New to Android, App Quality

[sammieboy]

I have to admit, when I first got my HTC One 2 days ago, I was pretty stoked. The customization of the OS is something that IOS+Jailbreaking can only dream about. But then I started downloading the apps. And thats where I'm starting to miss my iphone and ios. Hands down, the iOS counter part is wayyyyy better. Not even close. Hell, I can't even play Scramble with Friends and Words with Friends without Lag.

I tried uploading photos via Facebook this afternoon and guess what....there are no facebook filter plugins, oh yeah, they're only available on the iOS facebook app. I use these filters a ton. And I can't replicate it with anything on the Android app market. Trust me, its not the same. The facebook ones are built upon Instagram's filters. The quality is better than anything on Android at the moment.

Don't get me wrong, most of all the other apps are fine, I guess I'm just feeling a little bit antsy right now b/c I've just realized there are pro's and con's to anything, and I sincerely hope that developers will start focusing on making quality apps for the Android platform. The user experience is second class rate as it is now.

I'm seriously considering selling my new HTC One and wait for the 5s, smaller screen and all, and just jailbreak it again. I'll give it more time before I make any crazy decisions, but sigh, is there anyone out there that feels the same way as me? Am I just an apple fanboy gone wrong? lol.

 

[Krimsonmyst]

Try Snapseed or Photoshop mobile and then share straight to Facebook?

I have a hard time believing that inbuilt photo filters offer more than those 2 very advanced (for a mobile platform) photo editing apps.

 

[3bs]

Just keep in mind that you'll probably be waiting months until they have a jailbreak for the 5S

 

[blackhand1001]

Go to developer options and turn on force GPU rendering. It improves a ton of third party apps.

 

[F123D]

is there anyone out there that feels the same way as me?

Go back and get stuck on stock iOS for who knows how long before a jailbreak is released? Not me.

I'd rather deal with the issues of a couple apps than an entire operating system.

 

[Jessica Lares]

I feel the same way, and I've been at it for over a year now. You get used to it.

 

[hexonxonx]

I agree about the apps. I bought a Nexus 4 and 7 back in February and was all excited, till I started downloading apps. Then I got an iPad Mini a month ago and the difference in the apps I use is night and day between iOS and Android.

My iPad Mini had 6.0.1 on it when I bought it so I jailbroke it but then it had too many bugs when using iTunes Match so I upgraded to the latest iOS. I don't even miss the Jailbreak when I have all these amazing apps.

I'll keep using my Nexus 4 and 7 but my main devices now are my 4S and iPad Mini. The developers clearly favor iOS. Many of the Android tablet apps are simply scaled up phone apps.

 

[ReanimationN]

I'll give it more time before I make any crazy decisions, but sigh, is there anyone out there that feels the same way as me? Am I just an apple fanboy gone wrong? lol.

No, you're not alone. I gave a Nexus 7 a try and was stunned by how poor a lot of the apps that I wanted to use were. It gets even worse if you live in a smaller market, and use apps specific to that market, where developers don't have the same resources that the big name US developers do to get their Android apps up to scratch. Those apps are awful iPhone ports that are horribly laggy and look terrible on a tablet. Some apps just simply weren't available. People keep saying that they aren't as bad as they've been made out to be, but at least when it comes to tablets, they really are as awful as most people say.

 

[ChazUK]

Doesn't the HTC One have a load of photo editing stuff built in and is it no goid if so? (Can't say as I haven't used one)

Shame that the Facebook app is lacking when it comes to its iOS counterpart on Android for you.

My pet hate with some android apps is straight up iOS ports..... They look out of place and are not at all well tailored to the OS. Most of the apps I use are designed well for Android and perform fine on my Nexus but there are a few that insist on sticking with old design philosophies (Last pass for instance, horrid!).

 

[lsutigerfan1976]

The few times i have played with android phones recently i have seen this. It is a shame that the android versions of some of these popular apps do not have the same features as the ios conterparts. It is one of the reason i keep sticking with the iphone. I would love to have a phone with a much bigger screen, which is my biggest pet peeve with the iphone. But the lack of proper app development keeps me with apple products.

 

[daveathall]

I am not a gamer and find that the main apps I used on iOS to be no different from the one's I use on my SGS4, or if there are differences, they are so slight that they are unnoticeable, and TBH, my enjoyment of Android over iOS is that great to be worth any of the perceived downsides.

The fact that there are apps that iOS doesn't support or cannot use, such as swipe pad, launchers and differing keyboards etc more than make up for the lack in quality on Android apps that iOS (Not so much Android) users seem to concentrate.

Bottom line.......I aint got a problem.

 

[mib1800]

The few times i have played with android phones recently i have seen this. It is a shame that the android versions of some of these popular apps do not have the same features as the ios conterparts. It is one of the reason i keep sticking with the iphone. I would love to have a phone with a much bigger screen, which is my biggest pet peeve with the iphone. But the lack of proper app development keeps me with apple products.

which apps are you talking about?

all the major apps on android have more capabilities than ios. These include ability to run in the background, share to many sources and interact with other apps.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I am not a gamer and find that the main apps I used on iOS to be no different from the one's I use on my SGS4, or if there are differences, they are so slight that they are unnoticeable, and TBH, my enjoyment of Android over iOS is that great to be worth any of the perceived downsides.

The fact that there are apps that iOS doesn't support or cannot use, such as swipe pad, launchers and differing keyboards etc more than make up for the lack in quality on Android apps that iOS (Not so much Android) users seem to concentrate.

Bottom line.......I aint got a problem.

I feel the same way. Haven't had any problem with apps yet. I will admit that I have run across games that are buggy or just don't work on certain devices. But I'm not a heavy gamer and most work fine on the S4. All the cross platform apps I have on iOS work just fine on Android as well.

 

[hexonxonx]

which apps are you talking about?

all the major apps on android have more capabilities than ios. These include ability to run in the background, share to many sources and interact with other apps.

I posted a post last week where I posted screen caps of the differences between a few apps that I use. The Android tablet versions were just scaled up phone versions using the standard list format to show news items with pictures whereas the iOS versions had beautiful layouts that made me actually send a message to the news stations thanking them for such awesome apps.

Here is the difference in the AP news app, the iOS iPad version and the Android "tablet" version. These are just from one app. I have many others that are just the same where the iOS version is so different.

 

[mib1800]

I posted a post last week where I posted screen caps of the differences between a few apps that I use. The Android tablet versions were just scaled up phone versions using the standard list format to show news items with pictures whereas the iOS versions had beautiful layouts that made me actually send a message to the news stations thanking them for such awesome apps.

Here is the difference in the AP news app, the iOS iPad version and the Android "tablet" version. These are just from one app. I have many others that are just the same where the iOS version is so different.

I think op is asking about phone apps not tablet.

it is not correct/fair to compare phone version of android app running on tablet when the one running on ipad is the tablet version. run a phone version of the ios app on your ipad and I assure you it will look 100x worse than on Android.

show an app that have a tablet version on both platforms and you find the android version has more functions.

 

[hexonxonx]

I think op is asking about phone apps not tablet.

it is not correct/fair to compare phone version of android app running on tablet when the one running on ipad is the tablet version. run a phone version of the ios app on your ipad and I assure you it will look 100x worse than on Android.

show an app that have a tablet version on both platforms and you find the android version has more functions.

Regardless, I also have a Nexus 4 and the difference between apps on my 4S and Nexus 4 is also night and day.

I can't tell you how many apps I have on my 4S that I also have running on my Nexus 4 that are stripped down on the Nexus 4. My local news app is one. On my 4S, I can watch their live news cast using the app. On my Nexus 4 using that app, there is no ability to watch the live news.

Developers on Android that allow a phone app to run on a tablet just because it will upscale are just plain lazy in not making a tablet version.

 

[mib1800]

Regardless, I also have a Nexus 4 and the difference between apps on my 4S and Nexus 4 is also night and day.

I can't tell you how many apps I have on my 4S that I also have running on my Nexus 4 that are stripped down on the Nexus 4. My local news app is one. On my 4S, I can watch their live news cast using the app. On my Nexus 4 using that app, there is no ability to watch the live news.

Developers on Android that allow a phone app to run on a tablet just because it will upscale are just plain lazy in not making a tablet version.

if you want to go about this way then I can tell you that the chrome/opera browser on Android beats the one on ios for both phone and tablet. and so do dropbox, Google map,Gmail, Youtube, camera/media apps and many more. how about entire segments of utility, automation, file system, ui customization apps that will never be available on ios.

 

[HiDEF]

Go to developer options and turn on force GPU rendering. It improves a ton of third party apps.

I found this option but should I enabled it?

 

[Explicitic]

I found this option but should I enabled it?

Forcing GPU Rendering in Android is essentially allowing the GPU to take some load off of the CPU. Tasks such as rendering windows, text, and 2D graphics will be offset to the GPU. This could make animations more fluid and the overall system run with a higher frame rate...though the difference is likely to be negligible, especially in newer high-end devices. Enabling it doesn't hurt, though. There are VERY RARE cases in which enabling it may cause some apps to glitch, but that's VERY RARE. I've never encountered it. I always have GPU Rendering enabled.

 

[HiDEF]

^^I'm gonna try it on my Note II.

Is there anything else that should be enabled for a better experience?

 

[blackhand1001]

Forcing GPU Rendering in Android is essentially allowing the GPU to take some load off of the CPU. Tasks such as rendering windows, text, and 2D graphics will be offset to the GPU. This could make animations more fluid and the overall system run with a higher frame rate...though the difference is likely to be negligible, especially in newer high-end devices. Enabling it doesn't hurt, though. There are VERY RARE cases in which enabling it may cause some apps to glitch, but that's VERY RARE. I've never encountered it. I always have GPU Rendering enabled.

It actually makes a much bigger difference on newer devices as they have much higher resolutions.

 

[hexonxonx]

if you want to go about this way then I can tell you that the chrome/opera browser on Android beats the one on ios for both phone and tablet. and so do dropbox, Google map,Gmail, Youtube, camera/media apps and many more.

All strictly your opinion of course.

 

[Assault]

All strictly your opinion of course.

Not just his opinion. If I wanted an outdated OS with pretty pictures over a functional, modern and usable OS, I would have stayed with iOS. I feel sorry for people I see with iPhones now.

 

[lsutigerfan1976]

which apps are you talking about?

all the major apps on android have more capabilities than ios. These include ability to run in the background, share to many sources and interact with other apps.

No way, just a quick example my chase app has push notification natively so i can get things like when i get money deposited to my checking acct. Or if i make a big purchase it sends me a push saying that my balance is now X amount after this purchase. The android app doesn't have that feature. I have noticed alot of android apps missing one or two features here and there that are included in the IOS versions of those apps. (I think that is why some ppl describe the apps as half baked versions of iphone apps)

 

[SpaceKitty]

No way, just a quick example my chase app has push notification natively so i can get things like when i get money deposited to my checking acct. Or if i make a big purchase it sends me a push saying that my balance is now X amount after this purchase. The android app doesn't have that feature. I have noticed alot of android apps missing one or two features here and there that are included in the IOS versions of those apps. (I think that is why some ppl describe the apps as half baked versions of iphone apps)

I have plenty of apps too that have more functionality on the iOS side than on Android. Sometimes I wonder why they stop so short on Android when it could be a big thing. This is what's keeping me on my iOS devices. The app quality is just amazing on iOS.

I started getting bored with my Nexus 4 just a few weeks after owning it when I started seeing the differences in the apps that I had on it and the same versions of the apps on my iPhone.