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 beneficial to have my friends 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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

In my case 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 RCSi/Message, it's not like there aren't enough messaging options out there.

I moved to iOS able a year ago after being a diehard Samsung fan. I have a long list of pros to switching. The parental controls if you have kids are way beyond Android. That's really the reason we switched.

The only real con I can give you from a user perspective is the swipe typing is atrocious on every keyboard. I can't express how much I hate typing on my phone. It makes bad corrections so often it's pretty much impossible for me to post typo free posts of any length, and it goes back and changes the word before the one you're typing so you check that the right word is there and nice on and when you look again later after you post, you find it switched the right word to the wrong one. But if you don't swipe, you won't notice.

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.

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.

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.

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. :)

Lack of serviceability is a big one.

Walled gardens are another.

I have major issues with both. I bought the device, I should be able to repair it. It shouldn't intentionally not work with other ecosystems that use standard protocols either. I should be able to integrate my device with standards the rest of the world uses.

Pretty much you buy apple devices, you are essentially an expensive renter renting a really strong internal ecosystem that purposefully forces you into buying more of that ecosystem and not working outside of it.

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.

The only thing keeping me from switching to an Apple device is ads on youtube. You can get a modded youtube app on Iphone but it takes way more work compared to an android. If you don't have a mac, file transfer is also a pain on windows machines.

On the other hand, Apple UX really is great. If you prefer UX over customizability, I don't see why you wouldn't go for an Iphone.

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 am a gadget fanatic, but I also love to maintain privacy. One problem I always see mentioned is wallet garden on iOS. I put some of my experience into the ring here. I use GrapheneOS as my daily drive for most things. This starts with no google services and ends with profiles where I can separate people and groups and install multiple of the same apps.. like signal etc.

For lots of my work, I use a samsung fold 4. It replaced my laptop, and it's convenient. With adg (remove many Samsung apps and the Facebook and microsoft bloatware) and block internet access to most apps via rethinkdns and decloudus, you get a pretty convenient yet private device. I monitor what goes in and out and block all i don't need.

My family is all into apple so I also have an iPhone (not an excuse haha, I also love some of the wallet gardened things. Like apple music, imessage (for very few people) and I love the focus setup. I know you can do a lot manually on android to get it similar, but focus modes are a killer. I also never found as great looking and working mastodon apps (and yes, I use tusky, fedilab, and a few others on android. I still prefer what ios (some paid, some free have to offer, mammoth comes to mind on the free end). To make things more private, I use adguard pro in combination with decloudus and block apple our of the device. Still get push, and all works when you add a very few domains listing on the decloudus whitelist page.

So I use 3 options (GrapheneOS what is surly the best when it comes to privacy) but also wouldn't want to miss ios or a fold.

iOS is great and if it works for you and you are happy with it, perhaps even have a mac then you can make it a great, private and secure device. Use lockdown mode is also a great way I didn't see on android yet.

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

IOS is the best of the proprietary software platforms available, that doesn't make it better. All of their statements are based on trust, since we can't audit the statement, due to not being able to independently audit the code.

If you thought the San Bernidino iphone case wasn't smoke and mirrors to try and build trust in the platform, i have a bridge to sell you. (Edit: I say this as an iphone user, who has had one for years)

but most of the benefits come with a lot of tinkering out of the box.

This is by design, because who you're buying your phone from is highly invested in fucking you over

The problem is that your soul has a price these days, and to keep it to yourself you're going to have to shell out for it.

https://puri.sm/

OSS phone with all the tinkering done for you. $2000. (edit 2: You can probably get their Librem 5 for under 1k with the discount code on the main page: https://puri.sm/products/librem-5)

This isn't the only option, but all of them will be more expensive than an iphone, and that price is specifically to do the work you're hoping apple does on your behalf.

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.

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 made the switch a year ago from android to apple. I did the whole rooting and degoogling thing but that took time and I had bugs sometimes which required more tinkering. At one point I was like I don’t have time for this and the nexus to pixel switch didn’t convince me to keep going with android. I switched to iOS and haven’t regretted me move. A few android phones like Sony and Oneplus almost convince me to go back but not yet.

Th blue and green bubble is blown out of proportion especially now that android made the update that green bubble people can emoji respond to messages now. Before you used to get this odd messages that was like so and so laughed at this message.

One thing I would warn you about is the App Store. Most apps cost money which is a pro and a con depending on how you look at it. There are money grabbing subscription apps but I can usually find an awesome one time fee app. Generally the apple App Store has good quality apps but there’s a fee. This kind of adds to the apple eco system because now you paid for high quality apps and they may not transfer if you go back to android.