4 ms·

the more they move towards apple levels of control, the less reason people have to sick with android.

shortrounddev2 3y ago
I use android because I dislike the Apple ecosystem and UI design. They could disable all side-loading of apps and I would still use Android because I just don't use mobile as my primary driver. For me, phones are for texting and browsing Reddit while I shit.
- diogenes4 3y ago
  Hah, I have exactly the opposite reaction as you: I think Android is a complete mess in terms of usability. The big differentiator, though, is your social network. Having iMessages and FaceTime is about 95% of the value of the phone/tablet for me because my friends heavily, heavily use them.
  - shortrounddev2 3y ago
    I use Line (kind of like a Japanese/Korean whatsapp) to communicate with my wife's family (Wife, sisters in law, mother in law), I use Facebook to communicate with my parents, and I don't have any friends to communicate with on other platforms, so I don't miss iMessage (maybe I don't have friends because I don't have iMessage). Otherwise the apps define most of the UI. Android is basically an app launcher to me.
  - gambiting 3y ago
    I think it's the case of knowing what you know. IOS design language depends a lot on being familiar with iOS already - I think a lot of Android design is dictated to be understandable by people who really haven't used a phone before so things are a bit clearer and more obvious. I know when I use my wife's iPhone it's so frustrating because it feels like you should be able to do action X but there isn't any clear way on how to achieve it - I ask my wife and she shows me that it's hidden behind some invisible menu or gesture and I'm like "how were you supposed to know this???" And she just shrugs "it always worked like this". Ok, I guess, but that's really poor for discoverability.
- hbn 3y ago
  > I just don't use mobile as my primary driver. For me, phones are for texting and browsing Reddit while I shit. That's the reason I use an iPhone. I don't need a bunch of customization and homescreen tinkering, I just want a thing that gets the job done and is easy to troubleshoot.
  - shortrounddev2 3y ago
    I want the same thing, but which also isn't an Apple product
    - bitsandboots 3y ago
      It really makes me think... should we all have bought into blackberry/palm/windows' smartphone efforts in the 2010s? They seemed inferior at the time but, in hindsight, it's hard to imagine anything worse than where we are now.
      - shortrounddev2 3y ago
        The Nokia Lumia 1310 was the best phone ever made. Best UI, best screen and Camera of its generation, and you could program apps in C# for UWP so they ran on Desktop or Mobile (For that reason, there are still hobbyists who sideload new apps on their Lumias since the SDK still exists and works on modern windows). Like all things, Microsoft made the best version of the product, but not the most successful version
  - seized 3y ago
    But you don't HAVE to do those things on Android.... My Pixel is exactly that, gets the job done without problems or fuss.
toolz 3y ago
not sure how typical I am, but I don't buy android for really any other reason than I can get brand new smartphone that does everything I want for under $200 and has multiple sim slots (which makes international travel much easier) At this point apple or anyone else would have to beat the cheap android handily for me to consider switching and that seems like a tough market to beat. I'm always impressed by how well cheap androids work when compared to their 3-4x more expensive counterparts.
- jackdh 3y ago
  You can pick up second hand ( good condition ) iPhone's for not much more. I would also then argue iPhone's last longer and tend to get more updates for longer than their android counterparts. They can support multiple ESim's now which I've had fantastic experience with when travelling abroad. Apps like Ubigi make it super easy to switch to a local sim.
  - mrguyorama 3y ago
    The problem with used iPhones is that the hardware is still powerful enough to run modern iOS, the battery only has about a year left to live so unless you budget in a battery replacement, you're basically tethered. This may finally be clearing up, but Apple's iPhone batteries from the previous decade were abysmal and had no headroom for aging. That's why they were doing the stupid downclocking of older iPhones, because the battery could no longer deliver the power to run full bore without browning out.
simiones 3y ago
Lots of people choose Android entirely unrelated to control - especially as this change apparently only affects users of rooted Android devices, which are an extremely small minority of Android users. Other reasons include price, interop with other non-Apple devices, and just a preference for the usability of Android vs iOS.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
CatWChainsaw 3y ago
But phones are a duopoly for the average person. What would they leave android for?

I use android because I dislike the Apple ecosystem and UI design. They could disable all side-loading of apps and I would still use Android because I just don't use mobile as my primary driver. For me, phones are for texting and browsing Reddit while I shit.

diogenes4 3y ago
Hah, I have exactly the opposite reaction as you: I think Android is a complete mess in terms of usability. The big differentiator, though, is your social network. Having iMessages and FaceTime is about 95% of the value of the phone/tablet for me because my friends heavily, heavily use them.
- shortrounddev2 3y ago
  I use Line (kind of like a Japanese/Korean whatsapp) to communicate with my wife's family (Wife, sisters in law, mother in law), I use Facebook to communicate with my parents, and I don't have any friends to communicate with on other platforms, so I don't miss iMessage (maybe I don't have friends because I don't have iMessage). Otherwise the apps define most of the UI. Android is basically an app launcher to me.
- gambiting 3y ago
  I think it's the case of knowing what you know. IOS design language depends a lot on being familiar with iOS already - I think a lot of Android design is dictated to be understandable by people who really haven't used a phone before so things are a bit clearer and more obvious. I know when I use my wife's iPhone it's so frustrating because it feels like you should be able to do action X but there isn't any clear way on how to achieve it - I ask my wife and she shows me that it's hidden behind some invisible menu or gesture and I'm like "how were you supposed to know this???" And she just shrugs "it always worked like this". Ok, I guess, but that's really poor for discoverability.
hbn 3y ago
> I just don't use mobile as my primary driver. For me, phones are for texting and browsing Reddit while I shit. That's the reason I use an iPhone. I don't need a bunch of customization and homescreen tinkering, I just want a thing that gets the job done and is easy to troubleshoot.
- shortrounddev2 3y ago
  I want the same thing, but which also isn't an Apple product
  - bitsandboots 3y ago
    It really makes me think... should we all have bought into blackberry/palm/windows' smartphone efforts in the 2010s? They seemed inferior at the time but, in hindsight, it's hard to imagine anything worse than where we are now.
    - shortrounddev2 3y ago
      The Nokia Lumia 1310 was the best phone ever made. Best UI, best screen and Camera of its generation, and you could program apps in C# for UWP so they ran on Desktop or Mobile (For that reason, there are still hobbyists who sideload new apps on their Lumias since the SDK still exists and works on modern windows). Like all things, Microsoft made the best version of the product, but not the most successful version
- seized 3y ago
  But you don't HAVE to do those things on Android.... My Pixel is exactly that, gets the job done without problems or fuss.

toolz 3y ago

not sure how typical I am, but I don't buy android for really any other reason than I can get brand new smartphone that does everything I want for under $200 and has multiple sim slots (which makes international travel much easier) At this point apple or anyone else would have to beat the cheap android handily for me to consider switching and that seems like a tough market to beat. I'm always impressed by how well cheap androids work when compared to their 3-4x more expensive counterparts.

jackdh 3y ago
You can pick up second hand ( good condition ) iPhone's for not much more. I would also then argue iPhone's last longer and tend to get more updates for longer than their android counterparts. They can support multiple ESim's now which I've had fantastic experience with when travelling abroad. Apps like Ubigi make it super easy to switch to a local sim.
- mrguyorama 3y ago
  The problem with used iPhones is that the hardware is still powerful enough to run modern iOS, the battery only has about a year left to live so unless you budget in a battery replacement, you're basically tethered. This may finally be clearing up, but Apple's iPhone batteries from the previous decade were abysmal and had no headroom for aging. That's why they were doing the stupid downclocking of older iPhones, because the battery could no longer deliver the power to run full bore without browning out.

simiones 3y ago

Lots of people choose Android entirely unrelated to control - especially as this change apparently only affects users of rooted Android devices, which are an extremely small minority of Android users. Other reasons include price, interop with other non-Apple devices, and just a preference for the usability of Android vs iOS.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

CatWChainsaw 3y ago

But phones are a duopoly for the average person. What would they leave android for?