Call Screening - https://support.google.com/phoneapp/answer/9118387?hl=en
Hold for me - https://support.google.com/assistant/answer/10071878?hl=en
They're immensely valuable and I feel Apple is absolutely dumb for having equivalents baked in already. If they did, I'd happily switch over.
Then there are small annoyances like not having the option to enable auto-space after punctuation like commas and periods in messages, even with third-party keyboards like swift keybaord. And not being able to set a separate ringer and alarm volume. I keep my ringer volume very low during the day, but I depend on a loud alarm. Got to work late today as a consequence of this!
I'm already considering switching back to pixel 8 once it releases next month, especially due to the increased support. Only thing holding me back is tensor chips not yet being on par until around 2025 when Google releases its first fully custom chip.
I also really appreciate the network diagnostics you get from an app like NetMonster.
After a week, I do like the Pixel 7. Great camera, snappy interface, solid build.
The battery life so far is disappointing though.
Samsung is probably the worst.
I've been entertaining a theory that the update slowness and little bloat are somehow related - with how slow they're with updates, they probably don't have the time to code up any more bloat either.
That's been true for iOS for years now, although I can't guarantee that all messaging apps support that mode of operation.
What about privacy for notifications when the screen is locked? For example, on android, when my phone is locked, notifications pop up, but you can't see who is calling/texting. Is that the case with iOS?
For instance, when I set my focus to "at work" I may decide to mute all notifications for social media apps and send calls that aren't from my family straight to voice mail. When I'm at home or at the gym, I may want my notification settings to be completely different.
Without that feature the Android notification system is much less flexible.
Instead, I've had to replace it repeatedly: Pixel 3, Pixel 4a, Pixel 5, and now Pixel 6a.
Each model upgrade was a regression in size and weight. The only improvement I liked was in the cameras, but photography-wise they're still only cameraphone snapshot grade, so not a worthwhile upgrade to me. I would've rather been able to keep using the Pixel 3.
I'm looking forward to keeping the Pixel 6a awhile (once the carrier flakiness that coincided with the move the other day settles down).
(Edit: Unless there comes out some local ML model that I want that needs more processing hardware.)
I didn't realize but 147g vs 207g makes for an enormous difference. Also 1-2mm in each dimension and now it can't fit my pockets anymore.
However, Call Screening is now available on iOS 17 (called Live Voicemail)
I've purchased my first iPhone as of a few days ago now that they have that... I'll miss Hold for me, but it's not enough to stop me from the Pixel bugs/hardware issues I've been experiencing. The iPhone 15 is amazing so far!
One thing that's been holding me back, though, is notification management. I love the little app icons at the top and the pull down shade and such. I don't have that much experience with iOS, but it seems notifications work fairly differently. Has that been an issue for you?
On my android device, I never had many notifications as I would manage them and clear them. On iOS, I tend to clear them once a week, and the thought of returning to Android's notification system just seems like a lot of work.
The nice thing is this is on everything that runs ios17, instead of just the latest. Android seems to unnecessarily silo special features into just pixel phones for no apparent hardware reason. Often times you can sideload (with root access typically) the special pixel only features on any phone.
Nothing yet to compare to hold for me, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was coming soon.
Not really. For one, the caller knows that there's someone on the other end reading it live, as opposed to live voicemail where you don't know whether your message will be seen immediately or whenever the other person decides to check their voicemails. Also call screening allows you to prompt follow up questions which you can't do with live voicemail.
Unless you're worried nobody will leave a voicemail (which, I think will change over time as folks know the functionality exists), the ability to pick up if you don't recognize the number... or if someone you do know has something that's extremely urgent. Neither are navigated substanially better with the prompts Google offers.
Situation today: I get a voicemail prompt. If I leave a message it could be read anywhere immediately after I leave it or some unknown time in the future
Situation in the future: I get a voicemail prompt. If I leave a message it could be read as I record it, or some unknown time in the future
Today I'm not really inclined to leave any voicemail because it's unknown if or when it'll be read, and it's more awkward than a call or a text. I'll only leave it if there's literally no other method of communication. I don't see how having a chance that the callee will be reading the voicemail as I leave it will change this.
As it stands the main advantage of call screening is that it makes explicit that someone is on the other line. I'll admit that the advantage of being able to use follow-up prompts isn't really clear (the default prompt of "Go ahead and say your name, and why you are calling" is usually enough).
Everyone now texts first. Or we ring a number when exchanging contacts in person so we know the other person got it and knows it’s real.
If this becomes useful, people will start checking their voicemails and leaving them more often.
For actual personal contacts... a text seems like it would be the easier method 99/100 times and I don't think call screening/live voicemail is better in almost any way for personal contacts. Why add some weird AI-interaction abstraction layer to conversation with your personal contacts?