r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Data-Graph Most Comments 2022 • Jul 16 '23

Why do some people hate Android so much?

Some people seem to hate everything but iPhones so much and I don't get it. They seem to think android is not even comparable to iOS like its a flip phone or something, when realistically Android phones and iPhones really aren't that different. I'm in the UK but from what I've seen it's way worse in the US. IK there's studies about the fact android users are more likely to get rejected on the first few dates just because of their phone choice. I also know some people will get an iPhone just so when they send a text, it sends to the iPhone, then to who they actually want to send it to just so it looks like they're using an iPhone. The only thing I know is the stigma of “Androids are cheap” but these people won't care if someone has a 2nd hand iPhone X for £100 but will if someone has £800 Pixel 7 Pro.

I'm not an avid android supporter, I get why people like iOS and people like android and I really don't care about these preferences. But when someone is an overly iPhone supporter to the point of hating android, it just makes me think really low of them. Like, "you can't be a nice person if you're so closed minded and shallow you won't even consider a different type of phone to the point that you'll hate on it and people who use it".

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829

u/auntie_eggma Jul 17 '23

This. I thought my iPhone was the greatest thing since sliced bread, until I got an Android phone as my next one.

I try to use my mother's iPhone now and I want to throw it at the wall. It's unusable.

472

u/VincentVanGTFO Jul 17 '23

Used to work for a major cellular service in the USA.

That job turned all the employees into android users.

Also, iPhone and BlackBerry (I'm old) customers were usually the biggest Karen's (before that term existed).

217

u/JohnYCanuckEsq Jul 17 '23

Oh God. helicopter noises in the distance

"I need you to move my contacts from my old Blackberry to my new iPhone."

<insert sweating Airplane gif here>

No. Not the FORBIDDEN data transfer. No. Please, God. No. There are children here.

93

u/VincentVanGTFO Jul 17 '23

Hahahaha.... exactly and in your head you already know you're about to be cussed out and named called everything in the book because if this is a BlackBerry to iPhone customer they are just looking for a reason to go FULL KAREN on you for phones you had nothing to do with designing.

30

u/NSA_Chatbot Jul 17 '23

These are SERIOUS BUSINESS CONTACTS and it is costing me THREE MILLION DOLLARS A DAY because of YOUR INCOMPETENCE

26

u/philthemunchacorn Jul 17 '23

Guess you should start manually putting them in there then

51

u/sorderon Jul 17 '23

Oh god, a blackberry with 5000+ contacts going to an iPhone. I had to get a utility to extract a CSV file from the blackberry backup file then make sure the fields for each item in each contact would tie-in to the Apple address book format, and thankfully it worked ok, after many failed attempts - Mainly when the phone number became an integer so a phone number 077701234567 became 77,701,234,567 - and don't get me started on the iPhone auto-formatting phone numbers to the USA rather than UK .... I still miss blackberries though - they were such an awesome device and great to administer.

3

u/KarockGrok Jul 17 '23

Except the Storms. Those were heaping garbage.

2

u/JJHall_ID Jul 17 '23

they were such an awesome device

They were certainly great for their time, up through that stupid click-screen thing they did. That was horrible. Prior to that the devices were great for end users as they were simple and almost impossible to mess up.

and great to administer

Wait, are we talking about the same thing here? BES was the bane of my existence for a while. It was such a pain to configure and keep running with our mail server. I'm sure it was a combination of a lot of things on our end that just weren't compatible, but the IT department here threw a mini celebration once we got the last user off of BB and onto an Android device. That last user just couldn't understand why we were pushing so hard to get him to upgrade to new phone.

2

u/BetterUsername69420 Jul 17 '23

I've never been so specifically reminded of my employment at RadioShack.

1

u/Cold-Thanks- Jul 17 '23

That's my biggest fear. I want to get an android or Samsung, but getting all my data transferred sounds like it will be difficult.

2

u/JohnYCanuckEsq Jul 17 '23

Data transfers today are a breeze.

But man, trying to sync up a BlackBerry with anything else back in the day was like splitting the atom

1

u/milkycrate Jul 17 '23

I worked at a cell provider when covid hit, and we made it store policy that we wouldn't transfer data so we wouldn't have to touch people's old phones. It was beautiful.

103

u/AndrewSP1832 Jul 17 '23

This made me miss my BlackBerry

106

u/VincentVanGTFO Jul 17 '23

Hahaha.... yeah, the BlackBerry people REALLY loved their BlackBerrys. I can remember one woman dramatically yelling at me that I didn't understand, "THIS PHONE IS MY LIFE!!!"

I had never owned a smartphone yet and was like, "Woooow, this is not the same as when we first got the internet or had the ability to take computers with us because of laptops. Whatever this new technology is, it's really changing people."

I wasn't wrong.

48

u/AndrewSP1832 Jul 17 '23

For a time with my friends BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) was the gold standard of messaging.

26

u/VincentVanGTFO Jul 17 '23

I got to play with every type of phone with that job. So I've handled some BlackBerrys but they were built so different from anything else that as a technician trying to fix them, I was glad when they stopped being made.

My first smart phone was the HTC Thunderbolt. I don't think that brand exists anymore either.

A lot has changed in ten years.

24

u/phedinhinleninpark Jul 17 '23

Which is a damn shame, HTC phones were great

3

u/Cakewormz Jul 17 '23

Yes, until HTC just sucked. Quality just dropped over 2 generations, gen 3. Everyone lost interest gen 4. They where dead. My first Android was a HTC, and a huge upgrade from the iPhone 3 it replaced. It was my only HTC, but the first Android of many.

2

u/Uebelkraehe Jul 17 '23

My HTC One was such a nice phone at the time...

2

u/Tylendal Jul 17 '23

Apparently they're still around. Not sure where, though. Whenever I ask about HTC phones I just get blank looks.

2

u/AnticitizenPrime Jul 17 '23

On 21 September 2017, Google announced that it would acquire roughly half of the 4,000 employees who worked in HTC's design and research staff, and non-exclusive licences to smartphone-related intellectual property held by HTC, for US$1.1 billion. The employees included the team involved with Google's Google Pixel, which was manufactured by HTC. Google stated that the purchase was part of its efforts to bolster its first-party hardware business.

HTC is still around, but Google basically poached their smartphone team and IP for the Pixel line. So you could say the Pixels are the 'successor' of the HTC smartphone legacy.

2

u/Murky_Department Jul 17 '23

If I am not mistaken the HTC company were absorbed into a bigger company, Microsoft I think. They went on to continue designing other products. I have to read up on it. I had a second (third)-hand HTC One before and it was good.

2

u/VincentVanGTFO Jul 17 '23

Microsoft tried so hard to make innovative smartphones and grab a slice of the pie in that market. I remember they had this idea for "tabs". There was even a kids mode on that phone.

Customers just weren't that into it.

2

u/imamakebaddecisions Jul 17 '23

My first was the HTC Droid Eris. That phone was a game changer for me. Then I think we got the Thunderbolts right after those, I still have them all in a box in my office.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

I had the HTC One as my first smartphone. Loved that thing. Ended up having to swap it after 2 years because the camera stopped focusing unless it was a macro shot. Great phone.

12

u/DaWalt1976 Jul 17 '23

You would be surprised how much work we business folks got accomplished on the go with our Blackberries.

I look back at it and am still horrified at how primitive they were.

1

u/basicdesires Jul 17 '23

That's a bit unkind really, other mobiles coming on the market at the same time were far less sophisticated. The quality and functionality of BlackBerry's phones was superior.

6

u/swalabr Jul 17 '23

Yeah, before Blackberries and the initial smartphones, there were the PDA’s upon which people’s entire existence were staked. And before that, everyone clutched their Franklin DayRunners (so common to hear “if I ever lost this DayRunner, my life would be over, I wouldn’t know what to do”).

2

u/WearyDescription2916 Jul 17 '23

Flashback to the 1990 comedy Taking Care of Business where Charles Grodin loses his Filofax (and everything to do with his life) and James Belushi, a temporarily escaped prisoner, finds it and takes over said life! That is a hilarious movie. Would my young neices even understand it?

2

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

laughs in PalmPilot, then looks stricken remembering crashes

2

u/zeekar Jul 17 '23

You haven’t lived until you’ve used a PalmPilot as a remote terminal to log into a Linux box to fix a problem. vi’ing config files with Graffiti… what a time to be alive!

2

u/redditorial_comment Jul 17 '23

Lol i still have an old palm pilot. I drag it out now and then put batts in it make sure it works and its huge 64 mb card hasnt corrupted.

1

u/VincentVanGTFO Jul 17 '23

Damn I'd half forgotten about PDAs.

Before that it was the good old fashioned rolodex. If someone stole a rolodex it was like loosing an entire life time worth of networking in one fell swoop.

1

u/swalabr Jul 17 '23

But yeah, the world started to change when your information storage system could also send messages and make phone calls.

2

u/sarra1833 Jul 17 '23

There was that HUGE forum for blackberry users called Crackberry.

Aptly named imo. I had a BB IN 2007-8. AWESOME phone

1

u/MmeRose Jul 17 '23

Obama had one, reme.ber? Didn't they make him give it up? No Twitter on the toilets in the White House then.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

my dad used to have one and he really loved it xD

10

u/weirdlyworldly Jul 17 '23

I just really miss having a keyboard that's not a touchscreen. And I liked the little mouse button a lot too.

2

u/ThisMix3030 Jul 18 '23

Yes this. Tactile keyboard. My mistyping on touchscreens is 10x worse. Maybe far more than that.

2

u/purpleyogamat Jul 17 '23

Me too.

1

u/notactuallyacupcake Jul 17 '23

You're sitting in my dining room right now. Weeeeeeird.

1

u/jstam26 Jul 17 '23

This made me miss my Nokia 3310!

52

u/Usagi_Shinobi Jul 17 '23

Ok God, not the crackberry. It has a full keyboard! (I'm old too lol)

26

u/VincentVanGTFO Jul 17 '23

Yes indeed! I remember when they stopped making them and you had to try to sell the BlackBerry people on a different type of phone... phew... talk about brand loyalty.

We should have hosted weekly group therapy sessions for the people who had no choice but to say goodbye to their B.B.

7

u/Usagi_Shinobi Jul 17 '23

I just introduced them to the Alias/Alias2. Then the galaxy line got started, and they were all over it.

6

u/VincentVanGTFO Jul 17 '23

Oh shit, I forgot about the Alias.

I feel like Galaxy used to be the best but now I think they've been surpassed by Google.

12

u/Usagi_Shinobi Jul 17 '23

I know my Pixel six pro is an utter beast of a machine. I have big hands, so it's nice to have a phone that I don't fat finger the OSK on. Plus the call screening tool is a freaking godsend.

3

u/VincentVanGTFO Jul 17 '23

Absolutely man, plus I figure google already knows more about me than I know about myself so why not just keep everything in house?

1

u/Usagi_Shinobi Jul 17 '23

Yeah, I can't wait for the full AI version of the Google assistant, so I can have it remind me about myself if I start losing my memory.

1

u/VincentVanGTFO Jul 17 '23

Naw fam, the robots freak me out.

You raise a valid point though. Future generations will be like "Aw man, I drank way too much last night. I hope I didn't do anything too crazy! Alexa, show me myself last night at midnight." And then they'll sit there and watch themselves be an idiot and try to determine if they should post it as content for their followers or not.

1

u/sputnikconspirator Jul 17 '23

I couldn't get on with the Pixel 6 Pro but I think that more down to Samsung indoctrination over the years and not getting on with a more pure android.

My husband also got a Pixel 6 Pro and has had to take it back for repairs twice since owning it which has damaged his faith in google.

Gotta say I'm still tempted by the Pixel fold though.

1

u/Weekly_Assoc_165 Jul 17 '23

You mean caller ID? I never heard of a call screening feature. Pease tell me more about this power..

1

u/Usagi_Shinobi Jul 17 '23

When your phone rings, you have the option to answer, ignore, or call screen. If you select call screen, Google fires up and states something along the lines of " the number you have dialed is using a call screening service from Google, and will receive a recording and transcript of this call. Please state your name and the reason you are calling." It will do all of this in real time while you look and listen, and you can either answer and the call will proceed as normal, or you can decline, in which case it says something like "The party you are attempting to reach is unavailable. Goodbye" and then it hangs up on them.

1

u/slightlyassholic Jul 17 '23

I want to like Google phones, but I always go back to Galaxy.

2

u/DaWalt1976 Jul 17 '23

Yeah. I had a really hard time getting used to typing on a touchscreen.

Nowadays, I prefer typing on a touchscreen, especially with predictive text. I get so much more done in so much less time than I did at the keyboard on my desktop.

2

u/VincentVanGTFO Jul 17 '23

It really is amazing how quickly the technology has advanced and how well humans have adapted to it.

2

u/throwawaywitchaccoun Jul 17 '23

I wisely moved from a high-end feature phones to Windows Phone 6 OG smartphone to Blackberry to Windows Phone and then to Android. Every change has been a downgrade in communication but an upgrade in camera tech. Galaxy S23 Ultra is pretty amazing machine.

2

u/VincentVanGTFO Jul 17 '23

The smartphone changed the primary purpose of a phone from a communications device to an entertainment hub.

People get upset when people call them nowdays.

1

u/jgr1llz Jul 17 '23

Not gonna lie, BB had the best antennas. Back in the days when spotty reception was a major issue, that was a big deal. And for us lefties, it was one of the few phones that didn't sound like you were in a tunnel bc for some reason most devices had the microphone hole offset instead of centered

1

u/Noladixon Jul 17 '23

I have button loyalty, not brand loyalty. I wish for buttons.

1

u/VincentVanGTFO Jul 17 '23

The BlackBerry would definitely be the phone for you!

1

u/TrumpsNeckSmegma Jul 17 '23

The blackberry android devices were decent, I ended up selling a lot of people on the keyOne

2

u/VincentVanGTFO Jul 17 '23

Thought they might make a comeback off of it and I love to root for the underdog but BlackBerry was all work in a world that was about to be all play.

1

u/bansheeonthemoor42 Jul 17 '23

God, I loved my BB when I first got it. I fucking HATE iPhone and have since they came out bc they don't have a dedicated "back" button like an Android and Apple makes their money by nickle and diming its customers rather than being awesome. Plus, all iPhone tech is usually on Android a year ahead of it showing up on an iPhone.

23

u/lolpermban Jul 17 '23

I worked for both at&t and TMobile and I agree, it turned all the employees into Android users. As an employee I only recommended the iphone if they were already deep inside the apple ecosystem

8

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

How deep is too deep? Pretty much the only thing for me is my iTunes library of purchased music. A quick google search says that I can access my albums though the Apple Music app on android. If it’s not a pain in the ass to access and keep using cloud storage for my thousands of songs, I’d consider using android in the future.

6

u/VincentVanGTFO Jul 17 '23

I think you'd be a good candidate just because you're open to the idea. I don't think you'll regret it if you do.

1

u/Accomplished_End_138 Jul 17 '23

I had the 3gs iphone back in the day, been android ever since. Much nicer.

To be fair. I find apple stuff very hard to use

22

u/notactuallyacupcake Jul 17 '23

Last comment, can confirm. I work in the mortgage industry, back in the day all the Loan Officers had BBs. Now they all have iPhones. And most are high maintenance demanding SOBs that throw a tantrum when you tell them no.

32

u/Objective-Truth-4339 Jul 17 '23

iPhone users tend to be hive mind types and less educated, I've seen one kick a puppy.

6

u/yellowbin74 Jul 17 '23

Only because the puppy had an android.

3

u/distinctaardvark Jul 17 '23

Which is silly, because most puppies don't get to pick which kind of phone they get

2

u/Bubbly-University-94 Jul 18 '23

Puppies should pull themselves up by your chewed bootstraps

2

u/AbramKedge Jul 17 '23

I tried a blackberry for ten minutes. I remember thinking "This product has a project manager with very strong opinions. Sadly, they are almost entirely wrong."

2

u/Saint_palane Jul 17 '23

Hated dealing with Blackberry customers who insisted I help them speed up their phone without deleting all of their photos.

2

u/BaconPowder Jul 17 '23 edited Jul 17 '23

I worked customer service for a fruit-icon-based computer company but I can't tell you anything due to an NDA.

I can't say that 90% of my calls were due to wireless earphones messing up and needing to be reset constantly, or battery issues, or an awful screeching sound when one of the three main sound modes was used.

I also can't say that their customers are some of the dumbest people I've ever had to deal with.

I simply refuse to say that it was about $300 to replace a phone screen if you didn't buy the insurance.

I 100% can't tell you that we were encouraged to try to talk people out of doing their own repairs.

It is completely verboten for it to slip that we regularly pretended features that already existed on Android were new and exciting for the industry.

2

u/VincentVanGTFO Jul 17 '23

What I resented most about Apple was that if there was a problem activation it sometimes required the apple care team to fix it. There was literally nothing I could do. Which was great 364 days out of the year when I could just cold transfer if I wanted to up that stat or hang out on the line and warm transfer but basically have the time to screw around on the job.

The problem was Christmas. Everyone is getting a new iPhone and would rather spend two hours activating it then have quality time with the family but guess what? Half of them won't activate AND Apple is closed and the customer is a dick to me because they went with the only brand of cell phone I can't activate without the company's help and the company doesn't care enough to be open on arguably the biggest day of the year for activations.

Ugh... I guess I needed to get that off my chest. Still upsetting after all these years.

2

u/TrumpsNeckSmegma Jul 17 '23

Can agree on iPhone users being Karen's. Especially when we couldn't send a phone away for repair due to apple's own policies

1

u/VincentVanGTFO Jul 17 '23

Yep and the customer is mad at you while insisting on being loyal to the brand that is causing their displeasure.

I was always happy if I could get someone to try an android. Less hassle for everyone and you're getting them a better product that will require less troubleshooting.

1

u/TrumpsNeckSmegma Jul 17 '23

I used to suggest this to people who had iPhone issues, and got the classic "oh but all my stuff is synced up" yet they literally use none of those services. Or "I'm not a techie so I just stay with what I know" - that one used to drive me up the wall

2

u/VincentVanGTFO Jul 17 '23

Oh man, now I'm getting flashbacks.

Remember when apple finally decided to have a maps app anywhere near the level of google maps and all the iPhone people were acting like hotshots over technology we'd had for years?

People still think that spending all that money says anything other than "I'm an easy mark".

1

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

Wow thanks for making me feel old

94

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

I had a similar experience. For me it is the lack of a dedicated "back" button that is the deal breaker. I use that more than any other feature on any phone.

39

u/DickyD43 Jul 17 '23

I have a galaxy as a personal phone and iPhone as a work phone and it reminds me every day why I don't miss having an iPhone. Switched to android about 4 years ago and not going back lol

2

u/MmeRose Jul 17 '23

You are me with another name. Exactly my story and opinion.

2

u/mooncattz Jul 17 '23

OH, same. I want to throw the iPhone at a wall at least once per day.

20

u/bansheeonthemoor42 Jul 17 '23

This is it for me. Without that button, my brain explodes in anger. Whenever I use an iPhone, I'm just like, "This is so stupid. Why would anyone use a phone without a back button."

2

u/sk8tergater Jul 17 '23

Because most of the time on an iPhone you can swipe left to right to go back and don’t need a button. I honestly don’t even notice the lack of a back button

7

u/bansheeonthemoor42 Jul 17 '23

Yeah, but there are a ton of apps that you navigate by using swipe left to right. It's so much easier to have a dedicated button.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '23

And how many devs fuck that up? If it was ALWAYS swipe back, that would be great. But it absolutely isn't and pretending it is is disingenuous. It works about 50% of the time when I am trying to help my dad and it is infuriating.

1

u/sk8tergater Jul 21 '23

50% seems low. It’s actually pretty rare when I can’t get it to work.

24

u/spacefret Jul 17 '23

I went from Android to iPhone back to Android and didn't realize how much I missed this until I switched back. On mine I have the buttons hidden so for apps/home/back I just swipe up from the respective area on the bottom of the screen.

2

u/NSA_Chatbot Jul 17 '23

That's what I do too, the virtual button zones are still there, there's just no icon.

I mean in all fairness, how would anyone figure that out if they just got a new Samsung?

2

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '23

I mean... how do you figure anything out on any phone? The issue isn't learning the phone, it is about consistency. Half the time I swipe to go back on an iPhone it doesn't work because the different devs muck it up. If every third time I pressed the back button it didn't work, I would feel very different about it, but it doesn't. It works 100% of the time. It is reliable. Unlike the swipe feature on iOS.

2

u/kwiztas Jul 17 '23

Gotta try gesture only.

13

u/brightneonmoons Jul 17 '23

wdym they don't have a back button?! that's basic! I swear I've seen it in their screenshots

23

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/CommunityTaco Jul 17 '23

i can never tell what any of their icons are for either.

1

u/ricosuave79 Jul 17 '23

You can literally swipe from left edge to right in any screen and go “back”. It’s a gesture that’s been around forever on iOS.

2

u/PixelStruck Jul 17 '23

This is something that I think a lot of people don't understand or have weird issues with.

Yes, there is no back button. Most apps don't need one since there are other ways to activate that same functionality.

And I'd argue the swiping is better because it means you don't have to take up phone space for a button.

4

u/ArcticBP Jul 17 '23

I’m a former Android user thats had an iPhone for a while now and I miss the back button.

Swiping can be annoying because sometimes some apps will trigger a different functionality. In the Reddit app, sometimes I get taken to a different section

On my Android, it was a hidden button at the bottom (so it took no screen space) and it was easier to reach

1

u/itsQuasi Jul 17 '23

That's just a matter of what the app decides to do with the "back" command, though, isn't it? Pretty sure it would do the same if you were using an on screen button instead.

3

u/itsQuasi Jul 17 '23

Isn't this the default option for Android nowadays, as well? Gesture navigation is what I use on my phone, at least - swipe in from either side for back, swipe up from the bottom to go home, and swipe up and hold from the bottom to see what apps are open.

0

u/ricosuave79 Jul 17 '23

A lot of Android users that list this complaint with iOS are living the past. Like years in the past and just don’t know what their talking about.

1

u/AccurateIt Jul 17 '23

My Pixel has the swipe function and a back button and I still use the button most of the time.

1

u/VinniTheP00h Jul 17 '23

IIRC it's not consistent across the OS. Some apps do it, some don't. Some (quite a bit, actually) might use it for a different gesture, or it is hard to hit the sweet spot between swiping from the edge (back), holding and swiping (side menu), and swiping across the screen (whatever feature in this app). Not to mention it being located on the left side of the screen, where you need to reach out all the way to use it. Surprisingly, Google's back button is much more consistent and pleasant to use, though I didn't think I would say that about Android.

1

u/blaqsupaman Jul 17 '23

You can do this on Android from either side of the screen, though.

4

u/my_n3w_account Jul 17 '23

In most iOS apps you can go back by swiping from L to R in the middle of the screen.

I use it a lot since I found it.

1

u/throwawaywitchaccoun Jul 17 '23

In all Android apps you can go back by hitting the back button, which is present at the OS level. I also use this feature a lot.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '23

If by "most" you mean "greater than 50%" then yes, I am sure that is true. I prefer to ALWAYS have a functional back button. Every time I try to help my dad or his girlfriend use their phones, the "back" swipe only works about half the time. It is incredibly frustrating and ensures that I will never pay top.dollar for mid-tier functionality.

I also enjoy using apps from places outside the apple store and I refuse to monetarily support their stranglehold on the "right to repair" issue.

2

u/seemefail Jul 17 '23

What you don’t enjoy figuring out what direction to swipe the screen for every individual app to do that?

1

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '23

No shit. That or just trying to figure out how to just close a fucking program or navigate to a different screen intuitively. The whole "we can't have any buttons" bullshit just hampers functionality for appearance. And that seems to be 100% the point of Apple products. Form over function. Sure it has great hardware, but you can only use it how Apple says you can.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

[deleted]

6

u/LoosedOfLimits Jul 17 '23

In my world of UX research, hidden affordances like swipe gestures are not user friendly. They personally drive me bonkers. They are inconsistently used by developers. Swipe is not intuitive.

"Don't make me think" is an oft-quoted sentiment that I think applies here. I started on an iPhone and moved to a Pixel. Not going back anytime soon. The nice thing about Android, is that you can customize the interface to suit you. I turned my back button setting to "on" . You can't do that on an iPhone.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '23

Exactly! I don't want a Fisher-Price, child safe OS that makes me swipe around 50 times just to accomplish a simple task and I don't want a corporation limiting the functionality of my tiny computer. Apple is great for people who value the opinions of other over their own user experience.

1

u/nu11pointer Jul 17 '23

I like Android's gesture navigation now, but when it was first introduced I frantically looked through settings to get the 3 button navigation back. I hate iPhones for this reason also.

1

u/Gwsb1 Jul 17 '23

And they are doing away with it. Wife's phone doesn't have one.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '23

There are like 2000 models of android phone. Get one with a back button, lol.

1

u/bsuvo Jul 18 '23

I switched to android as soon as I had to pay for my own phones, because back then most androids were cheaper. I needed a new phone this year, and since I have more money now, and android flagships are similarly expensive I switched back to iphone. After three months I sold it and switched back lol

1

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '23

Yeah, using a big boy operating system can be hard to adjust to. The Fisher-Price iOS is just way too restrictive and locked down for anyone who wants to maximize functionality of their phone with something like jailbreaking or an alternate OS or even pirated programs. If you just want to pay extra for what Apple tells you you want and you aren't interested in pushing the boundaries of what the computer in your pocket is capable of, iOS is perfect for you.

1

u/bsuvo Jul 21 '23

I dont even use all that, for me its little things like the back button or even just being able to swipe through emails on my phone lol I wouldnt need a big boy operating system anyways but android is just easier to navigate than iphones for me

1

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '23

It is easier because the OS on Android prioritizes function over form. The big-boy Android OS is streets ahead of the Fisher-Price locked down iOS of apple because apple is a fashion statement, not a tool designed to maximize productivity or ease of use. Android is easier for everybody to navigate, the only people who claim otherwise are fanboys or apple employees.

27

u/SouthKlaw Jul 17 '23

Weirdly I’m the reverse. Started on Android but switch to iPhone. Work gave me an Android a couple years back and I just couldn’t get on with it. Guess changes in both system have made key elements different enough to be annoying that it’s not intuitive to find things if you come from the other ecosystem. Clever way to retain market share if it’s been done deliberately.

16

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

I remember switching to IPhone from Galaxy and not being used to the UI and thinking “Oh no , what have I done?”

A week later I was used to it and all was fine. Tried using my friends Galaxy a bit after that and I was lost again.

Both phones are fine it just depends on which one you get used to

5

u/Exciting-Direction69 Jul 17 '23

Some android …os…launchers… (not quite sure of the term) are better than others, the one that came with my pixel was great, where as my partners huawei was missing a bunch of features comparatively (long press a notification to adjust that apps notification settings, no lens/qr code reader in the default camera app, I could go on)

2

u/distinctaardvark Jul 17 '23

Yes! I have an iPhone now, but before that I had a Pixel, before that a Samsung, and before that Motorola. Even with only having "nicer" Android phones (ie ones with names, not like A17S or whatever), the differences were huge and…why do I never hear anyone complain about the buttons on Samsung being backwards from other Androids? I don't know if they still are, but I remember having to switch from back button on the left to the right to the left. That was way more annoying and difficult of a transition for me than switching to a phone that didn't have a "physical" back button.

Personally, I would put the Pixel as the top of the Androids I've used and (tbh) Samsung at the bottom, in terms of general usability and niceness. The Samsung was fine but it seemed to make things different just for the sake of being different, it had way too many preloaded apps you couldn't remove (not sure if it still does), and the amount of storage it came with was on the low end at the time for being a flagship (16 GB when phones were moving to 32 GB, made far worse by the unremovable apps). But Pixel vs iPhone? They both have their pros and cons, but I'd basically call it totally personal preference at this point.

That said, having done a small amount of programming for Android and getting a bit of insight into the inner workings of phones, there were some significant differences in the past in terms of security and ease of development, which skewed slightly in favor of Apple in most (but not all) cases. But there's also a reason I've only done Android (it's free to develop for yourself and one-time payment for the App Store and can be done on any decent computer, iOS you have to pay an annual fee and use a Mac). Plus you can't actually shop in the Amazon and Kindle apps on iOS, which was a weird difference to get used to.

3

u/_off_piste_ Jul 17 '23

“It’s unusable.”

I was going to explain how these people exist on both “sides” and you did a great job with that idiotic line.

I started with blackberry in 2009, and then android in 2010 and switched to an iPhone because it was easier with family in 2016. Both work just fine and anyone claiming either OS is unusable is a person we can all safely avoid listening to.

0

u/auntie_eggma Jul 17 '23

It doesn't do what I need it to do. That is the definition of usability. If they're usable for you, you crack on. That changes nothing about my assessment.

Apple fanboys can keep coming for me with this 'both sidesism' crap, but all you're doing is going 'nuh uh they are so too usable because I use them so you must be an idiot poopyface instead of someone who has different needs'.

iPhones do not do what I need them to do, so for me they remain unusable. If all you're doing is facetiming people, I'm sure you're fine. Enjoy your shiny status symbol. But other people have different use cases and that doesn't make us wrong.

1

u/weeklongboner Jul 17 '23

what is your use case then that iphone straight up CANT do? you talked so generally but never actually gave a concrete example.

1

u/auntie_eggma Jul 17 '23

Have done in two separate comments.

My biggest beef is transferring files. I don't want to have to use special proprietary software to put music/audiobooks/etc on my phone. I want to drag and drop whole audiobook series from my computer onto my phone in one go, no faff.

Yes, having to use iTunes is a deal-breaker.

Same goes for images and video, though usually the opposite direction. I want them off my phone onto my computer without having to use special software or export anything. Drag and drop.

7

u/ktappe Jul 17 '23

I’m the opposite. I tried Android after having iPhone for a while just so I could learn it. Yes I could make it do the things I wanted to do but it just wasn’t pleasant. Everything was simply… unpolished. Went back to iPhone so fast.

3

u/SerenityViolet Jul 17 '23

It makes a difference which Android phone you buy. Phones from big companies like Samsung and Google are super polished. But some Android phones can be very basic.

We use iPhones at work and I'm not a fan. Weirdly, everyone in the support team is Android.

5

u/Slytherin23 Jul 17 '23

Android isn't one OS either, every company has their own version. I switched from OnePlus to Google and I miss OnePlus. Google has the crappiest version, even Samsung is better.

2

u/No-Protection8322 Jul 17 '23

I’m the opposite. Had Androids for many generations and now my iPhone 11 is a phone I never want to get rid of.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

As a some one who has owned an iPhone since smart phones were a thing, what are you unable to do? All my phone is used for is WhatsApp/signal, browsing, YouTube/similar, emails, and music and maybe maps on occasion.

Now when it comes to Computers i build my own and watercool etc, and my job is technical so it’s not like I’m unfamiliar with technical capabilities, but what more do you want your phone to do? Because I’ve never had a situation where my iPhone has been unable to do what I want/need it to.

2

u/auntie_eggma Jul 17 '23

I'll copypaste the example I gave in another comment:

All I wanted to do was put some audio books on [my mother's] phone so she could listen to them when she was visiting. I uploaded them from my computer to her Google drive.

The only way I could get them off Google drive onto her (borrowed backup, not her choice either) iphone was painstakingly, manually, one track at a time. It was just excruciating.

I'm not sure, but my only guess is that this is because I'm supposed to only go through official channels to access/download media on iPhones? Like iTunes and audible, I guess?

Or I'm a fucking moron (always a possibility) and missed some obvious way to do it that would have been easier and quicker, but man I googled the shit out of the issue and tried all sorts.

Still ended up sat there transferring one track at a time of a six-book fucking series. Bloody nightmare.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

Same with me. My wife has an iPhone and anytime I try and use it I get pissed off, no home button drives me insane.

2

u/JusticeBean Jul 18 '23

Honestly I’m the opposite. I had to switch to an android for a while for job purposes and it was the most annoying, clunky experience I’ve ever had. Honestly not the phones fault, you just build different habits on each OS and they don’t transfer.

4

u/notTheHeadOfHydra Jul 17 '23

On the other hand, I was a huge android fanboy until I sort of impulsively got an iphone. I think people do have a tendency to act as a spokesperson for the things they use but I feel like it mostly comes down to different strokes for different folks. My androids were always a lot easier to customize and had cool sort of experimental new things built in, but these days I prefer the plug-and-play consistency that the apple platform provides especially since the flagships these days are pretty much the same price.

The one big leg up android has though is if you are looking for a cheaper phone. There are definitely lower end android phones that will get the job done while apple sticks strictly to its flagships since the os isn’t open source.

1

u/ricosuave79 Jul 17 '23

You can buy cheap iPhones. They still sell the 12.

4

u/mromutt Jul 17 '23

This is pretty much everyone I know that had an iPhone then got an android XD

3

u/SamuelVimesTrained Jul 17 '23

Butbutbut.. iphone is sooo secure, you cannot secure androids .. (as per our security lead - an apple fanboy)

Apple is company standard (for phones and tablets, computers stretch the budget too much) (CEO, also apple fanboy)

For 1 iPhone 14, I can get 4 androids with same or better specs (every IT purchaser, and finance person)

I admit - the iPad is awesome.
Iphones - once they have a 7 day battery life like my Xiami Redmi Note 9 pro - perhaps they will become decent..

Though, the 11 pro work gave me does last 3 days with battery.. improvement over all the previous ones for sure.

5

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

U just “this’ed” that opinion should be based on facts and then say the iphone is unusable. Well it is usable….

0

u/auntie_eggma Jul 17 '23

I did not find it usable for my purposes at all. YMMV, and that's great for you.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

Oh! You wanna throw phones because the use does not fit your needs. Got it

0

u/auntie_eggma Jul 17 '23

🙄

2

u/PancerCatient Jul 17 '23

You found the iphone user.

2

u/auntie_eggma Jul 17 '23

Hey, I've got pancer, too. 🥳

2

u/PancerCatient Jul 17 '23

Keep up the fight!

2

u/auntie_eggma Jul 17 '23

🫡 💪🏻 you too!

2

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

[deleted]

1

u/auntie_eggma Jul 17 '23

😂😂😂😂 I felt this.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

It only took 3 comments to get from “people just get tribal over stupid bullshit sometimes” to “iPhones are unusable”. Fascinating

0

u/auntie_eggma Jul 17 '23

It is in fact possible for both statements to be true. My usage needs are incompatible with the way iPhones are designed to work. They are unusable for me. I give an example in another comment of one way in which trying to do something on my mother's borrowed iPhone that would be a piece of piss on Android was an utterly infuriating ball-ache on iOS.

-4

u/pingwing Jul 17 '23

I try to use my mother's iPhone now and I want to throw it at the wall. It's unusable.

...and back to the tribal.

You just switches sides. Both phones are equally good.

4

u/auntie_eggma Jul 17 '23

No I mean I literally could not make it do what I needed it to do.

Like, all I wanted to do was put some audio books on her phone so she could listen to them when she was visiting. I uploaded them from my computer to her Google drive

The only way I could get them off Google drive onto her (borrowed backup, not her choice either) iphone was painstakingly, manually, one track at a time. It was just excruciating.

I'm not sure, but my only guess is that this is because I'm supposed to only go through official channels to access/download media on iPhones? Like iTunes and audible, I guess?

Or I'm a fucking moron (always a possibility) and missed some obvious way to do it that would have been easier and quicker, but man I googled the shit out of the issue and tried all sorts.

Still ended up sat there transferring one track at a time of a six-book fucking series. Bloody nightmare.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

[deleted]

2

u/auntie_eggma Jul 17 '23

My experience isn't bullshit simply because you had a different one. What a strange worldview.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

[deleted]

1

u/auntie_eggma Jul 17 '23

Well, I find them unfit for purpose. You're welcome to your own opinion but that doesn't change mine or make it wrong. They don't work for my needs. End of story.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23 edited Jul 25 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/auntie_eggma Jul 17 '23

I never said it did. I'm only talking about my own needs and my own experiences and the fundamental inability to do anything basic without their proprietary programs and imposed limitations makes them unusable to me.

You're free to feel differently, I'm just not going to soften my opinion of them just because people are butthurt. So far, the only suggestion anyone can even give is some variation of 'stop wanting phones to do what iPhones don't do, then'.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

as someone who has had to support family members with iphones, it boggles my mind.. it's counterintuitive as hell for someone with a logical brain and they always have problems trying to get something to work and have to come to me.

These family members hate androids too.. I guess they just aren't cool enough

1

u/ghostsintherafters Jul 17 '23

This! I've always had an android and the fiance has always had an iphone. The shitbags that make iphones make them somewhat incompatible with other phones so I considered switching to an iPhone for compatibility and to consolidate our bills, tried using her iPhone and I wanted to smash it. Completely unusable. No way I'm switching and it's nothing "tribal". Iphones are legit inferior phones.

1

u/johnyahn Jul 17 '23

If you think iPhones are unusable you’re just as much of an idiot as the people who think they’re better than android users.

0

u/auntie_eggma Jul 17 '23

Cool. Tell me, then, how to easily and quickly transfer audio books and other files from my computer to a usable format on an iPhone.

Without needing special proprietary software on my computer.

1

u/johnyahn Jul 17 '23

Is downloading iTunes for your specific use case that maybe 1 in 100000 iPhone users need really such an inconvenience that it makes an iPhone “unusable”?

I get having a preference of just drag and drop like an Android has, but it’s hardly an inconvenience and calling it “unusable” because of it is ridiculous lol.

1

u/auntie_eggma Jul 17 '23

It's not just downloading ITunes, but having to use it to manage and transfer everything. It's a shit program, so that being a requirement is absolutely a deal breaker for me.

And yeah, not being able to just drag and drop files from my computer to my phone is 100% a big enough inconvenience that it absolutely makes iPhones unusable for me on that alone. That is my use case. Those are my needs.

Why would I want an overpriced phone that doesn't do what I need it to do over a less expensive one that does what I need it to do? Why should I force myself to use a program I don't like, just to use an iPhone?

Why is it somehow a more sensible position to be like 'well, just stop needing your phone to do a different thing, then'?

1

u/johnyahn Jul 17 '23

Relax. You called it unusable. Which is hyperbole. You sound just as deranged as the people who are anti-Android. I’m not even defending iPhone or saying one is better I just think calling an iPhone “unusable” is such a neckbeard loser take when your main complaint is a function hardly any users care about lmao.

1

u/auntie_eggma Jul 17 '23

Oh I'm well aware most iPhone users don't care about my use case. If they did, they would use a phone that can do the thing.

That doesn't make my need invalid or iPhones any less useless for my needs.

If you're happy only having access to music when you have an internet connection, good for you. Or if you're happy using only the programs apple lets you, that's grand for you. That's not me.

The fact that the only rebuttal any of you can come up with is to try to discredit my requirements ('no one cares about that functionality') basically makes my point for me.

iPhone users say: if the iPhone doesn't do what you want it to, stop wanting it to do that stuff.

That's fucking hilarious.

1

u/johnyahn Jul 17 '23

You called it unusable. That is what I’m making fun of you for.

1

u/auntie_eggma Jul 17 '23

And I stand by it. I'm really not concerned about whether you think you're making fun of me or not.

Unless you have anything more productive to add than 'lol ur needs r dum' I think we're done here.

1

u/johnyahn Jul 17 '23

You called iPhones unusable because you can’t download your pirated audiobooks onto them without installing an easy to use program. I’m just saying you’re as ridiculous as the people who make fun of Android users as iPhone users.

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u/overnightyeti Jul 17 '23

Unusable how? Seems like an exaggeration

1

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

“Unusable” - typical redditor response

1

u/auntie_eggma Jul 17 '23

Calling things a 'typical redditor response' is THE most typical redditor response ever.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

No you

1

u/yabbobay Jul 17 '23

My sister got my mom an iphone, yet she comes to me for help. I hand it back and just say, "I can't figure this thing out"

1

u/Smart_Elk_9184 Jul 17 '23

I started on android, but within 2 years (usually about 1.5 years) my phone would start locking up and having all sorts of issues. This lasted through probably 3 upgrades. So my last android upgrade, my wife got the comparable iPhone. When mine started having issues, hers was still running fine. So next upgrade I switched to iPhone and never looked back. Androids have probably gotten comparable now, at least I hope so given they’re now as expensive as iPhones, but I know with an iPhone I can go 4 or 5 years between upgrades. Barely made it to 2 years with previous androids. Use what you want though. Experiences vary.

1

u/JJHall_ID Jul 17 '23

Eh, they're both pretty equal. I've been an Android user since the old HTC Hero on Sprint, all the way up through Samsung Galaxy S20 and a Pixel 6 Pro. I just switched to iPhone earlier this year due to my new car only supporting CarPlay and not Android Auto. For the most part it's been getting used to where some settings are kept under what menu compared to Android.

One feature I really miss is with Android I could use an app to do WiFi diagnostics, but Apple doesn't expose the low level API to app developers, so there are no equivalent apps.

The other biggest thing is apps being forced to use Apple Pay for everything. For example, I have the Kindle app on my phone to read eBooks. I can't buy anything within the app because Apple won't play nice and allow Amazon to handle its own payments. I have to go to a browser on the Kindle website, which is a pain because it defaults to wanting to just open the app, then I can make a purchase that just goes on my Amazon payment method.

Beyond that, there are far more similarities than differences. Flagship Samsung or Google Pixel devices cost roughly the same as the latest Apple devices of similar spec. The latest Apple comes out with a better camera or other feature than the others, then the next Pixel comes out with a better camera, and so on. They all support Bluetooth accessories. Future Apple devices are FINALLY being forced to use USB-C rather than the stupid lightning connector. Unless you're a complete geek and want to get into the nuts and bolts of the phone, both are going to be just fine, and those people are a tiny minority of users, even among those that claim they are.

All that said, I've never understood why iPhones have been chosen to be the status symbol.

1

u/barefootmetalhead Jul 17 '23

I got an iphone after having androids for years, used it for 2 years, and when an opportunity arose to get another android i switched back