
Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone? - belltaco
Not trying to start a flame war. I am finally switching away from my trusty Nokia Lumia 920 because the browser wouldn&#x27;t load m.uber.com and WhatsApp says app will be gone at the end of the year. I like the snappiness of Windows Phone and iPhone UI. Haven&#x27;t checked Android phones recently but years ago the UI was laggy and no one except I seem to notice.<p>Also know that sideloading apps, blocking ads in apps etc. is much easier on Android so I am hard pressed to decide between the two.
======
obarthelemy
\- Widgets on the actual home screen, no swiping required. Every app has
widgets (except Skype !), so you can have whichever info you need most _right
there_

\- true browser, true addons. Unlike iOS, Android doesn't limit 3rd-party
browsers to reskins of the OS' Web engine, but allows desktop-like from-the-
ground-up browsers. You can get Firefow and put uBlock Origin and Privacy
Badger on it.

\- sideloading w/o rooting. Exiting the Walled Garden (not recommended)
doesn't require compromising the whole security setup by rooting, flasing a
new ROM.... just activate Sideloading from the developer menu, and live only
semi-dangerously. Reins in Google's censorship.

\- Regular File management, incl. internal Flash, SD card, Network, and Cloud.
On of the first apps I install is Asus's File Manager so I can easily move
stuff around my LAN etc.. Also makes it easy to use different apps for similar
content: I've got my podcasts, audio books, and music in different folders and
a separate app for each.

\- Plenty of storage: if you get a phone with an SD slot, you can have oodles
of storage for dirt cheap, which is very handy if you wander out of cities.

\- much more choice about everything: all apps including Phone, Keyboard,
Mail, Browser, Text, Homepage (Launcher), Maps,... can be defaulted to any
3rd-party app. This makes for a steeper learning curve (I prefer HERE MAps
over Google Maps and Waze; Nova Launcher; Google Messages ...) Only
Notifications and Settings are hard-linked to the core OS.

\- You get a choice of hardware. You can spend $500+ if you want to or need
really good pics, but the $150 Redmi Note 7 or Realme 3 Pro are fine phones.
The Note even have FM Radio, an IR blaster... no NFC though.

~~~
obarthelemy
On the flip side, mu iBrother made the transisiton to Android about a year
ago. His major pain points were: \- no iMessage. It's not particularly good or
different compared to whatsapp, Skype, Messenger... but it's not available on
Android and people are used to it. \- in case of an issue, the solution is
brand+model-specific. For some reasons he wanted a Notifications widgets, you
get that differently for a Samsung or a Huawei (or you get an app). \- it
takes some effort to extract max. benefits from the switch. At a basic level
things are very similar, but if you want to really make the most of either
platform, you need to dig into things. As often, the hard part is not googling
up how to do something, but simply discovering something is possible at all.
Yes, you can hook up some phones directly to a monitor over the USB-C port. Or
put a DAC on them. And use almost all xbox/PSx BT/USB Gamepads.

~~~
DEADBEEFC0FFEE
I think the switching cost is the same which ever way. I own a Pixel, and have
an iPhone for work. I cannot be bothered to invest any time in learning IOS
beyond the basics and generally don't enjoy it. I never really have confidence
that my intuitions will be right. Simple things like pressing the big button
will exit the app, makes me unproductive. I'm sure if it were my only phone I
would be more proficient.

~~~
ajford
I have this same issue on a work-provided macbook pro. They want to
standardize on laptops for the dev team, but I spent months just getting up to
speed on using the damn thing, and I still don't feel comfortable on it. And
when my personal laptop and desktop and file server are all linux, the switch
is annoying and makes me less productive on both systems (take a bit to switch
from "OSX mode" back to normal after getting home).

------
dredmorbius
Termux. [https://termux.com](https://termux.com)

I've got an actual userland Linux shell and package ecosystem, with 1,231
available packages (compare against ~6k for Red Hat / CentOS, 70k for Debian),
including standard shell tools, editors, and scripting languages, plus several
Android-specific tools and APIs. The scripting tools open up broader archives
via pip (python), npm (node.js), and cpan (perl). Many of the "Linux" shell
and scripting examples I've posted to HN over recent years have actually been
run on and via Termux.

This replaces other Android tools, including console, SSH, audioplayer
(mpv/mps), backgroundable and playlistable YouTube audio (mpv, mps-youtube),
remote sync (rsync, scp, mc), editors (vim, emacs, nano, etc), and other
tools. An sshd daemon allows remote (ssh-key-only) access to the tablet
itself, useful for admin and substantial tasks at a bigger screen and better
keyboard.

The develooment is active, response to bugs (I've found several) prompt and
satisfactory, and growth in packages available (~500 when I first installed
Termux) impressive and assuring.

This is by no means a full Linux system replacement, for numerous reasons, but
it very much, and more than any single other feature, makes Android Not
Completely and Utterly Suck (which it otherwise largely does).

Coupled with a Bluetooth keyboard (another long tale of frustration), a tablet
becomes a surprisingly capable (albeit still frustrating) laptop adjunct. The
biggest frustrations remain Android-imposed: Lack of full filesystem access
and unpredictable process termination, by Android.

The lack of an equivalent IOS feature utterly kills that platform for me. I'm
very much looking forward to Purism's tablet offerings.

~~~
lstamour
So... when I jail-broke my iPhone 3G S years and years ago, I remember using
an SSH prompt natively with all the fixings, including native BitTorrent over
comparatively slow 3G speeds.

These days, though, there are apps and websites to do everything under the
sun. If you need the power, why do the heavy lifting locally? Just use these
cloud-friendly devices to connect to an SSH server via Panic’s Prompt app, or
use the Shortcuts app to run Pythonista or an SSH-executed command via Siri or
at a certain time (prompted). If you need something more advanced than
Pythonista can support, perhaps for push notifications, you’ll probably have
to use a third party app, or write your own with a Mac to set it up, but iOS
is really more extensible with each new release.

~~~
dredmorbius
Flexibility, power, maturity, lack of distractions, data control, offline
continuity, tool continuity, and 30+ years' experience and proficiency with
the toolset.

For starters.

The apps often aren't all that, and search costs alone in trying to find one
exceed time to complete of a typical task. With no additional overhead for
bugs, incompleteness, ToU, privacy policy, or EoL / business continuity
concerns.

~~~
lstamour
Sooo... offline continuity is the only example I can think of that wouldn’t
work with a remote SSH session. Everything else is a simple configuration
setting away, whether it’s disabling apps and distractions or continuing where
you left off (which is enhanced by SSH sessions, I would think...) And while
iSH is one attempt at a local shell, and jail-breaking another, I’d say it’s
only a matter of time before Apple suggests running the occasional Mac app
using a pen on an iPad Pro, via some virtualization APIs. Those same APIs
could make it trivial to simply pick and instal your own Linux OS of choice,
or maybe even Windows on an iPad, natively. Sure, it’s not there yet, but OS-
as-app (or WSL) doesn’t seem that crazy in hindsight.

~~~
dredmorbius
End-user audio and video experience for mpv on AWS is generally poor.

As is direct interaction with your own device via CLI environment.

Sometimes being there is the best way to be there.

~~~
lstamour
Assuming you wouldn’t use a local SSH server hooked up to a TV instead... If
you want mpv on a Mac, use [https://iina.io/](https://iina.io/) and for iOS,
libmpv is available and someone’s compiled it and wrapped it in a UI at
[https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/outplayer/id1449923287](https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/outplayer/id1449923287)
or use Plex which is less integrated with the iOS Files app but is multi-
platform:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/appletv/comments/9zd9p5/plex_beta_i...](https://www.reddit.com/r/appletv/comments/9zd9p5/plex_beta_introduces_mpv_as_video_player_allows/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app)

You can interact with your device with multiple accessibility mechanisms
including voice control, software buttons, voiceover, Siri shortcuts,
Pythonista, and wirelessly or remotely, including Safari automation. If the
only problem you have is you have to use the Files app with your fingers and a
GUI instead of typing “ls” and using a non-touch-optimized UI, well... maybe a
phone with a touchscreen isn’t the right device for you. Perhaps the original
android concept with a keyboard (like BlackBerry) would be preferable?

~~~
dredmorbius
Or, you know, a shell environment rather than app one-offs for everything.

The tablet has a display and speakers. Or I can plug in -- yes, it has a jack,
iOS fans -- headphones. Why not just use those?

Because that's what I want.

Rather more practicable than lugging around a a TV and generator.

And yes, the tablet's got Bluetooth and can stream to other devices. Or from
an DLNA server. It's not as if Termux suddenly breaks that.

You and a few others keep suggesting apps and variations on remote hardware or
servers. What such responses fail to acknowledge is that _those are
specifically the requirements that Termux allows me to avoid._ Those are
_massive_ disutilities.

Becuse that's what I don't want.

Standard, simple, text-interfaced, local, consistent, and diverse tools, with
a single (or small set of) install and update mechanism, and high levels of
interoperability. That's the winm that's the goal, and any set of app,
hardware, and/or remote-cloud-system solution rapidly destroys the very
benefits and characteristics which make Termux so goddamned insanely great.

And that's what I want.

Louis Armstrong's comment fits very well here, I suspect.

~~~
lstamour
My point has not been to dissuade you from what you prefer to use, merely to
highlight the alternatives. And with how you're describing Termux it sounds
like it doesn't need a package manager (app store), anything more advanced to
describe files than ascii/binary pipes (share sheets), doesn't need to
natively interact with the cloud (fopen vs Files app APIs), definitely doesn't
need a GUI outside of ascii art or whatever random xwindowing GUI is
supported...

I will say there's innovation in a platform that's completely untethered and
allows processes to run as root. Jailbreaking on iOS early on provided much
innovation. Similarly diverse hardware gives you lots of options too.

But let me know how other apps -- native Android ones -- interact with that
app. Can Google interact with it? See, that's the difference an OS standard
makes. The app you're describing, Termux, builds on top of existing Linux
standards, including GNU utilities and distributions building and packaging
apps. If you jailbreak on iOS, you can install deb packages too. It's not like
the kernel doesn't support these features. All we need, obviously, is a
virtual machine or emulator powerful enough, and you've got your Termux on
iOS.

I'm absolutely not arguing against it, I'm just saying, "it's an app!" And the
platform features on iOS are more widely distributed, adopted and often more
innovative, than the equivalent on Android, and that's where the power comes
from. Sure, one app, like iSH or Termux, will give you superpowers, and
rooting or jailbreaking can give you even more control over your phone. But if
the platform's not innovating, 90-95% of users won't benefit. And if you
haven't found advantages to touch screens, cellphone form factors, music
subscription services, and other forms of interaction beyond terminal, well
... I'm sorry we haven't made much progress technologically since Unix time
sharing that you find useful...

~~~
dredmorbius
Termux can use Android intents (termux-open), and interact with the system in
multiple ways, see pastebin of commands:

[https://pastebin.com/raw/4e7UwM57](https://pastebin.com/raw/4e7UwM57)

Primary app-to-termux interaction is via the filesystem and saved content --
downloads and the like. For obvious reasons, arbitrary command access to
Termux from apps would be hazardous, much as it is on any desktop OS. Android
filesystem access restricts this somewhat, though the system Downloads and "My
Documents" directories are globally accessible.

There is also clipboard integration (termux-clipboard-get and -set), which
I've aliased to xc and xp, respectively, much as I do similar OSX and Linux
commands. So "xp | vim -" is a thing.

Very handy use is a titlecase script which converts strings, especially all-
caps, for HN submission:

    
    
        xp | titlecase > tmpfile && xc < tmpfile && rm tmpfile
    

(The script handles numerous edge cases.)

As for Google accessing Termux: Why would I want that? Google already has its
(badly crippled) Android userland, as well as OS APIs and features. Termux is
principally a _userland_ \-- a shell and utilities for user-initiated and
directed interactions.

See by comparison Debian's Social Contract, Policy, and other guiding
documents. Key among their principles is that the project's focus is its
users, and that its policies serve to _constrain the developers_ as to what
they _must_ provide, and _must not_ do. Though Termux lacks such specific
language its spirit (and Debian heritage) strongly suggest a similar
orientation and philosophy.

As for "it's an app", that's both solipsistic and utterly fails to recognise
that this app is singularly powerful and expansive in the spirit of the
original Unix,[1] in ways that effectively no other single Android app (save
other user command shells) can even hope to be.

________________________________

Notes:

1\. See K&P's _The UNIX Programming Environment_
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unix_Programming_Environme...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unix_Programming_Environment)).
My 'Tyranny of the Minimum Viable User" addresses the distiction as well:
[https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/69wk8y/the_tyr...](https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/69wk8y/the_tyranny_of_the_minimum_viable_user/)

------
zubair_io
Real Firefox and Real Chrome. The iOS versions is just a wrapper around the
painfully bad mobile Safari.

~~~
hombre_fatal
I thought Safari had the best power to battery consumption ratio of all the
browsers. I certainly notice it on desktop where I switched to Safari last
year, but that's pretty massive on mobile.

Safari seems to take this seriously instead of the race to the bottom on
performance and resource consumption. I also like features like how Safari
extensions are now 1st class apps and its declarative content blocker
(1Blocker X being best in class imo).

What makes Safari so bad in your eyes?

~~~
Nextgrid
It does indeed win in terms of performance, however the situation in terms of
add-ons is depressing. There’s basically no add-on API other than a very
limited content blocking API (which doesn’t allow you to do powerful things
like uBlock Origin can).

(full disclosure: I am a happy Safari user, and the content blocking API is
_good enough_ that I tolerate it but I do miss uBlock for sure)

~~~
hombre_fatal
I added to my comment just as you responded but I ended up looking at the
declarative content blocker as an upside after developing my own. Have you
tried 1Blocker X? I haven't missed uBlock Origin when using Safari. Though I
can certainly appreciate the power of an onRequest(req) at-runtime API that
you definitely lose with declarative rules.

But for example I have a script that can convert Adblock format rules (like
Easylist) into content blocker rules.

~~~
Nextgrid
1Blocker X is a disaster, and I’m saying this as a customer of the original
1Blocker and an early adopter (pre-order) of 1Blocker X - it appears they’ve
given up on updating their block lists and weren’t ever clear on where the
lists were sourced from (I want EasyList and I kind of assumed that’s what
they used but I could never be sure). I’m currently using AdGuard Pro instead
which uses EasyList/EasyPrivacy and can import and convert (to the best of its
abilities) uBlock-style lists.

The problem with the declarative API is that 1) it’s just not as flexible as
uBlock, especially in a world where billions are being poured into bypassing
blockers and 2) each blocker extension is limited to 50k rules which is not
enough (some apps work around this by registering multiple blocker extensions,
but frankly this limitation is BS and should not exist to begin with) and 3)
blockers don’t run with the browser, so you have to open the app every so
often to update the blocking rules.

------
citrusx
I like to customize my phone to be exactly what I need from it.

Things I do that are only possible in Android: 1) I script some behaviors
using Tasker. One example is that I have a script that takes it out of vibrate
mode and turns on the ringer if I'm home (GPS), the phone is plugged in, and
it's between the hours of 9am and midnight. 2) This requires root, so it might
not be worth the trouble for you, and it's not available on every phone. But,
I've managed to make my default home screen completely blank. My primary
"launcher" is an app called "Pie Control", which doesn't appear unless you
touch an area of the screen, which you can set. I can also swipe up to get a
screen with all of my apps - The default behavior of Nova Launcher.

It's not just customization. Really, the sky is the limit when it comes to
what you want the phone to do. With an iphone, the limit is the constraints of
Apple's design.

~~~
discaler
Apple has shortcuts which is actually better than tasker and has system wide
support and new shortcuts can be easily shared and can easily do some of tasks
mentioned above. [https://www.imore.com/macstories-releases-
archive-150-free-s...](https://www.imore.com/macstories-releases-
archive-150-free-shortcuts-use) seriously amount of ignorance that Android
fans about ios is breathtaking.

~~~
bobbylarrybobby
And don’t forget that in iOS 13 shortcuts can run shortcuts automatically
based on location, connected WiFi networks, toggling system settings, etc.

~~~
mackrevinack
and don't forget that tasker can do those things too

------
redhale
1) Notifications are much better. Taking direct action to read and
archive/delete emails directly from the notification is great. Not sure if iOS
has this yet, but last time I checked iOS Notifications were primitive by
comparison.

2) Direct sharing to/from ANY app. iOS is frustratingly limited. On a similar
note, being able to assign default apps for specific types of content.

~~~
teniutza
I always found the iOS notifications to be a bit odd. I never owned an iPhone
but my wife is now at her 4th. She always forgets she received a notification
because she has a lot on her mind (she's a doctor and we have two kids) and
all the notifications get "half dismissed" whenever she opens her phone (text,
call, browse, whatever...). Somehow, it's assumed that when you open your
phone you automatically have time or want to read all the notifications. They
will not be shown again until you explicitly go into the submenu (pull from
the top, I believe). I think that's not realistic. I like that on my Android
phone the notifications stay there until I specifically clear them or interact
with then (tap to go to app). They won't automatically disappear just because
I want to see the cat meme my friend sent me...

~~~
sushid
There are two options for notifications in the Home screen. One removes the
notification when you unlock your phone, the other requires you to manually
remove the notification. Have her use the second option.

------
ryukafalz
I install lots of apps from F-Droid, which is an alternate app repository for
exclusively free software. There's nothing like it (and can be nothing like
it) on iOS, and while I know there are some free software apps in iOS, they're
much harder to find there.

~~~
salutonmundo
I think because Apple sublicences software, GNU GPL–licensed software can't be
released on the App Store. Probably other copyleft licenses are similarly
incompatible.

------
abrookewood
I can plug my phone into my computer and copy files to and from it like it was
a regular USB drive. Honestly, once I realised this wasn't possible on an
iPhone my decision was pretty much made up.

~~~
pavelevst
iExplorer (even trial version) gives almost same experience

~~~
timbit42
Does iExplorer run on Linux?

------
lstamour
As no one’s mentioned it yet, the stock Android Dialer supports VoIP to a
degree that most iOS apps do not. If you use a SIP provider that doesn’t
support a native iOS app, Android will likely give you a nicer experience out-
of-the-box.

Also some Android tablets have half decent OLED screens, though stock iPhone
OLED will out-perform them.

Android has USB-C support that iOS is only now starting to get with the iPad
Pro and iPadOS 13.

Re. Intercepting text messages on Android, theoretically that’s going to be
more locked down as the OS gets more privacy-aware, but iOS will likely always
take the lead. Certainly it’s impossible to do Content Blocking in Chrome the
way one can on iOS.

So... there’s trade offs... my preference is to recommend cheap Android
handsets for non-smartphone family members and friends and relatively
expensive iPhones for anyone actually checking their email on their devices,
etc. due to the superior security & overall fit and finish. The only folks who
can have trouble with Apple’s limitations of iMessage on Apple products only,
etc., tend to be folks who use both Mac and Windows. If you only use Windows,
you don’t know how the clipboard integrates smoothly over iCloud, that you can
answer text messages and calls from your computer, and so on. Microsoft plans
on making Android as integrated with Windows as an iPhone is with macOS, but
they haven’t succeeded yet and it’s been two years since the first
announcement in this direction. So... we’ll have to see.

Oh and Apple Watch support is also a vote for iPhone right now. And Bluetooth
music has been historically much better on iOS, though I imagine that has
improved on Android handsets in recent years. Android devices might still have
headphone jacks, of course, but I prefer BT these days anyway.

~~~
RealStickman
You should try a different browser. Brave or Opera can do much more regarding
blocking content than chrome. (Google is an ad company after all)

------
davnicwil
One probably very niche thing is availability of a terminal along with full
linux-y environment (including package manager for all the usual tools) on
Android via the termux app. Pretty useful if you want to, for instance, make
minor code changes (in vim or similar) or deployments on the go.

I googled around out of curiosity if such a thing exists on iOS and turned up
nothing, which seems reasonable considering the more open nature of Android vs
iOS - could be wrong about this though, happy to be corrected.

~~~
Arubis
iSH ([https://ish.app/](https://ish.app/)) works well for this, though it's in
a public TestFlight beta currently.

~~~
davnicwil
Cool, thanks! Looks great, and I'm glad it exists because this is a useful
enough thing that it might have stopped me switching to iOS, something I'm
tempted to do for my next phone.

------
axaxs
One thing to keep in mind that drives me insane is that the default animation
speed on android, 1x, is very slow. It makes the UI feel heavy. Turning this
to .5x, or even off, makes it feel more performant.

~~~
windexh8er
First thing I do on any new Android phone. It's also a great parlor trick,
people are almost always amazed you can make their phone "faster" in under a
minute.

For those who don't know, enable Developer Options, then change "Window
animation scale", "Transition animation scale" and "Animator duration scale"
all to "0.5x". It should really be the default and I'm surprised there isn't a
"0.25x" as of yet.

~~~
em-bee
i can't find these settings anywhere on lineageOS

~~~
siphon22
Go to settings > about phone, and find the section that shows the "Build
number". Tap it a bunch of times until it enables the Developer options for
you. I don't know if it's different for Lineage, but that's how you do it for
Android phones.

------
mstaoru
By far the best feature for me is DUAL APPS: separate copy of an app that runs
absolutely separated from the parent app. This way you can have e.g. two
Slacks or two Facebooks or LinkedIns logged into two profiles without endless
switching.

Other sweet things: support for WireGuard VPN, customizable keyboards (I'm a
big fan of "finger slide" typing pioneered by, I think, Swipe), giant Google
Calendar widget on the main screen...

~~~
ssvss
Isn't dual apps a miui only feature ?

~~~
poloniculmov
Samsung has it too.

~~~
mdrzn
and there's plenty of 3rd party apps on the PlayStore that will allow you to
that on any other Android.

------
ce4
Besides the already mentioned things (ff+adblock, termux, etc):

1\. Aard2 Dictionary

Offline Wikipedia for eg. travelling. Other Mediawiki dumps are supported as
well. Bonus: if you deactivate image loading you don't leave any trace online.

2\. use old saved app versions

3\. USB-CDROM-emulator via usb gadget mode and a USB-CDROM drive app that
"inserts" .iso files off your sdcard (eg. Win10 install disk, Grml.org live
CD, servicepack disks etc)

4\. rtl-sdr radio scanner, handy for eg. checking AirBnB homes for "bugs"

5\. 400GB microSD cards for 60$ (e.g. on newegg)

6\. the existence of specialty distributions like Kali Nethunter edition for
Android phones

[1]: [https://aarddict.org](https://aarddict.org)
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=itkach.aard2](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=itkach.aard2)

[3]:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.softwareba...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.softwarebakery.drivedroid)

[4]:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mantz_it.r...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mantz_it.rfanalyzer)

~~~
tonymet
can you elaborate on #4 sdr sniffer--what bands do you look for? sounds
interesting

~~~
ce4
433Mhz, ADS-B, DAB, etc.

[https://www.rtl-sdr.com/tag/android/](https://www.rtl-sdr.com/tag/android/)

As with many gadgets it sits in a drawer for some time now.

------
sfifs
Basically if your personality is such that you like to adapt your environment
to suit YOU, you'll probably hate iOS and Android is the way to go.

If on the other hand don't mind adapting your workflow to someone else's
conception of design which many people find ok iOS will suit you.

Technologically, there's very little difference between top of the line
Android and iPhone though you do get more interesting featuretrade-offs to
choose from in Android (eg. Samsung Note 9 has a great stylus, Huawei P30 has
by miles the best camera in any phone, Pixel is stock OS etc) - which again
kind of links to personality.

------
kgwxd
Firefox with uBlock Origin. I'll never switch to a phone that doesn't support
that combo. Super smooth scrolling and various other eye-candies are nice, but
I'll sacrifice all of them, without a second of hesitation, for it.

------
Der_Einzige
I can buy Android phones that do nothing to stop me from rooting them or
unlocking the boot loader (OnePlus). I have to fight Apple for root access,
and frequently I will lose.

You can do anything on an Android phone that requires root access. None of
that is possible on iPhone unless it's been out for quite awhile.

~~~
taneq
"Install a ROM that respects my privacy" is right up there at the top.

~~~
Arbalest
I'm attempting to do that, but I've bumped up against an issue in which I have
no radio access from the custom rom. Need to be picky with the hardware, and
the stuff most likely to be supported is the most expensive.

~~~
taneq
Sucks. :/ I assume you've installed the vendor.img and flashed the
radio-[phone model].img from the stock package for your phone model?

~~~
Arbalest
Possibly not. I was reading somewhere that I should actually get an older
stock rom image and flash that first, but no I just flashed the rom zip and
that was it.

~~~
taneq
That might be your issue then. It varies from phone to phone, but for my old
one (Nexus 5X) I had to get the stock ROM from
[https://developers.google.com/android/images#bullhead](https://developers.google.com/android/images#bullhead)
and extract vendor.img, bootloader-bullhead-bhz31b.img, and radio-
bullhead-m8994f-2.6.41.5.01.img (or whatever the matching versions are for
your Android version). Then after installing the ROM archive, reboot into the
bootloader and install them:

(install TWRP and custom ROM package)

> adb push vendor.img /sdcard/

(Go to 'install' in TWRP and install vendor.img)

> fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-bullhead-bhz31b.img

> fastboot flash radio radio-bullhead-m8994f-2.6.41.5.01.img

That's the quick version of how I set mine up and it works. :)

------
Arbalest
You've pretty much covered the bases. The snappiness you describe is because
iPhone is more strict with it's app quality. You've also nailed the main use
cases for customisability.

The big question is, are you ready and willing to root and/or custom rom your
phone? If not, the advantages you described on Android are not as substantial
as you may hope. Yes, you can use Netguard, but the approach is janky (out of
neccessity). It will not stop ads in all apps either. For example, on the
youtube app, which does not use DNS based advertisement delivery. For youtube
specifically, you can get NewPipe though, but it's not all that slick.

~~~
nneonneo
iOS is very, very particular about what gets to run in the background. This is
a major differentiating factor between iOS and Android. On Android, it's easy
to write apps to run in the background, but on the flip side it's easy for
someone else's app to accidentally (or intentionally) run in the background
and suck up your battery and/or data and making your phone slow. On iOS, apps
can only run in the background for very specific (but gradually expanding)
purposes; many other features (like push notifications) that appear to be
"background" functions are really handled by Apple or the iOS system itself
with minimal app intervention and thus minimal system impact. This contributes
to the snappiness of iOS.

------
wnscooke
This may be posted already, but I love that wherever I put my finger in a wall
of text, the cursor goes there. I don’t have to press and hold, the cursor
doesn’t jump to the start or end of the word, the word isn’t selected... the
cursor just goes where I pressed. The middle of the word, the letter after the
first, the letter before the last. Awesome. I hate typing on my iPhone or iPad
and have to edit, the stupid battle trying to get the cursor to go where I
want it is soooooo troublesome. But on my asus tablet, my pixel, easy peasy.

~~~
harperlee
Agree. But. Pressing anywhere on the iphone keyboard to drag and aim the
cursor is awesome. So I can’t really decide which of the two is better in this
dimension, now that “aiming” comes instinctively.

~~~
d3sandoval
You can scroll your thumb along the spacebar to "aim" the cursor on android. I
do like the knobs of android better than the zoom-and-select that iPhone does.

~~~
harperlee
I did not refer to that magnifying lens but to this:
[https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/a-hidden-feature-on-
iphone-...](https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/a-hidden-feature-on-iphone-to-
move-the-cursor-is-blowing-everyones-mind-1944215.html)

It seems that 3d-touch (hard press) can be emulated qith the spacebar.

------
relyks
Like others are saying here, there's more access to the underlying system than
iOS. There are applications on Android to record calls and there's the ability
for applications to send texts (you can send texts from your web browser with
MightyText for example)

------
nneonneo
I’ve used both Android and iOS (Android: Nexus 5, OnePlus One; iPhone: iPhone
6S, most recently iPhone XS). I use Android devices for my work on occasion as
well.

Try both - if you find that you like the iOS UI and experience, I’d say use an
iPhone; otherwise, get an Android and customize it to your liking.

\- Basic stuff works equally well on both. You can reply to notifications now
on iOS (since a few versions back), you can have a global content blocker (I
use 1Blocker, which works great). Sure, all browsers embed the same WebKit
engine, but that’s not the same as all browsers being literally Safari.
Firefox works fine and I sync most of my stuff there.

\- If you’re a dev, side loading is equally easy on both platforms, but being
a dev on iOS requires a Mac. (And money; IIRC apps sideloaded from free dev
accounts only work for 7 days before requiring a reinstall?)

\- Get an iPhone if you want something to use for a long time; iPhone 6 (2014)
is still perfectly viable for most things and runs the latest iOS 12. (Custom
ROMs exist for old Androids too but those can be iffy sometimes)

\- For customizability, I run Pythonista on iOS, a paid (but worthwhile!) app
that puts a full Python interpreter on your phone. You can install a shell
environment (I use Stash) and interact with all the iOS APIs. You can sideload
whatever custom code you want and run it. Heck, it even supports CoreML and
NumPy, so I even used it to train and test ML models right on the phone
recently.

\- The hackability of Android is nice; some of my work involves replacing
kernels to get at low-level hardware, and that’s absolutely impossible on iOS.

------
jeswin
In addition to the other things mentioned, like Firefox, launchers and Shell
access:

1\. Real multi-user, with fully separate profiles

2\. Apps on SD card

3\. Side loading

4\. Connect to monitors on Samsung phones

5\. Use USB-C card readers

6\. Run torrents, run in the background

~~~
Arbalest
I forgot about the running in the background thing. Arguably a strength and a
weakness, depending on what's actually running.

------
ToFab123
After many years with Android and windows phone i got my first iPhone a couple
of weeks ago. The biggest ( and almost only) complain is that you cannot
configure a different browser to be your default. You are stuck with safari
which lags an incredible amount of features. Safari is so bad that my next
phone will not be an iPhone

Edit : my desktop os is Windows and now my browser on the phone and on the pc
is not in sync which creates a big annoying mess

~~~
willmacdonald
You can have chrome be in sync if you login. (Chrome on iOS is basically
Safari, but you can sync all the stuff in your profile like bookmarks.)

~~~
ToFab123
True, but you will still end up in safari constantly. If you save a URL to the
home screen, open a link from your email, it opens in safari.

------
lern_too_spel
Really lock down privacy if you want:

1\. Don't send location or app install data anywhere.

2\. Route phone calls and SMSes through encrypted communication services
automatically.

3\. Develop and run applications without telling anybody.

4\. Ublock Origin in the browser and adblocking across all apps (not just
browsers).

Most people care about usefulness instead of privacy, and Android beats iOS
there as well:

1\. Install apps from the Play Store using your desktop web browser.

2\. Start Android Auto on your phone when connecting to the car's Bluetooth
automatically and use it directly on the phone without buying a separate
headend for the car.

3\. Upload photos automatically to photo services in the background.

4\. Route outgoing calls automatically through Google Voice, so when people
call back, you get transcripted voicemails for free.

5\. Multiple user accounts, so you can set up a restricted kids account on
your phone and hand it to them for entertainment in a pinch.

6\. Install apps from other app stores, like Amazon's, that also run deals for
free apps.

7\. Game console and calculator emulators.

8\. Browsers that aren't years behind in standards support, so you get
installable PWAs for Twitter, WebRTC, etc.; and you don't have to put up with
bugs for years until the sole renderer vendor fixes them (e.g., iFrame
scrolling on iOS).

------
cannonedhamster
Let's see up until recently they didn't have a dark mode.

You can't switch owners of shared family purchases on an iPhone. You need to
rebuy the apps under a new family owner after dissolving the previously family
which is not easy or seamless.

Plex picture uploads don't work in the background on Apple so you constantly
have to take the screen to keep it active.

Basically if you like having someone else make all your design decisions for
you Apple is actually a great way to go. Defaults are generally sane, but if
you run into something that they haven't sorted out yet, it's going to be
painful and you won't be able to fix it. My wife and daughter love their
iPhones. Apple generally curates their software well and there's a good chunk
of great software only available on Apple. I was constantly fighting with mine
to get it the way I wanted and in the end I have up and bought a Samsung
Galaxy phone. I could do what I wanted almost immediately and have had no
issues. I can't remember if Apple has the ability to add a swipe keyboard
either. My wife is always jealous of mine.

~~~
lstamour
iOS 13 shipping in a couple months (but available now in public beta) adds
native swipe-to-type keyboard functionality. As a Microsoft app, the third-
party Swype keyboard has been available for years. (Since iOS 7’s custom
keyboards if I recall correctly...)

The new iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 really brings iOS forward into the future, with
downloads available in safari, native USB file management and more. You can
even save video files now. I’d predict a rather blurry line between Macs and
iOS within 5-10 years...

~~~
taylorfinley
"Native swipe-to-type keyboard functionality [...] downloads available in
safari, native USB file management [...] You can even save video files now."

As someone who hasn't used iOS in years I couldn't immediately tell if you
were being sincere or 'damning with faint praise,' ironically pointing out how
crippled iOS has been.

~~~
lstamour
I will say that like copy and paste it has taken forever for iOS to catch up
in key areas, but... this is not faint praise: they’re nailing it. Every
implementation done to “catch up” to Android has been very well executed and
superior in many respects. If there’s a downside to the Apple delayed-until-
ready approach, it’s that apps need to be redesigned every two years to keep
up with the pace of change. On Android the cycle of redesign is slower, maybe
3-5 years.

------
Fradow
\- the big one is to have SMS on my computer (with Airdroid). On iOS, you are
limited to Apple ecosystem with iMessage. Keep in mind iMessage is way better
than Airdroid, but the convenience of being able to receive and send SMS from
my Windows desktop trumps the ease of use of iMessage.

\- direct file access is useful to transfer things in and out of my Android
devices, compared to the dreaded iTunes blackbox.

\- there are midrange Android that are way cheaper than iPhones and run
anything I need without issue

\- side-loading means I can use F-Droid instead of the OS store whenever an
app exists there. It also limit planned obsolescence, since I can side-load an
older version of an app when the newest version is no longer compatible with a
device (I did use that capability recently for a 5+ years old Android tablet,
while I'm out of luck for functionning older iPads).

\- you can replace the Launcher, and generally customize the UI much more

\- recently found out how to block ads at the DNS level.

There are definitely drawbacks, and if not for SMS, I might have stayed on an
iPhone.

~~~
mvanbaak
If your desktop/laptop runs macos, or you use an iPad, you can send and
receive SMS using iMessage. You can link as many devices as you want, they
just need to login to the same iMessages account.

~~~
vageli
> If your desktop/laptop runs macos, or you use an iPad, you can send and
> receive SMS using iMessage. You can link as many devices as you want, they
> just need to login to the same iMessages account.

Fradow specifically mentions the requirement of sending sms via windows
desktop.

------
Yizahi
I won't go into detailed list of pros and cons but essentially it sums up to
(in my opinion) - Apple is anti-consumer (anti-choice to be specific), and
Google is anti-privacy. If you need certain features iOS doesn't have then
it's Android. If you are fine with iOS feature set and want more privacy (but
not complete privacy) - then iOS.

------
richardthered
Consider the security aspect, as well. Apple is generally considered much more
secure than Android phone.

For example, see this Ted talk that describes how this security gap is a civil
rights issue. Basically, Android phones are cheaper. But, they are much easier
for the police to hack into. People with more money buy Apple, and it's much
harder to hack them.

[https://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_soghoian_your_smartpho...](https://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_soghoian_your_smartphone_is_a_civil_rights_issue?language=en)

As another data point: in the last few years there have been a few high-
profile news cycles about the FBI trying to hack into an iPhone of a suspected
terrorist, and not being able to. They were pressuring Apple to get access,
and Apple was pushing back. But the bottom line here is that the FBI _couldn
't get in to an iPhone_.

I haven't ever seen a similar news report for Android...

~~~
gmiller123456
There's only been one case like that, so it's not really useful to say you've
never heard of one for the Android. And they eventually did hack in, and the
firm that did it offers its services to anyone who can pay. During the whole
incident there were quite a few police depts that said they had a lot of
phones, both Android and iPhone, that they were hoping to get a ruling
allowing them to force the manufacturers to make it easier to access.

Of course they managed to hack in before a ruling came down. If iPhone does
become unhackable in the future, we'll get a ruling, and if it's in the
government's favor it won't matter how secure your phone is.

------
blissofbeing
I am not affiliated with these apps, I just use them all the time and are apps
you probably won't be able to find apps like these on the app store.

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.clownface....](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.clownface.volumeslider&hl=en)

\- map the sides of your phone to actions like slide volume and brightness.

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.synapse.al...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.synapse.alarm.daywise&hl=en_US)

\- batch your notifications to specific times of the day.

All in all I find android apps just offer more functionality for the power
user.

------
leeman2016
\- Share apps with other people

\- Write apps for the iOS platform in Linux/Windows/etc.

\- Extend storage with SD Cards

\- Live download/upload speed meter on the status bar

\- Use phone as a wireless hot-spot without installing a SIM card or enabling
data (2G/3G/4G)

I missed these when moving from Android to an iPhone.

------
jmhyer123
I too noticed and was very annoyed with the UI sluggishness of my Android
phones (LG something or other and Samsung S7) but decided to give it one last
chance. I picked up the Pixel 3 with stock Android and I've never looked back.
It's smooth and fast and hasn't seemed to slow as time goes by which was a
huge problem with my last two devices. There's such a huge difference between
stock Android on decent hardware and "custom" Android (LG and Samsung both
apply themes, among other things, to their Android flavors to make it unique)
on any hardware, even the best.

------
apotheosis
Custom keyboards - on iPhone, long-pressing the mic button in Gboard has to
run as a separate app instead of integrating directly into the keyboard. Also
on iPhone "secure" screens (that use logins and passwords) never yield to 3rd
party keyboards; instead they always revert back to the iPhone keyboard.

Browser plugins - as you pointed out, browsers on iPhone are not allowed to
run plugins, so no ad blockers in the traditional sense - you can install a
system-wide ad-block engine.

~~~
scarface74
Not allowing third party keyboards for passwords is a security feature.

------
LeoPanthera
Run emulators (easily), as they are not allowed in the iOS app store.

That's pretty much the only thing that I am sad to miss using an iPhone. It's
not enough to make me switch though.

------
austhrow743
Iphone user. Recently i tried to find an app to manage torrents on a server.
Nothing for iPhone but it looked like there are options for Android.

~~~
nneonneo
Apple appears to __hate __torrents and basically any torrent-related app
because I guess they enable piracy. They 're not wrong - that would be the #1
use of any torrent app - but I do find that restriction repressive.

That said, many torrent servers support a web-based interface which you should
be able to control easily with Safari. If you need something more custom,
there's plenty of good SSH clients on the App Store and most will support
fancy screen/tmux/TUI interfaces so you can control your command-line torrent
client.

And, well, there's always the option of slapping something together with
Python, using the Pythonista app; if the protocol is popular odds are
someone's written a Python package to interact with it, at which point you
just have to decide how much of a GUI (or TUI) you want to put on it.

~~~
austhrow743
>That said, many torrent servers support a web-based interface which you
should be able to control easily with Safari.

Yeah the deluge webui is what I use on the desktop. Doesn't play nicely with
ios safari at all though.

>If you need something more custom, there's plenty of good SSH clients on the
App Store and most will support fancy screen/tmux/TUI interfaces so you can
control your command-line torrent client.

I ended up just installing an ftp client. 90% of what I wanted to do was add
torrents and I can do that just by uploading to a watch folder.

Although your mention of ssh reminds me that I first tried to set up a
shortcut that ssh'd the torrent over instead, which would be a preferable set
up if it worked. It creates the file on my server but the file size stays at 0
bytes and the shortcut never finishes running. Any idea what I did wrong?

[https://i.imgur.com/dbjZtEH.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/dbjZtEH.jpg)

~~~
nneonneo
Yeah, shortcuts aren’t like UNIX pipes, so “cat >” will create the file but
cat will hang forever waiting for data to come in over stdin. I’m guessing
you’ll need an scp-type command rather than an ssh command since you need to
copy a local file over to the remote end.

~~~
austhrow743
Unfortunately Shortcuts only allows for running scripts over ssh, not just
general terminal commands. I might be out of luck on this one.

------
diafygi
Have a fully functional ad-blocker. Firefox + uBlock Origin is the only thing
that makes mobile browsing tolerable.

IPhones don't let you install add-ons in browsers, so you're stuck with rule-
based content blocking, which has caps and can't do some of the things add-ons
can do.

I'd love to switch to an iPhone, but this feature is a deal-breaker for me.

~~~
el_dev_hell
This is the one thing that could make me switch from iOS.

------
iqandjoke
For Android AOSP, you can fix the bug yourself. Can you do that on iPhone iOS
other than filling a Radar?

~~~
xbhatnag
You're right. But can you imagine the patience of a power user to do that?

They'd have to identify what the bug is, get the source, make the changes,
test it, build the OS for their own device, upload the fix to Gerrit for
review, go through multiple rounds of code review, get it merged in.

I've probably simplified some of those steps.

You could do it, but would you? Remember, not every power user is a developer.

------
cheeze
A very "me" reason and certainky not very common: launching a simple HTTP
server and mounting a folder on my fs to be served by it. Easiest way to
transfer files sans email. Great when at a random friend's house and I need to
send them something larger than 25mb

------
Tactic
As a fellow lover of the Windows Phone I went through your pain a few years
ago and have lived in both the iPhone and Android ecosystems. I found it was
the little things not mentioned here that made me stick with Android.

\- My android displays the time and temp when docked. I never found a way to
do that on iPhone.

\- My android shows that I have texts/mails/etc. waiting without me having to
touch it or pick it up to see.

\- My android has a back button. It is always there and always in the same
place.

\- Widgets are nice (and mentioned elsewhere) but I love that my phonetop is
not cluttered with icons, just useful info.

Usability wise apple is stuck in their own version of 10 years ago. Android is
the better choice of the two. But I still weep for the loss of live tiles and
the app menu.

------
slezyr
USB Tethering. Internet is down in the office? No problem, just connect the
phone and share internet access. It's a killer feature when there is something
wrong with WiFi drivers on laptop/router/internet cable.

~~~
wikibob
iPhones work as a cellular modem and can be tethered by USB, WiFi, and
Bluetooth.

It works especially seamlessly when tethering your Mac because the Mac can
signal the iPhone to enabling tethering mode.

[https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204023](https://support.apple.com/en-
us/HT204023)

------
CraftThatBlock
I feel like Android's overall quality in the past couple of years has
dramatically improved. Any modern half decent phone will be quite snappy
nowadays, and the software has been polished up a lot.

~~~
sundvor
Yes. In particular (for me) One UI by Samsung. Their new S10 phones are a
fantastic upgrade, and the new software is a major part of that. Last versions
of Touchwiz weren't too bad, but One UI lifts the experience to a new level.

~~~
CraftThatBlock
I agree, One UI would definitely win for "most improved" of the skins. Even
stock (Pixels) is really great now.

------
senectus1
Backup my Signal history.

Use the phone without getting stupidly angry.

Use my Samsung Level U Pro properly.

MicroSD card (though admittedly my note 9 with 512gb storage doesn't need it.)

PIP with you tube i think doesnt work on iphone.

a bunch of other things.

~~~
wtmt
> Backup my Signal history.

That was only because Signal prevented (and continues to prevent) data from
being backed up. This was a terrible drawback with Signal, for which it
brought out a (better?) solution after several years on Android. It hasn't
done that on iOS yet. Since Signal has not addressed this for years, one can
only presume that Signal is not geared toward people who change devices.

------
minikomi
Termux and Emacs on the go has made me never want to go back to iOS. Orgmode
capture templates for everything synced by git is my favourite note taking
solution.

------
stevewillows
There are a few things listed in this thread. For me, my favorite Android
tweak (once rooted) is to modify ro.sf.lcd_density to pop the phone into
tablet mode (for most apps.)

Jailbroken IOS 9.3.3 had Little Brother, and there is a way to do it by
modifying system files -- but if you mess up, you're totally screwed. With
ro.sf.lcd_density, its as easy as taking the number and breaking it down by 5%
increments until you find a sweet spot.

------
berbec
I have a Transmission gui on my phone, set to be the default opener for magnet
links. It's easier to download torrents on my phone than my laptop.

------
essuraj
Copy files from any pc and use on my android is awesome

~~~
essuraj
Especially video and audio

------
sombremesa
Using apps for free. I use the app "1 second everyday" quite extensively. My
friend tried it out on iPhone and lo and behold, a lot of the free features I
take for granted on Android are paid features on iOS. What a strange result of
the different perception of willingness to spend on the two platforms. (Or
perhaps it's the result of having a more open app platform?)

~~~
ceejayoz
You're not concerned that they're making up the revenue in a different way?

------
bekman
Where i live most people use android and it's hard to transfer files via
Bluetooth. I wish ios support universal Bluetooth protocol.

------
tdewitt
I can build it how I like it. For my daughter's play phone, I can remove all
the things she doesn't need at this point: Bluetooth, GPS, dialer, federal
alerts, etc. I sideload apps and tighly control what she can access (she's a
toddler). For my phone, I can make similar changes and extract as much Google
as possible. You cannot do this with Apple.

~~~
xbhatnag
I believe some of this is available on iOS:

[https://www.imore.com/amber-alerts-your-iphone-what-they-
are...](https://www.imore.com/amber-alerts-your-iphone-what-they-are-and-how-
manage-them)

[https://www.imore.com/how-to-use-parental-controls-iphone-
ip...](https://www.imore.com/how-to-use-parental-controls-iphone-ipad)

------
RandomInteger4
I enjoy the money I saved by not buying an iPhone.

------
mackrevinack
tasker would be the biggest thing for me (along with plugins like autoinput
and autotools) but that had been mentioned a few times so ill go with some
less obvious things.

syncthing (or resilio sync either) let's you sync any folder on your phone to
other computers. either a two way sync or as a backup with things like photos
going from your phone to your computer only. when I come home from talking
photos for mapillary/openstreetmap the photos start syncing straight away and
it's really fast since it's only syncing over the network and not going to the
cloud.

I have another folder that syncs across osmAnd's app folder so all my gps
traces are accessible from my laptop

I had an iphone for a few months but sold it because I found it to be too
restrictive and wouldnt let you have this kind of a setup

swipepad. let's you swipe in from the side of the screen to launch apps. this
means you don't have to go back the the home screen every time you want to
open something which is really inefficient way of doing things. you can also
launch shortcuts (another android only thing as far as I know) that go
straight to a certain part if an app instead of the main screen. like going
straight to writing an email or sms, or start sound hound listen straight
away. start an audio recording without opening the app. call a certain
contact. run a tasker task. there lots of other similar launchers like swiftly
switch that can be used at the same time.

I also didn't see nfc being mentioned anywhere. has iPhone added nfc yet? i
have lots of them all over the house that I use to toggle lights, start timers
or add things to my shopping list or start music playing. (most of these are
programed with tasker as well so they can do a few things at a time instead of
just one action)

you also don't need to install itunes just to do some basic things. huge plus
:)

------
cabaalis
Primarily the custom launchers. But to be honest, the novelty of that is
quickly waning with all these "Hey, how'd you like Home Depot?" notifications
that I can't turn off without crippling the android experience. NOYB, that's
how I liked it. I'm probably going to be in the market for an iPhone next time
around.

~~~
neogodless
What app gives you those notifications? What do you have to disable to stop
them?

(I haven't seen them so I assume I already have whatever turned off, though
I'm not sure what experience I'm missing out on!)

~~~
cabaalis
Stock google maps. It appears from the comment above they can be disabled. My
problem with it is that google maps is not open, I did not ask google maps to
send me to home depot. It just detects that I'm there and asks for a review.

------
qwerty456127
Install apps that are not available in the store, block ads system-wide, use
custom keyboard and launcher, view files of wide selection of formats (e.g. my
audio files collection is in OPUS and I don't know how do I load the files to
an iPhone and listen to them) and manage them the same way I do on my laptop.

------
ToniCipriani
Having a hardware keyboard. I just can't get away with it so I'm still using
my 3 year old BlackBerry Priv.

~~~
walterbell
Blackberry KEY2 is quite good, with timely security updates from both BB and
Google.

~~~
ToniCipriani
Until that keyboard breaks. Quite a few reported issues for both the KEYone
and 2 where the space bar and fingerprint reader just stops working, thanks to
TCL build quality. And they are terrible with upgrades, KEYone only got Oreo,
and certain versions didn't even get that upgrade at all, in particular the
CDMA version, both locked and unlocked.

------
swtrs
I use a DAP for all of my music and purchase most of it via bandcamp. I can
barely buy music on iOS but I can (and still do) all of my library management,
music purchasing and file management on a One Plus 3T using a usb c to micro
sd dongle.

File management is so tricky and app centric on iOS so I dont think this will
ever work.

------
cryptonode
I'm late to the party, but I think I have one that hasn't been mentioned. I
don't think it's possible on IOS but I like having the ability to edoy my
hosts file. I download a popular block list and port it over to my phone, plop
it into to the /etc/ folder.

------
coffexx
The suite of business applications I work on communicate and augment each
other behind the scenes depending on which the customer is paying for using
intents and content providers. It allows us to also develop bespoke apps that
integrate with them. This is a power we wish we had on iOS.

------
Jemm
VOIP/SIP integration in the dialler is the big one for me.

There are VOIP apps for iOS but they generally do not work nearly as well as
the integrated VOIP system in the dialler. iOS’ obsession with control and
killing background apps makes it almost impossible to write a decent VOIP app.

------
jraph
I was in a bus and one website I needed to access was blocked on the bus Wi-Fi
(maybe a technical issue).

I opened a SOCKS tunnel to a server, ran the desktop version of Firefox on my
phone (that I had installed in a Debian chroot) and set it to use this SOCKS
tunnel.

------
nikisweeting
I have a question for the Android people, as this feature alone would make me
switch from iOS to Android:

Can you set up Android so that you can press and hold volume up to skip to the
next song, press and hold volume down to go to the previous one?

------
gmiller123456
Develop apps for it in a nice environment on a good PC, without fear of the
app not being good enough for the overlords.

I already have an expensive overspeced PC taking up a lot of room, there's not
room for two even if I could get a comparable Mac at a descent price. I
eventually did buy a MacBook to develop on, but since my work area was already
laid out, I'd either have to reorganize everything, or put it in a crappy
spot. And since even my main PC is quite expensive, it was either buy
something that's just enough to get it done, or shell out more than I'd could
afford, and for less value for the buck.

If I were getting paid to develop, that'd be another story, but I only develop
phone apps for fun. So to develop iPhone apps, I'm stuck in a cramped
position, on a relatively crappy computer that I paid out the nose for.

------
TheSwordsman
Google Voice native integration with the system dialer. When I click a phone
number on a webpage or in a text, I can dial it from my Google Voice number.
It doesn't seem as seamless on iOS.

------
kenned3
Store things i dont use often on a cheap MicroSD card? iPhones are sold with
locked in storage, and the "model up" to add more storage isnt really priced
correctly.

------
Aeolun
You can detect wifi network strengths and channels with Android.

------
newen
I have a TI-89 emulator running in my android and it's pretty awesome. I think
there are a few other emulators like N64 and other game consoles.

------
NicoJuicy
I have a bookmarking website.

I share an interesting site to the app, tag it appropriately and press submit.

I love it

Otherwhise, a decent browser, Google apps and flexibility ( widgets, Tasker,
... )

------
savant_penguin
i can headphone jack (for now anyways...)

------
xupybd
Use an app connected to a computer to send sms messages. That’s the only thing
I want back after switching.

------
clarkmoody
iOS has significant restrictions in the realm of Bitcoin wallets compared to
Android.

~~~
LeoPanthera
I didn't know that. I've been using Bread/BRD wallet on my iPhone for a few
years. What are the restrictions?

------
youeeeeeediot
Change the display size and also decrease font size far smaller than iPhone
allows.

------
samdixon
Use Syncthing. Really wish this was on iPhone as I don't use android.

------
RocketSyntax
* Home screen widgets!

* Hacky apps like N64 emulators.

* More raw access to files.

* MicroSD card.

* More native Google experience.

------
modzu
there seem to be more open source apps on android, where an app can be put
into the play store for free, vs the apple store which costs $100/year

------
haydn3
>Price

>Less 'idiot-focused' UX

>Better company running it

>Better apps/less locked down 'app store'

>More freedom/choice in phone companies and customisation

>About the same locked-down OS

There's really no other choice

~~~
wtmt
>Better company running it

Nope, I disagree. Google is certainly not a better company than Apple when it
comes to data collection, making it confusing (and sometimes impossible) to
prevent data collection, and profiling user behavior to target them for ads.

~~~
lern_too_spel
Nonsense. It is impossible to prevent Apple from knowing every app you install
on your phone, and you can't even develop for your own phone without
deanonymizing yourself with payment info. Any app that requests location also
causes that location to be sent to Apple, and there is no way to turn that
off. On even Google-flavored Androids, you get to choose what information gets
sent to Google, and sending location info to Google for every location request
is opt in instead of impossible to disable (as on iOS) or merely opt out.

To make the point really obvious, even Google-flavored Android devices are
perfectly usable without a Google account (install apps, etc.). iOS is
unusable without an Apple ID.

------
DocTomoe
Develop without having to buy a Mac.

------
jimmaswell
RTLSDR through the usb-c port is pretty cool, easier to manage music on an sd
card, real FM radio (as far as I can tell from a quick google search, not
available on iPhones), and much of the stuff others have mentioned

------
xbhatnag
Over the years, I've found myself using my Android phone more and more like a
normal user than like a power user. Price is probably the main reason I
wouldn't switch to an iPhone.

I used to have Tasker to do lots of fun automation things, but getting root
for some things was problematic and Tasker was a battery hog.

I used to put custom ROMs and Kernels, but somehow stock versions of the
system were always more stable.

I didn't really need a terminal on my phone cause I'd have to squint a lot to
type stuff.

I don't really connect my phone to a computer anymore. I have cloud storage
that syncs my Desktop and Documents. It's more convenient to just upload a
file to my Desktop folder and have it magically show up on my computer.

I don't explicitly download music or backup photos like I used to. Google
Photos and Spotify have me covered there.

I don't keep widgets on the launcher. I keep only one home page and I like it
to be minimal. I also find it better to access the feature filled app than a
dumbed down widget.

I used to keep live wallpapers but they're pretty big battery drains. My
wallpaper is just black cause my phone has an OLED screen.

Blocking ads across the OS is pretty good and I really do miss it, but I've
often found that the more battery efficient option is to get the premium
versions of these apps which are ad free. As for ads while browsing, I don't
really have a good answer. Live with it?

Also, if you get an Android, I would recommend not getting one that's not
heavily customized - Samsung, LG and the likes. A stock version of Android
will allow you to customize with greater degree - especially when it comes to
obtaining root.

IMO, I would consider Android not for any of its power features, but for
normal features that should be allowed in iOS but aren't.

Examples of those are: * Setting default apps * Some decent home screen
customization (hiding apps is useful) * Installing apps from other sources

Android is customizable. I've seen it myself. But with that degree of
customization, I found myself tweaking incessantly and never being happy with
the end result. There's always more to do and it often didn't look as polished
as I would have liked.

Personally speaking, I'm sort of done fighting Apple and Google over
customization and privacy concerns. I just want to get things done. If it's
slightly inconvenient or the convenience comes at the cost of some data
sharing, then so be it. I've read through some of the comments and I see some
people that (in my opinion) are very aggressively defending their right to
customization or privacy. Having tried a lot of customization on Android and
owning a Mac, I don't get that anymore. By the end of the day I just end up
using WhatsApp, Chrome and a few other choice apps. Those are available on any
OS.

------
exxybebbi
Tasker

------
intended
Torrent

~~~
nneonneo
I've thought about this, and unfortunately with mobile data caps the way they
are, a phone isn't a great torrent client (well, unless you have effectively
an unlimited-speed unlimited-bandwidth connection, which no US carrier
offers). Connected to WiFi, the situation's better, but you're probably going
to get better speeds from a computer, and if you're going to do serious
amounts of torrenting a VPS torrentbox (controllable via any SSH app or web
UI) is probably just a superior option anyway.

------
sys_64738
Not have to use iTunes

------
astannard
daydream

------
faissaloo
I can write software for it on a Linux machine

