6 ms·

I'd love to be able to actually replace Apple's apps with Google's. When I hit a link I don't want it to open in Safari, I want Chrome. Ditto with Map links. I

by jonknee 14y ago

I'd love to be able to actually replace Apple's apps with Google's. When I hit a link I don't want it to open in Safari, I want Chrome. Ditto with Map links. I want Siri to be replaced with Google Voice Search (and for there to be APIs that allow Google to fully replace Siri).

squidsoup 14y ago
Given that you're primarily wanting Google software, what is it about iOS or the iPhone that is keeping you from switching to an Android phone?
- purephase 14y ago
  The phones themselves... ?
- justinph 14y ago
  Not the orignal commenter, but I've tried switching to Android several times so I feel qualified to reply: * Apple hardware is superior to any of the Nexus phones. Buttons don't rock without triggering action, screens are consistent colors, etc. * There is a hardware home button that doesn't change locations. This makes it easy to get 'home' from anywhere, and, most importantly, to orient the device by feel in your hand without looking at it. * The phone in't huge. * Battery life is better on iOS. * There is only one email app, not seperate apps for exchange / imap and gmail. * The quality of apps on iOS is vastly superior to Android. Both in terms of function, but also UI. This is partly because of developers, but also because there isn't the screen size fragmentation issue. I really want google to succeed with Android. I want someone to make a phone that's better than the iPhone. No one is doing it, yet, though.
  - pcl 14y ago
    There is only one email app, not seperate apps for exchange / imap and gmail. The goofy mail experience was a big turn-off for me last time I tried switching to Android. The quality of apps on iOS is vastly superior to Android. This might be true on average, but in my case, I only really use a handful of apps with any regularity, and they all seem to be around parity on both platforms.
    - jamesaguilar 14y ago
      This hasn't always been the case. I've switched between Apple and Android about three times. The most recent time, just a few months ago, I stuck with Android. Because while the long tail of apps on iPhone look and work better, the top-100/top-200 apps an Android are roughly on par with those same apps on iPhone. Since those are all I use, the question turns to OS feature-sets, and Android has iOS beat on that front. If you're in to mobile gaming, though, you probably need to have an iPhone.
      - eagsalazar2 14y ago
        And the top 3 apps I use many times per day: email, maps, calendar are way way better on Android at least if you are using gmail. Without exaggeration, if you use gmail the main experience on Android crushes iOS.
        clauretano 14y ago
        Have you seen the new (last month) Gmail app for iOS? It's really quite nice https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gmail-email-from-google/id422689480?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gmail-email-from-google/id42...
        bruceboughton 14y ago
        Nowhere near as nice as Sparrow though... apart from push.
  - sp332 14y ago
    There is only one email app, not seperate apps for exchange / imap and gmail. If you enable IMAP access to your Gmail account, you can use the "email" app to access gmail accounts along with everything else. The Gmail app has a dedicated button for "archive" and it handles labels better, but you don't really need it.
    - richardwhiuk 14y ago
      The IMAP experience of Gmail is possible, but by and large ime it sucks. Gmail treats a email has having 0+ tags, IMAP implementations rely on an email being in 1 folder. This is a fundamental difference.
      - staticfish 14y ago
        I think Gmail's IMAP implementation is a rather usable and clever hack, actually. By the way, everything is under one folder, both on IMAP and in the web interface. It's called "All Mail" (Archive)
        sp332 14y ago
        GP means that each email is under only one folder in IMAP. In Gmail it's possible to have multiple labels on a single email, and this is not at all elegant to hack into an IMAP view.
- yareally 14y ago
  Probably native OS performance + battery life (depending on which Android device one has it can be good [Nexus 7] to mediocre [Verizon Galaxy Nexus]). Perhaps they prefer Cocoa + Objective C to Java, if they're a developer. It's a tradeoff I suppose to which one considers more important. I like Android well enough these days and try to use Mono + C# when possible, but each platform has its merits and have to weigh what is more important as a user/developer. disclosure: Android user for nearly 3+ years and owns a Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 7 and a few other Android devices.
- jonknee 14y ago
  I also want other software, Apple's weather app is pathetic and it would be great if something more accurate could show up in my notification bar. As for why I have an iPhone, mostly because the hardware is great, I get a lot of mileage out of the iPod functionality and I do quite a bit of mobile web development that having an iOS device is handy for (regardless of sales figures, I see a ton more iOS web traffic than Android and it is as such a higher priority to test against).
  - tharax 14y ago
    The same could be said for Stocks, Game Center, Videos, Voice Memos, Reminders, and Newsstand. In my experience, I don't use these apps but they clog up my apps list. They should be optional - They could come pre-installed, but if I deleted them and wanted to re-install Apple just needs to make a Separate "Official Apple" tab in the App Store. The only App that arguably shouldn't be removable is "Settings". Even the App Store could be activated (or not) from within there.
    - joablen 14y ago
      Completely agree. I have the same problem with those apps but since I keep all my apps organized in two pages, I added a third with a folder called "useless" with all those in it.
    - jonknee 14y ago
      I have a folder called "Unused" that includes most of those except Newsstand because it itself is a folder and can't be put into one (or removed). I don't really want replacements for any of these, but it would be great to be able to dump them for good.
allsystemsgo 14y ago
It sounds like you don't want an iPhone. I would recommend you look into Android.
- jonknee 14y ago
  I can come up with a list of gripes about Android too. Neither platform is perfect.
smcnally 14y ago
Though you stll prefer Apple's hardware and other function iOS provides to Android devices and OS? What's the tipping point for you?
starik36 14y ago
Siri is pretty great at the domain I use it on (directions, alerts, reminders, etc...) . Google Voice Search is not even close. Not quite sure why you'd want to replace it.
- jasonbarone 14y ago
  Siri is nowhere close to Google Voice Search in my experience. I have a very clear voice and Siri can't understand much with street names, restaurants or any word that can be misunderstood. Google seems to have more intelligence when it processes your voice query--using Google Search results to help bring you the correct answer. When Siri fails on me with multiple tries, Google will give me the correct query I wanted 99.9% of the time on the first try.
- jonknee 14y ago
  I'd replace it because I don't use Siri and I would use Google Voice Search. Siri has gotten my directions, alerts and reminders wrong enough times that I don't use it at all. If it could replace Siri I think Google would expand things a bit to allow more Siri-like functionality, but even at the moment a very fast way to Google things is more useful to me than Siri.

by jonknee 14y ago

squidsoup 14y ago

Given that you're primarily wanting Google software, what is it about iOS or the iPhone that is keeping you from switching to an Android phone?

purephase 14y ago
The phones themselves... ?
justinph 14y ago
Not the orignal commenter, but I've tried switching to Android several times so I feel qualified to reply: * Apple hardware is superior to any of the Nexus phones. Buttons don't rock without triggering action, screens are consistent colors, etc. * There is a hardware home button that doesn't change locations. This makes it easy to get 'home' from anywhere, and, most importantly, to orient the device by feel in your hand without looking at it. * The phone in't huge. * Battery life is better on iOS. * There is only one email app, not seperate apps for exchange / imap and gmail. * The quality of apps on iOS is vastly superior to Android. Both in terms of function, but also UI. This is partly because of developers, but also because there isn't the screen size fragmentation issue. I really want google to succeed with Android. I want someone to make a phone that's better than the iPhone. No one is doing it, yet, though.
- pcl 14y ago
  There is only one email app, not seperate apps for exchange / imap and gmail. The goofy mail experience was a big turn-off for me last time I tried switching to Android. The quality of apps on iOS is vastly superior to Android. This might be true on average, but in my case, I only really use a handful of apps with any regularity, and they all seem to be around parity on both platforms.
  - jamesaguilar 14y ago
    This hasn't always been the case. I've switched between Apple and Android about three times. The most recent time, just a few months ago, I stuck with Android. Because while the long tail of apps on iPhone look and work better, the top-100/top-200 apps an Android are roughly on par with those same apps on iPhone. Since those are all I use, the question turns to OS feature-sets, and Android has iOS beat on that front. If you're in to mobile gaming, though, you probably need to have an iPhone.
    - eagsalazar2 14y ago
      And the top 3 apps I use many times per day: email, maps, calendar are way way better on Android at least if you are using gmail. Without exaggeration, if you use gmail the main experience on Android crushes iOS.
      - clauretano 14y ago
        Have you seen the new (last month) Gmail app for iOS? It's really quite nice https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gmail-email-from-google/id422689480?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gmail-email-from-google/id42...
        bruceboughton 14y ago
        Nowhere near as nice as Sparrow though... apart from push.
- sp332 14y ago
  There is only one email app, not seperate apps for exchange / imap and gmail. If you enable IMAP access to your Gmail account, you can use the "email" app to access gmail accounts along with everything else. The Gmail app has a dedicated button for "archive" and it handles labels better, but you don't really need it.
  - richardwhiuk 14y ago
    The IMAP experience of Gmail is possible, but by and large ime it sucks. Gmail treats a email has having 0+ tags, IMAP implementations rely on an email being in 1 folder. This is a fundamental difference.
    - staticfish 14y ago
      I think Gmail's IMAP implementation is a rather usable and clever hack, actually. By the way, everything is under one folder, both on IMAP and in the web interface. It's called "All Mail" (Archive)
      - sp332 14y ago
        GP means that each email is under only one folder in IMAP. In Gmail it's possible to have multiple labels on a single email, and this is not at all elegant to hack into an IMAP view.
yareally 14y ago
Probably native OS performance + battery life (depending on which Android device one has it can be good [Nexus 7] to mediocre [Verizon Galaxy Nexus]). Perhaps they prefer Cocoa + Objective C to Java, if they're a developer. It's a tradeoff I suppose to which one considers more important. I like Android well enough these days and try to use Mono + C# when possible, but each platform has its merits and have to weigh what is more important as a user/developer. disclosure: Android user for nearly 3+ years and owns a Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 7 and a few other Android devices.
jonknee 14y ago
I also want other software, Apple's weather app is pathetic and it would be great if something more accurate could show up in my notification bar. As for why I have an iPhone, mostly because the hardware is great, I get a lot of mileage out of the iPod functionality and I do quite a bit of mobile web development that having an iOS device is handy for (regardless of sales figures, I see a ton more iOS web traffic than Android and it is as such a higher priority to test against).
- tharax 14y ago
  The same could be said for Stocks, Game Center, Videos, Voice Memos, Reminders, and Newsstand. In my experience, I don't use these apps but they clog up my apps list. They should be optional - They could come pre-installed, but if I deleted them and wanted to re-install Apple just needs to make a Separate "Official Apple" tab in the App Store. The only App that arguably shouldn't be removable is "Settings". Even the App Store could be activated (or not) from within there.
  - joablen 14y ago
    Completely agree. I have the same problem with those apps but since I keep all my apps organized in two pages, I added a third with a folder called "useless" with all those in it.
  - jonknee 14y ago
    I have a folder called "Unused" that includes most of those except Newsstand because it itself is a folder and can't be put into one (or removed). I don't really want replacements for any of these, but it would be great to be able to dump them for good.

allsystemsgo 14y ago

It sounds like you don't want an iPhone. I would recommend you look into Android.

jonknee 14y ago
I can come up with a list of gripes about Android too. Neither platform is perfect.

smcnally 14y ago

Though you stll prefer Apple's hardware and other function iOS provides to Android devices and OS? What's the tipping point for you?

starik36 14y ago

Siri is pretty great at the domain I use it on (directions, alerts, reminders, etc...) . Google Voice Search is not even close. Not quite sure why you'd want to replace it.

jasonbarone 14y ago
Siri is nowhere close to Google Voice Search in my experience. I have a very clear voice and Siri can't understand much with street names, restaurants or any word that can be misunderstood. Google seems to have more intelligence when it processes your voice query--using Google Search results to help bring you the correct answer. When Siri fails on me with multiple tries, Google will give me the correct query I wanted 99.9% of the time on the first try.
jonknee 14y ago
I'd replace it because I don't use Siri and I would use Google Voice Search. Siri has gotten my directions, alerts and reminders wrong enough times that I don't use it at all. If it could replace Siri I think Google would expand things a bit to allow more Siri-like functionality, but even at the moment a very fast way to Google things is more useful to me than Siri.