Do you prefer Android or iOS, and why?

I prefer android until there's a linux phone I can afford.

I used to love android. Then google dropped the don't be evil motto and started fucking us even harder for data.

Now, it's only the fact that I can mitigate some of that that makes it better than iOS. Well, that and the horrible ui/ux of iOS.

Dude, you're asking an open-source fetish community about ios vs android.... it's like asking vegans whether they prefere steaks over salads. 😂

I use iOS currently. I used Android for many many years, and loved it. I dreaded iOS and its walled garden.

But for various reasons, when my OnePlus 7T Pro 5G McLaren Edition died and nothing in the Android world really wowed me at a reasonable pricepoint, and knowing that I would be able to get full-quality images and videos from my family and my wife’s family without them having to change their messaging app to accommodate me, I decided to try iPhone for the first time since like, the 3GS.

I’ve had the 13 Pro Max for over a year now and honestly I love it. It took a lot of getting used to at first. Everything is a bit different, and getting over those differences was frustrating. There are still things I really miss. Android handles notifications better, Android does gestures better (being able to go back from either side of the screen is huge), and OnePlus at least, maybe Android in general, let me open the camera by double-tapping the power button, so I could have the camera loaded by the time it was in position. I’m still much slower on the draw with my iPhone, unfortunately.

But iOS has its advantages, too. The battery life is amazing. The Apple Watch kicks the shit out of every Wear OS watch I owned (and also fixes my issues with notifications). The search function is crazy quick to the point that I hardly ever open apps from their icons in the Home Screen or App Drawer equivalent. Everything is polished and rarely fucks up. And when anything IS wrong, there are local stores that can fix it that day. I had a faulty front camera on my phone originally, it was replaced within the day, didn’t have to send it off for OnePlus to replace it. When the back glass broke they replaced basically the entire phone for $30 or something, again within the day. Integration between devices is beautifully seamless.

Basically I’ve found that both are very good options these days. It’s silly that anyone really cares which device you use.

When I was younger I liked to root my Android phones and use custom ROMs. But it had been years since I had done any of that, and I realized that what I was giving up moving to iOS was much less than I had thought.

I may go back someday. I’ve tried to keep everything in Google still so that I don’t have to give up anything except app purchases if I go back. But for now I’m happy on iOS.

Android.

If I own a phone I think I should have the ability to do what I want with it, like installing sideloaded apps and customizing it however I want. There's also much more choice in hardware.

That said, there's some neat features on iOS that I'm a little jelly of.

Using my iPad and then seeing how difficult it was to find apps that didn’t have ads, apps I could buy outright, and so many subscription only options was what turned me away. And then how incompatible it is requiring work arounds to access the file system if you aren’t using air drop compared to Android where just plugging it into any system and giving permission lets you see files beyond just pics and videos you took, and move files back and forth with ease.

And how difficult it was to find Foss apps without something like F-droid. And because of that I noticed apps I took for granted on Android creates a system where you are having to spend more money and then being up sold subscriptions because of lack of options. It felt like a very gacha like environment. It felt so much like dealing with some scummy sales person.

Android. I like being able to install apps from places other than the official app store. Do I do it often on my phone? No. But I also have an Android-powered retro handheld gaming doodad (Retroid Pocket 3) and that's full of all kinds of homebrew, from Sonic fangames to emulators to a sourceport of Mario 64 that could never be gotten from the Apple appstore.

Do I like Android? Yes, but as much as I used to. I used to really look forward to exploring a new version of the OS, but over the past five years or so there's been a steady march to iOS-ify it and dumb it down. Now, when I install a new version of Android, I get a sinking feeling in my stomach as I see all the nifty stuff being removed :(

Android for me. I just don't like feeling stuck to use Apple products.

As an open source enthusiast and a tinkerer, Android obviously.

I currently use Android and I'm happy with it.
I'm not a tinkerer by any means, but I do enjoy a fair bit of third-party apps.
The lack of side-loading in iOS is the deal breaker for me, but should this be added, I would 100% try it out.

Android. I have an ipad and I hate how restricted you are in iOS. There’s no (official) sideloading of apps (yet).

Browsers suck hard. Everything is basically Safari with a skin. I wish I could get Firefox with full extension support.

I feel like I’m constantly battling the OS when I want to do something that seems really simple.
Case in point: you cannot remove photos from your photostream (or whatever it’s called).
You can add them to albums, sure, but they will also stay in the main feed. I want to move them and unclutter my feed.

And finally, and this might be an unpopular opinion, but I don’t think iOS is intuitive at all. I constantly have to google how to do things, only to often find I simply can’t, or not easily at least.

Android all the way. I'm just not comfortable with the Apple ecosystem at all. iOS definitely has its advantages with the devices that run it being standardized. However, while I don't necessarily need bleeding edge everything, I enjoy personalizing things to taste, and ultimately do not like devices nor operating systems that are locked down tightly.

I prefer Android but am using a iPhone 13 mini. If imessage was on android I would drop it in a heartbeat. Apple's platform is amazing and if you are all in on it then you can prosper. The second you try to use an apple product or service different than apple intends, you will have a bad time.

I support apple for their privacy and update stances but I do not like their unwillingness to embrace other platforms.

I've never liked how much apple locks down their operating systems... It takes so much effort to install any software that's not on the app store, and last time I used an iPhone you couldn't even put app icons wherever you wanted on the home screen.
But being totally honest, I use Android because Android phones are way cheaper, I couldn't afford any remotely recent Apple device even if I wanted one.

lineageOS + magisk + revanced + gCam feels like the only logical way to go for privacy and control.

Android feels like the lesser of two evils to me lately. Will fully switch to a Linux device as soon as that's viable

Neither really. But I guess it's between the OS that supports NewPipe, Tachiyomi, and EDOPro; against the easiest one to watch YouTube on its own platform & play Carcassonne on.

@TheArstaInventor androd - more feutures,costumization,user friendly design,fair price

Android, simply because how more free I am using it. I can side-load APK files for example, unlike iOS.

Android because it makes more sense to me, although that is probably because it is similar enough to windows type systems.

I have never enjoyed working with Apple products other than the iPod. It just feels like it is holding my hand and forcing me to do things a certain way that hides the details I care about.

Android is, in my opinion, the "best of what's currently available." Mind you, this does not imply that it is "good".

I dearly miss PalmOS and the Tungsten and Treo product lines, as well as the Psion brand. Those terrific PDA's had features that modern phones still lack. Conversely, I think modern phones come with a plethora of features that aren't really positive. But then, I'm not really a fan of the whole style where you can barely touch a device anywhere without operating it in some way. This is just my personal opinion.

The #1 reason why I would never choose Apple's products is that, while they excel at what you're supposed to use them for, their platform is way too locked down for my taste. As a device owner, I want the ability to customise stuff and install (and remove!) whatever the hell I want (including ads!), and Android delivers that in far greater measure than Apple.

Being able to side load apps, especially things like revanced for YouTube premium bypassing has been amazing. Nowadays everyone is trying to extract dollar from you, having these apps helps you get a great experience without being smashed with 15s ads after you've watched 5m of content

My first smartphone was an iPhone. Most things were counter intuative. I also had to jailbreak it to do the things I wanted. A lot of it was basic stuff. The one I remember was that I wanted to use certain Bluetooth devices that would only work when jailbroken.

Once I tried Android there was no turning back. I've used Apple devices for work and it is still counter intuative but things like Bluetooth are less restrictive at least. Still you shouldn't have to try to break or hack the system you're on to get basic settings that aren't available by default.

I use both, and I don't see a major difference between them anymore outside of Apple's integration. Use what you like; they're both great.

Preface to state that blackberry 10 and Microsoft Windows phones were much better than iOS and Android for almost everything except getting devs to build apps on their platforms.

I like the idea of Android. I want there to be an open ecosystem and different types of devices that can look similar or look different.

It’s a real pain in the ass to manage Android. There was admin mode, now there’s enterprise mode. Also there’s Knox, with various options and licensing that overlap with your mdm. Oh and gmail enterprise is the email app but you need to include chrome, unless you’re using Knox but oh yeah never mind that was deprecated you’ll be using gmail. Also the dual-profile thing isn’t very seamless. Also depending on the phone vendor, model, and OS version the UI will be different. Good luck teaching anyone the changes or talking them through screens.

It’s so bad that Microsoft developed Outlook for Android and app-level management to largely ignore the nonsense that was managing android devices.

Over on iOS, the UI has largely remained the same since release. MDM isn’t great but it’s gotten better. It’s a breeze to manage compared to iOS. Apps are pretty consistent in design.

Windows phones never really got around to MDM, but blackberry phones were always easy to manage.

IOS is simple better for enterprise and most non-technical users that need a smartphone and have no interest in customizing it.

It depends on a lot. I currently have an iPhone, and I like it, but I've never had an Android phone that was my daily driver.

If I switched, what would I feel like I'm giving up, without having any experiential knowledge of what it would be like?
iMessage and privacy. Or at least the perception of privacy.