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Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?

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111–120 of 233 posts

Re: Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?

#111

Termux. https://termux.com I've got an actual userland Linux shell and package ecosystem, with 1,231 available packages (compare against ~6k for Red Hat / CentOS, 70k for Debian), including standard shell tools, editors, and scripting languages, plus several Android-specific tools and APIs. The scripting tools open up broader archives via pip (python), npm (node.js), and cpan (perl). Many of the "Linux" shell and scr…

Man this is really cool thanks

Re: Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?

#113
post #92

By far the best feature for me is DUAL APPS: separate copy of an app that runs absolutely separated from the parent app. This way you can have e.g. two Slacks or two Facebooks or LinkedIns logged into two profiles without endless switching. Other sweet things: support for WireGuard VPN, customizable keyboards (I'm a big fan of "finger slide" typing pioneered by, I think, Swipe), giant Google Calendar widget on the ma…

Isn't dual apps a miui only feature ?

Re: Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?

#115
post #113
post #92

By far the best feature for me is DUAL APPS: separate copy of an app that runs absolutely separated from the parent app. This way you can have e.g. two Slacks or two Facebooks or LinkedIns logged into two profiles without endless switching. Other sweet things: support for WireGuard VPN, customizable keyboards (I'm a big fan of "finger slide" typing pioneered by, I think, Swipe), giant Google Calendar widget on the ma…

Isn't dual apps a miui only feature ?

Samsung has it too.

Re: Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?

#116
- the big one is to have SMS on my computer (with Airdroid). On iOS, you are limited to Apple ecosystem with iMessage. Keep in mind iMessage is way better than Airdroid, but the convenience of being able to receive and send SMS from my Windows desktop trumps the ease of use of iMessage.

- direct file access is useful to transfer things in and out of my Android devices, compared to the dreaded iTunes blackbox.

- there are midrange Android that are way cheaper than iPhones and run anything I need without issue

- side-loading means I can use F-Droid instead of the OS store whenever an app exists there. It also limit planned obsolescence, since I can side-load an older version of an app when the newest version is no longer compatible with a device (I did use that capability recently for a 5+ years old Android tablet, while I'm out of luck for functionning older iPads).

- you can replace the Launcher, and generally customize the UI much more

- recently found out how to block ads at the DNS level.

There are definitely drawbacks, and if not for SMS, I might have stayed on an iPhone.

Re: Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?

#117
post #92

By far the best feature for me is DUAL APPS: separate copy of an app that runs absolutely separated from the parent app. This way you can have e.g. two Slacks or two Facebooks or LinkedIns logged into two profiles without endless switching. Other sweet things: support for WireGuard VPN, customizable keyboards (I'm a big fan of "finger slide" typing pioneered by, I think, Swipe), giant Google Calendar widget on the ma…

iOS supports Wireguard [1]

[1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/wireguard/id1441195209?ls=1

Re: Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?

#118

Let's see up until recently they didn't have a dark mode. You can't switch owners of shared family purchases on an iPhone. You need to rebuy the apps under a new family owner after dissolving the previously family which is not easy or seamless. Plex picture uploads don't work in the background on Apple so you constantly have to take the screen to keep it active. Basically if you like having someone else make all your…

iOS 13 shipping in a couple months (but available now in public beta) adds native swipe-to-type keyboard functionality. As a Microsoft app, the third-party Swype keyboard has been available for years. (Since iOS 7’s custom keyboards if I recall correctly...) The new iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 really brings iOS forward into the future, with downloads available in safari, native USB file management and more. You can even sav…

"Native swipe-to-type keyboard functionality [...] downloads available in safari, native USB file management [...] You can even save video files now."

As someone who hasn't used iOS in years I couldn't immediately tell if you were being sincere or 'damning with faint praise,' ironically pointing out how crippled iOS has been.

Re: Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?

#119

- Widgets on the actual home screen, no swiping required. Every app has widgets (except Skype !), so you can have whichever info you need most right there - true browser, true addons. Unlike iOS, Android doesn't limit 3rd-party browsers to reskins of the OS' Web engine, but allows desktop-like from-the-ground-up browsers. You can get Firefow and put uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger on it. - sideloading w/o rooting. E…

On the flip side, mu iBrother made the transisiton to Android about a year ago. His major pain points were: - no iMessage. It's not particularly good or different compared to whatsapp, Skype, Messenger... but it's not available on Android and people are used to it. - in case of an issue, the solution is brand+model-specific. For some reasons he wanted a Notifications widgets, you get that differently for a Samsung or…

I think the switching cost is the same which ever way. I own a Pixel, and have an iPhone for work. I cannot be bothered to invest any time in learning IOS beyond the basics and generally don't enjoy it. I never really have confidence that my intuitions will be right. Simple things like pressing the big button will exit the app, makes me unproductive. I'm sure if it were my only phone I would be more proficient.

Re: Ask HN: What do you do on an Android phone that cannot be done on an iPhone?

#120

I feel like Android's overall quality in the past couple of years has dramatically improved. Any modern half decent phone will be quite snappy nowadays, and the software has been polished up a lot.

I bought my son a Moto G last year because that was suppose to be a good mid range phone. It was an awful experience - far from snappy. The performance was sluggish. He happily “upgraded” to my old iPhone 6s that was 3 years older and it was a lot faster.

Of course, the iPhone 6S is faster in the same way as a 3 year old 3500$ SSD and top-of-the-line i7 equiped MBP is better than a new 600$ Acer laptop with a magnetic HDD.

What's your point though? If iPhone 6s for its 3-4x the MSRP price wouldn't be better than the low-end Moto G, it would be pretty sad.

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