HACKER Q&A
📣 anthlax

What would it take for you to switch to Android (from iOS)?


There really is no motivation to this question. I’ve just been wondering about switching to android for the hell of it. My biggest reasons why not to is: blue bubbles! As stupid as it sounds, most of my group chats with friends and family are iMessage and we use the iMessage features. I’ve tried to advocate for a switch to Signal but network effects etc. Other things is that play store has a “cheap” feeling to it. Not sure why (like I said - this isn’t very scientific) but it just feels lower quality to Apple’s App Store.

Any thoughts?

  👤 SOTGO Accepted Answer ✓
At this point there isn't a compelling reason to switch for any party. The experience on Android vs. IOS isn't meaningfully different to me, and while I think Apple probably does a better job with privacy (which I personally value highly) they do a worse job with the ownability of the device (repairability, sideloading, app store bullshit, etc.). I really wish there were more choices, but we seem stuck with two detestable options. To each their own I guess.
👤 ggm
As an android user who lives in OSX, I can say that the level of integration for calendar and photo/filestore share isn't as positive an experience as it could be, if you're used to iCloud. It would demand the apple people deciding to invest in that codepath, which frankly they probably have negative motivation to do: better to leave it sub-par and drive people to an iOS device for better interop of handheld and desktop/laptop.

I also think build quality of Android UI is highly variable. I'm on a mixture of Samsung (tablet) and Motorola (phone) and the conformance to UI is .. mixed. You have the freedom to pick alternate launchers, but you don't have the freedom to run a "stock" experience like Pixel offers, because .. well.. its Googles UI not the openly available UI. By comparison, the functional elements on iOS are really what they are (I do recognize 3rd party apps on iOS sometimes stretch this, I help an octegenarian with Google Mail and Facebook and the in-app behaviour of some things to do with clipboard and inter-app Sharing is dire)

I'm unlikely to move back to all-apple. I have no strong rooted reasoning there, The buy cost of an iPhone is really extremene compared to batterylife-cpu-camera value outside in Android, but oddly the buy cost of a smaller iPad is lower than a high-end Samsung tablet. It's unexpectedly expensive sometimes not to be inside the ecology.

Apple device photographs are gorgeous. Some Android cameras come close, some might even exceed: folded mirror/prism optics give you pretty good realzoom these days but something about the overall image process path on an iPhone has me in awe: I like my android camera but its chalk and cheese.

You can't iCloud on Android except via Browser. The price per bit inside iCloud is pretty good. I'd think about total systems cost, "TCO for users" if you like. I live in Google One but frankly, right now bit-for-bit iCloud would be better value for money.

👤 daviddever23box
Blue bubbles are the least of it; if you're a Windows user, you may find that Android is more to your liking (and matches your acceptable level of risk as far as security goes).

I might recommend that you give an Amazon Fire tablet a whirl first; like Apple, there is a walled garden approach that might make the comparison easier (plus it aligns well with the Windows Subsystem for Android).