I’m here to give an update to my journey from an Android to an iPhone after much debate in a previous post (from a different account). TLDR at the bottom.
If you’d like to see the old post: Click Here
For those wondering on details, I switched from a Galaxy Note 10+ to an iPhone 12 Pro Max. I won’t explain my reasons for model choice but it was a balance of price, size, and features in that order.
I’ll discuss my main pros and cons in sections here, going from what is most important to me to least important.
USER INTERFACE The user interface and experience on android isn’t awful, but I don’t think there’s much contest here. I said in my other post that apple has an advantage here and I was absolutely right. iOS has smooth animations for everything, is quicker for searching and finding apps, and just plain looks better to me. And while the android toolbar provides many more buttons for quick actions, I never used many of them. Most of the usable settings are here on iPhone in that easy drop down menu. Even long presses on icons to quickly change settings is here. And the mute button on the side is and has always been a no brained for me, should be standard on every phone.
I come from Samsung and their OneUI so I recognize this could be better on other phones, but I was plagued with some stutter in animations and slow app indexing through their search bar. The UI always felt a little clunky and that’s clear with how much was changed in OneUI versions. Things were often easier to access, sure, but the common actions I was taking reduce to simpler menus. Not only that but scaling is very wrong on android phones for some reason. I had my text somewhat smaller because if I blew it up, it looked very strange to me.
iMESSAGE AND FACETIME This was another big reason to switch because a lot of my friends have iPhones and use iMessage frequently. I can tell you that this is a problem specific to the US but so far I do enjoy the maturity of having a put together messaging app. Only recently has Google created something even close where before each android phone had their own app and it was a massive headache. As I stated, having RCS on android and iOS communicate would be big in bringing me back to android but until that happens, the social cost is not worth it to me. I know other apps fill that void in other countries but I couldn’t get my friends to migrate. Aside from that though, it’s one of the best messaging apps I’ve used and FaceTime seems more stable than most video apps.
APPLE ECOSYSTEM
Now look, I know how it works and they stock you in a walled garden. But consider that other companies do the exact same and *sometimes * the benefits can be worth it. For instance, my partner has an Apple HomePod speaker. It’s incredibly easy to stream music to it and as a plus, the Siri assistant has gotten much better. I can’t pick this apart by each strand, but the smoothness of the connections to my devices has definitely improved. I used to fail just to cast YouTube to my Tv on android for random reasons. It would take a couple tries. Now, first try every time. Same with the speaker. No fiddling with Bluetooth with this one. And the menu to change what device is playing sound is miles better than on my android phone.
VOICE ASSISTANT
This one is unexpected, but I’ve enjoyed the voice assistant a lot more. This is something that should be current across android phones so I feel comfortable speaking on it. If you’ve used SIRI previously, it used to suck. Like a lot. Google was miles ahead by every metric. Now though? I can ask Siri to play music and it knows what app Im asking for and doesn’t take up to 15 seconds to phone home and do the task. It’s faster. Much faster.
The only area in which Siri suffers is when asking for web based questions. Other than that, it works better for the much more common tasks I do.
RANDOM OBSERVATIONS
I mentioned Siri but the real benefit is with CarPlay. Where to start? CarPlay is quite a bit ahead here as well. It starts up on my head unit in about 1/5th the time before the warnings even disappear. And the interface is simple and knows where to put things. Putting the time near the driver and putting the app bar on the left near where I sit just seems like the way to go. So yeah, CarPlay is smooth and even has easy ways to make it wireless with unofficial dongles. Can’t say the same for android auto.
Charging times are worse on the iPhone but it’s not that bad and the phone does last me longer. My battery in my old phone was a bit older though, so I’ll call it even.
Grudges
I hate the lightning connector, it’s a PITA compared to UsbC but I don’t interact with it often, only for charging. And MagSafe would solve most problems and can be used with cases unlike my android phones wireless charging.
The Home Screen is a sticking point as well but mostly just for app arrangement. Otherwise, the widgets are perfectly fine. Better than fine actually because the Home Screen implements the widgets well even if space is limited. I’ve noticed that the apps that I use frequently also have more and better widgets on iOS than on android. I noticed it specifically with TickTick but overall the systems are fairly similar but with less customization of widget size and placement on iOS.
Last comment is that I understand this isn’t for everyone, we all have our own use cases. This isn’t a phone war, just here as reference for those wanting to switch or considering it. If you haven’t used iOS for a sustained period in recent years, understand that your perspective may be out of date because mine certainly was.
Thanks for reading!
TL;DR iOS has its ups and downs but from my perspective, most of what I said in my original post stands as good reasons to buy an Apple device. My main sticking points are repairability, walled garden apps, and initial price. Other than that, I’ve converted to iOS and I don’t miss many features of Android and I suspect that for all but the tech tinkerers, an iPhone is the way to go in the US.
Can’t believe I saw no mention of adblockers in this thread yet. On android you can get firefox set up with ublock origin and also other add ons, including dark reader and sponsorblock. Firefox on ios doesn’t have that functionality.
Adblocker that I can control is way too big of a functionality. I can never go over to ios.
On IOS there is not much point in using Firefox, because it’s just an UI shell for Safari with crippled functionality at that. I hope EU law will make real Firefox a possibility.
Right, but you can sort of get around this with installing a profile on ios. I use nextdns and on Android, you just specify the dns address, but on ios you have to install a profile and in certain situations a cert. That’s kind of risky from a privacy point of view, but i pay for the service, so that gives me some comfort. It also blocks all the os level tracking, which is nice. My partner complains that they can’t watch an ad in a game for an extra turn now… Lol but also paramount plus doesn’t work. :-\ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Firefox unfortunately doesn’t, but at least Safari does… as well as a few other extensions.
I made the switch too earlier this year from a Samsung Galaxy S10e to an iPhone 12 and I agree to all of your points.
The only thing I liked much more on Android were the notifications. Android’s notification are so much more flexible with the option to customise each different kind of notification for each app, to have silent notifications and “collapsed” ones that do not show a marker in the status bar.
Speaking of that, it is annoying that on iOS there is no indicator in the status bar if you have a notification, so that you always have to pull down to check for new ones.
Beside that, Apple ecosystem is so incredibly well integrated and in my opinions feels overall smoother than Android.
EDIT: changed tone a little bit
It’s interesting you bring that up. It annoys me slightly about the notifications but also I thought that my android phone spammed me with them. And they all got equal priority. So at least iPhone does do that better. I think for me it’s about equal there as well because I never took time on android to customize the notifications and I’d rather they all just act consistently.
I used the iPhone 12 mini for about a year before I gave up and went back to android. Some of my thoughts:
I don’t actually understand your comment about apps being easier to find. There is no way to organize them alphabetically. You can’t choose which folders they go in. It’s only “easier” because people default to searching for apps. Which is very annoying to me personally. My GF does it that way. But I really don’t like it.
I am a little jealous of IOS widgets and the ecosystem. While I haven’t tried a pixel watch yet, the apple watch is absolutely amazing and it’s the only real reason for me considering to go back.
My two biggest gripes is that there is a serious inconsistency in their apps. I never hear people talk about it. But some apps, have their settings inside the actual apps. Other apps are you tied into the apple settings app. Most apps use gesture navigation. Some, especially older ones, don’t react to it and still rely on a back button in the top left. Which was a good option when the phone were sub 5", but not anymore.
Other stuff, while the ecosystem is great, being locked into it is extremely annoying. Not being able to put a torrent app on the phone is annoying. There’s still a lot of things you cant do.
Maybe I’ll buy the iPhone 16, I seem to try it out every 4 or 5 years. But I doubt they’ll fix anything other than the back button, because no one really complains about it.
Please don’t start a pointless fanboy war. We’re better than that on Lemmy.
Read through the post, OP mentioned a few times that this isn’t about a phone war. It’s just one persons experience going from Android to iPhone; what worked well and what didn’t.
I think a lot of folks have picked an ecosystem and never strayed from it; seeing a post like this helps fill the gaps of their curiosity. Being exposed to other people’s experiences and experience a change yourself is a good thing.
At the end of the day phones are just tools to help you go about your day to day. We don’t have to foam at the mouth over a discussion like this. iPhones are very good devices and have great synergy with other Apple devices and apps. Android is a very customizable experience which has many great phones at very good prices. You can’t go wrong with either IMO.
Thanks for the precision. My comment was actually towards people who might be a little too passionate in the comment section 😉
I’m not a fanboy, quite the opposite if you read my original post. I’ve been on android for a long time before this. So not trying to circlejerk. I felt like this could be valuable insight for people wishing to change platforms. I even put at the bottom of one or both of my posts that I don’t want a platform war, that’s dumb and isn’t the point.
Why would you use first party messaging apps? Who the hell still sends sms? Just use signal. Easy fix.
Android user here, and I think this is a pretty pointless comment.
They already explicitly mentioned how they can’t convince their social circle to use anything but first-party messaging. It’s like if someone says “I couldn’t convince my friends to go to the movie theater” and I were to respond with “who the hell still goes to the movies??? I just watch from my plex server and invite everyone to my house to watch movies.” Aka, it’s a non-answer.
All great points.
I used to like to tinker on my phones but I got out of the habit. Android is better for that. The only other thing I would add is when I had Android phones (up until about 3 years ago and been using them since the late 2010s) I was always looking forward to that next upgrade time. The phone was slowing down or other issues that would crop up like that. Updates would stop coming and we’re slow to begin with. My company buys my phones now. So I got my first iPhone just over 3 years ago cause that is what they provide. We are allowed to get one every two years. I went past my 2 year upgrade and never even noticed. My boss had to tell me to upgrade a few months past the 2 year mark to get it into the current year budget. I would have happily kept using the original. Worked just like the day I got it. My kid uses it now. Still gets updates.
Sorry. That was a bit more text than I intended hehe.
I used to fail just to cast YouTube to my TV on android for random reasons. It would take a couple tries. Now, first try every time.
This is an interesting situation because my household has the exact opposite problem, where Android phones cast YouTube to the TV seamlessly and Apple phones take a solid 15-30 seconds to recognize the TV at all (Roku SmartTV).
That is odd. But I can definitely tell you that most of the solutions for casting your phone to a tv never worked for me on android. Smart cast almost never worked for me at all. But I will slightly miss the Dex software which was occasionally useful.
I think the best solution for me was getting an NVIDIA shield and using 3rd party apps anyways. It’s better than casting and works more consistently.
I have a friend who used Android, switched to iPhone, and just got an S23 today because iPhone kept doing things with the OS, not putting calls through the phone piece and offloading apps when he told them to not.
That said my wife switched from Android to iPhone about 7 years ago and loves it still. She won’t go back. Overall she cares less about the tech stuff than my friend does.
I’ve been tempted to switch but things like Apple automatically offloading your apps that could have been removed from the store and then not putting them back counts me out entirely. Like I had an app, you deemed it too big to keep on my device so you just nuked it without ensuring you can reinstall it? Hard pass on that. That’s one of the major straws that broke my friend who used some sort of Manga app that was removed from the app store. I likely won’t have any issues like that but the thought of that sort of control from Apple drives me away. I trust Apple or Google about the same which is none at all. Both have shown they are only in it for the money.
Lastly, I wouldn’t say iPhone or Android is the definitive way to go in the US. I can understand your point of view but even from a basic standpoint, I feel like neither do things all that differently to justify one or the other for everyone. Realistically people should just try both out and figure out what works best for them.
I get the appeal of iOS when everybody around you uses it as well. But in my personal bubble, most people don’t and I find myself using my 14 Pro more as a stand-alone “computer”, rather than a interconnected device amongst others in the ecosystem. Thing is, and it doesn’t matter what anybody tells you: iPhones suck hard at this. You know how modern games come bare bone and will sell you everything as DLC’s? This is how iOS feels like.
Despite this, I actually like this device. But the idea of having to spend more and more and more to have a enjoyable experience frightens me. It’s the reason why I avoided getting a MacBook so far, instead opting for a Windows Laptop and simply dealing with the inconvenience of transferring data via cable or 3rd party software.
The only reason I chose this phone is because I determined that the interconnected apps and services were more worth it in my social circle. Without that, the value proposition basically becomes even to me.
I guess my thing is that technology is important to me and at some point having tech work better overall even if it’s more expensive is more important to me. Plus a lot of Apple stuff is well made and has great resale value so it becomes more manageable that way.
I have very different priorities. I’ll never use anything with a walled garden, that isn’t hackable. I’ve also weaned myself almost completely off Google services and apps at this point. Also I can get a brand new unlocked Android phone that does everything I want with decent specs and almost stock Android (minimal bloat) for under $200. The only positive that really interests me that was mentioned in this thread is the longer security support.
How does the lightning connector bother you? I have less trouble out of phones with lightning connectors than phones with usbc…
I have devices that already use USB C so now I have to have two cables in the same location where before I only needed one. And also transfer and charging speeds are much slower with lightning. I think my phone takes much longer to charge, especially at lower battery percentages.
Overall, pretty much every device should have USB C by now. Apple only stays this way to further lock people into the ecosystem.
I like lightning for durability. the extra wire is a bummer though. never noticed slower charging or transfers.
I hate the lightning connector, it’s a PITA compared to UsbC but I don’t interact with it often, only for charging.
Do yourself a favor and get a magsafe charger. It’s far better than USB or Lightning.
sad
I also switched from Android to iOS.
Regarding Siri: I find SiriKit lacks too many features in comparison to Google Assistant. Controling any navigation software aside from Apple Maps? No chance. Which, especially in the car, is a big bummer. Even the integration of media apps is worse. I could tell Google Assistant something like “play on Deezer” and it would delegate the search to deezer. I could then tell it to “play on Digitally Imported” and it would start the di.fm app and play the channel there. And so on. Siri, if I am lucky, uses the current default player and then complains “cannot find Digitally Imported on …” or, worse, it falls back to Apple Music for which I don’t even have a subscription.
So in short: in the car I find Siri worse than Google Assistant. But CarPlay in general works very well and smooth.
Two other points I prefer on iOS over Android:
- Pretty long update cycles. Finding Android phones that deliver (major!) updates over 6 or 7 years is quite a challenge. Not impossible, but it’s very hard.
- Full backup. Using iTunes to backup the phone includes everything and I can simply replay it back to the next phone (or to the same after a reset). It will just work. On Android that either requires you to root the phone first with different shady methods or hope that the vendor ships some backup/restore solution … but then you are also often in a vendor lock-in.
(And with the right tools I can even modify the backup, essentially accessing and changing “protected” file of apps, that would also require root on Android.)
I feel like I have to tinker a lot less with my iPhone than I had to with my Androids before that. And I was sick of that. I already tinker a lot on my notebooks and desktops, but my phone should please just work and leave me alone otherwise.
I think these are accurate. Siri is better at being summoned and doing quick tasks but I feel like Google has a lot more features.
And for having to tinker less, absolutely true so far
I still can’t believe people are moving to iPhone over the stupid message bubble colours, rather than just using WhatsApp.
People in eg Europe often text with people across borders, what with countries being small and borders just being a line on the map. International sms used to be expensive AF. So WhatsApp was a very logical solution to this. Unlimited sms was most often only for national messages.
