Android: Best & Worst
Hey guys I’ve had an iPhone since they first came out and five days I switched to a Google Pixel. It took a couple of days to get used to it, but I did some migration prep beforehand.
The Worst
- Scrolling feels weird after coming from iOS. Less consistent, more drag somehow.
- No visual voicemail (built in)
- One app I used regularly isn’t available (Breaker podcast app)
- Everyone else has an iPhone, so to get a Find My Friends equivalent you need to get your friends/family to install the google version (Trusted Contacts)
- Notifications are weird enough that I’m not totally used to them yet.
- Copying old whatsapp messages seemed like a pain in the ass so I didn’t bother
- Text input is okay, but text editing isn’t great. It might be because I’m inexperienced but I really miss double clicking a word to select it and moving the caret by dragging the space bar.
The Best
- It came with a cable and copies everything from your old phone (messages, photos, contacts, calendars etc)
- Google Photos is way faster/slicker than Apple’s photos.
- You can copy all your photos/videos to Google Photos using the iOS app beforehand
- Photo + Video storage is free if you let Google compress them (which makes no difference)
- Read and send SMS messages from your PC – this is massive for me because I spend most of my time at the PC
- Read phone notifications on your PC. They appear just like the regular window notifications.
- Can set safe zones so your phone doesn’t lock in certain locations (like in your house)
- App layout WAY more customisation. It has a drawer with all the apps in but you can put them wherever you want on the “desktop”. That’s way nicer than iOS’s 10 horizontal pages and a web of drawers layout. You can put apps at the bottom of the screen and leave the top empty.
- You can add shortcuts to the desktop too, not just webpages, I added one to open whatsapp to Sarah, so it jumps straight there.
- It tells you what time the battery is going to run out.
- Double press power button to open camera, volume button does the shutter.
- Every iPhone app I use apart from one is available and works.
- Some apps open even faster (Control4, nxWitness pop up instantly, where on iOS there was always a delay)
- Shows you what song is playing on the TV right on the lock screen
- Google can understand my accent way better than Siri. I don’t have to clean it up at all.
- All your passwords are stored and autofilled on one platform, no fucking around with third party password managers, syncs seamlessly between mobile and desktop.
- You get to tell everyone you’re using Android like a prick
Verdict
I don’t really use my phone for anything more than text messages, twitter and news – so my requirements aren’t that high. I switched because I hate big heavy phones. The pixel is about as tall as my old iPhone but it’s thinner and way lighter.
I can’t imagine that I’d switch back to an iPhone again now. The switch is the hardest part, so it’d take a lot to convince me to move back now I’ve broken free.
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