I bought an iPhone to go along with my Mac (which I enjoy) but I do not understand why iPhones are so hyped. I like the iPhone camera and the synergy between my Mac and iPhone, but iOS is lacking…
My list can get very long, but I’m only going to list issues that I find unacceptable in 2023:
- Some apps aren’t optimised. Example: The Gmail & Apple mail app icons show me the number of all unread emails that exist in my inbox rather than the number of unread emails since last open.
- Customisation: It’s no surprise that iOS is restrictive, but I can’t even choose where to put apps on a page. I want to move apps to one side so that they’re easier to click but this isn’t possible.
- Privacy: Apple is on your case, they wants to know what you do on every application and if you care about privacy, you will be spending a lot of time disabling tracking features.
- Modifying text: If you want to change a letter in a word, you need to press on the word until a magnifying class appears then you need to move the magnifying glass to the letter you want to change. You’re unable to click into a word to change a letter.
- Maps & Navigation: If you use a maps app like Google maps while driving, you need to hope that you don’t get a call otherwise the call screen will be displayed instead of maps and you need to manually re-open maps to see where you’re going.
I don’t know what to say… Using an iPhone makes me feel like I’m back in 2014.
Please let me know if you have any solutions to these problems!!
I’ve been switching between iPhone and androids for quite some time now, I have an iPhone 13 and I’m going to be keeping it for a very long time.
You have to realize something: sure, you may have already been in the apple ecosystem with your Mac, however laptops and phones are wildly different. From what I’ve found, androids only work because it’s open source (or at least more so than iPhone) and iPhones work because, well, they just do. You can’t expect something from one ecosystem to be the exact same as the ecosystem you’re in. That’s like saying you want your windows phone (gone but never gotten o7) to run the same apps and have the exact same work flow as, say, a Samsung, or using the windows phone and not using the tiles. It just doesn’t work.
Your expectations are too high for an iPhone. Androids are built to be customizable, but everywhere else lacks. You can buy an older android phone but good luck getting it to work out of the box. iPhones Just Work™️
Let me go down the list real quick:
Optimization: kinda went into it already above, see “don’t expect something you’re used to on one phone over the other”. It just works.
Customization: sure, apple is slow at adding features and we probably won’t get customization for quite some time (took them how long to add widgets), however with how secure and good it feels to actually own an iPhone, like you’re holding something premium? I’d rather have that than internal customization.
Privacy: you know Androids are just as bad if not worse, right? Look at Huawei. At least apple has the decency to tell you up front what they’re doing.
Modifying text: see this is a weird one for me because I have really large hands and I can easily select the middle of something I’ve typed and edit it, and also on a webpage if I want to copy some words, and I miss, that’s on me. The only times where I’ve failed is when I know I’ve missed it due to fat fingers, and even then I hold the space bar and glide my fingers across the keyboard to guide the cursor where I want to go.
Maps and navigation: I think you’re just using the app wrong, I don’t know how google maps reacts but at least on Apple Maps if I start navigation, and lock my screen, and turn the screen on for the navigation system, yeah, that’s gonna happen. You’re gonna have to unlock the phone and go into your maps app for it to work. And this also depends on your call settings too, if you have it for banner or alerts.
In conclusion: iPhones are different than androids, you’re used to an android so you’re going to expect one manufacturers phones to be exactly like the other. Give it time. You’ll get used to it and once you do, you’ll never go back.