44
'Android's now better than iOS': Instagram boss weighs in on the age-old iPhone vs. Android debate
(www.businessinsider.com)
this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2023
44 points (76.8% liked)
Android
27869 readers
249 users here now
DROID DOES
Welcome to the droidymcdroidface-iest, Lemmyest (Lemmiest), test, bestest, phoniest, pluckiest, snarkiest, and spiciest Android community on Lemmy (Do not respond)! Here you can participate in amazing discussions and events relating to all things Android.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules
1. All posts must be relevant to Android devices/operating system.
2. Posts cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
3. No spam, self promotion, or upvote farming. Sources engaging in these behavior will be added to the Blacklist.
4. Non-whitelisted bots will be banned.
5. Engage respectfully: Harassment, flamebaiting, bad faith engagement, or agenda posting will result in your posts being removed. Excessive violations will result in temporary or permanent ban, depending on severity.
6. Memes are not allowed to be posts, but are allowed in the comments.
7. Posts from clickbait sources are heavily discouraged. Please de-clickbait titles if it needs to be submitted.
8. Submission statements of any length composed of your own thoughts inside the post text field are mandatory for any microblog posts, and are optional but recommended for article/image/video posts.
Community Resources:
We are Android girls*,
In our Lemmy.world.
The back is plastic,
It's fantastic.
*Well, not just girls: people of all gender identities are welcomed here.
Our Partner Communities:
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
This is disappointing, because I'd really like to hear what he has to say on the subject.
As an Android user in the U.S., I feel the exact opposite.
As an IT sysadmin doing mobile device management with BYOD in the workplace, iOS has a clear edge if you're willing to pay for MDM products that handle it. The built-in options in Azure are...varied for both products. ( https://download.microsoft.com/download/e/6/2/e6233fdd-a956-4f77-93a5-1aa254ee2917/msft-intune-enrollment-options.pdf )
As a personal user, though, the sheer ridiculous amount of variety of the android kernel between different carriers and models on the current version alone is positively insane. It should be a beautiful bonus smorgasbord of consumer choice, but with all of the carriers rolling their own lockdowns, hobblings, and forced includes it's a buyer's nightmare of trying to find a device that doesn't lock out the things you want while also letting you remove the things you DON'T want (preferably without needing adb to do so).
Separate text notification sounds for each contact? Not always!
Advanced SMS options? Totally inconsistent.
MAC Address randomization? Roll a d20 against the number of flagship models and carriers in your area. You'll probably get it, but no guarantees.
Heaven forbid you want to do something that should be straightforward in today's day and age like download your SMS History? Voicemails as audio files? Custom Do Not Disturb settings? Good luck.
Apple users have been sending text messages interchangeably between their phones and computers/tablets for years. I still recall the shock and awe when my android phone was getting a barrage of text messages from my boss because he could send them with the full keyboard on his laptop while I was one-finger-punching the touchscreen on my phone to reply.
A lot of this isn't the direct fault of the android kernel itself, but it is a large portion of the default android user experience in the U.S. and as such it's what I have to base my judgement of the android kernel ON.
Android should be the superior option, but at this point in time, I don't think it is.
As have Android users. Microsoft Phone Link/My Phone Companion and KDE Connect have supported this for years on their relevant PC platforms. The Phone Link Android app is even preinstalled on Samsung devices. There's a teensy bit of setup but nothing complicated. KDE Connect even supports stuff like using the phone as a touchpad, remote keyboard, or media/presentation controller.
If your PC is a Chromebook then you don't even need these. If you sign into the phone and Chromebook with the same Google account, the integration just works, much as it does on Apple devices.
Most of your arguments can be boiled down to "everything is really slick if you use an all-Apple ecosystem". Which is fine, but the same can be said about Android - if you use an all-Google ecosystem with Pixels, Chromebooks and Google Workspace then most, if not all of your complaints about Android go away. Pixel Android is more consistent and less buggy than most vendor versions of Android. Integration with Chromebooks works out of the box. Google Workspace MDM is simple and straightforward, and you don't really need to buy a separate MDM solution.
The difference is that Android at least makes a decent effort to cater for a heterogeneous ecosystem. With Apple, if you're not entirely onboard with an all-Apple ecosystem then it starts getting messy quickly.
Yea this guy seems ignorant of what is available. You can use messages on the web. It's easy. I don't know what anyone looks at texting as a good solution anyways. Messaging apps are far better to use and work across borders without added cost. RCS is cool but still border limiting. Apples ecosystem is cost prohibitive too. The prices they charge for storage and ram on their products is outright absurd.
Trying to get people to install and use them can be frustrating. Some are regionally popular, like WhatsApp in Europe, and most people I really want to talk to use Signal, but the most popular messaging app in the US is probably iMessage, and only because Apple integrated it and SMS in a default app. Google started to do the same thing with Hangouts, but dropped the ball.
Get a pixel and install GrapheneOS. Using a pixel and Linux machines, you can use KDE Connect to get basically every integration you get with iOS and macOS. Admittedly not everything is quite so seamless like Apple's products, but it's quite nice. Plus, no Google snooping on your stuff (unless you choose to install Google services, which you can do with one tap)
KDE Connect rocks. It's objectively better than Windows Phone Link because, somehow, it fucking works.
Isnt the dude who runs graphene a nutjob?
Any thoughts on /e/OS
Thankfully that guy stepped down (or is stepping down)
Still a forever 'no' for me. Anyone taking over for him tolerates him , and who is to say if he is only symbolically step down and will still run things behind the scenes?
Thankfully we are spoiled for choice on security oriented ROMs these days and nearly everything will run on a Pixel. No need to use a ROM created by someone so toxic they put their projects in jeopardy.