Why Android and the phone manufacturers that use it pushed me to iOS

I still remember when the first Android was released. How it was doing things different than Apple and the users had choice and more control. It kept evolving and it was great. Even OEMs were introducing their own improvements looking to differentiate. Yet, slowly, but steady, fragmentation started to grow. OEMs started to not include all features from Android Vanilla which in some cases are great. Vendors started to more and more pack their phones with adware and bloatware. Updates were less and less frequent. Prices kept going up and up.

I was the guy that rooted my phones, unlocked the bootloader so I could try the latest Paranoid Android release and keep my phone with the latest Android version. Yet, things slowly started to change. Rooting became harder, unlocking bootloader would blow the efuses, phone functionalities would be lost, there’s a higher risk of bricking your device. Priority now was ads on Android. And to top it all, Android OS fragmentation is crazy high these days.

My last android was a Galxy S8. Love most of it. Great camera, nice screen, IP6x, and a bunch of other nice things. Didn’t like the price, that in EU you can’t get Snapdragon, the curved display, and that once Samsung released a new device, mine was just old history for them. They also introduced new features that the S8 is more than capable to run, but artificially blocked them for only the new devices.

While my S8 works quite well, it was losing out on new Android features and even on some Samsung features. I started doing my research to see if I would go for another Samsung, a Moto, Sony or even a 1+ or Pixel. Then I started to see the trend in prices, trying to match iPhone prices. I was “WTF? Price is one of the benefits of buying Android”. Then I started to see how more bloatware was pushed into your device that you can’t delete. Ads being pushed into your device from official OEM apps where no ad should ever be there. Android kept making questionable choices in how data was being managed and how Android worked in the background. Yet I kept looking. I mean, iOS? Why the fuck. Them with their walled garden bullshit. Then I gifted my mum a pair of Galaxy Buds+. She had a borderline mid range phone, but with the minimum specs that should have allowed for the earphones to work. Nope, nothing. OK, it was not new and it was not Samsung. She went and bought a mid range Samsung. It connected, but there were some issues. Then she wanted to change the audio balance. I told her where to go and how to do it. Nothing… Nada. My brother had a go and could not find such option. Me thinking they were useless took on the task of showing them ho2 it was set. Nope, the setting is just not there. Then WhatsApp calls can’t be answered with the Bud+. You have to answer the call from the phone and then hit the Bluetooth do the call would move to the Bluetooth. I also have the Bud+ and have the same issue. I also bought an Amazfit smart watch that kept sending who knows what to some Chinese IP addresses. The app was invasive AF as well as not very reliable. Then I met my kids iphones. Everything changed.

They had only the iPhone 6s, very old. Just recently it got the iOS 14 update. Since a birthday was coming I decided to gift them an Apple Watch. Again, another epiphany. Got the thing out of the box and right away it asked to be paired with the 6s. Just like magic. No apps to set, no fumbling with settings. Once you say yes, it is just a matter of pointing the camera to some swirling dots and everything else is automatic or answering accept. I got right away why people buy Apple. It’s just hassle free. For sure there must be issues I’m not aware, but as a person that works with technology since early age, I’ve never experienced anything like that. Then I played a bit with iOS. Then read a bit. The things I was looking for in a phone were all there: integration, security, privacy and functionality. I decided to make the jump and wow, it’s hard to compare. I won’t make this post any longer. The reason of posting it here is because I’m very sad Android is going in the direction it’s going and Google keeps promising they would fix fragmentation and updates and support and a bunch of other things, but all they keep doing is add a feature to then take it or change it to make it almost useless and then bring it in some half baked for on some new OS version. There are things I would never be able to replace like Tasker or Reddit Is Fun, but what I’ve gained is far more valuable. I sure hope Android goes back to when it was exiting and may go back to it in the future, but I can’t be bothered to pay a lot of money for an Android flagship that misses the mark on a bunch of stuff when I can buy an iPhone for the same or cheaper (never thought I would write those words) and have equal or better functionality while having more privacy, better integration between apps and more support.