This used to be a huge issue for me, but the last couple of Samsung phones I bought they kept them pretty well supported for years.
I switched to iPhone because I was the last in the family thread and was ruining it for everyone's bubbles, and the iPhone mini is just a great size, the android phones I liked just kept getting a bit bigger and bigger to the point that it bothered me.
This was a huge reason for my switch from Android to Apple. Years ago i ran custom ROMs but i found myself spending far too much time flashing updates, and forgetting to backup data and wiping something important.
I will say, some ROMs these days are practically maintenance free. I have been running graphene os for about 3 years now and I have never had issues updsting by just pressing the button.
My problem with Apple is that everything's designed to interoperate with other Apple stuff, and nothing else. It feels like a walled garden that doesn't just keep users in, but also keeps those of us out who might want to try a single Apple device without spending many thousands replacing our entire ecosystem.
That’s my belief. They don’t derive revenue from their users data, they get it through hardware sales and service subscriptions. Google has proven that they will monetize their users data in not so pleasant ways. I like Google products a lot but don’t use them because of their business practices overall
But then you lose functionality like Android Auto, where on an iPhone you get CarPlay. Android Auto on my Pixel 7 Pro is fine, honestly like as much as CarPlay, but if you install something like Graphene OS, it no longer works.
I’m responsible for supporting the phones for my family and my wife’s office. When smartphones became available, the iPhones seemed much easier to support with my non-tech-savvy user base then Android and I’ve stuck with that ever since.
I've had to support both in my family, apple has consistently been more of a pain. They're almost impossible to fix when they'd decide to start breaking or doing weird things. Every android is an easy fix, and no matter how bad they get there is always a fix. With apple after almost any point it's "send it in and pay for a repair or buy a new one", just like apple designs them to do.
It really depends on your budget and what you define as an "easy fix." For tons of people I know, they'd rather send something in for repair or buy a new device than spend twenty minutes searching for a solution.
Google doesn’t have vision or taste in my opinion. They released a million messaging apps and STILL haven’t made a decent one. Its been how many years and they still use SMS on most androids and people have to rely on whatsapp, a Fcaebook app… now they’re releasing their new “standard” RCS which has competing versions some with end to end encryption by default and some without.
They STILL don’t have a FaceTime alternative unless you use whatsapp…
Google knows how to show ads and everything else has so little passion and vision i dont trust any of their services because they love to kill their products
I don't even use any Apple products, but I still gotta agree with all this.
How they didn't do an iMessage style client better than Apple given the fact Hangouts was right there and superior in every way for so long is just.... bleh.
Google is losing it. Android is losing more nerd functionality and just copying iOS... but poorly. YouTube Music was better as Google Play Music. "Chats" was better as Hangouts. Where Google Fi at? Where Google Fibre gone? How's Google+ going?
They definitely integrated hangouts and had video calling. Apple didn't open up their ecosystem so you just couldn't call them. Why has Apple still not provided a service similar to hangouts?
My counterpoint is that you have to use WhatsApp (I rather use Signal) because iMessage is Apple only. SMS and RCS are stupid. With Signal you can reach users of all devices. Having a messaging protocol that depends on the device used is stupid. And hopefully the EU can end the vendor lock in with messaging apps as well.
I understand the "taste" argument, but personally the goal of not having a corporation man-in-the-middle everything I do takes priority. I degoogle my phone to the best of my ability.
Unfortunately, good vision and design takes funding, and there's not a lot of money to be made from not taking advantage of users.
The fact that most people cant answer that is the problem. More people have android phones than iphones yet everyone knows FaceTime and no one knows a name for video calling on android phones. Android users dont have a culture to video calling where as people with iphones casually facetime eachother instead of doing phone calls.
I agree except for third party apps. I used the iphone 12 for about a year before I switched back to android. Now I have an iPhone for my work phone and an android for my personal.
Yes, some third party apps are better supported. But in my experience, it's only the big name ones. When you start getting into "indie" apps, I think android wins. The number of time I have tried to do something with my iPhone only to discover I can't is way too high.
And it's usually small things that add up over time. For instance, I use Alarmy for my alarm. With android, you can have the app lock down the phone. You must turn off the alarm the designed way (photos, barcodes, math, etc. It's a really cool app and I highly recommend it). If you try to close it out, it'll start itself again and start alarming. But with iPhone, I can close the app and the alarm goes away and won't ring again. It made it pretty useless when I could still just dismiss the app anyway.
Wanna torrent with your phone? Nope.
Want a different keyboard? Sure, unless your typing in a password, then you must use IOS keyboard.
Those are some notable examples I remember off the top of my head.
The keyboard for password limitation makes sense though as a 3rd party keyboard could act as a malicious keylogger. Forcing the native keyboard prevents that.
From a developer standpoint, I can affirm this. Android is much easier to develop on, presumably because Android doesn't lock down as much functionality as iOS. Neither is "right" or "wrong," they just have different philosophies.
Oh, and Android has a much lower barrier to entry to begin development. Apple charges significantly more to publish apps, and you can't really develop iOS apps without an Apple device. Not a big deal for the big players, but indie projects have a harder time.
I think messages from other iphones show up as green, with messages from android phones showing up as blue. No clue how this interacts with group chats.
Idk it just works and I have the whole ecosystem to support it so why not. I flip flop between Android and iPhone whenever. My previous phone was a Pixel 6 Pro. It really doesn’t matter to me, it’s just about how goofy I feel on the day I decide to buy a phone.
Same. Got an S23U in May, I like it, but I started to miss my iPhone so I popped my sim card back in my 12pro max. Can’t decide if I want to keep using it and get the 15 when it comes out or switch back to my 23U.
My Employer provides me with an iPhone for work use, primarily for remote access.
I was enthusiastic about getting it, as a long time time android user I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, but having interacted with it frequently I really don't get why people like it so much.
Same boat here. Some stuff is so counterintuitive that it's frustrating. For example, I want to turn Bluetooth off, since it's my work phone and I rarely need to connect headphones to it - why cant I turn it off properly through the quick access menu? Same with wifi, who tought it was a good idea to turn off bluetooth and wifi until the next day, with Bluetooth not even being properly turned off and instead just put into "do not pair" mode?
The overall experience is smooth and everything feels uniformous and well engineered, but some design decisions werent made by actual humans I swear.
I don’t like that a giant tech company today is basically an advertising company. Google that is. And so I don’t like that they made their phone OS “free” so that they could dominate the platform and so increase the reach of their advertising empire.
I like that apples business is products. Make, design and sell them to the customer. So I pick Apple. If Microsoft were still in the game and were not trying to steal google’s advertising business I’d consider them too.
Also, apple products have always done well for me. There’s a bit of a knack to picking the right time to buy, probably happens one out of every few years that there’s a sweet spot.
But IME, if you do you’ve got a good reliable product for years. I’ve been using Apple stuff since ~2005 and basically only had two laptops and two phones. Second laptop could do with an upgrade shortly (latest OS isn’t supported and M2 looks pretty good), though it doesn’t have to be and the second phone is going strong still.
Yea I completely forgot to mention HomeKit in my comment! Is it kind of generic and do I wish it could do more? Yea, but damn is it nice to tell Siri “goodnight” and all the light in the house go out, the doors lock, and the alarm sets! Plus my partner can use it better than home assistant, and if I need my bro to come watch my house for a week, I can give him access on his phone and revoke it any time!
I like android and have a couple android devices (mostly retro handhelds and CCTV, and have spun up a few VMs), I also have many devices with linux (unraid, pihole, vpn servers, web servers) and run a pfsense firewall (FreeBSD), AND my gaming PC is windows...
I say all that because when it comes to mobile devices, however, I am all in pretty much on apple. Phone, watch, Pro 2s, and Ipad mini go with me pretty much every where. Why? not really the app eco-system (because I do so much self-hosting and use a lot of PWAs, and I dont play games on my phone), its the inter-operability between all the devices, its the find my device, Its the earpods going from my ipad to my iphone in an instant, Its the battery life, its (for the most part) security of the devices.
The blue/green bubble thing is weird and I don't understand why people get so upset over it. I use everything, and to be honest the only thing at this point in my life I would like to get rid of is windows, but I can't yet because of gaming.
Yea I love my steam deck, but I can’t even run holoiso on my main rig even if I wanted to because I have a 3080 and apparently they don’t play nice together. Then on top of that not being able to play online mp games, is a pain as well.
Are you me? The only difference is macbookair for my portable, then two windows machines, one work (nuc on windows) and gaming rig on windows.
The work machine isn’t changing anytime soon due to the applications I need, but with windows 11 crap and how smooth my steam deck is I’m so close to wiping the gaming machine and going Linux. Thankfully with the knowledge from my server, the switch will be more kind than if I’d never touched Linux before.
Thankfully with the knowledge from my server, the switch will be more kind than if I’d never touched Linux before.
For real man, close to a decade ago I started off with a raspberry pi b+ and literally copying and pasting every code I found, and today I feel I can do almost anything I want in Linux. Moving from tinkering with Xbmc and retropies, to setting up openhan and pi-holes, then moving on to dockers, home assistant, and web-servers to building out a server/networking closet and running cat6 through the house lol
I love that the steam deck has a desktop mode as well. If steamos was out for desktop AND it supported nvidia (which it currently doesn’t), then that would be my new OS and I’d drop windows today.
Well, I buy xiaomi phones and ... well, need to root and flash roms. That is only me though, I am sure there are many users that are okay with OEM phone systems.
Oh man the MacBook is the shit, I switched to mac years ago, windows laptops just suckkkkkkk. The touchpad alone is enough for me to never have a windows laptop again. Can dual boot it to windows too to cover all bases. My MacBook is over 10 years old and still running the latest OS smoothly and feels like it's up to todays standards still for what I use it for.
I know, I’ve used macs/MacBooks before. There are a handful of gestures I can’t get used to. And at this point, I’ve got everything setup, and all the software setup for what I’ve got. I actually really like my surface.
That's kinda funny because that's probably their product category that I find the most compelling. Watches and earbuds I don't care about, phones can really go either way, but since they switched to the M chips the power and efficiency are just so good the Windows laptop just look a lot worse in comparison to me.
I admittedly haven’t looked at the MacBooks since I bought my surface, but size and storage/processing were a large part of my decision. Plus I struggle with some of the Mac gestures. I honestly can’t get past the lack of right click, HOWEVER windows is doing some seriously annoying dumb shit lately, so I’ll look at the MacBook again, when my surface dies.
Every other computer I interact with is on windows. All the software we have is windows (I’m not sure how subscription services work for switching OS).
All I’m saying is it’ll take some doing to switch over, and they hadn’t been worth it to me in past researching. Just like I’d struggle to switch from the Apple phone/watch/AirPod situation.
You can replace OneUI with a different launcher. I don't have these app pages that are unintuitive boxes. I have an alphabetical app list with a favorites at the top.
Hopped on the iPhone train with the 5S. That phone was such a performance beast. Blew the competition out of the water. Android phones at the time looked like toys in comparison.
The gap is a lot smaller now than it used to be, but I’ve just stuck with it. I have a 13 mini now and I love the small size with basically no compromise. I’ll cling onto this thing until it dies and then maybe switch to a Linux phone if they’ve caught on by then.
Kind of. There is the PinePhone and Librem 5 that both run full Linux. I have a Pinephone. Unfortunately, the hardware is underpowered and the software is not ready to replace iOS or Android. The battery is also not good. The standby has improved a lot, so it can last a day of limited use, but the battery drains very quickly when the device is actively being used. It's definitely fun to play around with, and it even has the convergence feature Microsoft tried to do with Windows Phone. The UI changes to regular desktop Linux when plugging the phone into a monitor and connecting a keyboard and mouse. But again, the hardware really limits what can be done.
In short, Linux phones are a thing, but not reliable enough to be the only phone a person has.
longevity. Between software updates and an over powered phone cpu I know it will last. Android phones in general barely get security updates.
Simplicity. I used to root and install ROMs on my android phone. I used to jailbreak iPhones. I’m done with that now. I do enough technical work at work I don’t want to have to mess with my phone.
Security. Ties into updates somewhat, but how often do you hear about iOS malware? It is usually big news when you do.
Well for one thing Apple rather famously slows down its old phones and lost a lawsuit over it. Apple has plenty of merits but longevity is definitely not one of them.
Basically because of company Google became. Not saying Apple is better, just they respect my privacy so much more and support their products for longer, give a shit about security, etc. Matters to me.
a few reasons: I know I'll get product support for the entire life of the phone. I will always be able to update to the latest software. The OS feels a lot more polished, refined, and smoother than android phones that I have used in the past. It works seamlessly with my Apple TV and MacBook, the apps available are generally higher quality, receive updates faster, and some of the specific ones I use are not available on android (foreflight). The camera outperforms other androids that I have used.
I don't care at all about the bubbles. I don't use iMessage at all, 0.
Convenience. Most things "just work". No need to customize or fiddle with things.
Price. Hear me out :D I used Android phones in the past (a mix of mid-ranges and flagships) and over time it ended being more expensive than using an iPhone.
Ecosystem. My mac laptops, watch, earphones, phone etc. all work together in useful ways. It sounds gimmicky but most of the time it's not.
Apple watch. There simply isn't anything that is close to it.
How everything feels cohesive and designed with the bigger picture in mind. Especially in the first party apps, you mostly know how things will behave.
Feels more "polished". I always felt like I'm using something that is designed by an engineer when using Android.
Not OP but I interpreted the comment to mean “my iPhones last longer so I replace them less often, therefore spending less over time than buying a less expensive android phone more often”
Overall I ended up changing a couple of Android devices within the same time frame that I’d be using a single iPhone.
I have an XS which is a ~5 years old device and will get the 17. And it’s still a very capable one.
When you say there isn't anything close to an apple watch what features are you talking about? Because I have so far not heard a convincing argument for an apple watch instead of something like Garmin.
Maybe if your main use case is as an activity tracker, you’re probably right. But for me it’s a phone extension.
I think Garmins are mainly sport watches with some smart features and the Apple watch is the opposite.
Calling someone using siri, or doing things with siri in general are features I use all the time.
Apple watch for me is a phone that I can use when cooking and taking care of a toddler at the same time without ever touching it. Garmin simply can’t do it. Alexa is not that great and the general integration is obviously not as good as Apple.
Because over the last 7 years my iPhones consistently delivered very good user experience, including migrating to the next device, which is completed in about an hour or two, and then there’s everything on the new device: apps, configuration and data.
Yep, about the only things that don't transfer (in my experience, anyway) are files in your phone's memory—the transfer is usually wireless, so it's understandable—and apps not available on the Play Store—also understandable; the apps "sync" by literally redownloading all the apps from the Play Store (which is honestly for the best; it'll download the best optimized version of the app available for your new phone as opposed to one optimized for your old phone).
Migrating to the next device is super simple and quick on Android. Samsung, as well as Google, have made that available for many years. User experience is subjective. I can't stand the UI when I have to pick up an Apple device
Switched to iphone for first time.
This is what I like:
Camera
Compact size
Shortcuts
What I hate:
Recent call log sucks, only displays few calls
No call recording
No back button gesture. Swipe to go back only works in few apps.
Have to tap 3-4 times to come back to home screen from wifi/bt joining setting
No whatsapp backup without icloud, I already have gdrive subscription, why should I also purchase icloud
Google photos backs up all photos, cant select to backup just camera photos, because of iphones fucked up storage management.
Keyboard sucks, google keyboard was way fast for me. I could just just hold and input characters form it without switching everytime.
Nzb360 dosent work because of app store policy.
Re keyboard: Surprised you hate the keyboard, I have never been remotely as accurate on an android phone (I do have to interact with them frequently for work). But you can install gboard from the App Store, and I believe that is the same Google keyboard as on android, but I may be mistaken. Doesn’t let you use it on password fields tho, which can get annoying.
Re nzb360: check out LunaSea. I ended up migrating to qBit with vuetorrent as a webui so I can just use a PWA tho, then I don’t have to worry about app compatibility, at least for torrents. Sonarr/radarr/others have been fine for me in a PWA
Re iCloud: you pay for Google drive, which is googles version of iCloud. on an iPhone, you get iCloud. I imagine Android won’t let you backup your WhatsApp stuff to onedrive, iCloud, etc, so why would it be different on iPhone?
Re storage management: this really comes down to how you think about things. Apple goes for a more “tag” like approach with albums where Google goes for a more “folder” like approach. Some people think about it one way, some another. Personally, I lost all my photos from both my previous android phones because it could never figure out how/where to save them (back in the micro sd card days). I’m sure it’s better now, but boy howdy did it suck the last time I used it.
As for Google photos, I use Immich, which is a self hosted alternative, and it lets you backup based on album(s) or everything. I would imagine Google photos could do the same, but if it can’t, that’s on Google.
What I have found when people switch (either direction) is complaints about compatibility with services they are used to. So iPhone to android, complaints about losing iMessage, or iCloud Drive, or whatever other stuff may only be available to apple customers. The same holds true in the opposite direction, so android to iPhone, complaints about RCS (which yeah, apple should support anyway) or backup to Google drive. But really, it’s a completely different platform. While some things come over and are compatible, not everything is due to competing platforms having competing services. And at the end of the day, that’s what makes both platforms better.
Personally, I’ve been on iOS for probably 10 years with maybe a single Pixel in there for a brief period before I returned it. I like it because it’s familiar and what I’m used to. When it comes to my phone, I don’t have patience for troubleshooting things, I just want it to do what I need, and get out of my way. My last android phone, it felt like all I did for 2 weeks before returning it was tinker with it to make it cooperate, and in the end, I just didn’t care anymore, so back to iPhone I went.
And none of that was intended to be hostile if it came off that way, text is hard sometimes. Hope some of those replies help you!
People with iPhones use iMessage for texting which turns their bubbles blue (green for any other type of phone) and with iMessage there are a whole slew of features that people enjoy like chat bubbles to show active typing, read receipts, sending over Wi-Fi, etc. Often there's one member of a group chat with an Android who can't take advantage of those features and it limits the group chat features since they use SMS/MMS/RCS protocol instead. Here's an article about it:
Android to iPhone uses SMS or MMS: bland, boring, and unsecure
Why you ask, Apple won't let anyone else use the iMessage protocol and also won't add RCS to their phones so they just use a protocol from the 90s instead
So basically the expected experience of literally any non sms/mms messaging protocol? But somehow designed to cause weird elitism? We had those features when we would hop onto whatever popular messenger on the pc after elementary school... or the coloured translucent all in one apple computer before it was cool to have apple products.
To be truthful the FCC should have forced apple to move off iMessages. Especially due to them registering numbers which they shouldn't have control over. Friend got a new number recently when they changed providers, the new number of course didn't work for any messages that came from iPhones because it was previously used by an Apple user.
So essentially someone buys a service from Company A. Puts it in their hardware from Company B, yet company C is dictating their ability to recieve messages. The user did this ~June 15th, didnt figure out iPhones weren't able to send her messages to June 20th. So her birthday was June 18th, the same day as fathers day. Most plans almost fell through because her dads iPhone just lies and says the iMessage is read immediately.
There really should just be a class action lawsuit against Apple that requires them to stop hijacking services from users that are not their customers.
Sidenote: Apple's first solution they provide for this is to move your sim card to one of their products to deregister from their services. That is so fucking disgusting to me. Thankfully the site now has a "No longer have your old device option" to de-register from the servoce you never signed up for... on a product you never owned.
The iPhone was the first smartphone. I got my 3G before android phones were a thing. Once you are used to an ecosystem, it just is easier to stay there. I struggle when someone hands me an android.
That is true, it goes the other way too. The only reason I can somewhat use an IPhone proficiently is because of the amount of tech support I have given for them.
Bubbles are literally no part of the reason why I use one, I genuinely could not give less of a shit about that. The real reason is pretty simple: my old phone died and I needed a new one pretty quickly. At the time it was basically a decision between a Pixel 4a and an iPhone SE 2020, which seemed like the best options at that price point. The Pixel had a better battery, camera, and used android, with the possibility of flashing a custom rom (which all else equal I'd prefer), while the iPhone's main advantages were the much faster chip and longer support period. I probably would have gone the Pixel, but as it turned out it wasn't in stock at the time, so I got the iPhone.
I have a Google Pixel 6a. It's probably pretty close to what you want from a iPhone Mini. It's still a bit bigger than the iPhone Mini and I would like an even smaller version.
I don't know why people say this is a feature of iphonesm All I hear is people complaining that texting g doest work very well on iphone.im an android guy, and have never had a problem texting nobody.
It's an issue with apple not wanting to either share their message protocol(which is understandable) or integrate rcs which would make almost everything to work as intended
It boggles the mind that people won't just install WhatsApp or Signal or Telegram or anything of the sort, and would rather exclude people from group chats or deal with a worse experience. I mean, it's not that big of an ask! I'm sure most people have more than one app on their phone that just sits there and wastes space, why not replace it with one of those? Heck, even Facebook's Messenger could be an alternative.
I prefer Android but the ability to do things such as use my AirPods on multiple Macs, iPhones, and iPads is very convenient. Ditto for things like Apple TV and HomeKit (though I use Home Assistant to control my HomeKit devices).
Other things:
Hardware has a longer useful life (Android phone manufacturers "commit" to n years of updates, but the timing of releases is slow and usually limited to 3 years, at most.) There are still iPhone 6 devices in the wild running the latest version of iOS.
Standardized hardware and consistently updated software results in more and better apps.
In short: iPhone is an appliance but an Android smartphone is/can be a pocket computer with greater flexibility.
YMMV
EDIT: Also, my wife and kids use iPhone. When I used an Android phone, I had them all install signal so we communicate securely. With iPhone, that's built in.
Your airpods comment I feel it's a downside because you're limited to Apple devices. My Galaxy buds seamlessly work on and automatically switch between my phone, tablets, and Windows PC. And they don't look like there's a string hanging out of my ear
I used Android for over a decade. Then recently my work bought me an iPhone. My biggest struggle was finding a replacement for Reddit Is Fun, until I found Apollo. I mourned for its loss until I found Lemmy and Wewef. In the end a phone is a phone but Lemmy is life!
Couldn't care less about blue bubbles cause I mostly use Telegram.
I'm currently running two phones, on iOS & one Android.
My iPhone syncs nicely with my iPad which i appreciate. I also find the photos app better, especially how you can sort by date (metadata) or date-uploaded. Also the 6.1inch iPhone gets better battery than any of the similar-sized Androids I've tried.
I literally just switched to the iPhone 14 after a lifetime of android phones. Honestly I’ve just gotten older and don’t use my phone like I used to. I don’t need to have android for anything specific anymore and the iPhone AirPods Apple Watch combo really just can’t be beat. You can do the combo with android but honestly nothing is as seamless as the Apple options.
My biggest concern is the longevity of the phone. My android phones all hold their charge well and rarely have issues. My Apple work phone has had its battery crap out after only a year and a half. But still I needed an upgrade and it just made sense.
In my case, because I had a bad experience with Android phones in their early years. Each model I used had one or the other issues, either battery life, camera issues, screen issues or something else. Around the Samsung S3 days I finally moved to iPhone and "everything just worked".
I am sure things are better now in the Android world hardware-wise (and software-wise Android has always been able to do more), but over the years I have become firmly entrenched in the Apple ecosystem with the Apple Watch, Airpods, Macbooks, Apple TV etc so it doesn't make sense for me to switch again because there isn't a compelling reason for me to do so.
I wouldn’t worry about it. You can make things work just as well as android phones work with everything else. AirPods work with android phones and you can sync data through google apps, etc. just as well on iphone. I have both and android (Pixel) and iPhone and don’t feel “sucked in” to anything.
The main difference for me is that iphones have been more durable. I went through three Pixel upgrades, two times there was some minor hardware issue that bricked the phone. The one I have now had a cracked screen - even though I got a tempered glass screen protector and always keep it in the case. If my iPhone gets bumped around I don’t need to worry. With my second Pixel I dropped the phone four feet onto linoleum ( not a super hard surface) and a capacitor came loose. It cost almost as much as a new phone to get it fixed and it was not a typical repair, so trying to even find a place to do this specialized kind of repair was going to be a hassle.
For me knowing that my phone isn’t just going to spontaneously break is a big factor.
I don’t want to get sucked into an ecosystem where my choice of what product to buy is so limited.
This isn't actually the case in my experience, because non-Apple products work just fine with the iPhone unless it's some Android-specific accessory. No one wants to ignore the iPhone market so they make sure that their product is well-supported on iPhones. For instance, I use a bunch of headphones from various manufacturers, apart from AirPods, and they all work great too.
The actual issue is that if you want to move from iPhone to Android later you may have issues getting some Apple devices you have to work with Android, e.g. I don't think the Apple Watch works at all with Android.
I'm not an Apple person, but this makes perfect sense to me. I think it was Steve Jobs himself who talked about the iPod "halo effect", which was the idea that if they could sell you an iPod because it was cool (and it was), and they made the iPod experience on PC worse than on the Mac (which it was initially), then people were more likely to buy a Mac as their next machine. If they didn't, they got FOMO, because they already bought the iPod and obviously want the best experience out of it. (That's an oversimplification and not sure it was Jobs, but the gist is there).
Now the Apple ecosystem is designed so that every Apple product is pretty tightly integrated with every other one. Unless you have some deeper reason to get away from it (privacy concerns, cost, lack of features, customizability, etc), there isn't a reason at all to leave.
One thing for me is honestly how great the operating system is. A lot of people just look at phones as the basic call text, download apps, etc. but I’ve been trying to use my phone to answer questions that I would normally Google or two to look at stock prices or two Google definitions for words, or even using the native translator app inside.
My first smartphone was an iPhone 3GS. Android wasn’t really an competitive option yet. Since then, I’ve stayed on iOS because I already had purchased apps I’d loose if I switched. (Remember when you bought mobile games, instead of endlessly paying for them with in-game currency?) Vendor lock-in is real.
A robust ecosystem
Privacy protection features and measures that are given first rate support - at least as far as you can say about a closed source platform
Simplicity
I have years of experience with iPhones and flagship Galaxy phones since the 5.
I’m settled on the iPhone for now because those blue bubbles make keeping in contact with family easy. Sure you could use WhatsApp but if it’s not already being used, most people won’t want to download another app just to communicate. They’d rather use the built in texting app.
It also syncs well with my watch that I use for fitness tracking, and my Mac Studio that I use for professional work.
with it's proprietary software, no one knows whether or not ios is good for privacy or not. it certainly sends data back to apple automatically, without user consent.
Yeah. I added an addendum although I clearly did not format it properly.
They claim to be about privacy and seem to consider it a first class concern or however you want to put it.
I weighed the risks and the inconvenience of using a degoogled phone severely outweighs its utility for me.
In an ideal world I could be using GrapheneOS but a lot of OSS still has some ways to go in terms of design and functionality.
Also before the “HA GOTCHA GO SUPPORT THEM YOURSELF” etc etc, I financially support many open source projects and foundations and am working on sharpening my dev skills to contribute more.
Isnt that wholely dependant on what kind of dev and project youre working on. For example, browser devs would diaagree given that all browsers on IOS must use Webkit.
Reliability, battery life, OS optimization, long term support.
These things may be normal for today’s android handsets, but back when I switched from the Samsung Galaxy S6 to the iPhone, they definitely weren’t the norm. I went through about 6 different android phones, got into custom roms and bootloaders, did all that fancy stuff. I got real comfortable with it and I got used to the idea that my phone app might just lock up randomly for no reason. Or my GPS app would freeze when I’m miles and miles away from civilization. I got tired of troubleshooting and stuff and I just wanted something reliable.
My employer (a mid-sized tech company) had a policy that employees could access corporate Slack, email, etc. from personal iPhones but not personal Android phones. I think it was for security reasons.
I was using Android, but I needed mobile phone access for on-call shifts. The company gave me a choice of either replacing my Android with an iPhone (and they would partially reimburse the cost); or, they would issue me a corporate iPhone, and I'd have to carry both phones when I was on-call. I picked the first option and switched to iPhone.
Every android phone I've owned has crapped out by the 2 year mark, and that's even when not using custom ROMs or rooting. IMO iPhones are more reliable and provide a more consistent UX. They also offer a better baseline level of privacy. (Granted, you can't beat GrapheneOS and the like on android)
Glad to hear you've had a good experience with long term use. I'd love to stick to android but from personal experience they just don't last when I get a hold of them.
Samsung hardware is generally pretty solid, so I'm not surprised - but are you still getting OS and security updates? That's the real downside of Android (at least to me).
I am on android rn but at least in europe, apple is forced to allow 3rd party appstores soon which was the main dealbreaker for me. Their ui + cross device integration is very nice. Hopefully they are going to release a foldable soon! Handwriting apps are much more polished on iPads than on Android.
I got frustrated by buggy behavior from Android in general. Even with Google software (Android Auto), it wasn’t uncommon for functionality to break after updates.
I’ll take consistency over more (but buggier) features. Quality over quantity.
Oh, and the cinematic mode was a game changer for this Vidiot.
For me, a big one is integration with email / calendar / contacts services that aren't Google. I don't know where Google dropped the ball here - Android was originally amazing for this kind of thing - but at some point they started bolting a lot of features specifically on top of Google accounts, and out of the box Android doesn't even understand how to sync with CalDAV / CardDAV. So if I want my Nextcloud stuff to work at all I need to go and install a third party app. The third party app works great (I happily used DAVx5 for many years), but it's ridiculous when iOS has all that integration officially supported and available straight out of the box. And it even does clever things, like suggesting contact details it learns from my (Fastmail) email. Android has that stuff, but it is completely on the cloud, and it only works if you give everything to Google.
I sort of get it. Outside of Gmail and Exchange, mail with calendar and contacts is a bit hit and miss. There just isn't the all ecompassing protocols like Exchange that can cater for it all, so you have to use the "niche calendar protocol from 2007" to fill the gaps.
I pay for O365 mainly for this purpose, as Exchange is the defacto mail provider of todays age. I used to host my own Exchange but in the last couple of years and vulnerabilities kept on getting more and more worrying and the patches became more involved, so I just decided to pay MS for the service. Perhaps I played right into their hands ...
Here in Japan iPhones are massively popular, more than in most other markets. I just Googled it: iPhones are 67%, Android 33%. That's crazy.
The reasons are: people think they're stylish/cool (in Japan this is SUPER important), they think they must be good because they're expensive, and they think Android is 'scary' because they've never used it before. They literally don't know that Android does everything iOS does, usually better/with more customisation, and that it offers way more control (you can make Android even more simple and basic than iOS if you tinker a bit).
To be honest, even talking about places other than Japan, 98% of people probably have never even stopped to think why they're on either Android/iOS - it's only the 2% of people like us who talk about it.
It is funny though that iPhone users here in Japan have so little idea about why their phones aren't working properly, and have to make actual reservations to have a 'genius' look at their phone and fix it for them. Usually it's just clearing cache or something. They also pay literal hundreds of dollars to have their data transferred over when they get a new iPhone, unaware that cloud storage is capable of doing all of this for you for free.
I personally wouldn't voluntarily use Apple products myself, but I have people close to me that buy iPhone because they think that's the best smartphone they can buy. There are some truths to it from the standpoints of warranty policies, technologies, privacy policies, update policies, securities, and reputations.
These types of discussions are funny to me. People get really wound up in defending their decisions when it's basically a Chevy vs Ford brand loyalty fetish.
So generally I believe that Apple respects privacy more than google overall.
That doesn’t mean Apple is some privacy beacon.
But I have never had Apple randomly turn a setting on my phone on. Google got caught redhanded doing that. I had been using android for years until that incident.
Ironically, I just buy whatever’s cheaper lol. That was android for a few phones, and I was happy as a clam. Then the time came for an upgrade, and my carrier had a crazy sale for the previous year’s iphone. So I gave it a shot.
Still happy as a clam lol. I think of myself as being very “techy”, I use linux, etc., but I really don’t need my phone to do anything special. I use like 6 apps that are all multi platform. Very little about my flow changed.
I prefer the keyboard on android actually, and I like firefox on android better than safari. But everything else is pretty much fine. I’d be okay going iphone again, or back to android. Whatever’s cheaper when the time comes.
I used to use an iPhone simply because of the jailbreak community. When it became increasingly slower for a jailbreak to release I jumped ship. I got on iPhones around the time of iOS 7 and got off around 11.4.
Because I get a phone that is updated and working for more years. I’m not buying a $1,000 smart phone every two years. Still on a XR and it works great. Was on a 6 before that. And then a 4 before that. They last a long time if you don’t drop/step on them.
integration with the ecosystem. i have a mac, ipad, apple watch, airpods. it’s all so seamless. i can use my watch to ping my phone when i lose it in the blankets even when it’s on silent, i can copy text on one device and paste it on another, all my tab groups are on my computer, phone, and tablet and sync.
i like iOS. i had an ipod touch in the 2010s, so i’ve used it for over 10 years. i’m used to it, i know all the little tricks and shortcuts. i really like how it looks aesthetically.
magsafe. i don’t even use a wireless charger, but i have a magsafe pop socket, and it’s a game changer for me. i have small hands, and a pop socket is very convenient for me, but i don’t like that the regular ones take a lot of effort to remove, and sometimes i want my phone to lay flat, or need to remove the pop socket to put my phone in its dashboard grip. the magsafe pop socket holds strong enough to be effective, but can easily be removed when needed. unlike the pop socket that grips the side of the case, with the magsafe one my phone sits flat instead of wobbling when propped up.
I actually use magsafe with my Pixel 6 Pro. They sell adapters you can put on your case. I recently tried some of my magsafe stuff on a friend's Iphone and holy crap is it terrible on the Iphone. Not as strong is the only drawback but, it was significantly weaker
interesting! I didn’t know they made those. is it bulky at all? my fiancée uses a pixel 5a, i wonder if she would be interested in that.
i’m curious that you found the iphone magsafe to be weaker, in my opinion it’s just right, strong enough to hold, but not so strong that i struggle to take it off. were you using it directly on the iphone or did the iphone have a case on it? it might not have been a magsafe compatible case. but i’m speculating of course.
Integration. When I copy on my [Mac|iPhone|iPad|AppleTV] I can then paste on the other devices. When I enter the search field on the AppleTV my phone lets me type to the screen. I can transfer web pages from screen to screen if I wanna change where I'm browsing. All my devices work seamlessly with my AirPods. Etc.
I like that I don’t have to customise or complicate the phone experience. I just want it to browse and communicate. I leave customisation for desktop. Blue bubble is a plus. Same system as my wife is important.
And honestly I just like iPhones inertia when scrolling. Androids don’t look or feel right to me.
Ease of use:
I don’t want to even have the ability to tinker with my UI, etc. I like the fact that it’s simple and predictable. Plus iMessage is so good.
Ecosystem:
iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, Apple TV, Mac. They all work together and very well.
Health/Fitness:
Apple actually puts effort into this category when no other Android manufacturer consistently does. Goes along with Apple Watch.
Have you tried getting a human on the phone with any Google product ever ?
Leave a comment if you have ever talked to a google/alphabet employee during their work hours about a problem that you have with a google/alphabet service or product ?
I like the clean design of iOS, and I like being able to Apple Pay my whole family if needed cause we still share like a phone bill and stuff, so it's easier to Apple Pay than bank transfer or download an app.
Plus I like Apple's credit card and now I have their savings account too....
For fun. My last iPhone was a 4S, and after that I had a couple Sony Xperias and a Samsung Galaxy. When it was time to upgrade, I decided to get an iPhone 11 for a change, for no other reason than to see what they're like nowadays.
I've been really happy with it, it does everything I need it to do, and I don't miss the Galaxy at all.
So I had a Z1 and Z2, and the Galaxy was an S8+. To be honest, I don't remember much about them, but overall I think I'd rate the Xperias higher than the Galaxy simply because I don't remember ever being annoyed with them. They were just reasonable, good phones that didn't try to do anything crazy.
My two major gripes with the Galaxy were:
There was a HUGE physical button that would activate the Bixby voice assistant thingy so I'd often press it by accident. The button could only disabled in the Bixby app... which required a Samsung account. So I had to create an account just so I could go into the settings and flip a switch to disable that stupid button, and then never use the app or account again.
The fingerprint reader was totally useless. It was so small that it wouldn't work unless I hit it just right, and it was placed on the back of the phone right next to the camera so it was basically impossible to hit reliably, and chances are I'd accidentally get fingerprints on the camera instead. It was even worse with a protective case on because the reader was recessed inside the hole for the camera.
The one thing I really liked about the Galaxy was the always on display. It was nice being able to check the time in the dark without lighting up the entire screen and blinding myself. For my next phone, I'll probably get something that has that feature.
Here in Non-USA-istan (aka the rest of the world), most Chinese midrange phones hold their own for years and are not frowned upon by the local population for being "poor people phones".
Got my Xiaomi Redmi Note 11T near its launch date for a third of the cost of an iPhone and I don't regret it at all. Battery life is still exceptional (a full day and change with heavy YouTube and Reddit Lemmy usage), I can pretty much play anything I throw the phone at (I can emulate anything up to Dreamcast/Naomi without a hitch, PS2/GameCube/Wii with some caveats, any handheld device up to 3DS/Vita almost flawlessly), and the camera does a decent job capturing good photos and video at up to 4K@30fps. I'm not filming a freaking documental with the device, but I can catch vacation photos with printing quality and that's enough for me.
Smaller brands, those with fewer customers, also have lower repurchase rates. iPhone being such a large brand has a high repurchase rate. For most people who own an iPhone simply buying another iPhone is the most convenient option.
I had two android phones. The first one bricked itself after about a year, and the replacement was unusable a year later (even google maps was laggy). The second one suffered the same fate, with the added fun of being abandoned by Samsung after only 1 major android update
Tried a Samsung galaxy. It was just full of ads and notifications and pop-ups and a million icons across the top of the screen that had to be disabled in five still screens down in the settings. If felt like what a smart phone would be in Idiocracy - just full on corporate owned and driven experience. iPhone sucks cause they are so locked down but it also doesn’t feel like a nonstop advertising platform.
I switched from Android to iPhone mainly for the iMessage capabilities. I didn’t have any other reason at the time, but now I’ve started adding in to the ecosystem (AirPods, and now an iPad). The integration is really nice and smooth. I do like how “user-friendly” it is - while I can use other platforms just fine, iOS is just simple and easy.