I have been using Android phones for 14 years. My first smartphone with this operating system was the legendary Motorola Milestone, in December 2009, and since then it was love at first sight, especially since what I was using until then was a BlackBerry Bold. Going to Milestone was a before and after, from past to futureI thought at the time, and I had good reason to do so.
However, I decided several times to give the iPhone a chance, simply to be a lost fan on mobile, and because to do my work I prefer to have both platforms. The iPhone has always been a very attractive mobile phone, with a generally beautiful design and excellent photo and video capabilities. My problem has always been with the operating system.
Although I usually test out my friends and family’s iPhones from time to time, the last model I had was the iPhone 8 Plus, which lasted with me for about 3 years. Considering the fact that the iPhone has changed a lot since then, I decided it was time to give it another chance and bought an iPhone 14 Pro. The important thing, for me, is to evaluate the evolution of the software, not the hardware.. Because the camera is awesome, I know, and Face ID is ridiculously good, but I wanted to take a long look at what the current iOS experience is like.
And boy did it disappoint me.
iPhone’s navigation gestures are, in short, inferior to Android’s
Apple, for many years, has sold us the idea that its operating systems are simpler to use, more user-friendly and more intuitive, but in my experience I’ve always found Android to be a more relevant and easier to use operating system put the options in front of you, don’t hide them between menus or simply prevent you from doing something.
It is 2024 and Apple still refuses to let us freely organize app icons on the home screen. But I admit, the iOS interface has changed considerably in recent years: there are now widgets, we have a screen with all the applications in the last panel on the right, and an excellent lock screen.
However, my biggest problem with the user experience on iOS is the navigation gestures. More precisely, I am referring to the absence of a gesture to go back, or rather, one that works universally and much better than today.
On Android, whether using gesture or button navigation, there is a universal button/gesture to go back. It works in absolutely all applications and always does what we expect of it. Are we watching a video on YouTube and want to go back to the previous screen to search for another video? Behind. Are we in a tweet and want to return to the timeline? Behind. We are in a WhatsApp chat and we want to return to the chat list? Behind. Now we want to go to the home screen? Return (or gesture to go home).
Android has a universal go back gesture that works across all apps and makes it easier to use the phone with one hand
It is an extremely useful gesture that we can also use both from the right side of the screen and from the left side of the screen. This makes it much easier to use larger screen sizes.
In the case of iOS, however, the “Back” gesture can only be used on the left side of the screen (i.e. swiping from the left edge of the screen) and is not always available. Many times we have to specifically use the “Back” button of each applicationwhich is usually located in the upper left corner of the screen.
In my case this translates to sometimes having to use both hands, like being able to exit the full screen view of a YouTube video, which on Android would be done with a simple gesture. And this, I understand, could be even more problematic if my iPhone was a Pro Max model, with its larger screen.
Another gesture that I literally despise with madness (well, maybe it’s not that bad) is the gesture to open notification panel. On the iPhone, I have to swipe down from the top of the screen, from the edge basically, to be able to view that screen. On Android, however, it doesn’t matter if I swipe down to the middle of the screen, the notification panel will appear. Again this, makes it easier to use your phone with one hand
Swiping your finger from the middle of the screen on the iPhone will open a search screen and access Siri’s app suggestions, a screen that’s honestly pretty useless; I didn’t need to use it once in my two weeks with the iPhone. Having faster and more convenient access to this panel instead of the notifications panel doesn’t make much sense.
Multitasking on Android is still superior
This point can be explained simply with a picture. On iOS, multitasking is still very limited, although it has improved. However, Android offers the use of two split-screen applications (and up to 4, in the case of foldable cell phones). And it’s a feature I use all the time.
For example, I can watch a video or read an article at the top of the screen and take notes in the Notes app at the bottom. I can also chat with my teammates in Slack on an editorial topic, while in the other half I check some information via email or in Xataka Android, from the browser. There are many possibilities.
On iPhone, this is not possible, but also, it seems incredible to me that in 2024 Background file loading is still very limited on iPhone. For example, if I want to upload photos or videos to Google Drive, I can’t exit the app until I’ve finished doing so, otherwise the process will stop completely. On Android, however, files continue to load in the background. It’s incredible that a mobile phone as powerful and advanced as the iPhone can’t do something so basic.
Notifications on iPhone are too basic
We’ve already talked about accessing the notification panel on the iPhone, but now it’s time to talk about the notifications themselves. First, the iPhone doesn’t show pending notifications at the top of the screen, which Android does in the same “bar” where the time and battery level are.
This has a good side, I admit: Not always having the notification icons there, “looking at me”, allows me to free myself a little of the urgency to review these notifications as soon as possible, what they call FOMO. But on the other hand, it also has downsides: I might let too much time go by without responding to an important notification because I forgot it was there while I was doing something else with the iPhone.
I’ll leave this aspect to you, dear readers, let everyone decide whether the lack of a notification bar is an advantage or a disadvantage.
However, notifications on Android have a big advantage: the ability to snooze notifications. Once you enable this feature on your mobile (it is usually disabled by default), a small clock-shaped button will appear below each notification. If you tap it, you can choose to receive this notification again within a set time frame.
For example: you received an important email, but at the moment you don’t have time to respond to it. You can snooze the notification and the system will alert you again in an hour, or at a time of your choosing, so you can respond to this important message.
It’s time for the iPhone keyboard to really improve
The iPhone keyboard has some good things, like a dictation system that works extremely well, recognizing virtually every word I say to it, even the short term for affection that we use at home for my daughter (some something that the Android keyboard has difficulty doing), but on the other hand, it has a big lack compared to the Google keyboard: the clipboard.
On the Google keyboard we have access to a very powerful tool, a built-in clipboard that can store both text and even images, to be able to copy and paste wherever you want, as many times as you want, without having to go through a notes application to save these texts, as is the case with the iPhone. Once you get used to using it, you understand its potential, and in my case, I use it constantly throughout the day, every day. I would love to see something like this built right into the iPhone keyboard
In short: the user experience on Android is much faster and more direct than on iPhone
I could keep digging and find little aspects and details that bother me about the iPhone, like the fact that many basic settings have to be done directly from the Settings app and not from the app in question (why can’t I don’t choose to have the camera recording? It is by default in 4K directly from the camera!?). But this list sums up, in essence, what they are to me very important aspects of the experience when using Android phones, and I can’t find them on the iPhone.
The iPhone is supposed to be very intuitive and user-friendly, and for the most part it is, but I think the iPhone may underestimate me as a user, to be “friendly”. I feel like iOS is constantly telling me “don’t touch this unless you know how”, even for really basic things. Greater freedom of customization would do the system a lot of good, as would improving navigation gestures and fixing the other flaws I discuss in this article.
And that’s why my main cell phone, the one I always carry in my pocket, is and will remain an Android.
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