Android to iphone and back, why

My beloved Pixel 2 XL reached EOL, so time to get a new phone. I have teenagers, they need iphones for imessage(look it up, green bubbles get excluded from group chats, not good as a teenager) I figured I should try it. I like my macbook(professional software dev) so why not?
Iphone Pros:

• imessage is nice, android message platform is a mess. Hopefully they stick with messages
• Lots of choices for accessories
• I like the multi window carplay over the hover bar of android auto. AA is more flexible due to this though(see Android pros)
• Carplay continued. Having a few "shortcut" icons on the left of the larger open app is nice for flipping back and forth. Better then the toggle that AA gives you, which if your car is slow, you mash a bunch of times and it flips back and forth between the 2 apps.
• Open camera take a pic, it's fast. Android seems to have a delay for the first one, next ones are fine
• Apple pay app is really nice. Not just receipts when I use apple pay, but every time I use a card. (I think gpay is starting to do this, but still playing with that)
• Face unlock is awesome, until you wear a mask, but that's temporary(hopefully)
• Lastpass/keypass work very smoothly just about everywhere, not so much in android. iphone has the "autofill" as one of the options on the keyboard, very slick.
• Parked car in maps works very smoothly
• Web pages load fast, going back a page is fast, it's just all fast. This is with Brave browser, so not even comparing safari to chrome. It's chrome vs chrome. Also swipe forward and back to go back and forth is nice. Android only lets me go back (unless I missing something)
• Security updates go on for years, 5? 6? I'm not even sure, but it's not short.
• Unified security is nice. Every app seems to let me use face unlock. First and third party. Android here is a mess as well. First party(ie google) apps sometimes I can use fingerprint, sometimes I need my pin(I'm looking at you gpay) Third party apps seem better about letting me use my finger on android. Apple it's face everywhere, with a pin as a backup(like when using a mask)
• Face works much more reliably then finger, especially after a shower/swim

Android Pros:

• On my homescreens I can put my app icon anywhere, and it just stays. iphone is a terrible mess for this. It's a one time setup, but please don't ever change once it's set up on iphone, you'll be frustrated all over again
• Android auto can give me a temperature overlay over the maps, weather apps aren't allowed in carplay(weatherology installs, but does nothing when in carplay). Also, pocketcasts in apple? What did they do there, it's a mess. App thing, not a android/apple thing
• Android auto can do 2 things at once! Yeah, bigger deal then it sounds like. Got a new message? Click the bell, gassist reads it to you, AND you can still see your map. iphone? You can do one of the other. No bell icon. You have to back out to the "main menu" When its reading it, you can't go back to the maps, otherwise it cuts it off. This means no replying either. When you do reply, it doesn't type it out like gassist does. That could be a good thing, depending on how distracted you can get.
• My sms messages just come through. This may be my fault not disabling rcs on my old phone first, but I have heard of others not getting their sms messages in imessage. In gmessage I just get them all
• Siri vs Gassistant, not even close, gassist just understands more stuff
• Gmaps vs imaps. Much closer, but things like "avoid tolls" isn't very accessible in imaps.
• Volume actually works. In iphone certain apps(more then 1) if the volume is too loud, I hit volume down, nothing happens. I volume down to mute, it's still loud. I close the app, then go back, volume is correct. Android, volume down just always means quieter, as it should be
• Price, I got a 4a5g for $400 less them an iphone.
• usb-c. Seriously apple, everything is usbc, even my macbook, stop it with the lighting.
• Google Home vs Home assistant. I have a hubitat to try to avoid lockin(and a smarthings, which is on it's way out), and GH just works so much better at controlling it then HA.
• Notifications. iphone is a trainwreck in comparison. Half the time the related apps notifications are expanded, sometimes not. Swiping away one of the group(like a single email) no such thing. A clear button pops up over a group, that clears every notification on the screen, not just the ones for that group(I know, you can clear just a group too, but the clear button is just bad UI design)
• QR code scanning, tons faster on android. Any flex driver will appreciate this.
• Always on display. I like glancing down and seeing the time. For fractions of battery life, it's worth it.
• Per app notification sounds. I have some apps that are work only. Setting different notification sounds for those apps so if I hear them I know to ignore them(when I'm not working, or really when I don't want to think about work) vs my social apps. In iphone they are set up by the application, and can't be changed. Most just seem to default to the 'default notification" sound. This is what put me over the top.

A Wash:

• Pictures. They both look great. Annoying that by default iphone saves them in that hevc mode(it's like quicktime all over again) I know I can default to save them in jpeg, which takes more space. But you don't find this out till after you've taken a bunch Android saves in jpeg, so space is a wash really.
• Pictures again. Both take great pictures. I don't have an iphone pro, so I can't comment on that, but for an everyday user, they are both great.
• Screens. Both look great

So I tried iphone, but it was death by a thousand papercuts. Lots of little things that made me decide "why should I have to put up with these things?" Most are minor, so probably don't bother people. I also don't have a watch(no plans to) so I'm not fully in the eco system, which I'm sure would sway people the other way. I'm back to android. 4a5g, terrible name. Maybe I should put that in the iphone pros.

I still have both phones for a couple weeks, if people want me to compare other things.

Submitted December 29, 2020 at 10:26PM by aflat https://ift.tt/2X7GXIh https://ift.tt/eA8V8J