Anybody thinking of leaving iOS behind...?

[bopajuice]

I'm FIGHTING leaving Apple for my phone and streaming. I have an iPhone X and I like it, but I don't in any way love it. It's just kind of there. And iMessage is kind of just there, too, as my wife uses a Samsung and she's the one I text the most. I'm really thinking about finding me a nice Android device and using that along with an iPad, so that I'm still in the ecosystem somewhat. But being fully immersed in iOS and Apple, I just don't know if I can do it!

Since you use Apple and your wife uses Samsung I'd like to know how they interact. Can you message her directly or do you guys use a different app? Have you found any problems having two platforms?

The reason I ask is because I am seriously looking at an Android phone but my wife and most of my family uses iPhones. Wondering what will be lost if I switch or have you found workarounds.

 

[Wildo6882]

Since you use Apple and your wife uses Samsung I'd like to know how they interact. Can you message her directly or do you guys use a different app? Have you found any problems having two platforms?

The reason I ask is because I am seriously looking at an Android phone but my wife and most of my family uses iPhones. Wondering what will be lost if I switch or have you found workarounds.

Not really any work arounds. We both use Google Photos and share pictures and videos of the kids there really easily. I use Messages on my iPhone and she uses the Samsung stock messaging app for texts and single picture sharing. It’s really quite easy and doesn’t pose a single issue for us.

 

[bopajuice]

Not really any work arounds. We both use Google Photos and share pictures and videos of the kids there really easily. I use Messages on my iPhone and she uses the Samsung stock messaging app for texts and single picture sharing. It’s really quite easy and doesn’t pose a single issue for us.

Excellent. Thanks for the quick reply!

 

[Jmacman78]

Since you use Apple and your wife uses Samsung I'd like to know how they interact. Can you message her directly or do you guys use a different app? Have you found any problems having two platforms?

The reason I ask is because I am seriously looking at an Android phone but my wife and most of my family uses iPhones. Wondering what will be lost if I switch or have you found workarounds.

I'll give you some input on what I've found personally. Whenever I was on Android and my wife was using an iPhone, our biggest issue was me not having iMessage. Every time we'd share videos via SMS they were terrible looking videos. We'd end up having to use something like Hangouts or I'd need to share her a link from Google Photos or similar. There was not real simple solution since she mainly wanted to use her normal text messaging app.

We also use iCloud for photo sharing with most of our family since 90% of them are using iPhones. So we'd have to switch to Google Photo's and share there, however getting the rest of my family to understand and use this is another story.

Other than that my Android experiences are mostly positive. In hindsight I wish I started using Google Photos from the start instead of iCloud because I actually prefer it and find it more versatile. Trying to download a large amount of iCloud "shared photos" is nearly impossible.

 

[convergent]

Wow, first time I have seen a Note 8 user say this. Pretty obvious you didn't own a Note 8.

I agree.

Since you use Apple and your wife uses Samsung I'd like to know how they interact. Can you message her directly or do you guys use a different app? Have you found any problems having two platforms?

The reason I ask is because I am seriously looking at an Android phone but my wife and most of my family uses iPhones. Wondering what will be lost if I switch or have you found workarounds.

My wife and family all use iPhones (as did I until recently) and I switched to a Note 8. Messaging is find between them. She'll get the green bubble. You can use any messaging app on the Note 8 for this... matters not. The only real negative is that if an image or video are sent, it will be reduced to MMS size, which for video is borderline unusable. For pictures it is not a problem for simple messaging... but not of quality you'd want to save. For group messaging, any one non-Apple device will lower res for EVERYONE in the group chat. For this reason, we as a family use GroupMe for our ongoing family chat where we post pictures and videos. We also have a family share in Google Photos that replaced our old Apple Photos. For music we switched to Spotify.

Its not really a big deal for us. Where I'd advise against switching is if you are in a lot of groups of people that all have iPhones where you don't have a lot of control. For example a Mom who is in various groups with lots of other Moms sharing pictures of kids all the time. In that kind of situation they would be getting annoyed with the green bubble person. With me, its primarily my family and coworkers, and so its easy to deal with.

 

[borgranta]

I'll give you some input on what I've found personally. Whenever I was on Android and my wife was using an iPhone, our biggest issue was me not having iMessage. Every time we'd share videos via SMS they were terrible looking videos. We'd end up having to use something like Hangouts or I'd need to share her a link from Google Photos or similar. There was not real simple solution since she mainly wanted to use her normal text messaging app.

We also use iCloud for photo sharing with most of our family since 90% of them are using iPhones. So we'd have to switch to Google Photo's and share there, however getting the rest of my family to understand and use this is another story.

Other than that my Android experiences are mostly positive. In hindsight I wish I started using Google Photos from the start instead of iCloud because I actually prefer it and find it more versatile. Trying to download a large amount of iCloud "shared photos" is nearly impossible.

I have both iPhone and Android on active prepaid service. The iPhone is on AT&T Prepaid and if you choose the pay as you go 25 cent per minute plan you can pay as little as $10 per month on the prepaid plan and the balance on the pay as you go plan carries over each month as long as you pay on time. Once the balance reaches $35 it can be used for the cheapest data plan with 1GB of high speed data.

 

[Applemaniac7]

If I'm just sending a text message I'll use Google messages or Whatsapp. If I'm sending a photo I'll use Whatsapp or email. If I'm sending a video I'll use Whatsapp. If they don't have Whatsapp then they won't get the video. Nobody is too important to dictate which phone I buy. I'm still scratching my head as to why iMessages is so essential. No explanation ever convinces me. Even when my ex-girlfriend and both my parents had iPhones it made zero difference to any of us that I had an Android. For some reason this is an American issue and I'll never understand it.

Snap...

whatsapp, fb messenger, etc viber et al, there so many cross platform options...

 

[spinedoc77]

I agree.

I say that about the Note 8 all the time, well at least about the curved screen and being too tall.

 

[raqball]

It will be a long time before I buy another Samsung product (mobile or other). I honestly didn’t know customer service could be that bad or incompetent.

There are benefits of buying one on a carrier here in the US at least.. My son went through 4 S7's and all were replaced by AT&T quickly, and for the most part, trouble free.. Call AT&T, they do basic troubleshooting over the phone and BAM, send out a replacement device.

I imagine dealing with Samsung direct would be a massive hassle. I had a Sony Z5 Compact that crapped out a few years ago and dealing with Sony US was an absolute nightmare. One month later they sent the phone back saying it was fixed... Nope... Sent it back again and 6 weeks later it came back repaired..

 

[convergent]

I say that about the Note 8 all the time, well at least about the curved screen and being too tall.

Its definitely subjective. I prefer the Note 8 vs. iPhone + size proportions... (prefer the taller design). As for the curved glass... pretty passive on that one. Not sure what the big deal is one way or the other. I use the edge menu for some things, but more novelty.