Have you switched from an Android to an iPhone in the past year or two? Tell me about your experience, especially if you're pretty baked into the Google ecosystem or are otherwise a semi-power user. (If you switched to Android and loved/hated it, tell me about that, too!)
Some patchy context which you're welcome to take into account or skip!
I'm considering switching for privacy reasons and because Apple actively supports iOS for so much longer than Google does Android's OS, but really I'm also just curious. I've run Android phones for the past decade (I've been a Mac user for even longer than that, though I don't use iCloud or other Apple services). Right now I run a Pixel 2XL, which is holding up just fine aside of the no-longer-supported OS.
FWIW, if I don't switch to an iPhone, I'll probably get an older-generation Pixel 4a or 5 when Google starts clearing out their inventory in anticipation of the Pixel 6 launch in October or so. (I'm allergic to bloatware and avoid it like the plague.)
In the past I've tended to run slightly customized setups (i.e. adblocking across the web and apps using Blokada, sideloaded onto my phone, and of course I uninstall all default apps that I don't actually actively use) though I rarely do anything too fancy: I never run custom launchers, don't find many widgets particularly useful, etc. I'd call myself a lazy power user in that I typically know how to do a lot with whatever gadget I'm using but don't actually make use of those capabilities. That said, I'm a little concerned about being reminded of feeling of being hemmed in by Apple's walled garden, even if it doesn't actually affect my day-to-day use.
I use Google Assistant every so often (my phone has Active Edge so I can activate Assistant by squeezing the sides of my phone, but I never let it passively listen in on me by default). I don't have any smarthome devices and don't really use any Android-only apps I'll be sad to lose.
A few other concerns:
1) It seems super easy to switch to an iPhone, but not quite as easy to switch back once you're baked into the whole ecosystem via iCloud, etc.
2) I borrow my partner's iPad Pro every so often, and although it's really nice for watching movies and using as a drawing tablet, I find it somewhat unintuitive. (Like: there's no back button?!) It's not mine, so maybe I'm just not very familiar with it. I know I'll figure out how to use a new iPhone so I'm not concerned about the learning curve so much as the way Google phones tend to be seamlessly intuitive (caveat: for me, by now) and I appreciate that as a design feature.
I'm also tempted because I had a Fitbit for a a few months and really loved the way it allowed me to read texts as they came in without being tethered to a phone, to track my sleep however inaccurately, and to have a rough idea of how many miles I'd walked that day. The idea of having an Apple Watch and AirPods that sync seamlessly to my phone and do a lot more than the basic Fitbit is kind of compelling. (In abstract! In reality, I'm not a busy professional who'd need things like this and in general I like to avoid looking too flashy, so I probably wouldn't actually buy or use an Apple Watch, much as I like to imagine it. AirPods, maybe. Can I use AirPods to have phone conversations while I'm riding my bike without the wind interfering with the audio quality? If so, I'm sold!)
Anyway, there's no tl;dr for this since I'm full of persnickety details, but I'd love to hear what your experience switching was like, especially if you stuck with the new device for a couple of years. Tell me how it went! |
Video
Web
Image
Music
BlogU
