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List of features you lose switching to Android

macness

macness

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 4, 2011
567
23
Vancouver Canada
Android users always say things like, " We've had that feature on Android forEVER." And "there goes those Apple copycats." But I can tell you from personal experience that things aren't as clear as they make it seem. A phone having a feature vs having to download an app or rooting a device or some complex walk around is WAY different then an operating system just including a feature. Example: Apple has iMessage or that new quick video feature built into iMessage in iOS 8- An android user would say "well there's a way to do that in Android too"....( ya.. But download in Kick or snap chat is totally different) I'm sure there's a way to DO EVERYTHING on Android, but how many of those ghings are actually BUILT INTO THE OPERATING SYSTEM. Let's list some features that iOS has (up to now) the Android doesn't have STOCK In it's operating system.

Let the list begin:
 
macness said:
Android users always say things like, " We've had that feature on Android forEVER." And "there goes those Apple copycats." But I can tell you from personal experience that things aren't as clear as they make it seem. A phone having a feature vs having to download an app or rooting a device or some complex walk around is WAY different then an operating system just including a feature. Example: Apple has iMessage or that new quick video feature built into iMessage in iOS 8- An android user would say "well there's a way to do that in Android too"....( ya.. But download in Kick or snap chat is totally different) I'm sure there's a way to DO EVERYTHING on Android, but how many of those ghings are actually BUILT INTO THE OPERATING SYSTEM. Let's list some features that iOS has (up to now) the Android doesn't have STOCK In it's operating system.

Let the list begin:
Click to expand...

Find my iPhone
iCloud
iTunes for managing media and restoring
Apple Store for in person help
Uniformity across all devices running iOS
More cases and third party accessories available
Continuity and handoff coming up in iOS 8
 
matthew2926 said:
Find my iPhone
iCloud
iTunes for managing media and restoring
Apple Store for in person help
Uniformity across all devices running iOS
More cases and third party accessories available
Continuity and handoff coming up in iOS 8
Click to expand...

Android device manager I believe has feature parity with find my iPhone.
And I guess one could make the argument that staying with the same manufacturer will give you a fairly uniform experience.

To me the biggest thing I miss is iMessage and FaceTime. I don't think FaceTime is that great but it is pre-installed, always on (unless you want to disable it) and just works out of the box which is the only way I think some of my family members would know how to use it.
 
Fair points. To me it just seems like there is one iOS and a whole lot of Androids. iOS is iOS while Android tends to vary based on the manufacturer. Plus it really bothers me how it is up to the manufacturer to push updates. I like how when iOS 7 came out, all elegance devices could download it at the same time. As for Android updates such as Kit Kat, it seems that most devices don't get to run it for awhile (if at all) after the date that it is "released."
 
When I left Android back in 2009 the only eco-system it had was syncing your contacts with Gmail. Have things improved or is Apple still king of the eco-system?

i.e.:

- Can you purchase app/music and have it download automatically to all your devices?

- Can you add contacts and it become available on all your devices without any manual intervention?

- Can Android devices talk to each other like iDevices can?

I would imagine that the different manufacturers for Android devices would put a kink in the eco system a bit.
 
As I said before, this is one of the biggest things that bothers me about Android. With Apple, iOS is iOS. The fact that you have so many manufacturers that use Android as their Os means that you really have to research to see if an included feature is an Android feature or a manufacturer feature. This bothers me greatly.
 
All new spotlight search with location based results (restaurants, business listings etc..), App Store results, and a bunch more
 
I think google is starting to take a little different approach when it comes to some of their features. Now, when I am not using my iPhone, I can use the stock google experience launcher on my Galaxy S5, use the google calendar, Gmail, Google Play Music, and hangout apps available in the Play store. This way when there is a new feature added to one of these core apps, I do not have to wait for the manufacturer to roll out a whole new software update.

To some of Armen's questions (or the one I can really answer anyway)

- Not sure about the app and music question. I personally don't like the apps automatically downloading, but i can see why some people would. I have a 'all access' subscription to the play music store, so most of my music is streaming anyway. One thing I do like better about app management with android is navigating the store on my computer and you can click on install an application, select which device that is associated with your google account, and the app will install on your device with no intervention needing on the device itself. The app will just be there. Very Cool! Apple should take note.

-Yes. I also sync my google contacts with my iPhone. I can add a contact on my iPhone and it will show up automatically on my S5

-Meh. not too much experience on this one. The one way thing I really liked with the iOS platform was photo stream. (and I am very excited about iCloud Photos) But, I have fallen in love with the photos section of the Google+ app. I really dislike Google+ as a social network and never use it for that. But the photo backup is nice and also works with the iOS app. I don't think apple would ever allow any cross platform syncing so all of my photos still go to google. Some of the automatic features of the Google+ photo android app are still left off of the iOS version (Auto Awesome Videos - probably my favorite) but the app is still pretty good.


Hope this was some help.

But i forgot to add that one thing that apple has got me hooked for is AirPlay. Nothing else comes close in my opinion especially for a 'cord-cutter' (HATE that term- but it gets the point across)
 
I'd miss decent email support, OS support, and device support. I'm also on VZW and there's no real vanilla Android support since the OG Nexus, which I owned (and ditched since the VZW variant sucked as a phone and data device). I can't stand the skins - Touchwiz, Motoblur, or Sense, and that's what there is on VZW phones unless you find a special ROM, and I have a GF and a life.

The device support is important to me, and since VZW fired all of their in-store tech support 18-odd months ago I ditched all of my Android-based handsets. When your Galaxy dies, phone support is all there is. Not for me.

As for email, I use Gmail only for junk mail. I use Exchange and iCloud for email and calendaring. Google changed their calendaring basis so many times when I used Google Apps, I had to devote my IT staff to part-time duty to make sure nothing got bunged up - it did, and that drove me to Exchange as it was cheaper in the long run. Google just can't seem to commit to anything long-term (GCal changes, Wave, Google Voice/Hangouts). Too much of a PITA.

Carrier support and manufacturer support. Just. Blows. Green. Chunks.

As for customizing? The Android tweakers think they were first to everything. I used Symbian S60 and BBOS for years before there was an Android OS, and there's nothing new that Android does here. If there's a need, there's an app for that. I'd rather play with my GF or my friends than my phone... :D
 
Another thing is centralized notification customization. One thing that really sucks about android is say when you get an email you really don't know what it is until you unlock your phone and go into the email app where as iOS it'll show on the lock screen which is extremely convenient.
 
bkends35 said:
Another thing is centralized notification customization. One thing that really sucks about android is say when you get an email you really don't know what it is until you unlock your phone and go into the email app where as iOS it'll show on the lock screen which is extremely convenient.
Click to expand...
With Android L this if finally fixed.
 
macness said:
I'm sure there's a way to DO EVERYTHING on Android, but how many of those ghings are actually BUILT INTO THE OPERATING SYSTEM.
Click to expand...

I would hope none of it...

Or else you end up with stuff like needing to jailbreak iOS to install intelliscreenx to get notifications on your lockscreen. (Ofcouse Apple EVENTUALLY built it into the operating system, but what if they never did?)
 
mlemonds said:
I think google is starting to take a little different approach when it comes to some of their features. Now, when I am not using my iPhone, I can use the stock google experience launcher on my Galaxy S5, use the google calendar, Gmail, Google Play Music, and hangout apps available in the Play store. This way when there is a new feature added to one of these core apps, I do not have to wait for the manufacturer to roll out a whole new software update.

To some of Armen's questions (or the one I can really answer anyway)

- Not sure about the app and music question. I personally don't like the apps automatically downloading, but i can see why some people would. I have a 'all access' subscription to the play music store, so most of my music is streaming anyway. One thing I do like better about app management with android is navigating the store on my computer and you can click on install an application, select which device that is associated with your google account, and the app will install on your device with no intervention needing on the device itself. The app will just be there. Very Cool! Apple should take note.

-Yes. I also sync my google contacts with my iPhone. I can add a contact on my iPhone and it will show up automatically on my S5

-Meh. not too much experience on this one. The one way thing I really liked with the iOS platform was photo stream. (and I am very excited about iCloud Photos) But, I have fallen in love with the photos section of the Google+ app. I really dislike Google+ as a social network and never use it for that. But the photo backup is nice and also works with the iOS app. I don't think apple would ever allow any cross platform syncing so all of my photos still go to google. Some of the automatic features of the Google+ photo android app are still left off of the iOS version (Auto Awesome Videos - probably my favorite) but the app is still pretty good.


Hope this was some help.

But i forgot to add that one thing that apple has got me hooked for is AirPlay. Nothing else comes close in my opinion especially for a 'cord-cutter' (HATE that term- but it gets the point across)
Click to expand...

I totally forgot you could browse the Google store on a PC and make it install apps directly to you Android device. That was one cool feature with Android :)
 
macness said:
A voice assistant with personality, that knows your name and your relation to people in your contact list
Click to expand...

meh, while I like Siri, it's not as good as android


The only things we have that android users don't is the integration of apple services and icloud.

We had a properly working/nongimmick touchID first though :)
 
i've been really beating android people over the head with this one.

one of the innovative features of the iPhone 3GS was AES-256 Hardware Encryption of the entire phone. once you erase an iPhone it pretty much stays erased. i don't think its technically possible to retrieve anything off of the device when the iPhone erases its keys. you can't even turn it off. before the 3gs came out you had to leave your iPhone plugged in a "few hours" to erase your iPhone.
I've heard if you jailbreak the phone then erase it, you can retrieve data off an erased phone.

here comes android. avast found out you could retrieve pictures and documents off of a android that has been erased. when i tell people who use android why they want to give up such an important feature of hardware encryption, they just think the iPhone is just better for drug dealers.

google is warning people to overwrite your phone before selling it.

this leaves me wondering.

why does amazon use encryption to secure your info when shopping if they don't even bother to enable encryption on their amazon fire phone ?

why does google ignore encryption in android ? they have a city wide wifi network in mountain view that is encrypted. why are they ignoring their own phones?

i think the phone carriers won't let them enable it by default. just like lojack. or find my android. they don't want those features i guess.

why bother even using WPA2-AES at all?

everyone is so cautious on the internet and want to encrypt as much as possible. but google and amazon and lg and samsung and all those companies that sell android phones don't even bother to turn on encryption???

how dare they nitpick and accuse apple of spying on you or accuse apple of running processes on your phone or not encrypting email attachments when android phones are not encrypted at all. and if you erase an android phone it can be easily restored.


other things you lose by switching to android.

loss of LTE high speed channels.
the average run of the mill flag ship android phone only has maybe 5 or less LTE high speed channels. just like the iPhone 5 had 2 years ago. the newest iPhones and iPads have up to 15. you would practically have to move to brazil to find a carrier using a high speed LTE channel that the iPhone 5c, 5s, iPad air and iPad mini retina can't connect to. (at their highest speed possible). the "iPad killer" kindle fire hdx only has 3 LTE channels.
maybe by only communicating on 3 LTE channels, they saved $1.50 just like radio shack did by not including lower case in the trs-80

losing your phone means losing your phone book
i see this happen all the time with celebrities and news people and people in the media. they lose their android phones and have to ask people via Facebook to send them text messages so they can put their phone # back in their phones

software updates
i counted them, and i figure the iPhone 4 has received 25 or so free software updates over the years. with android you are promised only one.

application permissions
this came up recently. iOS 7 lets you selectively refuse app permissions. this is not a feature of android. if you do not want Facebook using your camera then your only choice is either do not install Facebook or ROOT your device.

support
if something goes wrong with your iPhone you can go to the genius bar and get support. they will take care of you. a lot of times they will help you and you do not have to ask if you have applecare. if something goes wrong with your android phone and you need help, you probably have to go to a special AT&T store to get help or you might have to pay a lot of money at geek squad.

i knew someone with a mac book that went to geeksquad. they asked them can you please help me back up my mac. they charged them over $100 to back up the computer to DVDs. what the hell ? don't they know about time machine?
 
Last edited:
Background audio - On iOS, you can open Safari, open a video on YouTube, send it to background, then open the control center, tap "Play" button and the audio starts playing in the background.

It's great for lectures, music, documentaries, nature sounds, etc... you can background it, open Chrome and browse the web, or do something else with another app.

On Android, the moment you send anything in the background the audio stops and it's impossible to make it play. There also no universal audio controls available.

There is a video pop-up on some apps but IMO, it just gets in the way and takes way more processing power, just not as good as Apple's solution.
 
1. Hardware-based encryption. The encryption key is stored in dedicated hardware on iOS devices. This makes it possible to instantly disable access to the data just by invalidating the key (e.g. by remote wipe or 10 failed password attempts). Also means data is inaccessible if the flash memory is removed from the iPhone. Wipe after 10 failed password attempts feature also makes simple 4 digit PIN pretty secure.

2. Backup and restore. With iOS devices, transferring everything to new device, including homescreen layout, is such a simple task. On Android, it's a chore.

3. Centralised notification settings.

4. System-wide, offline, define word feature (select a word and hit define from within any app)
 
rigormortis said:
i've been really beating android people over the head with this one.

one of the innovative features of the iPhone 3GS was AES-256 Hardware Encryption of the entire phone. once you erase an iPhone it pretty much stays erased. i don't think its technically possible to retrieve anything off of the device when the iPhone erases its keys. you can't even turn it off. before the 3gs came out you had to leave your iPhone plugged in a "few hours" to erase your iPhone.
I've heard if you jailbreak the phone then erase it, you can retrieve data off an erased phone.

here comes android. avast found out you could retrieve pictures and documents off of a android that has been erased. when i tell people who use android why they want to give up such an important feature of hardware encryption, they just think the iPhone is just better for drug dealers.

google is warning people to overwrite your phone before selling it.

this leaves me wondering.

why does amazon use encryption to secure your info when shopping if they don't even bother to enable encryption on their amazon fire phone ?

why does google ignore encryption in android ? they have a city wide wifi network in mountain view that is encrypted. why are they ignoring their own phones?

i think the phone carriers won't let them enable it by default. just like lojack. or find my android. they don't want those features i guess.

why bother even using WPA2-AES at all?

everyone is so cautious on the internet and want to encrypt as much as possible. but google and amazon and lg and samsung and all those companies that sell android phones don't even bother to turn on encryption???

how dare they nitpick and accuse apple of spying on you or accuse apple of running processes on your phone or not encrypting email attachments when android phones are not encrypted at all. and if you erase an android phone it can be easily restored.


other things you lose by switching to android.

loss of LTE high speed channels.
the average run of the mill flag ship android phone only has maybe 5 or less LTE high speed channels. just like the iPhone 5 had 2 years ago. the newest iPhones and iPads have up to 15. you would practically have to move to brazil to find a carrier using a high speed LTE channel that the iPhone 5c, 5s, iPad air and iPad mini retina can't connect to. (at their highest speed possible). the "iPad killer" kindle fire hdx only has 3 LTE channels.
maybe by only communicating on 3 LTE channels, they saved $1.50 just like radio shack did by not including lower case in the trs-80

losing your phone means losing your phone book
i see this happen all the time with celebrities and news people and people in the media. they lose their android phones and have to ask people via Facebook to send them text messages so they can put their phone # back in their phones

software updates
i counted them, and i figure the iPhone 4 has received 25 or so free software updates over the years. with android you are promised only one.




application permissions.
this came up recently. iOS 7 lets you selectively refuse app permissions. this is not a feature of android. if you do not want Facebook using your camera then your only choice is either do not install Facebook or ROOT your device.

support
if something goes wrong with your iPhone you can go to the genius bar and get support. they will take care of you. a lot of times they will help you and you do not have to ask if you have applecare. if something goes wrong with your android phone and you need help, you probably have to go to a special AT&T store to get help or you might have to pay a lot of money at geek squad.

i knew someone with a mac book that went to geeksquad. they asked them can you please help me back up my mac. they charged them over $100 to back up the computer to DVDs. what the hell ? don't they know about time machine?
Click to expand...

If something goes wrong with my S5, I'd take it to my local Samsung experience store. They will look into and try and fix it there and then. If they can't they will take it in for repair and will have it ready for me to pick up in a few days. I will not have to pay. I get a 2 year free warranty. Apple only offers a one year warranty.

If I loose my phone all my contacts are backed up to both my Samsung and google accounts so I'd get all that back when I activated my new phone.

I've always had more than two OS updates with my android devices, which usually encompass two major OS updates. I've had to wait but it happens.



For me personally I'd say that there are three things that are better on Apple:

Full and complete back up and restore

Richer content for TV shows

More timely software updates.
 
Last edited:
Shanghaichica said:
If something goes wrong with my S5, I'd take it to my local Samsung experience store. They will look into and try and fix it there and then. If they can't they will take it in for repair and will have it ready for me to pick up in a few days. I will not have to pay. I get a 2 year free warranty. Apple only offers a one year warranty.

If I loose my phone all my contacts are backed up to both my Samsung and google accounts so I'd get all that back when I activated my new phone.

I've always had more than two OS updates with my android devices, which usually encompass two major OS updates. I've had to wait but it happens.



For me personally I'd say that there are three things that are better on Apple:

Full and complete back up and restore

Richer content for TV shows

More timely software updates.
Click to expand...


my brother took his samsung to the AT&T store, they told him that it had a bad battery. they did not tell him where the nearest samsung experience store was, they sent him to batteries and bulbs.

his phone is almost 2 years old i think its still under the contract.

when he turned on his phone, he had to set the clock. heh

setting the time is a automatic feature that most cell phones get from the towers or by gps
 
I've had a iPhone 3Gs, 4, 4S and 5. The only thing I believe iPhones are better at is backup and integration with Apple products, I find that most iPhone users just regurgitate FUD about Android and don't really know what they are talking about, this thread is a case in point and has many examples of iPhone users that have never used a flagship Android phone.
 
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