From Android to iOS

what I love, what I miss

Android fellow since the early days, my first device was a HTC Desire, clone of the first Nexus shipped on Android Eclair (2.1) and next updated to Froyo (2.2) , I recently decided to give iOS a try and bought the latest model to date, the 5S.

iOS first

As a developer I was often frustrated not to be able to try the last trendy app by the last trendy startup while friends / colleagues where debating about it.
It might sound silly but I’m sure those of you working in my field will understand this.

Even if things are moving and the delay between iOS / Android apps is reducing, the reality is that most of the mobile apps are iPhone / iOS first.
In addition, most of the time the Android app is a pale copy of the iOS one, not leveraging all the system’s great features.

Android to iOS: one problem, two solutions

Android and iOS are two very different solutions to the same problem: provide a great mobile OS.

Aiming this same goal, Google and Apple have taken two different paths.

Apple on his side has decided to offer a simple, closed and consistent experience, from the device to the OS, at a certain price (like everything at Apple).

Google on his side offers a very flexible, open and extensible OS, without taking care a lot of the hardware (even if Nexus are the best devices IMO and are more and more popular).

A great OS is served by great devices

If you take a look at today’s smartphone market, you can observe a clear trend: smartphones are now bigger, featuring big screens, more and more requiring giant hands or two-handed grip.

This looks to me more a regression than an evolution. Every day, while commuting to work, in the often crowded Paris’ subway, I need to use my phone with only one hand.

To have this chance, you now have few options: get an old model ( one or two years old), get a low-cost model (like Kazam, Wiko (french brand), etc.)… or get an iPhone.

Been tired of Android, I wanted to try something new. Since Windows Phone looks great but not mature enough (lack of applications) and I’m not a Microsoft user, and with Firefox OS (ex Boot2Gecko) still in the early stage, the only serious option was iOS.

The power of the ecosystem

Now owning a full set of i-Thing (Macbook Pro mid-2009, Mac Mini 2012, iPad mini retina and an Apple TV, my house could be an Apple Store!), the main thing you expect is a complete synergy between all of them. Fortunately, the promise is kept!

The best example is AirPlay which works smoothly from any device, to the Apple TV. I can now enjoy every media on my TV / home cinema (from my music with Spotify to my movies / TV shows).

Before switching, I heard a lot of people complaining about iTunes. So far, I NEVER connected my iPhone to my laptop since all my data are synchronized on the Cloud (from Spotify, to Dropbox, to social networks).
Since I never knew iOS 6, I guess iOS 7 has improved a lot of things on this side.

Not everything is perfect. For instance, that’s a real disappointment when you discover that Airdrop is not working between iOS <-> OSX. Hopefully this is something that will be solved in the coming months.

iOS: simple, consistent

The first thing you notice coming from Android is how much iOS is simple (which not always a great thing, I’ll come back to this part later): no desktops, no widgets, a basic notification system, very few customization available, etc.

Among these features, some are not real big deal, like widgets that I used less and less on Android until that realizing that my desktop was looking a lot like the iOS home.

However, I’m really missing some features, like the notification center which is too basic on iOS. Notifications are not smart enough to disappear when not clicked instantly, it does not have a button to remove them all, no smart quick-action (like reply-to on Gmail’s Android), etc.

One behavior I found really weird until recently is that you need to wait for the data to be fetched when opening an app while it clearly shows a new activity on the badge.
While looking for explanation, I realized while talking with the main iOS developer in my company that background refresh is something that was introduced with iOS 7 and so most of apps are not leveraging it.
For example, Gmail for iOS was updated yesterday and now support this mechanism. Coming from Android, which is a multi-task OS from day one, it’s a real (bad) surprise.

On iOS your only option is running app, nothing else. No more hours spent to customize your look’n’feel, flash some ROMs to unlock new options (sometimes great but often too advanced for a daily usage), etc.

Another thing that you also quickly notice is the consistency through the system. Apps are mostly better, always offering a minimal great experience, using the same concepts and code making the experience very consistent.

On Android, it’s wilder. More devices, different form factor, less control from Google on the Play! Store, etc.
All these points are not negative: the system’s openness let developers create more useful apps and offers more flexibility and choice to the user.

Depending of your phone’s usage, iOS can be both perfect or too simple.

Android: what I really miss

After spending about 3 months on iOS, I now have a clearer view on what I really miss from Android.

First, be able to switch the keyboard! Swiftkey, I miss you so much. No matter what iOS fanboy will tell you, the native keyboard is years-ago from what these guys do.
For those of us who don’t know Swiftkey, it is a very powerful predictive keyboard, learning from your typing habits and vocabulary, to provide a fast and reliable typing experience. iOS does not seems ready to open to that, but Swiftkey is trying to land on Apple’s land.
The iOS approach where each app editor should itself embed a custom keyboards sounds very silly to me. Typing is a major activity on a smartphone that requires consistency.

As I mentioned above, the notification system is too basic on iOS. Apple must improve it and even copy harder Android!

Finally, but not last, the inter-app communication. On iOS, if apps’ developers didn’t provide with a way to share content to another app, you’re screwed! Your only chance is to copy/paste content between apps.

On Android, things are more scalable (the same philosophy than keyboard) with system intents. Intent is a mechanism for other apps to subscribe to content-type (text, images, etc). When an app start a sharing activity, it provides the content-type it shares. Subscribers which can handle this content are listed.

For instance, if I want to share great content on Buffer, I would just use the share menu and the app will instantly appear in the list since they have subscribed to this kind of content.

Mobile market: Exciting time ahead!

I’m currently satisfied with my iPhone and its smooth interactions with my other devices, despite the great features that I’m really missing from Android.

However, I’m still open to alternative, still observing the market. The mobile is still in his teen years. Android is quickly filling the gap and new actors are emerging (Windows Phone, Firefox OS).

I also hope to find time soon to dive into app development, to compare with my Android experience (I developed “Reste Assis T’es Prévenu”, a simple app for Paris’ public transportation users to alert about incidents).

Feel free to share your experience if you switched, and maybe even switched back. You can reach me on Twitter @arnaud_breton.