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Interesting - I've been switching between the two for a while and have the opposite conclusion!

I use 1Password and filling out passwords on iOS is actually better in Safari than it was on Android Chrome. It's not that convoluted at all: share button, hit 1Password, tap the site entry on my password list. Done. By contrast, I had all kinds of issues on Android with the 1Password button not appearing sometimes, or failing at other times (it was an accessibility hack, so I suspect they were doing the best they could)

I also found the Google apps to be of comparable quality. Maps, Play Music and Inbox are all but identical. I'm also quite content to diversify my data a little and depend on Google less. I even switched the iOS default search engine to DuckDuckGo.

And as a last point: Google Photos is available on iOS. And works fantastically.

Wow. As an iPhone user I actually wasn't aware of how easy LastPass is on Android. I, too, hate all of the steps (leave browser to open the app, search for your site, copy password, go back to the browser, paste password). Hopefully I'm missing something?

Re: Google. Their apps are certainly subpar as opposed to Android, which is to be expected. They are getting better, though. And Google Photos is a must for me as an iOS user. I've certainly had issues before as well with iCloud backups of image libraries.

leave browser to open the app, search for your site, copy password, go back to the browser, paste password

In the browser, you can tap the share icon and choose 1Password, this will open 1Password and you can confirm the entry to log in.

Thank you! I've been doing this wrong for YEARS.

Same for Lastpass

Thanks for this! That's a game-changer for Safari-based logins for me.

I believe there is a newer flow that I've caught occasionally. I use 1Password and some apps seems to have a shortcut on password fields for 1password to help fill in the password without going through the manual process.

1Password is nearly as good on iOS as LastPass is on Android. The exception is apps that haven’t been updated to support password managers are still a pain. I really wish Apple would mandate support for them.

Keyschain Access.app works exactly like that. Not sure if it would be easy to migrate from Lastlass, though. I know you can at least script the process.

Well, that could be a dealbreaker, though given this is a taste thing and great browser performance of iOS, I personally don't see it as a problem.

Google Photos is on the App Store. On Mac, you can rsync your photos library with cron or launchctl (~/Documents/Photos.library) or stick with time machine or dozen others file-level or block-level backup tools.

Want to second this and mention that as of iOS 11, the built-in keychain works inside apps. It's also the reason I've switched back to using Safari on the desktop as my default browser. Neither Firefox nor Chrome use the keychain properly (hard to tell whether this is Apple's intent).

Unfortunately, as you point out, you pretty much have to use Google apps to make Android worthwhile. And you're basically opting into massive invasion of your personal privacy by doing that, turning your life into an ad-targeted money tree for Google and the other dozen pre-loaded apps on your typical Android phone. I don't think it's worth it one bit.

Similarly, a lot of the inconveniences you point out (e.g. LastPass), are also a way of protecting you from rogue apps (e.g. Facebook) from tracking everything you do on your phone. That level of integration means that any app can read anything in your browser and operate on it independently of a human action.

And with Apple you use Apple services which no doubt do the same invasion of privacy.

And if you don't want to see ads it's pretty easy, buy apps without ads rather than using ad supported apps.

> Similarly, a lot of the inconveniences you point out (e.g. LastPass), are also a way of protecting you from rogue apps (e.g. Facebook) from tracking everything you do on your phone. That level of integration means that any app can read anything in your browser and operate on it independently of a human action.

This is patently wrong. No rogue Android app has full access from tracking everything on your phone and your browser. There is security in Android, and you can selectively choose whether to enable them for certain features. For example having a custom keyboard is possible to enable the lastpass features, but you have to go and set it to on (the app can't do it). And you get warned that it can have access to what you type (it should it's a password manager). But point is that you have the option, but apps are locked down by default and can't just access everything like you have stated.

I have a hard time believing that any invasions of privacy Apple might be up to are anywhere near as severe as what Google does regularly. They specifically do as much as possible on device — for instance, all AI-based stuff in Photos is done with NNs on your phone itself while it’s charging rather than off in some data center somewhere and they limit data capture to the point that they cripple themselves in some ways (why do you think Siri is so lacking?)

They’re a company like any other and thus not some pristine angel, but I based on what’s visible as an end user and developer I would be shocked if Apple’s data hoovering is anywhere near as egregious as that of Google.

"No doubt"? Um, I think that means you don't know what you're talking about. No, Apple does not invade your privacy with its apps. Please do your research next time before assuming.

Android security is a joke.

https://thehackernews.com/2018/03/android-botnet-malware.htm...

This malware was installed on vanilla phones including those from Samsung, out of the factory.

Regarding LastPass, it used the accessibility option, which as far as I know basically let's it watch your screen - aka it's a full on screen logger.

On top of this most Android devices are way out of date (Samsung in particular is terrible about updating their phones), and vulnerable to security exploits, malware, adware, who knows what.

Good luck to anyone that owns an Android phone. It's like the Windows 95 of mobile devices.

Yes you described LastPass exactly as I said. You need to go and turn it on as accessibility services. You get told anything turned on can see you screen/keys etc. And with that you have control and visibility as you can see what apps you have given permissions vs ones you don't. You make the conscious decision to grant that sort of permission and for that you get a better user experience.

Apple is more like the outdated OS with more features and better user experiences going to Android.

Out of date Android's aren't really the big problem you make it out to be. It just means they really won't the latest apps. They probably just use their phone to call people and are happy with it.

And you're kidding yourself to think there isn't adware/malware for Apple flying around. The number of vulnerabilities and malware does not indicate how secure a platform is but how often hackers are trying. With Android's increased marketshare of course it gets the majority of attempts.

I regret the flame bait in my previous post. I think both platforms have their drawbacks. But I still disagree that Android can be considered more secure. Apple is good at rolling out security updates to all devices as soon as a security vulnerability happens - that doesn't, and can't happen on Android due to fragmentation and reliance on OEMs. Hence my Win95 comment, which had a similar problem.

>Good luck to anyone that owns an Android phone. It's like the Windows 95 of mobile devices.

Haha, wow, this is such an inflammatory comment.

I don't really mind saving $200+ for a phone because I know how to both shop for, and use my phone.

Half of the complaints iOS users have about Android simply come from them being too lazy to avoid the pitfalls that come from having the choice between hundreds of different phones and apps.

But yeah, I mean, have fun with your Eddie Bauer of technology. Glad it "just works" for you.

>Lastpass or any other password manager on iPhone is a joke,

It's pretty seamless for me with 1Password. Maybe it's an issue of Lastpass itself?

There is an issue between iPhone's (8/X) new compression format and storing photos in Google Photo - many sunny photos will end up overexposed and people's faces will have those bright white spots surrounded by orange. (forced switching to sRGB and losing some details)

Separately - the way Apple does image processing and applies noise filtering results in horrible image quality full of noise if there is even a slight hint of low light. Water-color faces surrounded by noise of brown dots.

I cannot believe how people still praise iPhone camera. 5 years ago it was the best I guess. Right now it's just one of many and often quite mediocre in comparison.

Just checked on my iPhone and to log in on a website, it's tap in the field, select the user/pass, login. And on an app, it's tap in the field, tap the key icon, pick the user/pass I want to use, auth with fingerprint, login. [edit: just to say, it's actually tap the key, auth with fingerprint, then pick user/pass -- I reversed the order of auth/pick by mistake.]

I don't understand the convolution? Doesn't seem like an excessive number of steps either.

Am I missing something?

To be fair Lastpass is pretty bad on Android too. At least half the time it won't recognize login dialog, requiring the user to swap between apps and copy + paste. They recently dropped support for Firefox.

Your last two points may be valid, I can't say I use any Google apps other than maps, but iOS has password management built in. When I first logged into an app using face recognition, it was one of those magical "wow" moments.