Mobile OSs Android is more amazing than I thought

[AMantheGreat82]

I’m still stuck on the iPhone 7 thing in 2025 with a couple of knock off batteries thrown in. Of course the Galaxy runs better.lol
It’s kinda like complaining your Game Boy Color doesn’t play Switch games, then bragging that you found a $30 used Wii that does more. Cool discovery, but… maybe just, you know, upgrade the iPhone past iOS 15 first? 🤣

 

[Cuesca]

Android without any work to get it the way you want it to work is worst than iOS. But to me once you set up everything, disable all of the tracking and bloat, then customizing it to best suit you I think it's better. Gboard alone is worth using Android over iOS.

 

[ofarlig]

Android without any work to get it the way you want it to work is worst than iOS. But to me once you set up everything, disable all of the tracking and bloat, then customizing it to best suit you I think it's better. Gboard alone is worth using Android over iOS.

Last time I ran Android (with the Z Fold 5) I was still finding settings to turn off to not get bloat notifications and things to configure to make it work like I wanted 3 weeks after initial setup. And then the battery started discharging fast when idle so I had to factory reset and apparently cloud backups aren’t carbon copies like they are on iOS so I had to start setting stuff up again.

Things like that annoys me to hell ever time I am running Android again and which have eventually got me back to iOS. Have normally felt it is easier to go back to iOS than setup a new Android device even though my current one is Android.

 

[martint235]

I've tried OnePlus numerous times and could never get with it. It wasn't fluid, was always buggy. I think I tried 3 OnePlus phones.

Might be worth having a look at the 13. The 12 was considered the turning point from what I can tell but the 13 is really a very polished product.

 

[martint235]

@iHorseHead I feel I owe you an apology. The pile in I expected never really materialised.

 

[CEleven]

I don't think foldable phones are there yet. Why would you even need one?

A 4 year old video????

 

[iHorseHead]

Android, really the Google Pixel, has grabbed my attention. I like the idea of the freedom Android allows.

Pixels have a very bad battery life.

 

[Parowdy]

I don’t chime in often. But this is a great thread and I just couldn’t resist. It’s definitely a fun read of your passionate comments. In my opinion the platform wars are long over. iPhones and android devices each have their pros and cons after borrowing from each other for the past decade. Now it all boils down to personal preference. My unsolicited advice to those of us who yearn for android’s OS features that are missing on iPhone, but crave the ecosystem offered by Apple—get both devices and use each for the features that matters most down the use case. They will never offer feature parity. At least the platforms are still democratic—you can make a choice back and forth anytime you choose. This is why the tech sector is great. The fork in the road seems to rest on AI. Clearly Apple and the rest of humanity has variety different strategies. So I use ALL of the AI models for different projects. It no longer matters which phone is in your pocket with AI. The landscape is flattening. I absolutely welcome your thoughts and commentary.

Even Bing AI?

 

[Parowdy]

I don't think foldable phones are there yet. Why would you even need one?

DANKPODS!
But actually, they aren’t that bad anymore. My SO has a Flip 6 and the worst thing about it are the battery, the max brightness, and case support.
The rest is quite good… now.
Turns out, when she got it, it still had android whatever 5 installed. It was garbo, she honestly was very disappointed and frustrated by how stupid everything was.
Then she noticed she had system updates available. It took four separate installs until she got to whatever 7, she had to „upgrade“ twice to 6 and couldn’t possibly just update from 5 to 7… ridiculous.
But, 7 is actually very nice. We joked that she just witnessed the software evolution of 3 years in 1 day (each install took an hour, which is just crazy, too).
Now she quite likes it.

Unfortunately I couldn’t get here to switch to Apple, because she needs some of those android features. Like universal back swipe, per app VPN settings, a numrow on the keyboard and per app volume controls.
You know, things we would go wild for if Apple finally invented them.

 

[iHorseHead]

I’m still stuck on the iPhone 7 thing in 2025 with a couple of knock off batteries thrown in. Of course the Galaxy runs better.lol
It’s kinda like complaining your Game Boy Color doesn’t play Switch games, then bragging that you found a $30 used Wii that does more. Cool discovery, but… maybe just, you know, upgrade the iPhone past iOS 15 first? 🤣

Okay, my point was that the old Samsung does more and is better with Android 11 than the current iPhone with the current iOS, which in my case is iPhone 14. That too old too?
I was just surprised how behind Apple is.

 

[iHorseHead]

I’ve been on iOS since the first iPhone in 2007. The only time I’ve used Android was on the first Oculus Quest if that really counts.

I’ve been tempted to switch a few times over the years, but the Apple ecosystem just has been sucked in too deep.

You could still try. You could get a used Android phone. Doesnt have to be expensive.

 

[Unami]

+1 for hidden Folders and Files that can only be accesed via password (would like that for the files app as well). It would be at least some replacement for the lack of multi user accounts on iPadOS - especially for handing them to a child. I think it's a conscious strategy of apple to not have that, so everyone "should" buy his own device.

 

[neuropsychguy]

Android, really the Google Pixel, has grabbed my attention. I like the idea of the freedom Android allows.

What freedom specifically?

 

[ayephoner]

android and ios used to be quite different. They have borrowed from each other at every turn. iOS has way more customization than it used to and android has more stability. They are very similar now. Saying that android allows more freedom just sounds like a holdover from 10-15 years ago.

I used about a dozen android devices, mostly the Nexus line. The Nexus 6P is still probably my favorite phone ever and it came at a pretty good price. The change to the Pixel lineup (and price) kind of lost my attention. I do see larger screens with more active screens, foldables, and some other things out of android manufacturers and wish I could try them, but for now I'm an iPhone user and that won't change anytime soon.

 

[iHorseHead]

What freedom specifically?

Customisation, having the apps you need, ability to switch users, ability to lock all of your files, ability to hide your stuff from Google, ability to have it so every single app would be sandboxed and the ability to do whatever you want and have more features.
Every Android phone has a different experience, but if you know what you're doing you can create the best OS for you. It's like Arch Linux.

 

[kirkster501]

I confess to becoming ensnared in the Apple system. I like it that all my photos, messages, videos, files and music are shared between iPad, iPhone and MAC and I am happy to pay for that convenience. Others may think differently. I have Andrid on my work phone and I just can't seem to get along with it despite really trying to like it and get along with it. For sure there are similar ways to achieve the same by third party applications such as OneDrive but it just doesn't work as well as Apple in my opinion.

 

[iHorseHead]

I confess to becoming ensnared in the Apple system. I like it that all my photos, messages, videos, files and music are shared between iPad, iPhone and MAC and I am happy to pay for that convenience. Others may think differently. I have Andrid on my work phone and I just can't seem to get along with it despite really trying to like it and get along with it. For sure there are similar ways to achieve the same by third party applications such as OneDrive but it just doesn't work as well as Apple in my opinion.

I don't know. There are many things that you can turn into an ecosystem. Google Keep = Apple Notes etc.
You could use Google Photos and view your photos on PC too or any other app that syncs. It's all doable to be fair.

 

[Cuesca]

Last time I ran Android (with the Z Fold 5) I was still finding settings to turn off to not get bloat notifications and things to configure to make it work like I wanted 3 weeks after initial setup. And then the battery started discharging fast when idle so I had to factory reset and apparently cloud backups aren’t carbon copies like they are on iOS so I had to start setting stuff up again.

Things like that annoys me to hell ever time I am running Android again and which have eventually got me back to iOS. Have normally felt it is easier to go back to iOS than setup a new Android device even though my current one is Android.

My first Android is a Fold 7, so I'm coming from decades of iOS. In terms of the bloat there's a simple guide on where to find them, turning them off is as simple as turning off the bloat for iOS(In fact I think its the same method for both which is > privacy > diagnostic and analytics). The only difference is you need to do it twice, one for Google and one for Samsung. I think for app bloat like Facebook or Tiktok it's much easier to turn background refresh off in bulk on Android instead of having to go through each individual app and disable app refresh manually on iOS devices.

That being said I am still in the honeymoon period with the Fold 7 so who knows, I might be bias. I will say that the last few iPhones I've owned or brought for family members, they felt pretty stale. The last time I felt wow'd besides from the Fold 7 was the iPhone X. There's also a bunch of things I find much better on Android like Gboard simply blows away the iOS keyboard, sure iOS's keyboard is decent but I would still need to go back, to not only fix the things it misses but fix its corrections. Or stuff that isn't even mispelled. With Gboard it is 99.5-100% so far. In the photo app removing people from our photos is also way more advance than on iOS, in fact after importing some of our pictures I'm able to go back to pictures I've taken with my 13PM and fixed them via Android. The Gemini assistant is also amazing with the amount of integration it has. It almost felt like AI wise Android is a bit ahead of iOS. Here's a few examples, with Siri I would ask it something and it just basically google search it and give me the link to the google search. With Gemini it would search several pages and determined the consensus of what I asked and gives me the most relevant answers. Another thing that Gemini does better as an electronic personal assistant I would ask it to make a doctor's appointment, then late add the address to the appointment and it would know which appointment I am talking about. Siri would not be able to do any of that.

Like I said still in the honeymoon phase, but for my use case I kinda prefer Android at the moment.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

I confess to becoming ensnared in the Apple system. and I am happy to pay for that convenience.

That doesn't sound like you are ensnared, rather it sounds more like you are a willing participant. 🥳

 

[rolsanchez213]

As someone who works in IT apple is so much better. In the last two companies I worked for androids just have too many issues.
- Networking: android phones were not able to connect to our company wifi due to the way they handle certs.
- Apps: Unfortunately all apps are made in mind with apple first and android being an after thought. In one of my companies we used Company Portal and users had to install that to install company apps and there were a handful of apps that android users just couldn't install or work right. Our solution was have them use the web version in "Edge" that they have to download from company portal.
Also there were some apps that just wouldn't function right on android or were just slow compared to iOS (never had this on non work apps).
- Consistency: If you are on the last OS on iPhone (most people are) then helping someone is second nature because the steps are the same regardless of how old the phone is. Android has different manufactures on top of the software build which makes it hard to help.

From a personal point of view Android is the superior OS.... when it comes to phones, but when it comes to tablets iOS is better. For me personally iOS is better. When I was younger I loved tinkering with my phone but these days I just want to use everything stock and functionality is more important. I'm locked into the apple ecosystem where everything just syncs from iPad, Mac, to phone. I can start on a browser page on my iPhone and pick it from my computer just by clicking on the safari icon on my Mac dock. No work needed no extra things to download just works.

I often wonder if I wasn't in the apple ecosystem would android be better. I haven't used android in probably 5 years and even then enjoyed it for the most part. I had this love hate relationship with my first android phone where the back button was amazing but too many times I would hit it on accident haha. I think if I wasn't in the apple ecosystem it would be a true toss up. I don't have any advantages to the iPhone or Android OS. The one plus I can say for both is this: If you're not on pixel the other manufactures have too much of their own software that is annoying. Also I don't like how there is like 2 to 3 messaging apps (if that is still the case). iPhone, I hate how it annoys me to upgrade my iCloud account and says I'm low in storage when in reality I'm low in the cloud and not physically on the phone.

That being said what is some of the pros of Android over iPhone now and vice versa?

*Edit: After thinking about it another huge plus with iPhone is FaceTime and someone please correct me if I'm wrong here. Every iPhone comes with FaceTime so easy to video chat people, is this the case with every android manufacture? Also can you screenshare with these devices? I have to help my parents out so many times and this has become a life saver where I can see what is being displayed on their phone.

 

[iHorseHead]

As someone who works in IT apple is so much better. In the last two companies I worked for androids just have too many issues.

All of my coworkers would disagree with you. Including me.

- Android connects to WiFi immediately after reboot, hence wiping the screen lock is easier than on iOS.
- Company Portal, Intone work better on Android. Period. Not going to even argue about that.
- Many companies use the same phones and most use Samsungs.

You mentioned FaceTime, thus you must be an American. I have never ever used FaceTime or messages. In Europe we just use WhatsApp. Even if both people have iPhones.

- You can get rid of other Messaging apps on Android very easily.