Why Are You Still Using Android?

I agree 100% with ya!

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Day 4 of iPhone conversion for me. Still some speed bumps in iOS to be sure, like why canā€™t I put an icon where I want it? lol. The iOS widgets are cool, but they have to be on the slide out menu and not the main screen, why?

But, I have to admit Apple is doing some things really, really well that Google could learn from. One example: FaceID integrates seamlessly with LastPass, much better than the way LastPass works on Android with the fingerprint reader.

What I find most interesting is how similar vanilla ā€œPixelā€ Android and iOS are in terms of just daily operation. Customization aside, things like gestures make it obvious the two are heavily copying one another.

Not sure I will keep the iPhone yet, but I am willing to give it the old college try for 30 days.

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Iā€™m pretty sad to say that after many many years on Android I just switched to iOS on the iPhone 11 Pro. I used to bounce back and forth between the two years ago and honestly quite liked iOS with some jailbreak tweaks. I switch permanently when I bought a Note, then a Nexus 6P and most recently two years on a Pixel 2.

Sadly, Google really crapped the bed with the Pixel 4. I like smaller devices and I canā€™t imagine what the thinking was on the small Pixel. Other things are related to Google itself. Iā€™m getting tired of them shutting everything down and things being so fragmented. Iā€™ve also become really aware of how much attention Android tries to get from you. Iā€™ve been using my 2013 MBP for the last 6 months and that sucked me in. Having Notes and Reminders sync natively between devices is pretty awesome.

Iā€™m still no real lover of iOS tbh, I feel like I have to click too much to get things done and some things are just simply stupid. BUT, with lightish use throughout the day this phone goes on the charger with 70-75% battery at the end of the day :astonished:. The wide angle camera may not be the best thing in the world but I use it way more than zoom. As @dking points out, there is NO comparison using Lastpass on iOS to Android, Android is horrendous for some reason now. The screen is beautiful on this phone. And lastly, for some reason Apple is actually listening to ppl. Battery, cameras, features, security. I loved that Pixel, all Google had to do was to not drop the ballā€¦

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I never realized how bad the password management stuff was with Android until I got my iPhone a few days ago. LastPass and FaceID together make the Android integration look very primitive.

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Oh, and the lackluster Pixel 4 was also a reading for me to switch platforms too. Friend of mine saw the Pixel 4, was a Pixel 3 user, and he switched to the Note 10.

What is so different with LastPass?

I use it with a Yubikey Neo and fingerprint on my android device.

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Itā€™s just so well integrated in iOS, Iā€™ve had an iPad for a couple years and I noticed it there. I donā€™t know why but they did something weird on Android, the autofill popup would constantly pop up when I didnā€™t want it, sometimes it wouldnā€™t, sometimes it would show the new style, Iā€™d dismiss it and it show the old. Whatever it was that changed in the last year or so I just know I was super annoyed with it most of the time. On iOS itā€™s just a super super clean implementation, it pops up as part of the keyboard, so itā€™s out of the way, thereā€™s no popups blocking the view, it shows you the login it thinks is for the page, if you click it FaceId checks you and in a second youā€™re in.

It pops up with the little key and your login shows up in the grey area to the left. Honestly, this is zero bias on my part towards iOS or Android, but the Lastpass implementation in iOS is so clean and so much better than Android that, considering I use it every day, that alone is almost worth the switch haha.
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Right, it is the integration experience. It is much more streamlined on iOS with FaceID.

Hereā€™s a question. I just switched to a Pixel 3XL from an iPhone 6. My car has a 3.5mm port on the head unit so with my iPhone, Iā€™ve been able to make & receive calls and listen to the conversation using the carā€™s internal speakers and the phoneā€™s internal mic. It worked flawlessly and because the phone still had a headphone jack, there was no compelling reason to mess that aggravating Bluetooth nonsense.
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Now with the Pixel and the removal of the headphone jack, I ran into what could be a problem. Iā€™m not sure yet because it may something I am overlooking. Anyway, I bought the USB-C dongle that has both the charging port and headphone jack. I was expecting the same performance as with the iPhone but this morning on the first call I got in the car, I was able to hear the caller but he could not hear me. I had to unplug the dongle and select ā€˜Speakerā€™ in order for him to hear me. When I plugged the dongle back in, it reverted back to what it was previously doing.
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Does this dongle disable the mic? If so that is a definite deal breaker. The headphone cable only has two rings so there is no mic. It is just a dual-ended 3.5mm cable. The integrated mic in the Pixel should still work right? To me this should be a very basic task for Android. One very annoying thing about this device is when I want to use the speaker phone, I have to tap the phone symbol to reveal a drop-down and then select ā€˜Speakerā€™. Unlike the iPhone where the speaker was a symbol you just toggled on or off. Way simpler. Taking two to three steps to perform a simple task makes no sense. I guess thatā€™s something I have to put up with. But I would like to resolve the whole dongle/mic thing. Because if the integrated mic gets turned off simply by plugging in a USB-C headphone adapter, this thing is going back.

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As said before the biggest issue I have is the auto-pop up. It pops up in this text box for gods sake. If you havenā€™t signed in w/ biometrics itā€™ll fo it every single time. If you sign in, then dismiss the pop up itā€™ll go away.

But still, this shouldnā€™t be a thing. However I donā€™t really understand whats so much better regarding Bio sign in w/ iOS. On android it prompts me, I hit the fingerprint and it signs inā€¦what in the world is the difference? IMO fingerprint is just as convenient as face ID.

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That is because of the design of the port. I think the same is true on a new iPhone sans headphone jack. Itā€™s no longer an analog port. When you plug in the single you are actually switching the codec in the phone. Itā€™s no longer an analog thing. My guess is a new iPhone without a headphone jack using the lightning to headphone adapter would do the same thing. RIP headphone jack.

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I can think of one thing as of this writing: Customization.

With an Android unit, users can have more freedom in terms of customization. People can arrange their home screen that fits their needs or suits their tastes. For the users who want to step up a notch, they can put custom ROMs in it by ā€œRootingā€ their units. (I personally donā€™t recommend putting custom ROMs unless the people know what they are doing.)

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Oh ROMs, those were a lot of fun to mess around with, so many cool ones out there. I stopped messing with ROMs as soon as the pixels came out cause the only thing I was after with ROMs was to get rid of all the crap haha. Good times

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Same here. Getting rid of bloatware/crapware is the reason why I decided to put custom ROMs on my previous units.

But with the current state of the smartphone market, I think putting custom ROMs will become more of a hobby or learning experience since there are now phone manufacturers that release phones with minimal bloat.

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It is also harder to do. I recall loading new ROMS weekly sometimes . Many phones come with locked down boot loaders now. Getting away from bloatware is one of the reasons I moved away from Samsung and Motorola phones and went to Pixel phones . That and reliable, frequent security updates. iOS offers those same advantages at least - lack of bloatware and reliable updates.

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The ability to put a ROM on my 1st gen Pixel is the only reason I still use it. After the last patch it will get in December from Google, I will start in earnest looking for a stable ROM.
Buying an iPhone is tempting, but then I have to do things the Apple way, which is not the way I want to do things. If they could allow a little customization of home screens and app layout, I would buy one.
Even after 6 or 7 years on Android, I am not heavely invested in the ecosystem, so I could switch, but Apple just makes the prospect too much work. I like the layout of my screens with each one having a set purpose, but Apple canā€™t accommodate that. Such a simple thing, that is holding me back, but usability is key in a device you will use every day and incorporate into your life.

And donā€™t get me started on T-Mobleā€™s choice to not allow LG phones on their network to receive patches from LG, but at lest a carrier I can dump and switch and not affect my device layout.

Google is working hard to push people away, and they may succeed.

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Lets see I hate apple for a start, then at least I can configure Android, Android will do while I wait for a Linux phone to mature, thatā€™s what I really want. Then Iā€™ll be able to code for it without crap like objective C, or Java or swift or kotlin, I want to work in C++ and maybe Perl5 or 6 for something quick and dirty

All about cost for me. Around Ā£500 is my sweet spot for a phone, plenty of very capable Android phones at that price. With iOS youā€™re looking at second hand or 3 year old models.

All the customisation available (launchers, widgets, access to NFC etc etc) is a bonus.

Donā€™t feel Iā€™m disadvantaged by not having an iPhone to go with my macs. What am I missing integration wise?

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Pixels do work with external mics connected via their dongle, so itā€™s not that. I assume this is a software issue - the phone dialler is assuming youā€™ve connected a headset with a mic, so is trying to use that. That use-case may not be covered, using a speaker connected via 3.5mm but the phoneā€™s mic. Might be an option hidden away in the dialer somewhere?

Choice and Customisation.
I can choose which make of phone, which size screen and what it looks like. I can have what I want showing on the Home screen and I can troubleshoot apps and disable (most) of the ones I donā€™t want.

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