Comment by dangus | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dangus | Hacker News Reader

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The copying of features isn't one-sided. Both companies have had firsts there: https://www.popsci.com/story/diy/stolen-features-android-app...

When I switched from Android to iOS in 2016, I was shocked at how little was different, and I can only assume gulf has narrowed since then. A lot of features Android users just assume iOS users don't have are there: vendor-agnostic password manager integration, Safari browser extensions, Safari content (ad) blocker API (Chrome is restricting ad-blockers soon!), more complete home screen customization and widgets, lock screen customization and widgets (iOS 16, upcoming), custom third-party keyboards, grouped/customizable notification system, native console wireless controller support from all three consoles.

Features like granular privacy controls and screen recording (with the exception of some obscure Android OEM builds) debuted on iOS first.

I'd be skeptical with anyone declaring either platform "best," I think they're both roughly equivalent.

However, I do think that anyone who uses macOS is insane to go with Android. There are simply too many useful integrations between the platforms to ignore, combined with the fact that, even if the iPhone isn't the best phone, it's usually in the top handful of choices in terms the overall package.

Sometimes it's the little things that matter. The single most used app on all my Android phones I've ever had is Kindle. And one feature that I absolutely demand from any phone is that I can flip pages with volume buttons - when reading for long periods of time, it is much more convenient than swiping with your thumb. On Android, pretty much all the reader apps can do it. But, so far as I know, this is outright impossible to implement in iOS.

Personally, I don't think the OS should ever allow an app to hijack the physical volume buttons or other hardware buttons on a phone. That seems like an avenue for abuse.

(Tip: you can tap the screen on the right side to go to the next page.)

Personally, I think that my phone should be convenient for me to use.

I'm well aware of different ways to swipe pages. The reason why the hardware volume buttons are so convenient for reading is because you just put your thumb on the volume/page down button, and you no longer have to move it at all - only press down slightly every now and then. It's much more ergonomic for long-term reading than having to raise the thumb every time, even to tap.

That seems like a really small benefit at a potentially high cost, at least to me.

You can imagine that someone might create malware or otherwise hostile app that plays a loud/embarrassing sound and hijacks your volume buttons.

Having to lift a finger to turn a page seems like a really small problem in comparison to that one.

Smartphones are general purpose devices and have to make tradeoffs like this all the time. They can't just greenlight every useful function that every type of app might want. IMO if you want an e-reader, get an e-reader.

For example: Let's say I'm a private detective. It might be nice for there to be an app that records audio and video at all times without any visual indication of my phone doing so. However, having that kind of OS level permission available to apps on an app store is probably a bad idea. I'll need to go out and buy a dedicated recording device.

Sure, we can argue about where the line gets drawn. If you like Android for allowing apps to modify hardware buttons, fine. But, I would prefer a device where physical buttons perform consistent functions. A middle ground might be some kind of buttons dedicated toward custom or app functions – but, to me, why bother when the entire screen is a customizable button?

All I can say is that I've been using Android for well over a decade now, and not once have I seen malware that hijacked volume buttons. It might actually be a permission the app has to request - I don't remember.

Either way, this was meant as an illustration of how small factors can affect decisions. I have had an iPhone as my primary phone for a few months, and this one thing was the single biggest issue I had with it at the end of the day - not that there weren't others, and some were actually more annoying when they happen, but this one is at the top because it's something that's constantly in my face. Thus, I'm not going to buy another iPhone for this reason alone; my response to "you're holding it wrong" is "you're making them wrong".

Have a look at GrapheneOS impressive feature list, iOS has some work to do.

iOS’s security was praised by GrapheneOS’s creator many times - I believe according to him the best choices for a secure mobile at the time of writing was GrapheneOS on the latest pixel OR an iphone.

They trade blows in different security features.

iOS still doesn't let you place icons anywhere you want on the home screen, though. It's been fifteen years.

Desktops, and Android, have allowed you to do this for decades.

You mean it forces them to be lined up in a grid? Otherwise, I have no idea what you're on about.

You cannot put an icon anywhere you want on the home screen.

Icons are lined up left to right, in a row.

You need to insert icons inside a row and then all the other icons to its right will be pushed right and/or down.

So you want icons to be able to overlap each other, or be different distances from each other, or what? I'm trying to figure out what exactly you're trying to accomplish. What would be the benefit of totally arbitrary, down-to-the-pixel placement ability?

No, not talking about overlapping.

Just talking about being able to grab an icon and position it anywhere I want on the screen (possibly snapped to a grid).

Right now, icons have to be aligned in rows anchored in the top left corner, so that whenever you insert a new one, all the ones after that get pushed right or down, messing up your entire layout.

We've had this ability on desktops since Windows 3 thirty years ago, and Android has had it since day one. As does macOS. Why not iOS?

I have to admit that I don't understand your use case, but I'd be a hypocrite to denigrate your preference simply because it's not one I would use.

I don't know how else I can describe it, maybe you're so used to it you don't see how limiting it is.

Here is a thread on reddit describing it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ios/comments/r2vs1x/why_cant_you_pu...

There are a few solutions around it, some require a jailbroken iPhone, others use empty widgets to create "fake space".

Why do your icons move around so much? I've added or removed applications from my iPhone and the only limitation I see is that they have to be in a grid with no empty spaces between them. Otherwise the same application icons are in the same place, every day, year after year.

Do you have a screen shot that could illustrate what it is you want to be able to do?

Man... I don't know what's so hard to understand. You put icons on your desktop anywhere you want all the time, don't you?

They're not all stacked up starting at the left corner, are they?

Imagine that all I want is three icons on my home screen, all lined up on the right edge of the screen, where they are easy to reach by my thumb.

You can't do that on iOS.

To answer your question: No, I do not, ever. I don't want shit all over my desktop. I have them auto-arranged in a grid. On Windows they start on the left, on Mac they start on the right. So when I (for example) take a screen shot and it gets deposited on the desktop, I know where it's going to be.

But now that you finally gave a concrete example of what you want to do, I can at least picture it.

Yes, this is a very real downside, but Apple has put effort into making the home screen more customizable than it was. It has an app drawer, it has the ability to add/remove home screens without filling one up first, and it has widgets, the major omissions that Android hasn't been missing for many years.

And, yes, it would be really nice if Apple had a system to install third-party launchers, there's no denying that.

I know this is really silly, but you can definitely workaround the issue and effectively have the same end result as Android if you really want it:

https://iempty.tooliphone.net

Overall, every individual omission from one platform to another is going to be a question of what is important to the buyer.

For some, it might seem ridiculous that, in fifteen years, Apple still doesn't offer a truly customizable home screen. That's a fair criticism. At the same time, it's a fair criticism that it took until 2021 for Google to release a phone that will get 5 years of security and feature updates (Apple never guaranteed this directly, but the iPhone 6S delivered that level of support from when it launched in 2015 until the release of iOS 16 this fall that will drop iPhone 6S support: 7 years of full feature and security updates).

Meanwhile, if you bought a Pixel 3 in 2018, you got your final update this year. I personally think that's downright unacceptable considering the maturity of smartphones when it was released.

The problem with me making comparisons like this is that they'll always seem like a cheap whataboutism, but that's generally how these feature-to-feature comparisons work. For me, in 2016, I saw a situation where Google was not delivering everything I needed in a smartphone, but I also recognize that other people have other needs.

It's not just for cosmetic reasons, there are practical, actual benefits from a user experience standpoint.

For example, I put the apps that I use the most often on the right hand side of the screen, where my thumb can reach them faster. I can't do that on iOS (well, I can, but then any new app I put on the home screen will mess the entire arrangement and I will spend another ten minutes calculating what to insert and where to get all these icons back on the right side of the screen).

I just don't understand how Apple, a company that prides itself on great user experience, is still putting their users through this UX hell fifteen years after the release of the iPhone, and they don't seem to think it's an important feature to add.

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