Mobile OSs I Tried Android Again… Why Does It Feel Like a Group Project That Never Ends?

[HouseLannister]

I think OneUI with Good Lock is more customization than Pixel Launcher will ever give us. (That said, I usually throw Niagra on my phone and ditch the stock launcher right away.) But I get a little bit of an ick factor every time I setup a Samsung phone when I have to go through a checklist of what to uninstall and disable. Feels a little like setting up a new Windows PC.

 

[sjsharksfan12]

(That said, I usually throw Niagra on my phone and ditch the stock launcher right away.)

I tried recently to go back to the home launcher but it only lasted a day because I'm so used to Niagra now. I just love how easy it is to use, though I might not necessarily understand the widget placement that much.

 

[cuzo]

I have a iphone air and it's nice but the file management is terrible, the files app is awful and the photos app is confusing, I kinda want to sell this thing and go back to android.

The phone is nice for the basics, texting, banking, and so forth but web browsing is bad also.

 

[scott craft]

I think OneUI with Good Lock is more customization than Pixel Launcher will ever give us. (That said, I usually throw Niagra on my phone and ditch the stock launcher right away.) But I get a little bit of an ick factor every time I setup a Samsung phone when I have to go through a checklist of what to uninstall and disable. Feels a little like setting up a new Windows PC.

That's a fact. I'm thoroughly enjoying my Pixel but the stock launcher is so limited for customizing the phone.

 

[steelslicerx]

I have a iphone air and it's nice but the file management is terrible, the files app is awful and the photos app is confusing, I kinda want to sell this thing and go back to android.

The phone is nice for the basics, texting, banking, and so forth but web browsing is bad also.

I agree with you completely. The file management is an absolute mess, and photos sync is slower than snails. But again the app UI and app collection is a major issue for me.

 

[capamac]

I agree with you completely. The file management is an absolute mess, and photos sync is slower than snails. But again the app UI and app collection is a major issue for me.

I stopped using photos sync years ago. It is poor. I just manage photos manually now.

 

[macfacts]

The OP has only two posts and those are about how awful Android is. A little bit suspicious.

I suspect he was a regular MacRumors user, then got banned and made that new account.

 

[poi ran]

My main issue, or one of them, is that _I_ want to decide when I want to close an app. I don't like too aggressive battery optimization. I'm not sure if IOS is better, but it is certainly more expensive. Due to circumstances we need a phone for medical apps, and I get the feeling Iphones are better tested, not sure if they are actually better though. For the moment my old Galaxy S21 and Pixel 6a work for this, but I might have to switch to IOS in the future, we'll see.

I wish both IOS and Android had extra special setting for "medical apps" to NEVER close and ALWAYS update often, not hibernate or sleep long periods. I have changed plenty of settings and it works, but out of the box - not that great. Is IOS better?

=

I just bought a Galaxy S26, not the Ultra, just the regular model, for a bit over $400 after Swedish VAT was removed. It was on sale, obviously.

But Samsung phones often are.

It’s actually the most expensive phone I’ve ever bought. My Galaxy S25 Edge was around $370, although that deal was almost too good to be true. Both phones were bought directly from Samsung Shop.

I also bought two Pixel 9a phones for my kids. With a 2-year plan, they came out to about $250 each, a little over $10 a month including both the phone and the plan.

If I had gone with iPhones instead, I would have paid a lot more.

We do own Apple products, including an iPad and several Mac Pros, and Apple does make some relatively affordable devices like the Mac mini and some iPads. But their phones are expensive, or the real cost gets hidden in expensive carrier plans.

I think OneUI with Good Lock is more customization than Pixel Launcher will ever give us. (That said, I usually throw Niagra on my phone and ditch the stock launcher right away.) But I get a little bit of an ick factor every time I setup a Samsung phone when I have to go through a checklist of what to uninstall and disable. Feels a little like setting up a new Windows PC.

Samsung's Good Lock is great. Weird name, maybe. But it, and the other apps in that suite, should be included with the phone, maybe hidden behind "advanced settings" or something, similar to the way Samsung has an "easy mode" for people that want it.

 

[robvalentine]

My main issue, or one of them, is that _I_ want to decide when I want to close an app. I don't like too aggressive battery optimization. I'm not sure if IOS is better, but it is certainly more expensive. Due to circumstances we need a phone for medical apps, and I get the feeling Iphones are better tested, not sure if they are actually better though. For the moment my old Galaxy S21 and Pixel 6a work for this, but I might have to switch to IOS in the future, we'll see.

I wish both IOS and Android had extra special setting for "medical apps" to NEVER close and ALWAYS update often, not hibernate or sleep long periods. I have changed plenty of settings and it works, but out of the box - not that great. Is IOS better?

=

I just bought a Galaxy S26, not the Ultra, just the regular model, for a bit over $400 after Swedish VAT was removed. It was on sale, obviously.

But Samsung phones often are.

It’s actually the most expensive phone I’ve ever bought. My Galaxy S25 Edge was around $370, although that deal was almost too good to be true. Both phones were bought directly from Samsung Shop.

I also bought two Pixel 9a phones for my kids. With a 2-year plan, they came out to about $250 each, a little over $10 a month including both the phone and the plan.

If I had gone with iPhones instead, I would have paid a lot more.

We do own Apple products, including an iPad and several Mac Pros, and Apple does make some relatively affordable devices like the Mac mini and some iPads. But their phones are expensive, or the real cost gets hidden in expensive carrier plans.



Samsung's Good Lock is great. Weird name, maybe. But it, and the other apps in that suite, should be included with the phone, maybe hidden behind "advanced settings" or something, similar to the way Samsung has an "easy mode" for people that want it.

Long press an app icon, then click the circled i in the top right corner, then battery and then unrestricted. that might help your medical apps stay alive so to speak.

 

[Tig Bitties]

Call me a weirdo, but I've been using smartphones for 20 years now, vast majority of them being Nexus and Pixel phones, with maybe 3 of them being iPhone's, and to me stock vanilla Android is miles ahead of iOS in terms of usability and ease of use, etc...

I will say "back in the day" iOS did feel more polished and higher-end than early Android for sure, but in last 8 or so years, I think stock Android is just overall better. But that's my opinion, from a guy that owns ZERO Apple devices in his house, my computers are all custom built high-end Gaming rigs I build myself, and laptops are Windows based Toshibas, my Home theater and music are all Google based or custom built stuff with no Apple interface. So maybe I'm not the right guy to ask?

 

[HouseLannister]

Call me a weirdo

But I totally agree with you.

I think Material 3 Expressive vs. Liquid Glass is a no contest. ME is just so much more consistent, clean, and intuitive to use. LG feels like Apple lost direction. I look forward to seeing what Apple does with Gemini, but I have trouble getting over how ill-conceived a lot of basic design decisions are on iOS. I use both daily, but I definitely enjoy Android a lot more.

 

[Tig Bitties]

View attachment 2629203

But I totally agree with you.

I think Material 3 Expressive vs. Liquid Glass is a no contest. ME is just so much more consistent, clean, and intuitive to use. LG feels like Apple lost direction. I look forward to seeing what Apple does with Gemini, but I have trouble getting over how ill-conceived a lot of basic design decisions are on iOS. I use both daily, but I definitely enjoy Android a lot more.

I was super letdown when Apple announced iOS 26, as before that I thought they were giving us a full redo, totally revised iOS almost from the ground-up, which the iPhone desperately needs, as iOS just looks and more importantly operates like a very outdated machine.

Then they give us Liquid Ass and turned the iPhone into a Windows 95 cell-phone, so I've lost all hope of ever coming back to an iPhone again, until if ever they really do a full new revision OS on the iPhone, which is doubtful.

And anyways, smartphones have become like appliances, no different than your refrigerator or washing machine, they're much needed in our lives but not something needing upgrades annually. I mean do you buy a new fridge every year? I certainly don't. Or even like a PC, I built my own custom made gaming rigs, and there's NO way I do a new one every year, hell no, First off that's super expensive, and secondly pointless, year to year upgrades in PC's is stupid, the upgrades that are noticeable take like every 3 to 5 years between builds to actually see performance gains.

 

[Steve Adams]

Call me a weirdo, but I've been using smartphones for 20 years now, vast majority of them being Nexus and Pixel phones, with maybe 3 of them being iPhone's, and to me stock vanilla Android is miles ahead of iOS in terms of usability and ease of use, etc...

I will say "back in the day" iOS did feel more polished and higher-end than early Android for sure, but in last 8 or so years, I think stock Android is just overall better. But that's my opinion, from a guy that owns ZERO Apple devices in his house, my computers are all custom built high-end Gaming rigs I build myself, and laptops are Windows based Toshibas, my Home theater and music are all Google based or custom built stuff with no Apple interface. So maybe I'm not the right guy to ask?

same here, I have owned MANY devices. I have had MANY iPhones from the 3gs to the 13, I also have had just as many android devices and my favorite windows mobile devices too. Currently I am running a Pixel 8 Pro as my daily with MS launcher installed. I also have a samsung 26 Ultra but my sim is in the pixel. Just feels like the better device.

Next device I am getting is the Motorola Stylus. Cheap, built well and does everything I need. We are done with flagship devices as they provide no real world benefit to us. Low to mid range phones now have most of the features, enough power (I don't game on my phones) so spending all that extra money is a waste. I got our pixels on a deep discount at work. Instead of paying full price I paid 550 for mine and 489 for my wifes.

I am leaving that job soon to embark on my own business ventures (finally) and I won't get those discounts anymore. So the Motorola, Samsung a, Pixel A and nothing devices will be fine for us.

 

[S.B.G]

Gave Android another shot. Regret arrived before my apps finished installing.

Beautiful hardware. Impressive specs.
Then the experience hits you like a group project where nobody showed up prepared.

• Three apps for one job
• Five places to change one setting
• Notifications arguing with each other
• Random battery “optimizations” quietly breaking things

Android doesn’t ship finished—it ships flexible.
Translation: you finish it.

Somewhere between fixing what shouldn’t need fixing and choosing defaults I already chose yesterday, I realized:

This isn’t customization. It’s unpaid QA.

Switched back. Everything just worked.
No meetings. No debugging. No existential questions about my notification shade.

Respect to those who enjoy it—but I’m convinced Android users either love chaos… or don’t remember life without it.

I tried a Samsung Galaxy something or other many years ago when I had the iPhone 6S. I had the exact same experience and I returned the Samsung within 23 hours and got my iPhone back.

Later on I would buy a Google Pixel which doesn't have all those issues and I was happy. I've owned several Pixel phones and never had any problems with them.

 

[HouseLannister]

I've owned several Pixel phones and never had any problems with them.

Which is why this thread makes no sense. The OP said in his second post that this was a Pixel 10 Pro XL, which doesn't have any of the complications of having both Google apps and Samsung apps. It's the cleanest, easiest to use Android experience ever and he didn't even finish installing his apps before quitting the platform. Then he disappeared from his own thread. Just baffling.

 

[S.B.G]

Which is why this thread makes no sense. The OP said in his second post that this was a Pixel 10 Pro XL, which doesn't have any of the complications of having both Google apps and Samsung apps. It's the cleanest, easiest to use Android experience ever and he didn't even finish installing his apps before quitting the platform. Then he disappeared from his own thread. Just baffling.

It has always baffled me to see someone start a thread for discussion and disappear. Although they did post in the thread on Friday.

 

[aespana]

Android works very well. I have a Pixel 9a and it's just incredible how fast and just work this phone is.

No issues with anything in special. Maybe it is just myself disabling things here and there because I don't like Google doing that much (especially with AI things). Good performance, good camera, good battery.

Also Android 16 looks finished and functional and yes, Pixel Launcher is just very bore bones in relation to personalization, you can always install a third party launcher. I prefer a Pixel over a Samsung forever. Since I got to fight against my TV with Tizen, Samsung is dead for me

 

[bluecoast]

It’s a massive mistake on Google’s part to have let the android experience become so fragmented in order to gain distribution for Google’s services.

The core vanilla android experience as seen on pixels - and a few other phones - is excellent.

Certainly Google didn’t repeat the same mistake with ChromeOS & Chromebooks, where the software experience is 100% controlled by Google, with some pretty detailed specifications as to what the Chromebook hardware experience needs to be.

Googlebooks appear to be taking the same approach.

As the OP said (smaller) third party apps often don’t have the care and attention given to to them.

I can’t think of the android equivalents of NetNewsWire and overcast for example (not literal equivalents but carefully crafted android only apps).

The pixel hardware is now nearly as good as Apple’s. Ditto the ux - and with Liquid Glass it’s arguable that the core android material you expressive experience is now better than iOS 27. The Google services and AI are way better too.

But of course you have to have a flexible attitude to privacy…

 

[BSDnostalgia]

But of course you have to have a flexible attitude to privacy…

Summed up succinctly.

 

[macfacts]

Summed up succinctly.

I'm willing to give up "Internet" privacy to Google to get many of these list features(you have to pay a premium to apple to get): https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...on.2482337/page-2?post=34586441#post-34586441

 

[Steve Adams]

But of course you have to have a flexible attitude to privacy…

False sense of security with Apple my friend. They are no better, they just don't tell you what they do and cloak it behind their marketing team. NO tech company is for YOUR privacy. I can assure you that. They are all the same no matter the brand, color, location. They all do the same thing. At least google and Microsoft are open about what they do with your data. Apple is secretive and shady.

 

[bluecoast]

False sense of security with Apple my friend. They are no better, they just don't tell you what they do and cloak it behind their marketing team. NO tech company is for YOUR privacy. I can assure you that. They are all the same no matter the brand, color, location. They all do the same thing. At least google and Microsoft are open about what they do with your data. Apple is secretive and shady.

It’s a good point.

Apple always says that they care about privacy yet they don’t allow any white hat hacker security audits.

All we have is their brand promise and that we trust them.

Like we trusted that they would roll out everything promised with Apple Intelligence shown at WWDC 24 in the iOS 18 cycle.

 

[Steve Adams]

I never trust any publicly traded corporation. It's all about money.