 Every couple of years I switch back and forth between Android and iOS I've done it pretty much since Android and iOS became a thing and I do this because I like keeping track of How these two platforms are advancing, you know, it used to be that iOS was miles ahead of Android and Android was kind of It was mundane I would say it was relatively far behind and even at my last switch back in 2018 It felt that way for me that iOS in terms of software and hardware was still fairly far ahead of Android in terms of Apple availability app design iOS design and definitely hardware and I felt that way and I think I could have at that point made Very good arguments that I was right It didn't mean at that point that Android didn't have cool features and that I didn't that I hated Android or anything It's just that I at that point thought that iOS was still The better operating system of the two now fast forward to 2021. I've switched from Android back to iOS I've been using an One plus seven for the last three years or so or I think I actually had a six before this. I don't even remember. It's been a while. I switched a couple times on Android During the three years, but just recently I picked up an iPhone 11 Pro and I always do this I never buy the most recent version of any of the phones I just don't mainly for the reasons why because if you want the big iPhone, it's like $1400 I mean in order to get any reasonable amount of storage. It's the stupidest thing ever, but That's beside the point. I was expecting with a switch to find that iOS had advanced so far ahead of Android because it's been three years I figured there have been some advances in iOS that would have allowed it to keep its lead that I at least Perceived that it had three years ago and color me surprised that that's not what happened because There are a few areas that I really thought that the iOS was leading on app design app availability Screen responsiveness not necessarily refresh rate But just the feel of how when you scroll something it actually feels like you're scrolling something on Android at least in the past It felt like it was always just a millimeter of a second behind, you know, I know it's not a real measurement whatever It always felt that way it just felt slower even once they moved to Higher refresh rate screens. I never really noticed that my perception has never been that great for that kind of thing so You know, I didn't really notice that but I figured that at least iOS had Maintained that lead because that was one of the things that I always has always been really good at Fluidity of touch screen of the touch screens. That's not the case anymore another thing that iOS used to be ahead of Android on was app availability and app design The apps on Android used to be kind of bad. I mean Don't get me wrong. There's still plenty of just shit apps on the Google Play Store But it used to be that all the apps are just bad if you had two apps are exactly the same by the same developer and they were supposed, you know, like Facebook or Instagram or whatever the iOS version was almost always going to be better than the Android version For whatever reason iOS always got the updates first for for new features and new designs and stuff And while that still kind of happens to this day, the differences between the apps Aren't actually in iOS's favor anymore at least not across the board like they used to be So I was really surprised because it feels like in the last three years Android has moved forward Whereas iOS has really seriously kind of I wouldn't say it's regressed, but it has definitely stayed where it was three years ago Now, yes, there's widgets. I don't give a damn about widgets I don't use widgets all that much on the Android platform and they've had them since the beginning so widgets don't do anything for me and Even if we're going to talk about widgets for a little while Which we're not going to the design of the widgets on iOS are is bad I mean, there's so much unused space on those widgets for the most part like the what with the weather widget has like You just have the space enough in the two by two grid and the other half is just Empty color. I mean who designs this shit. I got my designer. That's just poor design center that shit anyway And rant on the widgets so I was really surprised like I was saying that it doesn't feel like iOS has moved forward at all In the last Three years since they left it behind last time And it was really surprising to me because I I had expected them to keep that lead to keep Innovating to the point where they were always just slightly ahead of Android in terms of all these things that I you know Enjoyed about iOS and it really hasn't now. It's possible that they have You know moved forward a little bit, but Android has seemed to Have moved forward faster And there are several things on Android now that I've switched from my office that I'm going to miss the back button Now the back button has always been shit on iOS. It's been mostly non-existent honestly, and they add now They've added and I believe they had added this before I switched last time but In some applications when you move from one application to another you can get a little back button up at the top And it's like really really little and sometimes it's there. Sometimes it's not there, but That's not The back button that I enjoy Because like for example, if you watch a youtube video on your phone And you get it to rotate so it's you know this way, you know the way you'd want to watch a video You can't hit a back button to get out of it. You have to hit the little Like square thing that youtube gives you in order to take it back into the full screen And then you can close the the video or go to the next video or whatever That's just this poor design and that's not even just youtube. That's pretty much any video that you have. There's no True back button and the way to get out of it now and on android Even once they got rid of the back button, which they did They introduced back gestures so you could go through and swipe back, you know from the side of the screen and while Uh apple has that in some applications where if you're in like a vertical application You can go through and swipe back and forth between the screens. That's Okay, it's still not universal. It's not every place that it needs to be and it's really weird and drives me bonkers now this one plus seven that I had has a 90 hertz refresh rate and I said earlier that I couldn't really tell a difference Well, I couldn't really tell a difference until I got to the iphone I do notice the difference when because this is back to 60 hertz and while it doesn't really bother me there are periods where It feels like this phone isn't as responsive as that one is and it's weird because this one is at least a little bit newer than that one was so The touch responsiveness that I used to enjoy and find so fascinating on ios where you could you know Touch the screen and watch you go back and forth in exact time with your finger It doesn't really seem to be there anymore It doesn't seem maybe it's just not as impressive or maybe it's because android has caught up to the point Where it feels the same Is just not as something that has caught my eye like I used to and then we talked a little bit about the apps The thing about apps on android is that they've gotten for the most part way better Now there are still a bunch of junk apps out there that will bombard you with that with ads and all this stuff That happens on both platforms by the way It's not an android or an ios problem And it used to be that the at least the ads on ios seem to be a little bit better designed That's not the case anymore now. They're just as annoying on both platforms But for the main apps like facebook instagram twitter clients and Things like that it used to be the ios had the selection of vastly superior applications and the apps on android were either abandoned or they all Looked like they were designed for ice cream sandwich or you know any number of problems Now there let's just take a twitter app for example The twitter app on android and i that i use on android and the twitter app that i prefer on ios They're both equally good And that was a really big shock to me because it didn't used to be that way and the but the difference now Is that developers on ios have gotten so good at Weedling out a little bit of money from you through in-app purchases that almost every single application has an in-app purchase for you And well, that's true on android as well For the most part if you use an app on android you can use the app for free if it you know and then the In-app purchases will add will take away the ads or they will Add a couple extra features will allow you to theme it or whatever and some of the apps on ios are that way too but some of them have Fully gone into removing actual features that that are essential for the apps functionality And they've moved those behind a paywall behind an in-app purchase for example the tweetbot thing The tweetbot application, which is a twitter client is the best designed twitter client on ios and it has been for a long time and i when i moved away from it last time I really missed it because there is not a for at least at that point there wasn't a twitter client on android that was As well designed as tweetbot And there used to be a free version of paid version That was you know, like 10 bucks or whatever for a twitter client is stupid to pay $10 for a twitter client I understand that I got i'm i'm well aware that You know paying money for a twitter client when you can just use the free twitter client is stupid But you know, I enjoy supporting third-party Developers anyways the the new way they do the twitter client Now what we bought is that they give you a regular version But you can't tweet from it and you can't retweet from it and you can't Reply from it and you can't do anything from it at least as far as I could tell and in order to do that you had to pay For the app now it wouldn't have been a big deal if it was just you know 5 or 10 bucks, whatever But it seems to me that every single App like that has moved to a subscription model and I am not going to pay $10 a month or $10 every other month or whatever it was For a twitter client. I'm just not So what I ended up doing was actually spending I think it was like 20 bucks on a different twitter app. That's just as good and that gives me a lifetime You know access to it It's still way too much for a twitter client, but I use twitter on my phone all the time It's where I can do most of my twittering So that was my biggest experience with applications on ios is that they've all moved to this stupid subscription model and You know, I think I'll eventually do a video on subscription in the in the future because I have plenty to rant about there as well, but In terms of applications, you know in the open source world I have made a couple videos about how Open source developers can make money because obviously open source developers need to make money And one of my suggestions was a subscription model because everybody seems to enjoy the subscription model these days I don't know why but it seems to be something that people are willing to put up with And even I was at that, you know point I pay for netflix and all this other stuff just like everybody else does and but this has kind of changed my mind because Not everything needs a subscription model like just it's a twitter client. Let me pay you $10 Even if that seems too high, let me just pay you some money And I can use your twitter client until the next version comes out, you know fine But at least I could choose to use the old version for a little while if I wanted to not upgrade to the next one That would you know the the subscription model on ios just is completely blowing my mind because it's every application It's the twitter client. It's the Uh the weather app that I I mean the acu weather on ios is completely different than the acu weather on android And that the ads on the ios are actually way more annoying So I couldn't put up with it So I ended up having to you know shell somebody to get rid of the ads or find a different, you know weather client and because the Stock weather app on ios doesn't have a radar big and you know for whatever reason anyways I've switched to ios and I keep going on about the negative things, but there is one area where Apple has kept their lead over Android and that is in hardware this iphone 11 pro which is you know a couple years old at this point I mean is far and away the best hardware i've used On any device. It's so good. Uh, it does feel when you take it out of when I take this out of the case it feels more fragile than Like my one plus seven But I think that that's psychological because I've paid so much more money for this than I paid for the one Plus seven almost double Even though it's a couple years old Phones are just way too expensive these days But in the hand it feels more substantial. That's the way apple hardware always has been it's always has felt more substantial Than any of the android phones that I've ever used Most of the android Phones I used to use at least for you know all plastic at least they've moved to glass labs these days But even this one plus seven it's way lighter, right and it feels like I mean I'm picking these both up and there's Like it feels like there's like a half a pound difference in these things. It's ridiculous and they have the same Basically the same size screen. It's really weird So I enjoy the hardware way more on the apple side of things, but the software is Uh, not as impressive as it used to be It's definitely feeling very long on the tooth and the subscription model and all the applications really pisses me off And I missed the back button I missed the back button a lot Like the actual or the maybe not even the back button, but the back gestures that the androids has now I love those things. Those are great because you can use them everywhere. It didn't matter where you were You could use them in every single application And they were just there. They're not the hit or miss bullshit. The apple has Okay, so that is it for this video if you want to uh, bitch about android or ios in the comments below I'd really appreciate that because I'll get right in there with you Make sure you like and subscribe you can follow me on twitter at the linuxcast You can support me on patreon at patreon.com Slash linuxcasts before I go. 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