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I've been using android phones since 2009 and am highly considering a switch to Apple for the next one. Along with the reasons you state, the ecosystem is real

I've been using android phones since 2009 and am highly considering a switch to Apple for the next one. Along with the reasons you state, the ecosystem is really messy. I've bought Nexus/Pixel phones for the last 10 years and continue to be bummed by their performance. Pixel 1 XL was fantastic, but after about 2 years the camera kept failing. 3+ seconds to load, and it would commonly crash. Ultimately the battery life degraded, and the replacement battery degraded within a couple months, so I moved on. The 3a fell out of my pocket and broke 2 months prior to the end of security updates. That was a decent phone overall, but not supported by Google as long as I would have liked. Pixel 6 Pro has been fine so far, but my wife has been having issues with her Pixel 5. Slow performance, unreliable cellular connectivity, etc. "Don't buy Pixel phones" could be the lesson here, but alternatives are arguably more of a security nightmare. My experience with Galaxy phones has been that they're preloaded with an incredible amount of junk that needs to be un-installed. With Pixel it's exclusively Google apps, most of which can be removed. That gives a smaller privacy and security concern than having 30 different companies with their apps pre-loaded (and possibly not removable). > Apple's no angel either IMO, but I feel like it's worth a shot inside the walled garden for a bit. I've hated on Apple a lot over the years and am disappointed that switching platforms seems like the best move after all these years.

ttt3ts 3y ago
Soon as I can sideload another browser with real AdBlock I am switching. Looks like the EU might force apple to allow it :)
- mardifoufs 3y ago
  Yeah I have been using android for every single phone I've ever had, but I don't see the point once iOS allows sideloading. They have locked down android so much(I kind of understand why, but still) at this point that sideloading is pretty much the only difference now. So why go for android?
  - 0x38B 3y ago
    You can side load apps, but need a Mac or a MacOS VM and XCode. But without paying the $99/year developer program fee, apps have to be reloaded every week. I paid the $99, as I grew tired of reinstalling the tethering app or GBA/PSP emulator. If sideloading becomes easier, that’ll be a big win in my book.
  - hedora 3y ago
    I would have said you are being overly pessimistic about Android, but my Pixel Pro 6 is collecting dust for the reasons you stated. Using it as a webcam would be a win though. It has a nice camera that sort of works in open-source land.
- blibble 3y ago
  brave supports ublock origin filter lists (and has most of them pre-setup)
- hedora 3y ago
  I’m sending this on an up-to-date, not-jailbroken iPhone running the Firefox version of uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger It’s via the Orion Browser by Kagi, which somehow supports Chrome and Firefox extensions on top of the Safari rendering engine. I wonder if Apple will notice that they accidentally let us have nice things, and take it away. I really wish Android wasn’t a user-hostile privacy and stability shitshow of a closed ecosystem, but it is. Lesser of two evils, and all.
  - jsmith99 3y ago
    Orion is nice but it works by using Safari’s extensions API under the hood. Safari does have a fairly thorough extensions API even on mobile but it’s missing things like webRequest. This is particularly a problem for the Bypass Paywalls extension because you can’t change things like referer. It’s the biggest thing I miss from android.
    - freediver 3y ago
      > Orion is nice but it works by using Safari’s extensions API under the hood. To clarify that is not how it works, the Web Extensions API support in Orion was ported from scratch on top of WebKit.
      - jsmith99 3y ago
        Yes, they’ve mapped webextensions to WebKit api calls.
antman123 3y ago
I made the switch two years ago and never looked back :) let me know if you have any lingering questions
- m_0x 3y ago
  I really love android notification system (As a user, not as an android developer), are those still "okay-ish" in iOS?
ToucanLoucan 3y ago
I was a huge android fan until I got my first iPhone. Consequence of getting a job that trained me up for iOS development, and eventually I wanted to be able to use the apps I was building. I've never looked back. Android will always, always have my heart for hacking, I still buy them occasionally for projects and weird esoteric shit I wanna do/try, and for game emulation and that kinda thing. But for my daily driver life manager, it's iPhone all the way. The integrations with HomeKit devices + Apple TV's make my home incredibly smart, absolutely everything is mirrored onto my Macbook and iPads (a current gen mini, and a 2017 Pro that's somehow still hanging in there despite being beat to shit every day for 6 years) without me lifting a damn finger, and when I do get around to upgrading, I plug them both in and all my shit is transferred over, and I blank the old one and send it to Apple for recycling. Like it's cliche as hell, but it does all Just Work. Androids have caught up quite a bit in terms of power and the "slickness" that iOS got famous for, but at this point, I'm so deep into Apple's ecosystem I'd have to replace damn near every piece of electronic kit in my house to really transfer back over. And the grass just don't look that much greener over there.
matwood 3y ago
> 3+ seconds to load, and it would commonly crash. Admittedly I haven't used Android full time (I have some Pixels for testing) since the Nexus days, but they pushed me back to iPhone when they released an update that completely destroyed the performance on my Nexus 7. Since then the growing Apple ecosystem makes it unlikely I'll change back. And that's fine. Phones are a solved problem at this point, it's really everything else where interesting work is happening.

ttt3ts 3y ago

Soon as I can sideload another browser with real AdBlock I am switching. Looks like the EU might force apple to allow it :)

mardifoufs 3y ago
Yeah I have been using android for every single phone I've ever had, but I don't see the point once iOS allows sideloading. They have locked down android so much(I kind of understand why, but still) at this point that sideloading is pretty much the only difference now. So why go for android?
- 0x38B 3y ago
  You can side load apps, but need a Mac or a MacOS VM and XCode. But without paying the $99/year developer program fee, apps have to be reloaded every week. I paid the $99, as I grew tired of reinstalling the tethering app or GBA/PSP emulator. If sideloading becomes easier, that’ll be a big win in my book.
- hedora 3y ago
  I would have said you are being overly pessimistic about Android, but my Pixel Pro 6 is collecting dust for the reasons you stated. Using it as a webcam would be a win though. It has a nice camera that sort of works in open-source land.
blibble 3y ago
brave supports ublock origin filter lists (and has most of them pre-setup)
hedora 3y ago
I’m sending this on an up-to-date, not-jailbroken iPhone running the Firefox version of uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger It’s via the Orion Browser by Kagi, which somehow supports Chrome and Firefox extensions on top of the Safari rendering engine. I wonder if Apple will notice that they accidentally let us have nice things, and take it away. I really wish Android wasn’t a user-hostile privacy and stability shitshow of a closed ecosystem, but it is. Lesser of two evils, and all.
- jsmith99 3y ago
  Orion is nice but it works by using Safari’s extensions API under the hood. Safari does have a fairly thorough extensions API even on mobile but it’s missing things like webRequest. This is particularly a problem for the Bypass Paywalls extension because you can’t change things like referer. It’s the biggest thing I miss from android.
  - freediver 3y ago
    > Orion is nice but it works by using Safari’s extensions API under the hood. To clarify that is not how it works, the Web Extensions API support in Orion was ported from scratch on top of WebKit.
    - jsmith99 3y ago
      Yes, they’ve mapped webextensions to WebKit api calls.

antman123 3y ago

I made the switch two years ago and never looked back :) let me know if you have any lingering questions

m_0x 3y ago
I really love android notification system (As a user, not as an android developer), are those still "okay-ish" in iOS?

ToucanLoucan 3y ago

I was a huge android fan until I got my first iPhone. Consequence of getting a job that trained me up for iOS development, and eventually I wanted to be able to use the apps I was building. I've never looked back. Android will always, always have my heart for hacking, I still buy them occasionally for projects and weird esoteric shit I wanna do/try, and for game emulation and that kinda thing. But for my daily driver life manager, it's iPhone all the way. The integrations with HomeKit devices + Apple TV's make my home incredibly smart, absolutely everything is mirrored onto my Macbook and iPads (a current gen mini, and a 2017 Pro that's somehow still hanging in there despite being beat to shit every day for 6 years) without me lifting a damn finger, and when I do get around to upgrading, I plug them both in and all my shit is transferred over, and I blank the old one and send it to Apple for recycling. Like it's cliche as hell, but it does all Just Work. Androids have caught up quite a bit in terms of power and the "slickness" that iOS got famous for, but at this point, I'm so deep into Apple's ecosystem I'd have to replace damn near every piece of electronic kit in my house to really transfer back over. And the grass just don't look that much greener over there.

matwood 3y ago

> 3+ seconds to load, and it would commonly crash. Admittedly I haven't used Android full time (I have some Pixels for testing) since the Nexus days, but they pushed me back to iPhone when they released an update that completely destroyed the performance on my Nexus 7. Since then the growing Apple ecosystem makes it unlikely I'll change back. And that's fine. Phones are a solved problem at this point, it's really everything else where interesting work is happening.