Switching from an iPhone to Pixel or iOS to Android.
Itβs spring! π·πΈπ»βοΈππΌπΊπΎππ
Why
So I recently decided that I was sick of Apple continually raising the cost of their products and that I was sick of not being able to take advantage of a more flexible ecosystem.
The base price of the recent iPhone X is $1000. In our existing environment where income inequality is at an all-time high, this base price speaks volume as to who exactly Appleβs target consumers are – a tiny affluent portion of the overall population.
And frankly, yes – this could work fine for Apple, but I donβt believe it to be a sustainable model. I used to think of Apple as this sort of eccentric company catering to those who saw themselves as different and happened to be proud of that. I remember getting my first MacBook Pro in 2009 and how a whole new creative world opened up for me in how I interacted with their ecosystem and the many products that only their ecosystem was able to support.
But alas, this is no longer the case. When I think of Apple now, I see this arrogant, corporate heavy, cater to the wealthy only type company. I no longer see leading products coming out of this company, and while I have been an Apple fan-girl for nearly ten years, Iβve decided itβs time to move the fuck on to bigger and better things.
While another company has been able to provide what I want for a phone, there hasnβt been a company yet that has been able to provide what I want from a laptop (Apple included).
Ideally, Google will come out with a better PixelBook that supports more of the programs Iβve grown to know and love that unfortunately only work on macOS or Windows (I donβt want to work with Windows) as of right now.
The main reason is that Googleβs desktop operating system is ChromeOS and ChromeOS is a wrapper for a bunch of web-based apps. Now, this is one of the aspects I think makes ChromeOS great.
Because when you look at most of the tools, we use on a daily basis (unless youβre a hardcore video editor, but even that could change soon), we are using our browser to access them. Google realized this early on and centered their entire OS around this idea. Discord, 1Password, Slack, Grammarly, calendar, email, notes, presentation software, Spotify, etc. – a lot of apps I use daily are are all capable of running on the web without sacrificing feature access. Being web-based, I feel, is the future of OS.
However, a lot of great dev apps that I depend on have also not adopted this cross-platform/web model that allows the developers to create the app once. While many platforms work both on the web and across all dominant OS, there are still a few that work solely on macOS (e.g., Sketch, fantastic productivity tools like Alfred, GUI clients for GitHub).
So anywho, with that little rant as context, I decided in November of last year to make that first switch and go from iOS to Android.
AND let me tell you – the results have been GREAT.
How
The main thing though that folks want to know when making the switch is which apps will replace those built-in ones they love so much from iOS.
FYI, all these Google-based apps are smarter than the Apple based ones since they directly feed off all the information you provide Google through search.
So letβs go through these switches one-by-one!
Pro Tip: UseΒ Homebrew-CaskΒ to install the desktop apps easily.
Books
iBooks ππ½οΈ Google Play Books
Unlike iBooks,Β Google Play BooksΒ can serve you as an offline-first web app that is also wholly cross-platform with Android & iOS options.
βΉοΈΒ FYIΒ If you need help finding out where your ePub/PDF files are from iBooks, this Stack Overflow answer forΒ Where are my iBooks stored in macOS Sierra?Β will become quite handy.
Browser
Safari ππ½οΈ Chrome
If youβre a developer, most folks recommend usingΒ ChromeΒ and frankly Iβve used Chrome for the longest time now so I canβt even offer any arguments for why other browsers might be better.
Chrome & theirΒ DevToolsΒ have always just worked great for me.
But I still use Safari for the one thing Chrome has yet to offer which isΒ PiP or Picture-in-Picture.
Unfortunately, the current solutions for ChromeΒ are quite dismal.
Iβve triedΒ HeliumΒ but thatβs just a separate browser, so it doesnβt seem that useful to me.
My sister uses Safari because she thinks the UI is cleaner which doesnβt make sense to me but itβs okay Rosi – you do you. π
Calendar
Apple Calendar ππ½οΈ Google Calendar
If youβre a developer, most folks recommend usingΒ ChromeΒ and frankly Iβve used Chrome for the longest time now so I canβt even offer any arguments for why other browsers might be better.
Chrome & theirΒ DevToolsΒ have always just worked great for me.
But I still use Safari for the one thing Chrome has yet to offer which isΒ PiP or Picture-in-Picture.
Unfortunately, the current solutions for ChromeΒ are quite dismal.
Iβve triedΒ HeliumΒ but thatβs just a separate browser, so it doesnβt seem that useful to me.
My sister uses Safari because she thinks the UI is cleaner which doesnβt make sense to me but itβs okay Rosi – you do you. π
Calendar
Apple Calendar ππ½οΈ Google Calendar
Google Calendar is excellent of course and utterly cross-platform with integrations in Google Inbox & Google Keep, but it doesnβt work with other email providers like Outlook.
Unfortunately, I use Outlook for work so for the time being; I use Fantastical whenever Iβm on my Mac.
Whenever Iβm on the go, I ignore work related stuff and use Google Calendar which has everything else I need (lol).
Mail ππ½οΈ Google Inbox
File Transfer
AirDrop ππ½ Portal by Pushbullet
Not going to lie to you, AirDrop is neato. I still use it sometimes to transfer files from my Mac to other peopleβs Macs.
However, a bummer about AirDrop is that it only works with Appleβs ecosystem of devices.
WithΒ Portal, you need to have the app downloaded on the devices you want files transferred to similar to how
Fitness
Health ππ½οΈ Export Health Data ππ½οΈ Google Fit
I think youβre probably starting to see the same pattern, but yes basically, Google Fit is excellent in that it alsoΒ offers a web versionΒ of all the fitness data they collect.
Try not to judge my lack of activity – my phone doesnβt track everything. ποΈ
Money
Wallet ππ½οΈ Google Pay
Music
iTunes ππ½οΈ Spotify, Google Play Music
Appleβs music infrastructure is very elite and has a loyal fan base (e.g., my siblings). However, what makesΒ Google Play MusicΒ quite valuable is their association with YouTube.
Because YouTube is by far the most popular video streaming sites in the world, Google Play Music havingΒ YouTube RedΒ as part of the subscription package is a huge plus.
I would have switched to Google Play Music a while ago, but I pay less with Spotify Premium (students) as of now. Once my partner and I are more settled down, we will probably switch to that though with an unlimited subscription.
Navigation
Apple Maps ππ½οΈ Google Maps, Waze
Okay – IMO – if you were ever using Apple Maps, I have nothing to say to you except wow, that makes no sense at all. My sister uses Apple Maps still for some arbitrary reason, and I mock her for it all the time. Rosi, if youβre reading this, I donβt feel a shred of empathy. π
I donβt drive anymore because frankly, driving is super scary but if Iβm helping someone navigate, I prefer to useΒ WazeΒ where Iβm royalty. ποΈ
However, a plus that Googles offer (haha) is that you can level up as aΒ Local Guide contributor and get some sweet prizes. Iβm still on Level 5.
News
Apple News ππ½οΈ Google Play Newsstand, Subscription
Initially, I was pretty fine with using Google Play Newsstand which is entirely cross-platform, unlike Apple News.
Apple News is literally just supported on iOS while Google Play Newsstand is supported byΒ iOS,Β AndroidΒ &Β Web.
However, I realized after some time that I like the quality of news I get fromΒ The New York TimesΒ so I subscribed. π°οΈ
Regardless, when are more companies going to realize that the web is the future of mobile & OS anyways?
Notes
Notes ππ½οΈ Google Keep
As I mentioned before, Google KeepΒ integrates wellΒ with Google Inbox & Google Calendar.
You can even copy your notes to Google Doc as shown in the GIF above.
HOWEVER. For me, it doesnβt have a UI right now that supports long form notes which is the reason why I mostly used Notes.
Quick jots for me were always created as reminders or soon turned into more extended notes.
There are a lot of note taking options honestly with notable ones beingΒ Evernote,Β QuipΒ &Β Notion.
I used to love using Quip, but Iβve since switched to just using Notion for any note-taking since it integrates well with Slack and has a better UX.
For now, Notion supports web and iOS, but I expect that to change soon.
Photos
iCloud Photos ππ½οΈ Google Photos
Unlimited storage and a 10x better UI than Apple Photos? I was already using Google to store photosΒ way beforeΒ the switch.
Reminders
Reminders ππ½οΈ Google Keep
Hmmm. The transition here is where things got a little hairy. The reason I liked usingΒ RemindersΒ so much is that it was very simplistic and integrated with my favorite calendar desktop app –Β Fantastical.
However, the reality is there are some great reminder options out there now likeΒ TodoistΒ andΒ Microsoftβs To-DoΒ (they acquiredΒ Wunderlist) so this isnβt a big deal.
I use Todoist, and all my reminders integrate right into my Google Calendar which in turn works swimmingly with every significant calendar desktop app worth a damn like Fantastical orΒ BusyCal.
SMS
iMessages ππ½οΈ Google Allo, Android Messages
Things are quite fishy here. Google has way too many apps for messaging (Google Hangouts,Β Google AlloΒ &Β Android Messages) and it rightfully confuses consumers who interact with them.
Granted, you wonβt get Animoji but Allo is more cross-platform than Apple Messages by working on both Android & iOSΒ as wellΒ as the web.
Unfortunately, itβs been hard to convince everyone I text to use Allo with me, so Iβve had to stick with Android Messages.
Video
FaceTime ππ½οΈ Google Duo
As I said before, Googleβs communication offerings can confuse consumers and they need to still work on centralizing everything into one platform.
For professional stuff, I prefer to useΒ Daily.coΒ but of course for personal calls, you canβt go wrong withΒ Google DuoΒ which is supported by both Android & iOS.
InΒ January of this year, the Duo team teased that Duo would be coming to the web soon but who the hell knows?
But yes, ideally, Duo becomes even more cross-platform because then it could compete with FaceTime even better.