How the Other Half Lives

A Longtime Apple User’s Dalliance With Android

El Brown
11 min readJun 24, 2016

For the past 17 years, I’ve been That Guy. The one friends and family turn to for free tech support. The pre-purchase advisor when they were shopping for a new phone or computer. And I’ve almost always steered those friends and family towards Apple products.

I was one of the people standing in crazy lines to get the newest iPhones on Day One. Once midnight pre-orders became a thing, I’d set 11:55 p.m. alarms in order to ensure first day deliveries. But for the past two or so years, I’ve had a wandering eye. The last version of Android I had any experience with was Cupcake on the OG T-Mobile G1. Yet still, I admire Google and had been more than a little curious about modern Android.

My frustration over a couple of iCloud-related disasters [1] served as catalyst to turn that curiosity into action.

I naively thought a pro writer and veteran Apple nerd’s take on how the other half lives might be of some use to the wider community.

The wall of silence thrown back my way while shopping this piece said otherwise. So here it is. If even a handful of you read this here, it beats the zero who would’ve had I continued to hold out, waiting on one of the insular sites catering to Android and iOS partisans to publish it.

In the space of about a month, I went from using an iPhone 6s, an iPad Air 2 and an Apple Watch Sport to using a Nexus 6P, a Pixel C tablet and the Moto 360 Android Wear watch. I must admit, the value Apple products command on the resale market allowed this switch. It may not be as easy to accomplish in reverse.

DESIGN DELIGHTS

My no-nonsense Android homescreen. Yes, that temperature is real.

Android’s design language, called Material Design, is beautiful. Colors pop and the paper-like interface shows depth where appropriate, ensuring you always have a sense of place. It simply makes sense.

What Matías Duarte and his Google Design team have done is remarkable. The contrast between Android Marshmallow’s Material Design and the old holographic UI of Donut-era devices is as stark as that between the “rich, Corinthian leather” of iOS 5 and today’s mostly flat iOS 9 design.

It took literally no time to get used to the Android desktop. The on-screen Home button works exactly like one would expect. I also prefer the way Android provides access to recent items, through a prominent button. Additionally, the operating system’s Back button is much more consistent than the one iOS has introduced, although I greatly miss Apple’s nearly ever-present swipe back gesture.

One area where design falls flat for me is with the full-bleed pictures in the Phone app’s speed dial menu. If your speed dial subject is in front of puffy white clouds or another light-colored background, the three-dot “more options” menu will be very difficult to see. Perhaps the color of the three dots could change dynamically, based on their background?

The three-dot menu can blend into light backgrounds.

BAKED-IN BRILLIANCE

Although not perfect, I’m trusting the Google Now voice-powered assistant much more than I ever trusted Apple’s Siri. Settling silly workplace dustups has never been easier. Google Now answers with facts, not links inviting you to look it up yourself.

Tech writer Ben Thompson put it well on a Spring episode of John Gruber’s “The Talk Show” podcast. Paraphrasing his smart take, it’s better to fail in a predictable way. Siri’s canned, cutesy responses can be fun at times, but when Siri is wrong (or just plain misunderstands you) and you’re in a hurry, it can be enraging. The continual failures set low expectations and eventually you simply stop attempting to use the feature. With Google Now, I’m almost always confident I’ll get the info I’m looking for.

Of course, Google Now is much more than Android’s voice assistant. Swipe to the left of your first home screen and Now shows information Google thinks you’ll find relevant. Throughout the day, pertinent cards are surfaced based on context or your calendar. For me, one moment of surprise and delight was when parked downtown, Google Now showed a card with my parking location. I didn’t ask for it, it just appeared. Other frequent cards include the weather, sports scores I care about (with the option to hide spoilers), even the status of packages in transit.

For Google Now to update you on stuff you ordered or tell you when to leave for your next appointment, you have to give Google permission to crawl your calendars and Gmail. Additional cards require location or other access. Only you can decide whether the convenience of a great feature is worth any perceived privacy concerns. For me it is.

The real joy in switching from iOS to Android is the return of whimsy. I am a dedicated calendar user, but don’t have complicated needs. My wife and I each have a personal calendar, I have one for work, there’s a “Joint & Social” calendar that we share with our son and an “Annuals” calendar for tracking various anniversaries.

Google Calendar for Android is beautiful—exactly what I need. And I love the fact reminders are now part of the app. The app’s automatically pulling pictures of meeting locations is useful and clever, while the transition art between each month is a whimsical and welcome flourish.

I find Android’s built-in calendar app much more appealing than the stark one on iOS.

Speaking of automatically pulling pictures, Android’s use of my contacts’ Google+ profile pics is easily the platform’s worst feature. As a nerd with obsessive compulsive tendencies, my contacts were painstakingly crafted to be just the way I want them. It’s off-putting to see random pictures of friends’ dogs or kids in my contacts list.

If I missed a setting and this can be permanently turned off, please let me know.

The ability to select different default apps is something Android users have taken for granted for awhile, but remains crazy talk on iOS. The powerful Android share sheets allow information to be shuttled between apps with minimal effort (although iOS is getting better in this regard).

Theming the user interface and icons [2] and tinkering with widgets remind me of the fun I used to have messing around with Panic’s CandyBar back in the early days of OS X. Nova Launcher is a fantastic app which allows me to make my Android devices “not the same” as anyone else’s. The static iPhone and iPad homescreens look old by comparison. Of course, there are dozens of other launchers available, too.

Even little niceties like the persistent desktop Google search bar and being able to rename connected Bluetooth devices make Android a joy to use.

ON MY WRIST

Swapping the Apple Watch Sport I’d been wearing since its April 2015 release for the 2nd generation Moto 360 was even easier than the phone switch.

Just like on the phone, customization is a big plus for Android Wear. With watchOS, you get the handful of blessed watch faces Apple ships, with their bevy of complications, and that’s it. With Android Wear, there are literally thousands of new looks available.

Many (most?) of the Android Wear watch faces available in Google Play are rubbish, however dozens of highly-rated gems make enduring amateur hour at the store worth it in the end. There are some functional and polished options available—many for free.

I love the ambient mode on many Android Wear watches. Being able to tell time at a glance, without an exaggerated flick of the wrist, is paramount on a watch. Who knew? And importantly, this ambient mode doesn’t seem to affect battery life. Even when the watch was new to me [3] and I experimented with it all day, I’d put it on the charger at night with anywhere between 35 to 45% battery power left in the tank.

Charging nightly is a non-issue and I don’t understand why some trip on having to. The Moto 360 even comes with a handy charging stand and (like the Apple Watch) goes into a bedside clock mode while charging—perfect for the nightstand.

I don’t use apps on my Android Wear device, but I did play around with a few when I first got the thing. They are, without exception, faster than those on the current version of the Apple Watch software. My admittedly small sample includes the financial app Acorns, Google’s built-in Weather app and Authenticator.

Apple announced watchOS 3 at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. The next version of Cupertino’s smartwatch software promises a simplified interface and faster access to apps and information.

I still don’t get the point of slowly and awkwardly doing things on my watch which I could more conveniently do on my phone. It’s going to take more time for makers to sort out just what wearables are best at. They could cheat and just watch us users. If my fancy computer watch tells the time and temperature while quickly delivering notifications to my wrist, I’m set. That’s all I need. Of course, your mileage may vary.

IN THE CAR

After my switch, the first place I really missed iOS was in the car. I found Apple CarPlay much more intuitive and bulletproof than Android Auto. For my first several days with the latter, I couldn’t successfully enter voice commands and was locked out after just five taps. A software update took care of the five taps issue. That same update magically made voice commands work, too.

Before the update, I’d get a lot of “I’m not sure what you mean by…” or simple timeouts, after which nothing would happen. I also don’t find it as iOS easy to get Android Auto to play a specific playlist or shuffle an artist’s songs.

Messaging is where Android Auto really falls down. CarPlay’s Siri almost always gets proper names right and transcribes my dictated messages letter-perfect. Android Auto misspells my son’s name as “Jaylin” (it’s Jalen), even though he is in my contacts and is someone I correspond with daily. Android Auto also asks for which number to message someone at even when there are clearly delineated “mobile” and “work” numbers listed for them.

I do like the main Android Auto homescreen, which shows the currently playing music or podcast, as well as weather and my distance to home.

I don’t like that the pretty homescreen offers nav suggestions based on recent Maps searches which you can’t swipe away. I used turn-by-turn navigation to get to a store in an unfamiliar part of town over the weekend. For the entire following week, Android Auto assumed I wanted to go back to that one obscure place. This is Google’s version of Amazon’s “You bought a $400 pool filter last week. Here are similar $400 pool filters. Would you like to buy another?”

I did eventually figure out I could delete past search items from within Maps’ settings. Still, it’d be easier to swipe the suggestion away from right within Android Auto and be done with it.

All-in-all, I’m happy to have Android Auto, as both Google and Apple’s in-dash solutions still beat even the good carmaker interfaces.

FRUSTRATIONS

This switch hasn’t been without a handful of frustrations. Being at least temporarily all-in on Android, I bought my pre-teen a Nexus 5—his first cellphone.

Sharing apps and games with my boy was easy enough, since I made myself the primary user on his new device. Sharing music was a different story altogether. I’d already created Google Play Music accounts for myself and for my wife using our iTunes library. When I attempted to do the same for my son, I learned you can only move iTunes music into two Google Play Music accounts from a single computer. I understand why this is the case, but I should be able to buy music and share it with my wife and minor children in the same household.

Ultimately, I was able to drag & drop the songs onto my son’s phone from iTunes (like some sort of caveman), but that was hassle compared to uploading directly into his Google Music account from the desktop.

I am somewhat familiar with the Google Play Music Family Plan. I signed up for it, adding my wife & son’s accounts under my own, although it seems to be designed only for those who stream. It looks like any newly-purchased items will be available to all parties, but my existing library is not presented to others in my family.

Something else that’s been tricky to get used to is the different ways some apps handle their settings. Sometimes settings are found behind the three dots menu in the upper right. Sometimes they’re found behind a hamburger menu, which can be on the right or the left. If there’s a rhyme or reason for why different apps make different choices, I haven’t yet found it. The placement of app settings seems completely random. This is not an issue exclusive to Android.

Perhaps the biggest Android frustration I’ve faced—the one which cements an eventual return to my platform of choice—is the difference in app quality between software sold in Google Play vs. Apple’s App Store. The Twitter client situation alone is kind of a deal-breaker. Tweetbot and Twitterrific are gorgeous, actively developed first-screen companions I’ve found irreplaceable.

Overcast is my podcast client of choice on iOS. I find the top clients on Android glitchy, ugly or both. Junecloud’s Deliveries app is a top tool on iOS. The best Android alternative doesn’t hold a candle to it. Same with the Android substitutes for RSS client Reeder, my favorite blackjack trainer, Readdle’s Documents, photo markup app Skitch and so on. Both platforms have all their bases covered. It’s just that apps available on iOS are simply better. Some big name, cross-platform apps even have feature gaps. 1Password, I’m looking your way.

Make no mistake, I know these are highly subjective waters I’ve waded into. Opinions offered here are mine.

The final Android frustration I ran into was one I don’t think would happen on iOS. I was one of those affected by ES File Explorer’s grossly misguided pivot into adware. The unpleasant experience taught me a lesson, however. Don’t just click past the permissions warnings which present when installing new apps. Of course, there have been shady apps on Apple’s App Store, but none I had run into as a regular user.

CONCLUSION

I believe people should use what best works for them and that’s why I’ll be going back to iOS this Fall. I’d likely still recommend Android for those who like theming and tinkering. You can do some amazing things with it. If you prefer a set it and forget it stock experience, iOS is likely more appropriate, but what Google offers out of the box is pretty great, too.

After eight weeks and some money spent, my conclusion is this. You can’t lose. Both Android and iOS are an embarrassment of riches.

Family and coworkers alike still can’t believe “an Apple guy” like me switched to Android. But why not? I love technology and feel great gaining fluency in both of these major offerings. With both Google I/O and WWDC over for the year, things are constantly changing and it’s fun trying to stay on top of it all.

It’s a great time to love this stuff.

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  1. Zero data loss. Robust backups FTW!
  2. I particularly adore the tiny icons in the “Min” set
  3. I picked it up off of Craigslist for $300. I sold my Apple Watch Sport a day earlier for the exact same price.

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