3 ms·

Are any of these issues handled better on Android phones?

na85 8y ago
Some are (drag and drop, multi select) and others aren't (discoverability, some UI/UX choices)
fredgrott 8y ago
considering the market share in the US for android at above 80% what do you think the reason might be other than the one you just asked about?
- qaq 8y ago
  price :)?
- matthewmacleod 8y ago
  Cost. Variety of devices.
- chrisgherbert 8y ago
  Worldwide market share for Android is around 80%. In the US - and in other wealthy western countries - it’s closer to 50%.
  - billfruit 8y ago
    Android global market share is around 85% now. Android market share in Europe around 73%.
firasd 8y ago
I'm not too familiar with Android phones but having tried out my parents' Androids (and watched them use the phones) I gotta say everything is hidden there as well. Maybe Android is a bit more consistent, because there is universal 'undo', plus the idiom of three vertical dots on the top right for 'more actions'. But subjectively I've found that Android has even more 'randomness': you are trying to get something done, something else opens, then something pops up... it's all deterministic of course, but not intuitive, so it feels accidental.
donatj 8y ago
I currently own both Android and iOS devices, and have used both for years. I think the single "Omni-Pull Down" from the top works way cleaner than the now 3 seperate pull from side of screen actions. I actually find pulling up from the bottom difficult and frustrating. Swipe to dismiss, tap to open makes so much more intuitive sense than swipe to open. Text editing / selection does what I expect way more often. Android doesn't bug you about Wifi access points by default. This one is controversial, but I think a visible always available back button is a huge accessibility win even if it's sometimes inconsistant in behaviour. Also, the Google Assistant at this point is probably 10 times more accurate and understanding than Siri. I have a pretty standard midwestern accent and Siri understands almost nothing I say to a pathetic degree. I use Google Assistant to do probably about half of the quick things I want to do on my phone like set alarms and such. I don't trust Siri to do anything. A lot of things of course are worse just because they vary between manufacturers and even individual phones. The fact that many OS components are replaceable is a double edge sword. My dad for instance somehow installed a dialer that made him dismiss an advertisement before he could answer his phone. He had no idea how to get rid of it and assumed he had broke his phone.
- sf_rob 8y ago
  >This one is controversial, but I think a visible always available back button is a huge accessibility win even if it's sometimes inconsistant in behaviour. As a recent iPhone switcher I can't stand the "back" behavior. I was so happy to discover the swipe right to go back feature until I realized that it didn't apply to images and other full screen elements (where there's an "x" instead of "<back" in the top left corner). For those you swipe up to dismiss. So now I have to keep mental state for what type of content is currently displayed to know how to get back to where I was. This is more annoying than Android's inconsistent back button experience IMO.
- Izkata 8y ago
  > This one is controversial, but I think a visible always available back button is a huge accessibility win even if it's sometimes inconsistant in behaviour. I not only agree, I'm still disappointed they got rid of the menu button. Used to be a single consistent, visible, always-there interface across apps that now is done in several different ways. And now in the newest Android, the back button will be appearing/disappearing/changing direction. Not nice.

na85 8y ago

Some are (drag and drop, multi select) and others aren't (discoverability, some UI/UX choices)

considering the market share in the US for android at above 80% what do you think the reason might be other than the one you just asked about?

qaq 8y ago
price :)?
matthewmacleod 8y ago
Cost. Variety of devices.
chrisgherbert 8y ago
Worldwide market share for Android is around 80%. In the US - and in other wealthy western countries - it’s closer to 50%.
- billfruit 8y ago
  Android global market share is around 85% now. Android market share in Europe around 73%.

firasd 8y ago

I'm not too familiar with Android phones but having tried out my parents' Androids (and watched them use the phones) I gotta say everything is hidden there as well. Maybe Android is a bit more consistent, because there is universal 'undo', plus the idiom of three vertical dots on the top right for 'more actions'. But subjectively I've found that Android has even more 'randomness': you are trying to get something done, something else opens, then something pops up... it's all deterministic of course, but not intuitive, so it feels accidental.

donatj 8y ago

I currently own both Android and iOS devices, and have used both for years. I think the single "Omni-Pull Down" from the top works way cleaner than the now 3 seperate pull from side of screen actions. I actually find pulling up from the bottom difficult and frustrating. Swipe to dismiss, tap to open makes so much more intuitive sense than swipe to open. Text editing / selection does what I expect way more often. Android doesn't bug you about Wifi access points by default. This one is controversial, but I think a visible always available back button is a huge accessibility win even if it's sometimes inconsistant in behaviour. Also, the Google Assistant at this point is probably 10 times more accurate and understanding than Siri. I have a pretty standard midwestern accent and Siri understands almost nothing I say to a pathetic degree. I use Google Assistant to do probably about half of the quick things I want to do on my phone like set alarms and such. I don't trust Siri to do anything. A lot of things of course are worse just because they vary between manufacturers and even individual phones. The fact that many OS components are replaceable is a double edge sword. My dad for instance somehow installed a dialer that made him dismiss an advertisement before he could answer his phone. He had no idea how to get rid of it and assumed he had broke his phone.

sf_rob 8y ago
>This one is controversial, but I think a visible always available back button is a huge accessibility win even if it's sometimes inconsistant in behaviour. As a recent iPhone switcher I can't stand the "back" behavior. I was so happy to discover the swipe right to go back feature until I realized that it didn't apply to images and other full screen elements (where there's an "x" instead of "<back" in the top left corner). For those you swipe up to dismiss. So now I have to keep mental state for what type of content is currently displayed to know how to get back to where I was. This is more annoying than Android's inconsistent back button experience IMO.
Izkata 8y ago
> This one is controversial, but I think a visible always available back button is a huge accessibility win even if it's sometimes inconsistant in behaviour. I not only agree, I'm still disappointed they got rid of the menu button. Used to be a single consistent, visible, always-there interface across apps that now is done in several different ways. And now in the newest Android, the back button will be appearing/disappearing/changing direction. Not nice.