After 5 years on Android, I moved to iOS. Here are my thoughts as a designer.

I've happily been using my Pixel 3 for the last five years, but recently I decided to switch back over to iOS.
Here's my spicy take of what I think of Android and iOS. 🌶
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//TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro
0:50 - Superpeer and design community!
1:22 - Android
1:59 - Google ecosystem
2:23 - Losing iMessage
2:44 - Android pros
2:52 - Grayscale mode [Android pros]
3:21 - Menu row items [Android pros]
4:07 - Chrome search bar [Android pros]
4:36 - Customize sleep view [Android pros]
5:25 - Custom keyboard [Android pros]
5:44 - Screen calling [Android pros]
6:40 - Use hold for me [Android pros]
7:15 - Android cons
7:20 - Lack of support for indie apps [Android cons]
7:34 - No Airdrop equivalent [Android cons]
7:55 - Bad video quality [Android cons]
8:08 - No way to switch to silent via hardware [Android cons]
8:28 - Different apps for different smart things [Android cons]
9:14 - iOS pros
9:24 - Apple watch [iOS pros]
9:57 - Home app [iOS pros]
10:16 - Vaccine passport in wallet [iOS pros]
11:01 - Indie apps [iOS pros]
11:28 - Stack widgets [iOS pros]
11:59 - Airdrop [iOS pros]
12:20 - Battery life and camera quality [iOS pros]
12:54 - iOS cons
13:00 - Weight [iOS cons]
13:37 - Keyboard layout [iOS cons]
14:00 - Confusing swipe interactions [iOS cons]
14:44 - No info when screen is off [iOS cons]
14:52 - Apple ecosystem [iOS cons]
15:15 - Outro
// MORE
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[@MaddyBeard]

Ooooh 👀 looking forward to this!

[@kev_G]

Thanks for the fun insights Femke! This video makes me think it could be cool to hear from you how you think about designing for iOS and Android. What are the different platform considerations you have to think about when considering information hierarchy, user flows, or design systems? Have you ran into any challenges trying to do something too customized for a specific platform or maybe you found out that the design needed to diverge between them. Would love to hear some of your experiences!

[@MarioRodriguez-zi1xl]

I just discovered your channel recently and I find you do a great job… thanks for sharing your great knowledge :)

[@femkedesign]

Thanks Mario!

[@rishabh.aggarwal]

As the alternative to the chrome search bar, there is an option to simply slide the screen down (not all the way from top) to reveal the search bar. and it basically does the same thing. I personally like it a lot better rather than having the search bar up in the face all the time.

[@femkedesign]

Thank you! This was exactly what I needed.

[@MarioRodriguez-zi1xl]

(iPhone user) Yes I thought everybody knew that :)

[@augustineasiuwhu]

Got my popcorn 🍿 waiting for this

[@miketrandesign]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I'm currently an Pixel user that uses a MacBook for design work and wholeheartedly agree with your take on both Android and iOS. I think it really boils down to lifestyle and preferences. A few things I really enjoy most about Android is the built-in digital wellbeing feature where you can limit yourself to a certain amount of time on an app and the bedtime mode that mentioned in this video. I do wish there was an airdrop-like feature, that would definitely make transferring photos much easier to my Macbook. However, a con that I've experienced using iOS is the extra step it takes to activate location/GPS, where in Android, I can simply swipe down and tap on the location/GPS button. Maybe one day I'll switch back to iOS but for now, my current Pixel does what I need it to do. Thanks for sharing! 🙂

[@femkedesign]

Ah nice! Thanks for sharing your perspective also :) I have to say I am really enjoying the clean handoff between my phone and computer, such a time saver.

[@bnatalie]

Perfect customer review for both brands. 🌟That was really insightful. Thanks, Fem 🙌. I am 🍏 user btw.

[@mansoorbijan4635]

If you want grayscale; You can make a Accessibility shortcut that gets triggered by double/triple taps on home button.

[@femkedesign]

Thanks for letting me know! Magic.

[@mansoorbijan4635]

@@femkedesign Thanks for your insightful contents...

[@victorduarte2672]

Hi, Femke! Loved your video! I have a tip for grayscale on iPhone. You can set a shortcut for turning on grayscale mode on Settings, switching between it on and off using double taps on the back of the iPhone. It's an accessibility feature. :)

[@femkedesign]

Hey! Thank you that sounds great. I couldn't find it in Settings though, do you. know where it lives?

[@victorduarte2672]

@@femkedesign Yes! You have to go to the Settings app > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap > Select what to do with Double Tap (in this case, Color Filters) //You can reach this area also searching directly in the Settings app search field too When this is done, choose a Color Filter you prefer (in this case, grayscale) going back to Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Color Filters > and choose it Now when you double tap the back of the iPhone, it'll toggle between the Color Filter turned off and turned on with grayscale p.s. This can be also defined as a shortcut when triple-clicking the side button by going to Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut > and choosing the Color Filters option

[@marija3969]

​I love my Pixel phone, but now after your review I am thinking whether it's not such a bad idea to switch to iPhone😀The battery life quality of the camera could really be improved on Pixel, totally agree!

[@greatndabai]

For the chrome search bar, on iOS just swipe down on your home screen and you get a search bar (kinda like spotlight search for Mac) and you can search for anything (apps, the meaning of a world in the in built iOS dictionary, you can even look up whatever you typed on the web and a whole lot more).

[@femkedesign]

How do I get chrome to show up in there?

[@luca_sbll]

@@femkedesign You can set chrome as your default browser and it will show up there, with full blown website search results. You can find that in the Chrome settings or through the iOS Settings > Safari > default browser and choose Chrome

[@akashdhurbarry9157]

Have you figured out how to integrate your Google Calendars into the Apple Calendar app yet? Was not straight forward for me but managed to do it

[@eeka3109]

I know the struggle! I can’t give up the apple ecosystems but I design for android tablets. So I love seeing comparisons. Airdrop and iMessage are fire!

[@femkedesign]

Yeah once you're in an ecosystem it's very hard to move away from it haha.

[@designthedays]

I'm also a designer who uses a MacBook for design work and a Google Pixel for my phone. For now, I'm happy using Android.

[@femkedesign]

Nice!

[@khadijabari]

You can turn on 'Raise to Wake' in settings if you want to be able to see the time/lockscreen at a glance when raising your iPhone instead of having to turn on your phone

[@femkedesign]

So many hidden settings haha, thanks for letting me know.

[@ishanjalan]

You can disable the Memoji thing in the Keyboard settings!

[@waves.of.indigo]

Pixel/Google has a Home app too

[@femkedesign]

Right! Yet not all the smart home things I have integrate with it unfortunately.

[@minhtamdesigner]

One more thing, the feature Screen Mirroring is too cool.

[@Rapt0rrr]

Do you think it would've been a different experience if you'd compare two devices that are the same age? You mentioned camera quality and battery life, but those points weigh differently when comparing a brand new device with a 5 year old phone that you've used every day. Also, there's tons of alternatives. Sharedrop as universal way of using Airdrop, Google Home has been around since forever,...

[@femkedesign]

From a hardware perspective, i'm sure it would have been! Not all the smart home things i use integrate with google home, so that's why I couldn't use it unfortunately.

[@ivan.prosic]

Don't know why people look at Pixel as the only android phone out there. Samsung has amaziiing phones and also Huawei (pre-google block) had top notch phones. I am still using my P30 Pro and it is amazing with battery, camera and performance. iOS still bugs me that they force you sooo much to use their ecosystem and charge for any app possible Great video, great insight. Would love to hear a perspective on MacOS and Windows

[@femkedesign]

Did I say in this video that the Pixel is the only Android phone? 🤔

[@KarimElkharraz]

Gboard for iOS is the best option for a good keyboard for iOS

[@femkedesign]

Ooh good to know! Will look into it

[@minhtamdesigner]

You saw your missed call :D at 11:43

[@femkedesign]

oops haha

[@rart1111]

Love my Samsung galaxy fold phone

[@femkedesign]

So cool!

[@justmehhl]

the fact of having to think "I have yet to figure this out to be able to do this on my mobile phone" is really really frustrating.

[@femkedesign]

haha right! I feel like it's so rare to be in that phase of using a new technology for me, was a weird experience!

[@barbarasilvera7184]

Hay thật sự, cảm ơn Đức Phúc mang cho mình dòng cảm xúc này!

[@chukwukaosakwe3646]

Fair enough. I'm big on Android though. 😂

[@KensWorld]

Sounds like iOS have a couple of dark patterns

[@obvinpro]

Would've been different experience if you'd use Samsung device.

[@obvinpro]

I use Samsung SmartThings for home automation and Wollet for pass

[@femkedesign]

Obviously!

[@charankol]

you cant send your files to your Mac because apple doesn't allow it. your pixel 3 camera is not good, it is google's fault. but they fixed it. I dont know, closed ecosystem is not for me. I like my freedom.

[@luca_sbll]

You can set a triple press of the side button to turn on grayscale mode, no idea why you can't attach it to a shortcut to run automatically though, you can do that with most other screen effects. For the chrome search thing, you can just use spotlight search, pull down on the home screen and spotlight opens, then you type whatever you are looking for and it shows results both on the phone and on the web, and if your default browser is set to chrome it will open with that. On the contrary, as an Airdrop alternative you can use Snapdrop. It requires both devices to be connected to the same network though, I believe it works if you have you computer connected to your phone hotspot but I'm not 100% sure. This should be my last edit: to get rid of the memoji thing on the emoji keyboard, just tap on the little clock icon and it will close and not bother you again. It's not great UX but hey, that's the way they do it

[@femkedesign]

TIL i need to change my default browser from Safari to Chrome haha, thank you for the tips! I never heard of snapdrop, is that something you can use on Android instead? Thanks for all the tips!

[@SkoxLy]

Hm, love your Videos, but this is one of your less good videos. Here is why: When you say in the title "thoughts as a Designer" I expect more things ui/ux related stuff about the os. Like the one aspect about the "Menu row Item". But so many aspects like the weight, video quality, silent hardware switch etc are so random and could be said by anyone and also could be solved by just buy another Android phone of a different Brand. Dont get me wrong, the points are not wrong, but had little to do with "as a Designer". Maybe someday you can compare the Android vs Apple ui guidelines and component, that would be useful for me as a ux/ui designer :) Edit: oh, that was already commented here.. so nevermind^^

[@femkedesign]

Thanks for the feedback!

[@thinkpositive3667]

If you want to use Android, don't use a Pixel. Use a Xiaomi phone. It feels like an iOS, but with all the features that you like on Android. Plus, it's way more affordable and the camera is way more superior.

[@femkedesign]

Thanks for the recommendation! I did want to switch to iOS though for the watch :)

[@zoharlindenbaum]

Nothing compares to Material design. Also, in general, iOS is for lazy non-technical people while android allows you to go further with customization and making your experience unique to you! Last thing, Im happy with my macbook but I will NOT join the Apple herd. 1 downfall for Android though, it's not as secure as iOS.

[@femkedesign]

Yeah the macbook definitely is superior to other computers on the market!

[@chukwukaosakwe3646]

Fair enough. I'm big on Android though. 😂

[@femkedesign]

Haha nice, I was too for the longest time!