I keep reading this is “a US issue”. It isn’t and it isn’t just iMessage. In Japan, walk up and down the crowds in the subway and an astounding majority of people have an iPhone. Most people are using Line to message. There’s more to it than blue text bubbles.
The problem in the US, especially K-12, is the dominance of iMessage in all forms of groupchat. Teens use iMessage in the US just like people use Line in Japan, WhatsApp in EU, etc.
It’s a social class issue; the lowest end new Androids are about $50, the cheapest new iPhones are $430.
Over the years Apple has fixed a lot of the annoyances that Android users had with iOS, and meanwhile Google has locked down Android, implemented measures to prevent rooting/customization, made all their apps a constant A/B/C/D test controlled by server-side flags that constantly rearrange your UIs and prevent the ability to sideload specific app versions, been less generous with the free service offerings, and repeatedly shut down, re-launch, re-brand, and overhaul all their apps and services.
implemented measures to prevent rooting/customization
This part isn’t true. Google Pixels (just like Nexus) are the only Androids out there (other than Fairphone) that allow you to sign and re-lock the bootloader after installing Calyx or Graphene. And you can even install Graphene using webUSB now.
That said, I agree on the rest. While Apple was adding CardDAV and CalDAV, true NFC support, shortcuts, and SMB, Androids were dumbing-down its interface, and removing the 3.5mm jack and the dedicated fingerprint scanners.
Now iPhones have USB C, and iOS will be getting sideloading. All I have left to miss is the back button, notification panel, GBoard, and ability to turn off blocking animations.
Android alienated its power users to (fail) to court iPhone users, while Apple successfully did the opposite, courting power users. It’s worse recent sins are removing force-touch and the SIM slot.
I miss the rooting/jailbreaking days it was fun to learn how the software and hardware functioned in unison with each other why side loads would or wouldn’t work. And honestly most the stuff that people consider cool or just take for granted on the iPhone now or only available through jailbreaks on the earlier models!
I got tired of all that treatment after years and years of using different types of Android devices. The update scenario didn’t help either, even though Samsung has done massive strides to improve in that aspect.
Samsung totally ignores their low end phones. In fact, if you’re on Android, expect one, maybe two OS updates in your phone’s lifetime before you have to replace it.
That is so true!!! Constant ui changes in google apps are fucking infuriating. One day for 24 hours I even had COMPLETELY missing watch later playlist on YouTube and I use it all the time.
Yeah this is one of my biggest issues with Google overall: they’re wildly inconsistent. Apple’s apps mostly stay the same, FaceTime is just FaceTime and has been forever. Google on the other hand changes which app they’re pushing in any given category like every couple of years and it’s incredibly annoying. Every time I check back in it’s like the apps are either designed in a totally different way, called something different out of nowhere, or totally deprecated and replaced with another app.
I keep reading this is “a US issue”. It isn’t and it isn’t just iMessage. In Japan, walk up and down the crowds in the subway and an astounding majority of people have an iPhone. Most people are using Line to message. There’s more to it than blue text bubbles.
The problem in the US, especially K-12, is the dominance of iMessage in all forms of groupchat. Teens use iMessage in the US just like people use Line in Japan, WhatsApp in EU, etc.
It’s a social class issue; the lowest end new Androids are about $50, the cheapest new iPhones are $430.
Over the years Apple has fixed a lot of the annoyances that Android users had with iOS, and meanwhile Google has locked down Android, implemented measures to prevent rooting/customization, made all their apps a constant A/B/C/D test controlled by server-side flags that constantly rearrange your UIs and prevent the ability to sideload specific app versions, been less generous with the free service offerings, and repeatedly shut down, re-launch, re-brand, and overhaul all their apps and services.
Google does a pretty good job at selling iPhones.
This part isn’t true. Google Pixels (just like Nexus) are the only Androids out there (other than Fairphone) that allow you to sign and re-lock the bootloader after installing Calyx or Graphene. And you can even install Graphene using webUSB now.
That said, I agree on the rest. While Apple was adding CardDAV and CalDAV, true NFC support, shortcuts, and SMB, Androids were dumbing-down its interface, and removing the 3.5mm jack and the dedicated fingerprint scanners.
Now iPhones have USB C, and iOS will be getting sideloading. All I have left to miss is the back button, notification panel, GBoard, and ability to turn off blocking animations.
Android alienated its power users to (fail) to court iPhone users, while Apple successfully did the opposite, courting power users. It’s worse recent sins are removing force-touch and the SIM slot.
I miss the rooting/jailbreaking days it was fun to learn how the software and hardware functioned in unison with each other why side loads would or wouldn’t work. And honestly most the stuff that people consider cool or just take for granted on the iPhone now or only available through jailbreaks on the earlier models!
Yep. Jailbreakers got us the first app store. Before that, Jobs wanted every “app” to be a webapp :(
I got tired of all that treatment after years and years of using different types of Android devices. The update scenario didn’t help either, even though Samsung has done massive strides to improve in that aspect.
Samsung totally ignores their low end phones. In fact, if you’re on Android, expect one, maybe two OS updates in your phone’s lifetime before you have to replace it.
That is so true!!! Constant ui changes in google apps are fucking infuriating. One day for 24 hours I even had COMPLETELY missing watch later playlist on YouTube and I use it all the time.
Yeah this is one of my biggest issues with Google overall: they’re wildly inconsistent. Apple’s apps mostly stay the same, FaceTime is just FaceTime and has been forever. Google on the other hand changes which app they’re pushing in any given category like every couple of years and it’s incredibly annoying. Every time I check back in it’s like the apps are either designed in a totally different way, called something different out of nowhere, or totally deprecated and replaced with another app.