Moving from iOS to Android: Sluggish Apps Normal?

[jfrancis04]

So I finally made the jump. After owning an iPhone 3GS, 4S, and iPhone 5, I made the switch to an HTC One. Love the screen and love the phone...but as they say, the grass isn't always greener.

A number of apps I used daily on my iPhone 5 seem incredibly sluggish on the One. This makes no sense to me (more RAM, faster processor). Is this the norm for many Android apps?

The two I've noticed it the most on are Words with Friends and Shopkick. It's kind of insane how sluggish they are.

 

[kalex]

So I finally made the jump. After owning an iPhone 3GS, 4S, and iPhone 5, I made the switch to an HTC One. Love the screen and love the phone...but as they say, the grass isn't always greener.

A number of apps I used daily on my iPhone 5 seem incredibly sluggish on the One. This makes no sense to me (more RAM, faster processor). Is this the norm for many Android apps?

The two I've noticed it the most on are Words with Friends and Shopkick. It's kind of insane how sluggish they are.

I switched from iphone 5 to HTC One then to S4. didn't notice sluggishness with apps I use. So far seems to be on par if not better than iphone 5 was.

 

[jfrancis04]

I switched from iphone 5 to HTC One then to S4. didn't notice sluggishness with apps I use. So far seems to be on par if not better than iphone 5 was.

Interesting. Could just be the apps themselves then.

 

[Dontazemebro]

So I finally made the jump. After owning an iPhone 3GS, 4S, and iPhone 5, I made the switch to an HTC One. Love the screen and love the phone...but as they say, the grass isn't always greener.

A number of apps I used daily on my iPhone 5 seem incredibly sluggish on the One. This makes no sense to me (more RAM, faster processor). Is this the norm for many Android apps?

The two I've noticed it the most on are Words with Friends and Shopkick. It's kind of insane how sluggish they are.

Their most likely poorly coded ios ports/apps. If anything blame the lazy developers who don't take the time to put out a worthwhile app. The tools are at their disposal but like they say, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

 

[Fernandez21]

It depends on the app. On the whole iOS apps to me are faster, smoother, and better designed. While android apps have more functionality, like my podcast app automatically downloads podcasts when i get home with out me having to launch it, same with dropbox automatically uploading pictures and videos when i connect to wifi.

Neither system is perfect, pick the one that best suites your needs.

 

[maxosx]

Words with friends runs very fast and smooth on my Galaxy S4. I cannot comment on the other app since I don't use it.

 

[jfrancis04]

Words with friends runs very fast and smooth on my Galaxy S4. I cannot comment on the other app since I don't use it.

Weird. I'm using the free version. Maybe that's the problem.

 

[maxosx]

Weird. I'm using the free version. Maybe that's the problem.

What's particularly interesting is I have my iPhone 5 and Galaxy S4 setup with my same core group of Apps, since I have each on their own lines. After I first read your question I was thinking that launch times were similar. But just for fun I launched Words with friends on each with them side by side. As it turns out the S4 is quite a bit faster yet that's to be expected since it's running on the faster CPU with more RAM.

With the advent of Android version 4.2.2, the new top line Androids like my S4 now run very fluid and fast as they should. Even my HTC One on version 4.2.1 runs very smoothly, Android has come a long way.

I'd say there's a problem with yours. .Being confined to just those two apps I'd remove them do a restart then reinstall them.

 

[TacticalDesire]

Probably the apps. Most apps run great for me on my nexus 4 with the Facebook app probably being the only exception. But Facebook is laggy on iOS too.

 

[strausd]

Many apps on my iPhone 4S ran smoother than on my Nexus 4.

Google Maps
Google Chrome (huge difference in performance here)
Google Plus
Facebook
Evernote
Twitter
Skype
Amazon
Bible App

Just to name a few. And note these are all major apps. So to Dontazemebro who thinks it is just lazy developers, I would have to disagree.

I believe it is just the nature of Android. It is an OS designed to run on a nearly infinite number of phones with varying hardware. What do you expect from an OS with no true optimization? Why do you think Android phones have to have quad-core CPUs to be considered a flagship when the iPhone sticks to a dual-core and still feels so much more fluid with half the RAM?

It is all because of optimization and OS efficiency. I see it as just the nature of two different operating systems with different goals.

 

[sentinelsx]

I would say that it has less to do with OS optimization and more to do with how well a developer works on their apps. And when someone says "lazy devs", they are not always just kidding. And I always have a kick when Facebook is mentioned as they are worse even on ios.

I have posted numerous times about why android works the way it does in another thread (which gets conveniently ignored because you know, how else are people supposed to keep bickering?) but the point is due to the modular and very flexible nature of the OS, you simply have to do more work. It has to do more than just supporting different devices only. For example, you can get push notifications on android, as I do with IM+ through google cloud messaging (google's counterpart to ios push) but Facebook still uses the old constant background process running all the time. Is google to blame or is Facebook to blame for not implementing a better protocol? You decide.

However, android does take its toll in giving you way more responsibility. Apps are heavily controlled by ios so ios developers have such an easy time to develop great and responsive apps. Not so on android because here google apparently expects you to take more responsibility. May be they think you will use it wisely? But in my personal experience in watching devs work (one of my friends works in an indie software team), they want to do the least work with the most return.

So I would rather blame google in not making the app developing experience as great. Considering they JUST unveiled android studio shows how late their priorities were.

Not to mention ad based apps which are going to be battery hogs and sluggish are more of a favorite with google apparently seeing how they are the ad biz.

Plus, add all the framework changing crap on various OEM devices and making a speedy app could get harder. See if I buy a dell or hp or Asus or another computer, there is no skins, just OEM "apps and services" which I can choose to use or not, but the basic windows functionality gets untouched most of the time allowing things to be compatible. Not so in android unfortunately.

Also, wunderlist, flipboard, pocket, verge, tapatalk, google+, im+ etc on my n4 worked just as speedy as the iPhone 5. And moonreader+, a good reader counterpart worked amazingly well in rendering even large pdfs swiftly. So good apps from good devs actually do exist.

TLDR: low app quality has more to do with google and its partners' approach to app developers than poor optimization of the OS.

 

[kalex]

Many apps on my iPhone 4S ran smoother than on my Nexus 4.

Google Maps
Google Chrome (huge difference in performance here)
Google Plus
Facebook
Evernote
Twitter
Skype
Amazon
Bible App

Just to name a few. And note these are all major apps. So to Dontazemebro who thinks it is just lazy developers, I would have to disagree.

I believe it is just the nature of Android. It is an OS designed to run on a nearly infinite number of phones with varying hardware. What do you expect from an OS with no true optimization? Why do you think Android phones have to have quad-core CPUs to be considered a flagship when the iPhone sticks to a dual-core and still feels so much more fluid with half the RAM?

It is all because of optimization and OS efficiency. I see it as just the nature of two different operating systems with different goals.

so much misinformation in one post, wow. Forget about older devices that don't run 4.2.2. With jelly bean google improved android os a lot. I switched from iphone 5 to htc one and to S4. My experience has been the opposite of yours. There are crap apps that exist and developers are to blame not the OS. and having quad-core cpu and 2gb of ram doesn't equate to needing more resources to run the OS. Its called progress. Apple has always been behind releasing new hardware.

Perfect example - look at haswell implementation. Every PC manufacturer released haswell laptops and desktops. What does Apple release? macbook air.

There is a point to different hardware but if u look at iphone line you start seeing fragmentation there too. You have iphone 3gs, 4, 4s and 5 with soon to be released 5s. Apple will bump up specs a little bit and people will go gaga over new and improved processor and 1.25GB of ram that apple will sprinkle on iphone users.

as far as apps go - Look at Google chrome. I installed it and it wasn't really good. it lagged and was choppy. Instead of whining about it i did my research and guess what: I solved my problem by installing google chrome beta. All problems i had were solved. Google gives u ability to install beta apps from app store as oppose to Apple.

Google maps work much better on my s4 then they did on iphone 5. Facebook sucks on both. I had daily crashes of the app on iphone 5 and on s4. If it happens on iphone then it must be app fault. But if it happens on android wow then its android to blame. Wrong. Evernote runs better and has more options.

One app that shows full ability of android is Tasker. Its a hard app to master but once you get the hang of it, so many capabilities open up and shows true comparison of android vs. ios

 

[Technarchy]

Perfect example - look at haswell implementation. Every PC manufacturer released haswell laptops and desktops. What does Apple release? macbook air.

...What exactly is this supposed to mean?

Last I checked, the MBA is a laptop...no?

 

[kalex]

...What exactly is this supposed to mean?

Last I checked, the MBA is a laptop...no?

Its suppose to mean that out of all the laptops and desktops that apple offers one model on haswell platform

 

[jfrancis04]

After talking with a friend who works for ATT, I'm thinking I need a fresh install of HTC Sense. My battery is draining incredibly fast...even after disabling GPS, Google Now, and several other background features.

Took it off the charger at 10:30AM at 100% and by 4:00 it was drained to 50%...on relatively limited use. Using Wifi the whole time mainly texting and light web surfing. The same friend got 1 day and 17 hrs out of his One.

Thanks for all the feedback.

 

[MRU]

After talking with a friend who works for ATT, I'm thinking I need a fresh install of HTC Sense. My battery is draining incredibly fast...even after disabling GPS, Google Now, and several other background features.

Took it off the charger at 10:30AM at 100% and by 4:00 it was drained to 50%...on relatively limited use. Using Wifi the whole time mainly texting and light web surfing. The same friend got 1 day and 17 hrs out of his One.

Thanks for all the feedback.

A factory reset won't do any harm in that circumstance.

Question what version of the PlayStore is installed on your device. Go into google PlayStore, menu, settings and scroll down to about.

If its 4.1.6 this could be your problem. You could try and install 4.1.10 version. The 4.1.6 date for some reason is accessing location services overly and causing battery drain on HTC devices.

I got pointed to this (after updating my rom and noticing increased drain) and installed 4.1.10 and my battery usage went back to normal. (I get about 2 days light'ish usage).

http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/05/29/download-latest-google-play-store-4-1-10/


Best of luck

 

[Peterg2]

After talking with a friend who works for ATT, I'm thinking I need a fresh install of HTC Sense. My battery is draining incredibly fast...even after disabling GPS, Google Now, and several other background features.

Took it off the charger at 10:30AM at 100% and by 4:00 it was drained to 50%...on relatively limited use. Using Wifi the whole time mainly texting and light web surfing. The same friend got 1 day and 17 hrs out of his One.

Thanks for all the feedback.

As you are well aware one rogue app can do this. In my case, and this is a non-app situation, when I purchased a new router about a month ago I was playing around tweaking various settings on both the router and my various devices.

On my HTC One I decided to turn on "Best Wifi performance", despite the warning that it "may consume more power". Since I was getting excellent battery life I thought nothing about it and turned it on.

Long story short, I found out that turning this on in my situation cut my battery life by over half. This is a shot in the dark for you as the causes can be many as I said.

Generally, the first thing I would do is try a couple of battery monitoring apps and let them run for a couple of hours at minimum. I use Gsam from the google play store but others have used Wakelock detector as well to track down what is causing battery problems. Using either of these apps may or may not find the source of your problems.

 

[strausd]

Forget about older devices that don't run 4.2.2.

Maybe you missed it, but I'll post it again.

Many apps on my iPhone 4S ran smoother than on my Nexus 4.

There are crap apps that exist and developers are to blame not the OS.

In that case, Google is still to blame for Chrome being so slow compared to a phone with much worst specs.

and having quad-core cpu and 2gb of ram doesn't equate to needing more resources to run the OS. Its called progress. Apple has always been behind releasing new hardware.

Actually, it does show that you need more resources since a phone with considerably less resources runs Chrome much smoother. Apple has never marketed their iPhone as having the best specs, but the best user experience. And that all comes from OS optimization.

Perfect example - look at haswell implementation. Every PC manufacturer released haswell laptops and desktops. What does Apple release? macbook air.

That is just an example of companies jumping on the bandwagon without giving their decision any thought. Apple is waiting to release the Mac Pro because of Thunderbolt 2. Pro users need fast I/O, and that is what Thunderbolt 2 offers. The MacBook Pro is also a pro machine, and they are likely waiting for the same reasons. To offer people something better. Same with the iMac.

There is a point to different hardware but if u look at iphone line you start seeing fragmentation there too. You have iphone 3gs, 4, 4s and 5 with soon to be released 5s. Apple will bump up specs a little bit and people will go gaga over new and improved processor and 1.25GB of ram that apple will sprinkle on iphone users.

Yet the iPhone 5 with 1GB RAM and a dual core 1.3GHz CPU runs better than a Nexus 4 with double the RAM, double the cores, and a faster clock speed. And you think individual app developers are to blame? Sorry, but I disagree.

as far as apps go - Look at Google chrome. I installed it and it wasn't really good. it lagged and was choppy. Instead of whining about it i did my research and guess what: I solved my problem by installing google chrome beta. All problems i had were solved. Google gives u ability to install beta apps from app store as oppose to Apple.

Haha I installed Chrome Beta on my Nexus 4 months ago, its nothing new. But it is even more sluggish than the official release. The fact of the matter is that Google Chrome runs smoother on an iPhone 5/4S than it does on a Nexus 4 with much better specs.

And the OP recognizes this too. As a whole, apps often run better on iOS despite their "worse" specs.

It also sounds like you are insinuating I don't do my research. Maybe you shouldn't blindly assume things. Or maybe you should just calm down so we can keep this civil before it gets out of hand.

Google maps work much better on my s4 then they did on iphone 5. Facebook sucks on both. I had daily crashes of the app on iphone 5 and on s4. If it happens on iphone then it must be app fault. But if it happens on android wow then its android to blame. Wrong. Evernote runs better and has more options.

I remember hearing somewhere that when Google Maps was first re-released for iOS 6, Google themselves even admitted to it offering a better experience than on Android.

Facebook runs smoother on iOS. It is a known fact.
Evernote is constantly dropping frame on my Nexus 4 by just swiping to the side menu. That by definition is not smooth.

One app that shows full ability of android is Tasker. Its a hard app to master but once you get the hang of it, so many capabilities open up and shows true comparison of android vs. ios

I've had Tasker since I got my Nexus 4 in November. But this is completely irrelevant to our discussion as Tasker shows the customization of Android, and we are not talking about customization, but instead about fluidity. So let's try to stay on topic, shall we?

 

[jeffe]

So I finally made the jump. After owning an iPhone 3GS, 4S, and iPhone 5, I made the switch to an HTC One. Love the screen and love the phone...but as they say, the grass isn't always greener.

A number of apps I used daily on my iPhone 5 seem incredibly sluggish on the One. This makes no sense to me (more RAM, faster processor). Is this the norm for many Android apps?

The two I've noticed it the most on are Words with Friends and Shopkick. It's kind of insane how sluggish they are.

Words with Friends is a pretty poor experience on Android to what it could be. I know many people who use it Love it but I can't stand it. Most Zynga app's are (IMO).

If you are able convince those you play with to switch, I would try out WordFeud. Same game, but built originally for Android and much better experience.

 

[QuarterSwede]

Its suppose to mean that out of all the laptops and desktops that apple offers one model on haswell platform

By the end of the year all MacBook's are expected to be running on Haswell. What's the point?

 

[strausd]

By the end of the year all MacBook's are expected to be running on Haswell. What's the point?

He has no point. And he forgets that the other machines are not being released because Apple is waiting for Thunderbolt 2. The MacBook Air doesn't really require much faster I/O as it is not pegged for pros. The Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, and iMac are all often used for high performance applications and can greatly benefit from increased I/O speeds.

 

[beaniemyman]

i also switched to android from iOS but i didn't notice any sluggishness or lags, those apps seem to have an issue.

 

[tekno]

Bible App

I'm sorry... what?!

 

[QuarterSwede]

He has no point. And he forgets that the other machines are not being released because Apple is waiting for Thunderbolt 2. The MacBook Air doesn't really require much faster I/O as it is not pegged for pros. The Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, and iMac are all often used for high performance applications and can greatly benefit from increased I/O speeds.

That was a rhetorical question. But yes, you're absolutely correct.

I'm sorry... what?!

What's wrong with a Bible app?

 

[mib1800]

IOS apps are generally more sluggish due to the slow scrolling speed of the ui. Plus iOS has those dreaded slow animation which you can't turn off.

However iOS apps feel more smooth due to high frame rate albeit at slower speed. When I use iPhone I usually get impatient as everything seems to slow down a notch.