Mobile OSs What Would Make Android better (From an iOS Guy)

[TehFalcon]

Now note, I own a Moto X and an iPhone 5S.

Neither phone is a slouch, and I use them both tons!

I still lean toward iOS just for some small details that I DO notice after using iOS for so long.

So here is my list:

Smoother framerate when scrolling SLOWLY, My iPhones have never had this problem, unless its a media filled webpage (5S is an exception, never had issues with framerate on it.)

Lower Screen Rotation Delay (My iPhone is near instant to rotate the screen, while android will either never do it, for have a huge delay.)

Better design on the Play store, (The App Store is extremely easy to find new things all the time, and the homepage showcases apps extremely well.)

Less Google intrusion. (My iPhone, while an Apple Phone, on an Apple Operating system, you don't see Apple everywhere, they are not intrusive, while on Android you see "Google" or "Play" just about everywhere.)

Touch Input Lag.

 

[Lloydbm41]

Smoother framerate when scrolling SLOWLY, My iPhones have never had this problem, unless its a media filled webpage (5S is an exception, never had issues with framerate on it.)

Lower Screen Rotation Delay (My iPhone is near instant to rotate the screen, while android will either never do it, for have a huge delay.)

Better design on the Play store, (The App Store is extremely easy to find new things all the time, and the homepage showcases apps extremely well.)

Less Google intrusion. (My iPhone, while an Apple Phone, on an Apple Operating system, you don't see Apple everywhere, they are not intrusive, while on Android you see "Google" or "Play" just about everywhere.)

Note, I have an iPhone 5S, an iPad Mini, a Nexus 5, a Nexus 7, a Lumia 1520, a Lumia 520 and an HTC One. I use them all, but now prefer my Lumia 1520 over the rest, with the iPad filling my tablet needs.

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The scrolling issue on iPhone is the worst. The sheer 'slowness' is god awful. It is by far my biggest complaint. I have to swipe 20 times to get to the bottom of a long page. Scroll to top by tapping the status bar is the best feature! Wish they could do it for both top and bottom. Android is the best at scrolling, with Windows Phone in between the two. BTW, the checkerboarding is still there on the iPhone, something I no longger see on the Nexus 5 and Lumia 1520.
On the plus side, yes SLOW scrolling is very smooth on the iPhone, as it is on the Lumia flagship series phones AND the Nexus 5. They all scroll smoothly when going slowly. I ocassionally get a slight stutter on the HTC One when slow scrolling.

Lower screen rotation delay. I can't remember why the rotation delay was built in to Android, but I know that it can be sped up. Currently it takes ~1 second to auto-rotate on the Nexus 5 and Windows Phone, while the iPhone is only slightly quicker. We are talking about 20 milliseconds here. I'd rather my phone not auto-rotate all the time, like the iPhone seems too, especially when my intent is only to move around to get comfortable. Personal preferences here.

Play Store vs App Store: My opinion here -> Play Store is much easier to find apps, determine when they were last updated, if you have updated them before, reviews by people with your specific device, etc. The front page on the App Store is designed to look better, yet the Play Store has a simpler layout and simpler functionality. The Windows App Store is a bloody mess and reminds me of Androids app store in 2010.

Google Intrusion: Google is about ads and services. If that is something you can't stand, don't use their services and load a different launcher. You have options with Android.

 

[strausd]

The scrolling issue on iPhone is the worst. The sheer 'slowness' is god awful. It is by far my biggest complaint. I have to swipe 20 times to get to the bottom of a long page. Scroll to top by tapping the status bar is the best feature! Wish they could do it for both top and bottom. Android is the best at scrolling, with Windows Phone in between the two. BTW, the checkerboarding is still there on the iPhone, something I no longger see on the Nexus 5 and Lumia 1520.

Everybody has their preference when it comes to scrolling. I no longer own a single iOS device. Only Nexus devices. And I can still say I prefer iOS scrolling.

A natural flick in iOS takes you the right amount if you are reading an article. The same flick in Android takes you way too far. If you are reading an article, you just scrolled past what you want to read. In Android, I rarely find myself flicking. 90% of the time I am doing the tap, hold, drag, and let go. Doesn't feel as natural as iOS. And the feel of your device is an important thing to consider.

Sure, a single flick in Android takes you further. But so what? What purpose does that serve? If I am reading an article it does me no good. If I need to get to the top of the article, iOS does it quicker with a single tap.

Another thing to consider is that iOS scrolling is actually intelligent. iOS recognizes a long article. If it recognizes a long article and sees you doing multiple flicks, it will dynamically speed up scrolling. Take this video as an example:

(Web page was zoomed in to simulate a longer article)

Now, lets analyze.

The first flicks are pretty slow. I imagine at first, iOS scrolls by a certain amount of lines in relation to force. Android does the same thing. The difference here is that the amount of lines to scroll in relation to force is larger on Android.

However, iOS soon recognizes the fact that I am trying to get to the bottom. So instead of continually scrolling X amount of lines, it begins to scroll by page percentage. The first flick doesn't go very far. The last flick goes nearly 25% of the entire page. What does that tell us? It tells us that iOS dynamically changes scroll speed based on what you are trying to do.

Lets say you come across a super long article on some new scientific discovery with hundreds if not thousands of comments. The page is going to be very long. For the sake of argument, lets say the article is so long that each flick only takes you 2% down he article on Android. That would mean that the first few flicks on iOS only take you like .2% (assuming a 10-1 Android-iOS scrolling ratio) down the page. So the amount of lines covered on Android is much higher than iOS. However, by the 10th flick on Android you would have only gotten 20% of the entire article, requiring 40 more flicks. However, on iOS after about 6-7 flicks it no longer scrolls based on lines, but percentage. In which case, you would be able to reach the end of the article within 10 total flicks on iOS whereas Android requires 50 total.

Basically what I am saying is that iOS can dynamically change scroll speed based on what you are doing. Not only can you get to the bottom of a super long article quicker, you can also get to the top with 1 tap. And a natural flick takes you a better distance for actually reading (IMO).

As for the checkerboard thing on iOS, I can't say. That video was from my iPad 3 and I took that video a while ago. But I can say that on my Nexus 7 (2013) and my Nexus 5, scrolling on pages suffers 2 major downfalls. The first is that scrolling quickly won't cause checkerboards, but will blank out on the content, which is essentially Androids version of the checkerboards. Also, because of Androids touch input lag, when scrolling in rapid succession I notice the content briefly stopping. For example, I will scroll quickly, the content will fly up, and immediately go to do a second flick. In rapid succession, every time I do another flick, I notice all the content stopping for a brief moment in time. It is kind of like SCROLL-stop-SCROLL-stop-SCROLL-stop, but just really fast, if that makes sense. This never happened on iOS.

But again, I don't own any iOS devices anymore. So really, I am comparing current Android with iOS on iPad 3 and iPhone 4S. Now that I think about it, that certainly doesn't help Android's case

 

[TehFalcon]

Everybody has their preference when it comes to scrolling. I no longer own a single iOS device. Only Nexus devices. And I can still say I prefer iOS scrolling.

THIS.

Android's scrolling does need improvement, and I forgot to add the Touch Input lag to my list.

 

[Serelus]

Note, I have an iPhone 5S, an iPad Mini, a Nexus 5, a Nexus 7, a Lumia 1520, a Lumia 520 and an HTC One. I use them all, but now prefer my Lumia 1520 over the rest, with the iPad filling my tablet needs.

I never understood this, how are you using them all in a proper way?

On topic:

Customization is really the only thing missing for me, but that's what I jailbreak for.

 

[TehFalcon]

I never understood this, how are you using them all in a proper way?

On topic:

Customization is really the only thing missing for me, but that's what I jailbreak for.

Yeah as far as customization goes, I've never been disappointed with iOS, and Jailbreak always brought lots more to the plate.

I haven't really customized anything on Android other then the font.

 

[Lloydbm41]

I never understood this, how are you using them all in a proper way?.

Probably because I have been using computers for over 3 decades and have used a lot of different OS's in that time. Trust me.., IOS, Android and WP is a cake walk compared to what we had to contend with prior to DOS in the early 80's.

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Yeah as far as customization goes, I've never been disappointed with iOS, and Jailbreak always brought lots more to the plate.

I haven't really customized anything on Android other then the font.

Only problem with jail breaking is the sheer amount of time it takes waiting for it. And on major releases like ios7, the tweaks ALL have to be updated. The instability is what really sucks. I had to return my Mini to stock because of the constant FC's and random reboots. Trying to find tweaks that work well together can be an exercise in futility.

 

[daneoni]

For me (I own a Moto G and 5S)...

Its text manipulation i.e. text selection/copy/cut/paste are problematic. Its especially painful when dealing with Forum text boxes or pages with large text. It rarely selects text properly unlike iOS. It will either over/under select.

Then the scrolling issue. Its usually all or nothing. You don't get that effortless 'fine-grained control' of the page like you do on iOS.

Pinch to zoom is also not as accurate as iOS i've found. Again no fine-grain control. It works fine its just not as good as iOS.

Also, i find Chrome on Android to be one of the most cumbersome mobile web browsers i've ever used in terms of general performance. I've never used it and come away satisfied. I mostly just give up and wait till i get to work or home. AOSP browser was far better.

 

[Lloydbm41]

Everybody has their preference when it comes to scrolling. I no longer own a single iOS device. Only Nexus devices. And I can still say I prefer iOS scrolling.

Shortened quote for brevity.

I understand what your saying, however let me counter:

Slow scrolling while reading is the same regardless of platform. I don't know anyone that flicks while actually reading an article. It is always, tap... Hold... Slow scroll. No advantage for any platform.

Long articles. I don't know any websites that still allow comments are articles to continue on for hundreds or thousands of pages or comments. Articles and comments are now either parsed or cut into multiple pages. In fact, this forum only allows up to 50 comments per page. 9 times out of 10, you can get to the bottom of even the longest thread in 1 to 2 swipes. On IOS, it takes 10 swipes. If it went to 100 comments per page, then IOS and Android might end up taking the same amount of time, depending on how fast you can swipe in IOS.

Like you said though, its just personal preferences.

BTW, guess what I couldn't see in your response because I'm on a Windows phone. Your YouTube vid link. I don't have Flash. Doh.

 

[tbayrgs]

For me (I own a Moto G and 5S)...

Its text manipulation i.e. text selection/copy/cut/paste are problematic. Its especially painful when dealing with Forum text boxes or pages with large text. It rarely selects text properly unlike iOS. It will either over/under select.

Then the scrolling issue. Its usually all or nothing. You don't get that effortless 'fine-grained control' of the page like you do on iOS.

Pinch to zoom is also not as accurate as iOS i've found. Again no fine-grain control. It works fine its just not as good as iOS.

Also, i find Chrome on Android to be one of the most cumbersome mobile web browsers i've ever used in terms of general performance. I've never used it and come away satisfied. I mostly just give up and wait till i get to work or home. AOSP browser was far better.

Pretty much mirrors my gripes as well, especially concerning Chrome. I still fail to understand how Google can put together such a good desktop browser and then give us such a lackluster mobile version.

 

[Serelus]

Yeah as far as customization goes, I've never been disappointed with iOS, and Jailbreak always brought lots more to the plate.

I haven't really customized anything on Android other then the font.

That's because customization is not a feature to me and most people, it's something you do once, and then never look at again. Most people can do without it.

Probably because I have been using computers for over 3 decades and have used a lot of different OS's in that time. Trust me.., IOS, Android and WP is a cake walk compared to what we had to contend with prior to DOS in the early 80's.

No I mean how do you use all of those phones properly? I would find it annoying not being able to use the ecosystem of Apple on the other 2 devices. I was basically infering it's pointless to have that amount of devices, seeing as your full understanding of all the devices is going to be limited, whereas a user who only uses 1 or 2 has a way better understanding.

Because these devices are built and tailored to be used solely for long periods of times, unlike pre-dos early 80's desktops, using all of them is just going to give you a bad user experience across all platforms. You're better of just actually using 1 or 2 at most.

 

[zbarvian]

It baffles me why Google hasn't changed the obviously quirky scrolling engine after all these years. The scrolling on the iPhone is Apple's secret sauce; it's almost locked with your finger, and goes smoothly and naturally. You do it often enough to notice when something's off (Android). As for the input lag, I'm not sure how much Google can do about that. It's not a huge issue, but it definitely shows a lack of polish. Same with the repetitive, clunky animation used in Android, that feels like it was done in PowerPoint. Little things. Though they now have infinitely better icons than the garbage on display in iOS 7.

 

[TehFalcon]

For me (I own a Moto G and 5S)...

Its text manipulation i.e. text selection/copy/cut/paste are problematic. Its especially painful when dealing with Forum text boxes or pages with large text. It rarely selects text properly unlike iOS. It will either over/under select.

Then the scrolling issue. Its usually all or nothing. You don't get that effortless 'fine-grained control' of the page like you do on iOS.

Pinch to zoom is also not as accurate as iOS i've found. Again no fine-grain control. It works fine its just not as good as iOS.

Also, i find Chrome on Android to be one of the most cumbersome mobile web browsers i've ever used in terms of general performance. I've never used it and come away satisfied. I mostly just give up and wait till i get to work or home. AOSP browser was far better.

I would agree with this as well.

I was texting and it replaced a word with the wrong one, so i went to select it and delete it, and it seemed like a hassle compared to iOS. It's minor, but the minor things add up.

 

[Fanaticalism]

For me, what would make android better:

Seamless backups of entire configuration and data.
Text Messaging app with proper functionality. Referring to Hangouts here.
Auto Correction on Google keyboard.

I know Android is about choice but they need to remove that choice or have certain things enabled by default to appeal to the masses.

 

[tbayrgs]

Seamless backups of entire configuration and data.

Ohhhh, forgot to mention this one--probably my biggest pet peeve with Android. While it seems to have gotten somewhat better, I still find it to be wildly inconsistent. I've had some apps restore, no apps restore, some part of my previous configurations (i.e. some wifi networks remembered and others not, no bluetooth connections). Also, app data is never restored, just an app reloaded onto my device.

When I choose 'yes' to restore my new LG G Pad 8.3 GPE from previous backups, assuming it would use my most recent tablet configuration (Nexus 7), I got nada restored.

Considering my penchant for switching devices rather often, this is a royal PITA.

 

[strausd]

Slow scrolling while reading is the same regardless of platform. I don't know anyone that flicks while actually reading an article. It is always, tap... Hold... Slow scroll. No advantage for any platform.

Again, this comes to personal preference. Reading articles on my iPad I could easily do natural flicks. On my Nexus 7 it will scroll too far making me have to go back.

I also see a lot of people do natural flicks on iOS when reading an article. I never see people on Android do it because it will always scroll too far.

Long articles. I don't know any websites that still allow comments are articles to continue on for hundreds or thousands of pages or comments. Articles and comments are now either parsed or cut into multiple pages. In fact, this forum only allows up to 50 comments per page. 9 times out of 10, you can get to the bottom of even the longest thread in 1 to 2 swipes. On IOS, it takes 10 swipes. If it went to 100 comments per page, then IOS and Android might end up taking the same amount of time, depending on how fast you can swipe in IOS.

True, many articles with comments limit it with pages or only loading X amount of comments until you scroll further down. But the great thing about this scrolling behavior is that in iOS it is system wide. Although with comment sections, many websites now show, say for example, 25 comments only. Then when you scroll all the way down to those 25, it shows another 25, then another 25, etc. So you can't immediately scroll all the way down, but after reading them all, the web page is much longer. Navigating back through those comments, if so desired, is better, IMO, with dynamic scrolling if the page is long enough. But again, this scrolling isn't limited to just comment sections.

Going through a long twitter feed? No problem. Long comment section on some trending post on FB? No problem. 700+ PDF document for work or personal use? No problem. Huge photo library in the Dropbox app? No problem. Reading a long article in Pocket? No problem. Have a semesters worth of notes in a single Evernote note? No problem. Long G+ feed? No problem. Reading through an email thread that has gone through everybody in your building 5 times over? No problem. Hopefully by now you get the point. Long lists are out there in many different forms. iOS's dynamic scrolling allows you to get to the bottom of any article with a reasonable amount of flicks, and back up to the top with only 1.

Having said all that, I installed the Xposed module on my Nexus 5 and have the Statusbar Scroll to Top. It can be handy, but it isn't as consistent as iOS and doesn't work in every app.

 

[Lloydbm41]

No I mean how do you use all of those phones properly? I would find it annoying not being able to use the ecosystem of Apple on the other 2 devices. I was basically infering it's pointless to have that amount of devices, seeing as your full understanding of all the devices is going to be limited, whereas a user who only uses 1 or 2 has a way better understanding.

Because these devices are built and tailored to be used solely for long periods of times, unlike pre-dos early 80's desktops, using all of them is just going to give you a bad user experience across all platforms. You're better of just actually using 1 or 2 at most.

Using iOS hasn't changed much since 2007 when I first started using it. Been using iOS since then, so going on 7 years. Not sure how much more I can learn there. I have done the jailbreaking thing and done just about every tweak worthwhile as well.
Android I have been using since 2010. Going on 4 years now. I have gone through the G1, the S2, S3, Nexus 4 and Nexus 5, plus several tablets including the HP Touchpad which had dual boot capability with Cyanogenmod 7 and WebOS.
And now I have been learning Windows Phone and learning how to develop for it (because lord knows Windows Phone needs all the help they can get. The app scene is pretty bleak!)

And ecosystem? I have an agnostic ecosystem. I am not chained to iOS like many people. I use Chromecast, Roku, and Plex on my Win8 NAS sevrer. I can use any device in the house to access everything else (save for my Windows Phones with Chromecast). I use Google services for everything which means it doesn't matter which phone or tablet I use, I can access my data. If something new comes out, I can add it into my ecosystem. Unlike when you only use Apple, you can't add anything except another Apple product. This is unacceptable to me. It doesn't preclude me from using Apple specific products as I have an iMac and an iPad to connect to whatever device that may be.

I am a person that loves tech. I want to buy everything and use everything. I respect other peoples opinion in this thread, even though I may not agree with them.

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Again, this comes to personal preference. Reading articles on my iPad I could easily do natural flicks. On my Nexus 7 it will scroll too far making me have to go back.

I also see a lot of people do natural flicks on iOS when reading an article. I never see people on Android do it because it will always scroll too far.


True, many articles with comments limit it with pages or only loading X amount of comments until you scroll further down. But the great thing about this scrolling behavior is that in iOS it is system wide. Although with comment sections, many websites now show, say for example, 25 comments only. Then when you scroll all the way down to those 25, it shows another 25, then another 25, etc. So you can't immediately scroll all the way down, but after reading them all, the web page is much longer. Navigating back through those comments, if so desired, is better, IMO, with dynamic scrolling if the page is long enough. But again, this scrolling isn't limited to just comment sections.

Going through a long twitter feed? No problem. Long comment section on some trending post on FB? No problem. 700+ PDF document for work or personal use? No problem. Huge photo library in the Dropbox app? No problem. Reading a long article in Pocket? No problem. Have a semesters worth of notes in a single Evernote note? No problem. Long G+ feed? No problem. Reading through an email thread that has gone through everybody in your building 5 times over? No problem. Hopefully by now you get the point. Long lists are out there in many different forms. iOS's dynamic scrolling allows you to get to the bottom of any article with a reasonable amount of flicks, and back up to the top with only 1.

Having said all that, I installed the Xposed module on my Nexus 5 and have the Statusbar Scroll to Top. It can be handy, but it isn't as consistent as iOS and doesn't work in every app.

True on many counts. I see your points, especially with Twitter and G+ and like I said from the beginning, iOS having the tap once to go straight to the top of a page is a god-send! I def don't deny that. I love that Xposed feature as well, but as you said, it isn't a system wide feature like in iOS.

I will bow out of this thread now.

 

[strausd]

I've got a few more things about Android I don't like too much.

First, I get this bug every so often where the first slot in my backgrounding apps is empty.

And third, which I don't have a video of, is sometimes when I am typing in a text field and I finish typing and navigate away, the keyboard will still stay open. For example, sometimes I am typing in Chrome or Textra and I switch apps where there is no text field and the keyboard stays up. Normally the keyboard drops down once I tap outside of the keyboard, but in these situations the keyboard always stays up. Another example is when I am typing a text, send it, and then hit the home button to go home the keyboard stays up. Even from the home screen if I then go into my calendar app, the play store, or even the camera, the keyboard stays up.

 

[mac00l]

Going through a long twitter feed? No problem. Long comment section on some trending post on FB? No problem. 700+ PDF document for work or personal use? No problem. Huge photo library in the Dropbox app? No problem. Reading a long article in Pocket? No problem. Have a semesters worth of notes in a single Evernote note? No problem. Long G+ feed? No problem. Reading through an email thread that has gone through everybody in your building 5 times over? No problem. Hopefully by now you get the point. Long lists are out there in many different forms. iOS's dynamic scrolling allows you to get to the bottom of any article with a reasonable amount of flicks, and back up to the top with only 1.

Having said all that, I installed the Xposed module on my Nexus 5 and have the Statusbar Scroll to Top. It can be handy, but it isn't as consistent as iOS and doesn't work in every app.

Yeah well... almost.

Have you ever tried to go trough your entire message history in iOS?? It is HELL!!! Swipe, swipe, swipe - tap "Load Early Messages", swipe, swipe, swipe, tap...

On the other hand, it is impossible to search trough your message history on Android (or I haven't been able to). On iOS is simple as typing a word and all the matches will pop up almost immediately, and as far as I know is a system wide function, whereas in Android only a couple of apps allow you to do that (hangouts, whatsapp and the like not included).

I must agree with everyone. Android must fix the text selection engine, it is almost unusable.

 

[sviato]

BTW, the checkerboarding is still there on the iPhone

I haven't seem any checkerboarding since iPhone 4. My 4s and 5s loaded everything very quickly, maybe your internet wasn't that fast? :S

 

[gotluck]

Fwiw I've noticed increased smoothness while scrolling slowly running ART. I don't seem to be alone in the thinking..

Really scrolling in general seems to be smoother under art imo

 

[iosuser]

I just bought another Nexus 7 2013 to play with. Getting very sick of Safari crashing on my iPad Air..

I'm no stranger to Android, having owned GNex, GS3, and HTC One and several tablets. Glad I'm not the only one that feels that scrolling in Android is either too slow or too fast. It just has a certain disconnected feel. Apple deliberately disabled fast scroll in Safari, I think precisely for this reason. iOS does let you fast scroll elsewhere such as the app store and email. Give it a quick flick and it flies through the page like Android does, just not in Safari.

 

[appledes7]

Yeah well... almost.

Have you ever tried to go trough your entire message history in iOS?? It is HELL!!! Swipe, swipe, swipe - tap "Load Early Messages", swipe, swipe, swipe, tap...

On the other hand, it is impossible to search trough your message history on Android (or I haven't been able to). On iOS is simple as typing a word and all the matches will pop up almost immediately, and as far as I know is a system wide function, whereas in Android only a couple of apps allow you to do that (hangouts, whatsapp and the like not included).

I must agree with everyone. Android must fix the text selection engine, it is almost unusable.

At least on iOS you have a single tap to go to the top.

I haven't seem any checkerboarding since iPhone 4. My 4s and 5s loaded everything very quickly, maybe your internet wasn't that fast? :S

I never had checkerboards on my 4S. But my Nexus 5 often blanks out when scrolling through longer pages.

 

[yinz]

For me (moto x from iPhone 4S):

1. Undo (feature)
2. Notification Center (user experience) - Without a unified Notification center, notifications are annoying to organise
3. Settings (user experience) should be more organised

 

[cynics]

All subjective.

I have to keep orientation lock on on my iPhone. Feels like the slightest tilt and it's spinning into landscape. I'm thankful there is that option.

On an iPhone (iPad is ok) I hate the AppStore. The search sucks, scrolling one app at a time is terrible. Ugh, just hate it. Things I don't like about the play store pail in comparison.

Can't comment on the intrusive nature of Google branding. I don't have an android device on hand. I don't remember much though. Google stuff on start up like the Apple logo on an iPhone.