Slu maybe this post could help you out maybe not, but I will give my thoughts. So I think we as smartphone user fight tooth and nail to defend the OS that we choose for many reasons, but we also over look things because we don't want to see negatives. I for one will start by saying I have over looked disadvantages in android many times because I don't see them as disadvantages any more. I have argued for a long time that app quality is about the same on ios and android. Now this is becoming more true over the years, but is still not completely true. Of course there are apps that are completely the same, but other are not and ios has better versions of those apps. I think this is true because ios has only 3 devices and 3 screen sizes to worry about. On android developers have to worry about 100s of sizes, and different versions of android. It just takes more to make an app that works on android. I used ios for a long time, and would always get into arguments with my friend who use android that ios was better. I would always fight that ios was open enough and I could customize my iphone how I wanted it. It was not until I used android that I realize what I was missing in customization. The point I trying to make is we see what we want to see, but both ios and android have negatives is about whether you can still be happy with the OS beyond those things.
So I thought I would go app by app for the ones that I use most, and describe the ios and android versions. I will give you my opinion on which one I like the best. I am going to be as honest as I can.
Facebook- I think we all know that app is just crap on both. The ios version seems to be just a bit better, but that is not saying much at all. Dont really use facebook as much as I did when I was in college, so not really that big of deal to me any more.
Email- Now this is just my experience, but my main email is a gmail email. I find the gmail app to work better for me on android than the stock email app on ios. Now ios email app does a better job of putting all your emails in one place. After finding out about have the emails being able to fit on screen has help so much. Now I have a work email that is an exchange email, and to be honest I do not see the big difference in the two. Now this has come up on this thread several times that the android one is crap, but I just don't use is enough to see it.
Messaging app- I like the stock android app is better than any of the messaging apps on the play store, but I think the ios messaging app wins here. Now maybe after Babel is released it will be a different story, but the imessage and sms being put together is great. This is one of the things I miss about ios.
Music player- ios hands down has a way better music app. This is my number one thing I miss. This was one of the reason I tried the iphone 5. Don't get me wrong the play music app is awesome because you can have all your itunes music in one place without paying anything, but UI wise ios has this one.
Youtube- well seeing as Google owns youtube the android version is way better. Now youtube for ios is updating all the time, so it is getting better still though not as good.
Camera app- well this one is not a hard one ios. Do I need say more?
Tapatalk- this one is my one of most used apps for me. I say they both leave a lot to be desired, but if I had to choose one I would say ios because it has push notifications. Again like facebook I don't find either to be great, and both have a lot of lag.
Maps- google maps to be is hands down the best. Well I should say google maps on android is better than Apple maps. The ios google maps is not that good. Apple maps for being just introduced is pretty good, and will get better, but Google maps I think is the best navigation experience you can get.
Checkbook app- Some people may never use this, but I use this anytime I buy something. I used an app called iReconcile on ios as a checkbook register. Man was that app great. Miss that a lot. After searching for months and months I found easymoney, and I have to say not to bad, but still not iReconcile.
IMDB- another app I use a ton. I have to say it really is just the same on both. It is a good app that works well on both, and there really is no difference.
Flixster- about the same on both. Can't really see any difference.
Twitter- I use the official Twitter app, so I can't speak for the Twitter clients people speak of. The twitter app seems just as good on both.
Browser- I was never a big fan of Safari, and I am still not sold on Chrome. I really liked the stock browser on the galaxy nexus and thought it took the cake. If I had to choose between Safari and Chrome I would go with Chrome. Safari to me just is not for me. It seems so outdated with have a search bar that is not in the url. What browser on any platform does not offer this? This is not to say Chrome is great it is just better than Safari.
At&t UVerse- this is much better on android, but still At&t what can I say the app is just not that good on either. Android seems to add a lot better UI than ios. Things just seem easier to navigate on the android app.
Weather channel- this use to be a toss up, but after the android one got updated a couple of months ago it went south. They add this very cartoonish UI that is a real turn off. I will take the ios version all day long. The only thing I like better about the android version is that I can put the temperature in the notification bar.
Siri or Google now- well I think this might come down to preference, but I will say Siri seems to do more, and google picks up voices better. Now seems to get things more accurate, but Siri just does more stuff. I will let you see for yourself and decide.
Calendar- I like stock android much better. The ios one just seems to me kind of a mess. I think the stock android one is much cleaner and easier to use. Android when looking at the month view seems to give way more information than ios.
Clock app- really like the design of the android one, but ios has the sleep timer built in that lets you sleep whatever music is playing at the time. I use this every night when I am in bed. I know you can download apps from the playstore that do the same thing, but that does not count in app to app comparison.
Pandora- This use to be a no question ios win, but now I think it is a toss up. They both seem to be just a like. Just from me looking at them right now design and polish goes to ios. Over all functionality goes to android. Seems to add more to the experience.
Speed test app- I use this a lot and find the ios after the new update much better. If they get around to updating the android one it will be a toss up again.
Amazon- I like the UI just a bit more on android. Pretty much the same on both.
I know this was long, but I wanted to be as detailed as possible and give you some insight after being a long time user of both. I choose android even after some of my most used apps are not quite as good. Still I just like the way android works better than ios. If you have any question or there are apps that I left out that you want to know about let me know. There are going to be many I have never used, and I will let you know if that is the case. I hope this helps some.
I think google maps does a better job with alternative routes, but looks horrendous on android. Google actually admitted their IOS version looks better than the android version. I think apple maps is the cleanest of them all
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