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iOS lacks many features that have been standard on Android for years and the only reason it feels so smooth is because the UI thread has pretty much the highest

iOS lacks many features that have been standard on Android for years and the only reason it feels so smooth is because the UI thread has pretty much the highest QoL that anything can ever have. iOS would rather drop your network call than drop a single frame. Android variants all have things that iOS can only dream of having in five years (notifications was a fun one), just spread very unevenly throughout manufacturers. Samsung currently has a very good Android build. Calling it the best is very far fetched.

kaba0 4y ago
Yeah, android is lightyears ahead in a few things, but hardware and privacy-wise iphones are simply that much better. I try to reevaluate the platform every now and then, but the closest I got to changing was Pixel 6 with Graphene - which I decided against due to frequent hardware bugs..
dangus 4y ago
The copying of features isn't one-sided. Both companies have had firsts there: https://www.popsci.com/story/diy/stolen-features-android-apple/ https://www.popsci.com/story/diy/stolen-features-android-app... When I switched from Android to iOS in 2016, I was shocked at how little was different, and I can only assume gulf has narrowed since then. A lot of features Android users just assume iOS users don't have are there: vendor-agnostic password manager integration, Safari browser extensions, Safari content (ad) blocker API (Chrome is restricting ad-blockers soon!), more complete home screen customization and widgets, lock screen customization and widgets (iOS 16, upcoming), custom third-party keyboards, grouped/customizable notification system, native console wireless controller support from all three consoles. Features like granular privacy controls and screen recording (with the exception of some obscure Android OEM builds) debuted on iOS first. I'd be skeptical with anyone declaring either platform "best," I think they're both roughly equivalent. However, I do think that anyone who uses macOS is insane to go with Android. There are simply too many useful integrations between the platforms to ignore, combined with the fact that, even if the iPhone isn't the best phone, it's usually in the top handful of choices in terms the overall package.
- rossmohax 4y ago
  Have a look at GrapheneOS impressive feature list, iOS has some work to do.
  - kaba0 4y ago
    iOS’s security was praised by GrapheneOS’s creator many times - I believe according to him the best choices for a secure mobile at the time of writing was GrapheneOS on the latest pixel OR an iphone. They trade blows in different security features.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- int_19h 4y ago
  Sometimes it's the little things that matter. The single most used app on all my Android phones I've ever had is Kindle. And one feature that I absolutely demand from any phone is that I can flip pages with volume buttons - when reading for long periods of time, it is much more convenient than swiping with your thumb. On Android, pretty much all the reader apps can do it. But, so far as I know, this is outright impossible to implement in iOS.
  - dangus 4y ago
    Personally, I don't think the OS should ever allow an app to hijack the physical volume buttons or other hardware buttons on a phone. That seems like an avenue for abuse. (Tip: you can tap the screen on the right side to go to the next page.)
    - int_19h 4y ago
      Personally, I think that my phone should be convenient for me to use. I'm well aware of different ways to swipe pages. The reason why the hardware volume buttons are so convenient for reading is because you just put your thumb on the volume/page down button, and you no longer have to move it at all - only press down slightly every now and then. It's much more ergonomic for long-term reading than having to raise the thumb every time, even to tap.
Soulsbane 4y ago
Don't worry Apple will roll out a "new" feature that has been around for years on android and the masses will cheer how innovative Apple is.
saagarjha 4y ago
> iOS lacks many features that have been standard on Android for years and the only reason it feels so smooth is because the UI thread has pretty much the highest QoL that anything can ever have. iOS would rather drop your network call than drop a single frame. This is a bit of a simplification but in broad strokes it is kind of correct. And it turns out this actually makes good UI!
NonNefarious 4y ago
You must be kidding. There's no excuse for Android's incompetent architecture, which orphans millions of devices with every release because it apparently lacks a competent hardware-abstraction layer and driver model. You can install creaky old Windows on millions of devices with disparate hardware configurations on the day of its release, but Android users must wait weeks, months, or forever for their telcos to dribble out hacked, proprietary versions of Android for every model of device ONE AT A TIME. Seriously, WTF? And this is from the great "open-source" OS that was supposed to free us all from vendor and telco tyranny. What a fraud.
- ohgodplsno 4y ago
  Welcome to the wonderful world of ARM and driver blobs. Half of the waiting time is waiting for Qualcomm to release a blob (and that's if they even want to), the other half is including it in your build, and eventually making your fork's changes if you want to do so. For every single SoC in your lineup. Then testing if they can support the new requirements of Android. Apple would have the same problem if iOS was open source and distributable by anyone, their chips being able to be made by anyone. Once again, Apple has picked the easiest (and least open) path, so, yeah, they can upgrade easily.
  - NonNefarious 4y ago
    Thanks for the info. Why can't the driver be abstracted enough to allow a new OS install as long as the ABI of the driver doesn't change? Major Windows versions installed over the same drivers for years. I've never written a hardware driver, so I'm left to guess or speculate.
- origin_path 4y ago
  That's out of date. They added a very competent HAL and driver model yonks ago: https://source.android.com/docs/core/architecture/hal-types https://source.android.com/docs/core/architecture/hal-types The big lift here was scrapping the Linux driver model which was at the root of most of the pain.
  - 4y ago
fuckstick 4y ago
Android has been years behind having a framework for low latency audio and it has always struggled with power efficiency.
- ohgodplsno 4y ago
  The need for low latency audio on your phone is... debatable. Power efficiency, absolutely, and a lot of this is due to them not really giving a damn for a while. Which was great! You truly could do anything with your phone, run things in the background forever, etc. Nowadays, Doze, Android Resource Economy and the need to go through Foreground Services/WorkManager makes it quite a bit harder to do.
  - fuckstick 4y ago
    > The need for low latency audio on your phone is... debatable. No, it's just not important to you. Garageband seems to be pretty popular on all the iOS form factors. iOS has for most of its life had a strong offering of music composition and production apps. iOS has had a high quality media framework for years, Android has not. And if the need is so questionable, why did Android finally get around to addressing it? And this seems like an odd argumentative path for an Android fan to go down - downplaying the importance of more niche needs outside social media and cow clicking as not important. iOS does just as well or better for messaging, Instagram and TikTok. If you only care about the smart phone basics for the masses iOS ecosystem is pretty hard to beat with better battery life and support.
- pjmlp 4y ago
  That was sorted out with Oboe/AAudio, when they took Samsung's audio SDK into Android.

kaba0 4y ago

Yeah, android is lightyears ahead in a few things, but hardware and privacy-wise iphones are simply that much better. I try to reevaluate the platform every now and then, but the closest I got to changing was Pixel 6 with Graphene - which I decided against due to frequent hardware bugs..

dangus 4y ago

The copying of features isn't one-sided. Both companies have had firsts there: https://www.popsci.com/story/diy/stolen-features-android-apple/ https://www.popsci.com/story/diy/stolen-features-android-app... When I switched from Android to iOS in 2016, I was shocked at how little was different, and I can only assume gulf has narrowed since then. A lot of features Android users just assume iOS users don't have are there: vendor-agnostic password manager integration, Safari browser extensions, Safari content (ad) blocker API (Chrome is restricting ad-blockers soon!), more complete home screen customization and widgets, lock screen customization and widgets (iOS 16, upcoming), custom third-party keyboards, grouped/customizable notification system, native console wireless controller support from all three consoles. Features like granular privacy controls and screen recording (with the exception of some obscure Android OEM builds) debuted on iOS first. I'd be skeptical with anyone declaring either platform "best," I think they're both roughly equivalent. However, I do think that anyone who uses macOS is insane to go with Android. There are simply too many useful integrations between the platforms to ignore, combined with the fact that, even if the iPhone isn't the best phone, it's usually in the top handful of choices in terms the overall package.

rossmohax 4y ago
Have a look at GrapheneOS impressive feature list, iOS has some work to do.
- kaba0 4y ago
  iOS’s security was praised by GrapheneOS’s creator many times - I believe according to him the best choices for a secure mobile at the time of writing was GrapheneOS on the latest pixel OR an iphone. They trade blows in different security features.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
int_19h 4y ago
Sometimes it's the little things that matter. The single most used app on all my Android phones I've ever had is Kindle. And one feature that I absolutely demand from any phone is that I can flip pages with volume buttons - when reading for long periods of time, it is much more convenient than swiping with your thumb. On Android, pretty much all the reader apps can do it. But, so far as I know, this is outright impossible to implement in iOS.
- dangus 4y ago
  Personally, I don't think the OS should ever allow an app to hijack the physical volume buttons or other hardware buttons on a phone. That seems like an avenue for abuse. (Tip: you can tap the screen on the right side to go to the next page.)
  - int_19h 4y ago
    Personally, I think that my phone should be convenient for me to use. I'm well aware of different ways to swipe pages. The reason why the hardware volume buttons are so convenient for reading is because you just put your thumb on the volume/page down button, and you no longer have to move it at all - only press down slightly every now and then. It's much more ergonomic for long-term reading than having to raise the thumb every time, even to tap.

Soulsbane 4y ago

Don't worry Apple will roll out a "new" feature that has been around for years on android and the masses will cheer how innovative Apple is.

saagarjha 4y ago

> iOS lacks many features that have been standard on Android for years and the only reason it feels so smooth is because the UI thread has pretty much the highest QoL that anything can ever have. iOS would rather drop your network call than drop a single frame. This is a bit of a simplification but in broad strokes it is kind of correct. And it turns out this actually makes good UI!

NonNefarious 4y ago

You must be kidding. There's no excuse for Android's incompetent architecture, which orphans millions of devices with every release because it apparently lacks a competent hardware-abstraction layer and driver model. You can install creaky old Windows on millions of devices with disparate hardware configurations on the day of its release, but Android users must wait weeks, months, or forever for their telcos to dribble out hacked, proprietary versions of Android for every model of device ONE AT A TIME. Seriously, WTF? And this is from the great "open-source" OS that was supposed to free us all from vendor and telco tyranny. What a fraud.

ohgodplsno 4y ago
Welcome to the wonderful world of ARM and driver blobs. Half of the waiting time is waiting for Qualcomm to release a blob (and that's if they even want to), the other half is including it in your build, and eventually making your fork's changes if you want to do so. For every single SoC in your lineup. Then testing if they can support the new requirements of Android. Apple would have the same problem if iOS was open source and distributable by anyone, their chips being able to be made by anyone. Once again, Apple has picked the easiest (and least open) path, so, yeah, they can upgrade easily.
- NonNefarious 4y ago
  Thanks for the info. Why can't the driver be abstracted enough to allow a new OS install as long as the ABI of the driver doesn't change? Major Windows versions installed over the same drivers for years. I've never written a hardware driver, so I'm left to guess or speculate.
origin_path 4y ago
That's out of date. They added a very competent HAL and driver model yonks ago: https://source.android.com/docs/core/architecture/hal-types https://source.android.com/docs/core/architecture/hal-types The big lift here was scrapping the Linux driver model which was at the root of most of the pain.
- 4y ago

fuckstick 4y ago

Android has been years behind having a framework for low latency audio and it has always struggled with power efficiency.

ohgodplsno 4y ago
The need for low latency audio on your phone is... debatable. Power efficiency, absolutely, and a lot of this is due to them not really giving a damn for a while. Which was great! You truly could do anything with your phone, run things in the background forever, etc. Nowadays, Doze, Android Resource Economy and the need to go through Foreground Services/WorkManager makes it quite a bit harder to do.
- fuckstick 4y ago
  > The need for low latency audio on your phone is... debatable. No, it's just not important to you. Garageband seems to be pretty popular on all the iOS form factors. iOS has for most of its life had a strong offering of music composition and production apps. iOS has had a high quality media framework for years, Android has not. And if the need is so questionable, why did Android finally get around to addressing it? And this seems like an odd argumentative path for an Android fan to go down - downplaying the importance of more niche needs outside social media and cow clicking as not important. iOS does just as well or better for messaging, Instagram and TikTok. If you only care about the smart phone basics for the masses iOS ecosystem is pretty hard to beat with better battery life and support.
pjmlp 4y ago
That was sorted out with Oboe/AAudio, when they took Samsung's audio SDK into Android.