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Comment by tomtheelder | Hacker News Reader

I switched recently, and honestly have found the experience on iPhone to broadly be worse. There are a few things that are a bit nicer, but the downgrade in the notifications system alone just tanks the experience.

That said I switched for mostly privacy reasons, so won't be going back.

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I switched as well and it's actually such a "pick the lesser evil" situation and I hate that.

I'm gonna write a quick comparison as I've switched between platforms several times (still miss my Windows Phone tbh though):

I've found that no matter which Android "iphone camera killer" phone I got, the camera was unreliable and always ended up having crappy results. Meanwhile, my iPhone pics are constantly a decent quality.

Somehow, iPhone screens _consistently_ shatter for me. Even when I'm careful. I've yet to break the screen on an Android phone -- even if I've used it significantly longer or it was significantly cheaper. Something about iPhone's design or manufacturing lends it to shattering. My current iPhone has a shattered back from when I dropped it on my soft carpet from a foot up-high about a year in...

iPhone and Android software both sucks but Android's app experience is _significantly_ better. Why? BACK BUTTON. Every iPhone app has different expectations around going "back" from swiping up, left, right, or just having no way to go "back" at all. Which is common. Good Android apps are _great_; however, most iPhone apps are ok and most Android apps are not even ok.

iMessage isn't great but it's hard to give up on it. SMS/MMS experience _sucks_ -- so knowing when someone will get your 5 minute audio message in good quality is actually really nice. Sending pictures between platforms _sucks_. With that said, Android's web interface for messages is a million times better than the iMessage app and obv cross-platform.

I also absolutely hate getting data off an iPhone. it's unreliable especially if you don't have a mac. The Android experience is so much nicer.

So it's kind of a give and take. :/

Also -- less notification/customization options on the iPhone but having a hardware "silent" button is rad.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm considering this too as many others in thread.

The camera thing drives me nuts. My pixel 6 can't take a reasonable photo of a flat piece of paper due to spherical distortion causing blurring of text. Sure you can go 2x and hold the phone further as suggested in online discussions but it's nuts that this made it past any attempt at QA and testing.

I switched recently from years of Android usage simply because the car I wanted to buy only supported CarPlay. I could either give up Android or give up the car. I chose to keep the car. Now that I’ve had the iPhone a while, there seem to be about the same number of annoyances in iOS as there were with Android, they’re just different. I think I’d give the edge to Android, iOS is slightly more annoying, but not enough to worry about switching back.

Do I understand correctly that your car determined your smartphone choice? Furthermore you considered changing your vehicle selection based on your current smartphone?

I find the concept of a smartphone affecting a transportation decision or the reverse to be highly unusual.

Can you please explain your rational? For example, do you spend excessive amount of time in your car? Do you do specific tasks from your car that require a specific connection between car and smartphone?

Not parent, but nowadays the smartphone is the way to get decent information on the screen of your car. The built-in car infotainment/nav systems are all horrible. Voice recognition is terrible. Plug the phone in, and to a first approximation everything works. With wireless Car Play, you don't even need to plug in.

A car is both longer-lived and more expensive than a phone. It’s definitely not unthinkable to have that influence your choice of smartphone, especially since there might be many other more important factors that affect your choice of car.

Yes, my choice of car determined my smartphone choice. I decided I was more interested in the particular vehicle (Porsche Macan) than the particular smartphone (Pixel 5a vs iPhone 13). Both CarPlay and Android Auto are worlds better than the OEM head unit software crap I've found in any of the cars I've owned (Audi, Porsche, VW, Ford, Chevy, Kia) for both navigation and music/podcast listening. I was hesitant to switch, but I figured it was an easier choice to back out of than a car purchase. And six months later, I think I made the right choice. While I still would prefer Android, I'm ok enough with the iPhone that I'm not bothered day to day with it.

Apparently next year the Macan is getting Android Auto support, so people in the future won't need to make the choice. But I was in need of a car this year, so I had to make the choice.

My $10k Toyota Corolla has android auto. What happened?

Luxury automakers have often been more restrictive and exclusive about features, mostly because they can be. BMW was known for their annual subscription CarPlay option which required ongoing payments for what was clearly a one-time software update. Porsche likely has even more brand loyalty driven by other elements of their cars, so I’m not surprised that they’d choose to negotiate some exclusivity with Apple CarPlay or otherwise just not bother adding Android Auto until 2022.

I have a company issued iPhone, and the atrocious notification system is enough to assure I will not buy an iPhone personally. If notifications in iOS were ever completely overhauled to the Android model, I would probably jump ship.

Well, I don't really know the iOS system, but Android lets you authorize (or block) each different interface of notifications (like text, sounds, or appearing at the top) for each different application, and you can do that right from the notification itself.

I imagine this is what the GP is talking about.

I think you replied to the wrong comment? I am quite familiar with the power of the Android notification system. iOS notifications pale in comparison.

That's strange. I replied to a reply of your comment, but it's not there anymore.

You can do all of this on iOS

Not even close to the same extent as you can on Android

Not sure what I’m missing here. I make Android and iOS apps and so I have access to both operating systems and various devices on a daily basis. What is iOS missing that Android has (when it comes to notification settings)?

You should watch the WWDC keynote in 6 weeks :)

Are you an Apple employee or are you basing this on the rumor mill?

Funny. Samsung notifications are a reason I will never buy a Samsung phone again. iOS notifications can be customised to suit my desire.

Bixby and the Samsung crap are the reasons I'll never buy a Samsung phone. The only redeeming thing is that they're not made in China.

That makes sense, but I’m not sure that’s what the GP comment was talking about. For instance, both Samsung and non-Samsung Android devices have threaded/serial message notifications (?) which are very helpful for conversations, whereas iOS still has the primitive notification-per-message system. I’ve learned to live without it now as I prefer iOS for its advantages, but I’m frequently expected to make sense of several notifications out of order for each conversation when one would suffice.

I use a Samsung and my SO an iPhone which I'm the one "administering" and I can tell that both notifications can be customized at (our) will. I have no idea what you mean there.

Pretty much my opinion exactly.

Similar. I miss Android for its technical features, but Google has turned the typical experience adversarial, like it’s all just an elaborate marketing vector. Apple’s ecosystem remains a proprietary dystopia, and its software is bafflingly inadequate for all the hype, but at least the business model is transparent.

I don’t think I’ve ever used android for more than about 30 seconds on someone else’s phone. I wasn’t aware there was a difference in the notification system. What makes android better?

Android notifications can be more interactive. They're you perform quick actions like reactions to slack messages or archiving emails. Basically the things you can do on an Apple Watch but not the iPhone.

That’s up to the developer, the APIs have existed for 2ish years I think. I reply to texts and Slack messages through notifications.

There are limits, but it’s not display only like it used to be.

I have yet to see a single interactive notification. What settings do you have to configure to get Slack to let you reply from a notification?

I believe you have to grab the notification and sort of “drag it down” to see the interactive part. It’s not shown by default.

Long press on it to bring up the options. And drag to left for options to change notification preferences.

I just long pressed on a Slack notification and a “reply” text box appeared above the keyboard.

Thanks, I had no idea this was a thing on iOS.

I reply to slack notification on Apple Watch with dictation or canned message. Reply on phone just opens slack.

How is a completely proprietary OS more private? I think LineageOS is the most private.

I'm not really sure how the ownership model of the OS is relevant. That said, I agree that Lineage would be the choice where I have the most control, but it simply isn't practical for my personal needs.

Google's whole thing is hoovering up all of your data. Apple at least has other priorities.

> LineageOS is the most private.

It was up until they took away the ability to fake app permissions.

Probably from the sense of sharing of location/identifying information/etc that Apple makes much easier to set and less likely to be circumvented by apps. Apple also does not sell your information, buying habits, etc to 3rd parties like google does. Apple makes money on the hardware and software they sell you. Google makes money on ads and selling your information to 3rd parties.

Apple has a huge vested interest in privacy. The second they stop supporting it, the clock on people switching away and the their stock price plummeting starts. They just have enough money to pay smart people to worry it.

same here switched for privacy/security reasons

i expected IOS to be this perfect experience, but in fact many of apple's own apps are buggy ,and some quality of life features dont exist

and then theres TrueCaller :(

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