first generate an image & then animate it. This extra step limits its creative potential & puts it in a lower tier of AI video generation.
AI Artifacts & Poor Prompt Adherence: The generated videos often have that telltale "AI look" – weird artifacts, distorted features, & a general lack of realism. Longer or more complex prompts often get lost in translation, with the final video only vaguely resembling the original request. One user noted that when they asked for an image of a soccer field, it generated one with a single goalpost & a halfway line running right through it.
Gibberish Audio: While competitors are starting to generate synchronized, coherent audio, Grok Imagine's sound is limited to generic sound effects or nonsensical gibberish. It adds to the overall feeling that the tool is more of a toy than a serious creative instrument.

This isn't to say Grok Imagine is useless. It’s incredibly fast & excels at creating the kind of quick, viral content that thrives on social media. Musk himself has positioned it as a sort of "AI-Vine," optimized for fun, shareable clips. But for anyone looking for cinematic quality or realistic AI video, Grok Imagine just isn't there yet.

The "Spicy" Controversy

We can't talk about Grok Imagine without touching on the "spicy mode." This feature, which allows for the generation of NSFW content, has been a major source of controversy. While xAI claims it's about "bold, unrestricted creativity," it has raised serious ethical questions, especially after reports of the app being used to create explicit deepfakes.

While the system has some safeguards, like blurring explicit images, there are reports of semi-nude content bypassing these filters. This, combined with the lack of robust content moderation, has put xAI under scrutiny. It's a classic Musk move – pushing the boundaries of what's considered acceptable & marketing "uncensored AI" as a feature, not a bug.

What This Means for Businesses & Creators

For businesses looking to leverage AI, these limitations are important to understand. If you're a creator who just needs to churn out quick, eye-catching social media content, Grok Imagine's speed might be a huge asset. But if you're a business that needs high-quality, reliable, & brand-safe AI-generated content, you might want to look elsewhere.

This is where the conversation around AI implementation gets really interesting. While a public-facing tool like Grok Imagine grapples with these issues of quality & moderation, many businesses are looking for more controlled & customizable AI solutions. The need for reliable, 24/7 customer interaction is HUGE. This is where tools like Arsturn come in. Instead of a one-size-fits-all model, Arsturn helps businesses build no-code AI chatbots trained on their own data. This means you can create a chatbot that understands your specific products & services, answers customer questions instantly, engages with website visitors, & even helps with lead generation. It’s a more focused & practical application of AI that solves real business problems without the controversy & unreliability of a public-facing image generator.

The Final Word

So, is Grok Imagine on Android a complete disaster? No, not really. It’s a fun, fast, & occasionally impressive glimpse into the future of AI content creation. The app has a high rating for a reason, & for millions of casual users, it's more than enough.

But "The Android Problem" is real. The user experience is hampered by bugs, missing features, & a general sense that Android users are an afterthought. When you combine these platform-specific issues with the broader limitations of Grok Imagine's technology compared to its rivals, it's clear that there's a lot of room for improvement.

Elon Musk has said that Grok Imagine "should get better every day," with a "giant improvement" coming with version 2. We'll have to wait & see. For now, if you're an Android user, it's best to temper your expectations.

Hope this was helpful! Let me know what you think in the comments. Have you run into these issues on your Android device?