Once upon a time, in a world where smartphones weren’t that smart, Apple iPhones were created and blew the minds of million of techies. Today, however, there are a plethora of smartphone options in the market.
Apple iPhones are still on top, but Android smartphones are rapidly gaining the same amount of popularity. It’s hard to tell Android and iOS apart from a distance, given the number of features and ideas these two powerhouse mobile phones have borrowed from each other over the years. There are still some crucial differences between the two though.
David Nield, a freelance technology writer, discusses 6 differences between Android and iOS that set them apart from one another:
1. Default Apps (Android)
It’s been ten years since the first iPhone was launched, and users still can’t open up links in anything other than Safari by default. Android, on the other hand, not only makes it possible to swap out your default browser (or anything else), but actually makes it easy to do so!
At this point, it seems like Apple missed its window of opportunity to give third-party apps full reign over iOS. You can still install alternative apps for just about everything on Apple iPhones though, so at least they provide a little wiggle room.
2. Spotlight (iOS)
When it comes to search engines, Google is the master operator. So it’s surprising that Apple’s iOS-wide Spotlight search is better than Android. Tap out a few keywords and you get results on the web, in your contacts, from nearby locations and in files on your phone (and more). Google is slowly improving at this, but it’s just not quite there.
3. Launcher Apps (Android)
On Android smartphones, you can customize the interface down to the very last pixel, thanks to native support for launchers. iOS users are still stuck with the same uniform rows and columns of icons that have been in place since the very beginning. If you’re anything like me, you probably hate that the only thing you can change on an iPhone is lockscreen and homescreen photos. Sometimes, that’s just not enough change!
4. Continuity (iOS)
Say what you will about Apple’s bias towards its own software and hardware, but it certainly enables some very close integration between devices and platforms that Google just can’t touch at the moment. Having Apple products that integrate into each other is one of the most convenient and handy things ever. ”
You can even copy and paste between your iPhone and your MacBook these days, as long as they’re running the latest versions of their OSes,” Neild points out.
5. Smart Unlock (Android)
Lock screens are usually broken by a PIN code or fingerprint reading, either way, they are essential for those of you wanting to protect your smartphone. However, there may be times and places when you feel you’d rather have the convenience over the extra security. This is one area where Android is way ahead of its rival, well, at least until the next iPhone is released.
Head into the Security and Smart Lock section of Settings on stock Android and you can have your PIN code disabled by a particular place, a connection to a particular device, a trusted face, a trusted voice, or just the fact that your phone is on your person.
6. iMessage (iOS)
iMessage does a great job of syncing communications across all of Apple’s products and keeps users locked into iOS. Encryption is built right into the app too, and it’s gotten a lot more lively over the last year with the introduction of the iMessage app store.
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