Technology

Apple refuses to integrate RCS into iMessage despite Google publicly calling it out and inviting it to do so. Apple is not incentivized to do so since they enjoy the iMessage ecosystem lock-in. Google is further ahead than Samsung, and allows you to use RCS with their stock Messages app. Personally, I use Signal with all my friends and family which works on both iOS and Android.

Let's go through your example features..

• Face ID: This is available in the latest Google Pixel models via Face Unlock. No it's not as good as iOS, but you also have the fingerprint reader as an additional option with Pixel, which you don't have on iOS. As someone who experiences Winter, I'm glad to not have to show my face to unlock my phone when I'm bundled up or skiing with a helmet/goggles on. Easier to just take a glove off for a hot second to unlock the phone.

• iMessage: This is blue bubble envy, and it's pretty slick I can't lie. Again, I've been lucky to get my friends to use Signal, but if all your friends are using iMessage it can be annoying. This is a problem of Apple's own making, however, and I wouldn't reward them (on principle) for sustaining the issue despite options being available.

• Home Screen UX: Not sure how Android doesn't win this one hands down. iOS home screen customization is way behind Android, and even with the latest changes in the latest versions of iOS, it's still behind.

• Battery Life: I don't find my Pixel 7 to suffer from poor or even remotely poor battery life at all. There are Android phones like the Asus Zenphone 10 that are crushing even the best iPhone on battery life. It's easily a two-day phone, and they do it all in a compact package.

• Extended Software Support: Again, it's all in who you choose to buy from if you value long term support. Samsung gives four years of OS and five years of security updates for its phones. Google gives three years of OS updates and five years of security updates on its phones. Not quite as good as iOS, but not worth spending a bunch extra for an iPhone.

Ultimately though, it's Apple's hostile approach to allowing users to repair their own products that has me staying away from purchasing their phones. Not just in the build process, but in their unwillingness to sell component level replacement parts of any kind to independent repair shops. And their support for killing right-to-repair legislation.

Apple is a walled garden and because of it I will not touch their products. Stuff tends to be over priced too.

Do not use face ID on phones other than Apple and maybe Samsung as most are easily spoofed.

A phone is a throw away device so my opinion is buy the cheapest one that does what you need.

In my case it is because the stuff I buy has to be mine. It's a matter of principle. I root and degoogle all my phones and install custom ROMs on them (and FOSS apps from external stores, such as fdroid). I couldn't deApple an iPhone, so it'd kind of limited for me. Plus, frankly speaking, I couldn't care less about RCS/iMessage, it's not like there aren't enough messaging options out there.

Just one person’s opinion, but I switched to an Apple phone last year after several years using top of the line Android devices, and I’ve been really happy with it. The features are all rock solid, and their particular brand of walled garden is one that I don’t tend to mind much.

Apple products are for people who want to be treated like children. The corporate parent locks down your device and controls how you use it. Android devices, depending on the manufacturer, are for people who want to be treated like adults - free to make their own decisions and mistakes. This is the main difference between the two.

Apple is the "you will own nothing and like it" of phones. You are told how to use your phone, whatyou can and cannot use your phone for, when you can use your phone, etc. The interface is horrible and by trying to make everything so simple it makes it hard as heck to do almost anything more difficult than connecting to wifi. Try using Control D DNS to block ads on an iphone sometimes, PITA. I control my experience on Android from what ROM i use (Lineage), the fact i run no google apps package, the DNS i use, to where exactly i put my icons on my homescreen and how said homescreen behaves.

I just really dislike the interface, I have both an Android (personal phone) and an iPhone (work phone) and I find the iPhone frustrating and annoying to use. But that's probably just me.

If you feel Apple's features appealing over Android for their price, go right ahead.

The thing that turns me off is that once you are there, you are kind of stuck in Apple's ecosystem. It's Apple that decides how long a program/application is supported on your computer or phone, not each developer. I still have apps designed for Android v.2 on my phone and they work fine. Apple phones were only recently "forced" to allow application side-loading, until then Apple had to know every single app you downloaded because it was through their store, and linked to your AppleID. Whereas you have Fdroid or you can easily compile your own apps without agreeing to odious terms from Cupertino.

I'll give Apple credit they have a decent quality and fully-featured ecosystem for mobile and computing. The only issue is that they intentionally make it difficult to use alternatives to their products that are outside their ecosystem, which isn't for me.

I noticed that with all my friends and family, once they get into the ecosystem, they can't get out.

Apple has a lot of proprietary systems that forces users to get into the ecosystem. That ecosystem is expensive to maintain. And say you wanna switch back to android. Then you're met with the sunk cost fallacy. What are you going to with all the hardware and services you bought that is now useless outside of the ecosystem?

In my family, everyone else has an iPhone and I have Samsung S23. So I can maybe give both perspectives. If you just want a phone to be a phone, it's hard to go wrong with an iPhone. It's always the best default choice. That being said, I personally can't go back to an iPhone. Lots of people recommend Google devices because of the "stock" Android experience but I greatly prefer the interface, integration, and customization of Samsung devices.

Anyway, in no particular order why I like Android/Samsung:

1. The ability to just copy movie and TV shows files onto the device and play them with VLC. This is a must for me for travel. iOS is still a pain in the ass for this.
2. In screen finger-print reader and face unlock (both are useful)
3. Ability to cast a Dex desktop to my TV with one click for showing off content
4. Customized gesture navigation (swipe up middle - home, swipe up right - back, swipe up left - apps) -- full screen is available no button bar
5. THE BACK BUTTON -- every time I use an iPhone I hate hate hate the lack of a back button
6. Browsers with ad block
7. Customized YouTube with ad blocking (revanced)
8. Customized notification icon bar -- hide icons that are always on (bluetooth, etc), battery percentage no icon.
9. Separate profile for Work and Personal -- my employer has control only of the work profile and can't remote wipe my entire phone.
10. Custom home screen apps (I use Nova 7)
11. USB-C -- one single charger for all my devices (phone, laptop, tablet, buds, etc).
12. Ability to wirelessly charge my watch and my ear buds using the back of the phone (this is great for travel)
13. Open source console emulators

I can probably think of more but that's a good start.

Woke up and chose violence today huh? ;)

Having used both, I’d say stick with Android if you prefer tinkering, hop to iOS if you just want to pick up your device and do stuff.

Neither platform has any real privacy unless you do a de-googled Android (and that should be a third category IMO). Apple claims privacy but is at least moving toward a place where that isn’t really true. Privacy is a moot point when it comes to smartphones I guess.

To answer your question: don’t move to iOS if it doesn’t support a feature/function that is non negotiable for you. The stuff that works on iOS works well, and the stuff that doesn’t just basically doesn’t exist for the most part. iOS really only puts stuff into production that it thinks are near enough perfected already and everything else isn’t released outside beta programs.

Surprisingly, iOS has better privacy than Google because Apple is a hardware company while Google is an advertising company.

My issues with apple are mostly around repair. Cost of first party repairs and active fighting against user or third party repairs.

My iPhone got some water damage, and now faceid doesn’t work. Because it’s water damage, they won’t even do the “faceid repair” for like $200, they’ll only replace the device for $550. Like most parts on the phone it’s paired to the phone, so it’s impossible to salvage a part and do the repair myself.

So I’m here with no faceid for like a year because I don’t want to pay them that much for the repair (might as well get a new phone at that point) and I don’t want to buy a new iPhone and reward apple for this bs.

If I do buy another iPhone eventually, I might just give in though and play their fucking game fully and just buy the applecare. Just fully go in on the fact that I’m subscribing to the iPhone experience, not actually owning anything.

I asked my sister who is eagerly switching back to Android after dipping her toes in iOS for only a year:

That dumb green/blue text bullshit.

If you have an iPhone, you can't text on your computer unless you have a MacBook

I'm on iOS and the biggest downside to iOS in my opinion is the $100/year developer fee, the Mac requirement for development, and the lack of side-loading. What this ultimately means is that it can be hard to find free / open source apps for iOS, especially ones like newpipe that might not be approved on the App Store. It's honestly a pretty big bummer. Some other restrictions also mean that Safari is pretty much the only viable browser on iOS and ad-blocking / extensions are fairly limited. Another disappointment is that ad-supported apps seemed to be a lot more annoying than the Google equivalents, weirdly enough. I guess Google maybe has more / different guidelines about making ads supremely irritating, or maybe I just had better options for free apps on Android.

I'm curious what you mean by "in light of what Apple is doing"? As far as I know iOS isn't really miles ahead of Android in any particular area -- they're more or less comparable in my experience, with iOS being a bit more limited in terms of customization and stuff (the fact that you still can't place icons anywhere you want on the homescreen is baffling to me).

If I'm being entirely honest, I think I probably like the Android operating system more than I like iOS... Which is weirdly part of the reason I like iOS -- I'm a little less tempted to look at my phone and a little less tempted to tinker with it. And there are are things that I like about my iPhone. The hardware is nice, the Apple Watch is really nice, FaceID is great, some things I thought would be silly like live photos are actually kind of nice, some of the iCloud features are great, and it's nice that it pairs with other things in the Apple ecosystem well. Ultimately the main reason I've abandoned Android is that I just got sick of my Android phones dying all of the time and only getting software support for like 9 months. Apple's support window is massive in comparison, which is also a big plus.

I like the freedom that comes with android. Being able to customize what I want, download third party apps, easily use third party accessories. I even have it connected to my computer so I can text and open my apps from there.

Apple is just so... closed off. I don't own any other apple products (and I do not plan on it) so I don't even get the full benefits of having the whole ecosystem going. There's just not an upside to using iOS over Android for my personal use case.

Also, I'm currently using a Samsung Fold and I don't know if I could go back to a regular phone lol. It's just so unique and really fantastic for multitasking. I don't think it's possible to open more than app side by side on iPhone? (Correct me if I'm wrong) but I regularly use 2 to 3 side by side and even have the option to add a 4th in pop-up view if I wanted to lol.

It's really all preference, but I've just never been a big Apple fan and I don't really like the UI designs for most of their products.

There's literally one reason I stick with android, you can just put files on it and use them, I know iOS has improved greatly here, now you can actually have some approximation of file system access, but I really don't want to use a janky app like iTunes (at least on windows it's kind of broken still) to get anything on and off the phone outside of iCloud. I end up using my phone more like a pocket linux computer enough of the time that I just can't jive with such a locked down device.

I really like the hardware, and iOS is a very cohesive and easy to use experience it just doesn't fill my use cases for a phone. I'm not the kind of person who just uses something, I always want to crack it open and tinker with it, I think my record for not modifying a car after purchase is 2 weeks (only because I wanted to make sure it wasn't a lemon). Android just fits my ethos better.

I’m interested in why you think android has any privacy benefits. If you are talking full-google android, I don’t see how running an OS made by a company whose business model is finding out every bit of info they can about you is privacy positive.

Now if you are talking lineage and/or grapheneOS
Without gapps, sure.

I like Apple because my phone just works. Sure the customization isn’t there, but I’d waste time on it if it was. Also stay on Apple because last time I checked, the Apple Watch was the only wearable that tracked wheelchair activity properly.

iOS has gotten far buggier since Steve’s departure though. The “paint the back of the fence” mindset got ruined by Tim Apple and capitalism.

For many years I used Android phones and enjoyed the customization, roms, rooting, and tinkering. Now, I don't have time for messing around and just want something that will text and take pictures. Made the switch to Apple about 4 years ago. For a while I was travelling for work and gone for extended periods of time so Facetime was nice for connecting with people close to me. Yes, I know there are other apps.

Now my home is all Siri'ed up so I feel locked in, and I have a Macbook for work. I sometimes debate going back and running a privacy rom but my current setup is fine for my threat model. The only thing that fucking sucks is the price, other than that everything just seems "fine". I am not too picky though. :)

Often mentioned here that strikes a chord with me is the ability to install Firefox and load it with ad blocker, sponsorblock, and dark reader addons. Get your youtube ad free easy this way.

I owned an iPod touch and an iPad and I'll never buy in to the Apple ecosystem again.

Update after update the devices got slower and slower until they were unusuable. With no way to roll back (at the time, not sure if that still holds) the only solution was to buy a new device.

I have yet to have that happen with any of my other devices. Android phones, tablets, Linux machines, Windows machines, game consoles, or Roku boxes.

I feel like most people who switch and talk bad about Android are using cheap hardware from dodgy OEMs, and/or Google's hardware.

Samsung's devices (imo) are the only ones that really compare with Apple's, and they do so favorably. If you like Apple, you like Apple, but I don't see any of the things you mentioned as being of any value. I hate Apple's UX/UI in general, don't care about sms in general, battery life depends on your Android device, and I like the fingerprint & face unlock combo on my Fold 4.

And yeah, I like folding phones. You say you're frustrated with Android features that are "behind," but I can't imagine what iPhones do that puts them "ahead" of premium Androids. They're just different.

There are a lot of answers running the gamut.

The bottom line is, as it has always been: you use the technology that works for you. iOS isn’t better or worse than Android, and vice versa. Both OSes are valid, and it’s the individual’s choice as to what works best for them. I would be miserable with an Android device. I happen to get great value from my Apple devices - especially when there is trade-in value and the devices get recycled.

I personally don’t think it’s productive to “tribalize" the two OSes. They are developed to completely different designs and strategies. Android is basically designed for a wide range of manufacturers, each having their own needs and wants, which includes frequent sales cycles. Apple has always, ALWAYS, been a hardware manufacturer first, and any software they develop is intended to enhance the user’s experience of the hardware in a very measured and structured way. Android (and PC) is aimed for mass market distribution. Apple has always been premium boutique. Hell, one big reason the iPhone was originally released by Apple because the existing cell phone market refused to support the Mac platform: essentially the iPhone was the “premium add-on” to the Mac experience. But Apple also has a slower sales cycle - releasing yearly, sure, but with the understanding that every year someone will want an upgrade, not every year everyone will want an upgrade. My last iPhone went 5 hardware versions before I upgraded, or about 3 years, and I average 3-5 years on small devices, and 5-7 years on desktop).

Every user’s experience is personal, and anecdotal, even mine. So I ask: what do YOU want in a phone? What you YOU want your phone’s OS to do? Make a decision matrix and list all the pros and cons of each phone. Which ends up with the most pros? How many of the cons are show stoppers? If Android matches best, by an Android phone. It’s fine.

For me, it's 1. the variety of devices available that run Android, foldables, budget phones etc. 2. Fingerprint unlock and 3. Not being locked in to Apple

I do not understand your frustration. Like how can google unify iMessage with RCS if Apple refuses to do so. I mean why would Apple even bother and lose one of its pro.

For FaceID there's face Unlock but it's not faceid. Fingerprint is the rule and I'm fine with that one. I'm not sure about the home screen UX but I use smart launcher 6 and it does a good job of providing a neat sorted apps catehpry list for me. As for battery life. The new snapdragon 8 gen 2 provides beastly battery life compared to previous generations which were a regression.

About extended software support. I agree google is a bit behind samsung. But, 5 years os support is not bad. You have samsung, some oneplus smartphones and than google.

In the end if none of that matters, you do you. You do not need justification to use or the other. Just read some reviews and make your decision.

I switched a couple years ago, the stability was the best part for me, and the fact that all of your peripheral devices just work, it’s really nice.

If you’re already inside the Apple ecosystem (own an iPad, MacBook, Mac, whatever), iOS is a blessing. It’s quite frankly really good in its ecosystem.

Apple has done some work for privacy (disallow targeted ads in apps and whatnot).

Regardless though, if you’re just using your phone to use your phone it really doesn’t matter what OS it runs. RCS is great, but if all your friends have iPhones or if you’re in a country that doesn’t use text messages then it doesn’t matter. Reverse is true for iMessage.

I will say this though… the iOS keyboard and all associated iOS compatible keyboard apps are absolute shit. They are rotten and have the worst autocorrect I’ve ever seen. It’s my biggest gripe with my phone right now compared to my Pixel 6. Keyboard is night and day, and Gboard on iOS also sucks.

Apple falls to offer sufficiently compelling features for the price and is significantly behind in some areas such as home screen UX.

My home screen is pretty much entirely dedicated to widgets, some of which directly allow me to perform complex actions without having to launch an app – e.g. I can not only control my lights from the home screen but also select which room the command gets sent to.

iOS widgets seem to be more limited; at least the app developers complain about not being able to offer this functionality with iOS 14+, the App Store page doesn't mention widgets at all and a third-party widget app only offers basic buttons that do one thing each.

That's one major use case of mine where Apple simply doesn't keep pace. In addition, I'm locked into Apple's decisions on things like form factor or audio jack availability, which I might not agree with. Plus, their prices are shameless.

I don't doubt that Apple offers the best choice for some people but in my case I'd have to sacrifice functionality I use and pay literally twice as much money to gain nothing relevant besides longer software support.

Apple devices to me are just the physical version of the gold bar app that once existed on the apple app store. Spending extra for a status symbol that people won't even respect you for unless it benefits them to lick your boots.

Sure some aspects may be better but overall nobody is outclassing anyone in the phone industry as long as you are comparing the correct price bracket and adjusting for apple logo tax. Personally apple UI/UX has always and still is awful to me and the odd time I have to use the iPad at work I could have an aneurysm at any moment. I could also never go back to button nav bar on Android.

But in the end if the device suits you, and you don't care about business ethics or whatever, and it isn't a poor financial decision for you then just get what you want and enjoy it. All the organizations that want to collect all your data will find a way regardless of what device you use.

Be sure if another apps or features are as important for you as those you said Face ID, iMessage, home screen UX, battery life. For example, not being able to run syncthing on IOS is a dealbreaker for me. Another app is minimalism launcher, etc...