Last time I felt like I bought my first Android smartphone after years of using an iPhone in my arms. In short: the feelings are very mixed, but mostly positive.
Android has really improved a lot in 5-6 years and now it’s not painful or embarrassing to use – the OS is convenient, fast and beautiful (unless, of course, the old color interface is wrapped – sorry).
However, not everything is so smooth. Every country has its pros and cons, and modern Android also has a lot of disadvantages. I would like to immediately note: below I am not just talking about the disadvantages of android in a vacuum, but its subtleties specifically for the past or present. iPhone owner.
1. The application menu is completely inconvenient
He will laugh, but after ten months I still haven’t gotten used to the application menu. And it’s not just its presence or location – I just can’t get the hang of it and quickly find the icon I need.
It would seem that in iOS all the icons are square, and in Android they are round, a big difference! But no, I really get lost in the application menu. The icons look somehow… the same, or something. Sometimes it comes to a stupid situation when I stare at the application I need and cannot understand that I have already found it.
Some Android icons are indeed very similar to each other, especially when it comes to Google’s own applications. See for yourself:
This can probably be solved by using an external icon pack to suit your taste. But there are two problems here: firstly, additional sets almost always “do not contain” all the necessary icons, which is why the menu turns out to be inconsistent. And secondly, I just like the standard round icons in terms of design.
Vicious circle.
2. How to turn off Wi-Fi in this vessel?!
Particular attention should be paid to the connection disconnect button in the top “curtain”. It’s hard to imagine what state the person who invented it was in, but there is no logic here at all.
What is the name of the “curtain”? Menu fast access.
Is it possible to have the following algorithm − open the curtain, press the Internet button, turn off the toggle switch — Call it quick access? There are some suggestions. Moreover, at first a person may not even understand that he needs to press this button and will look for a classic Wi-Fi point.
We count the taps for standard disconnection of communication: 1 “Settings” → 2 “Network and Internet” → 3 “Internet” → 4 Wi-Fi toggle switch. Click on the operator (5) and turn on the cellular connection. Well, through the settings it’s really longer.
Why couldn’t you disable the network in one tap, like in iOS? The question is rhetorical.
3. The “Back” gesture is simply mind-boggling
In the previous text, I praised Android gestures for their prevalence with iPhone gestures, but now I’ll scold them a little – for what many actually like. We are talking about a “back” gesture from the other side of the screen.
iOS has a reinforced concrete logic: if you want to go back, you do the obvious swipe from left to right, as if in the previous screen. Go back one step back gesture from right to left Oddly enough, but in android it is. Yes, it seems comfortable under your fingers, but after iOS the illogical direction of the gesture simply breaks your brain.
Perhaps you can get used to this switch if you don’t use iOS and Android at the same time. But that’s what I do, so the backward gesture from the right edge of the display still puzzles me. It also sometimes works when you need to scroll through some horizontal list.
4. Search on Google, I don’t need you
This is more likely a problem of a specific launcher or seller than the OS as a whole, but still: Pixel counts reference android, so let’s give him a little more help.
Google, why can’t I remove the search bar from my home screen? Is this an attempt to dominate, to assert myself in my opinion? In less than a year I have used exactly never; at the same time, it constantly approaches either under the index finger or under the lower part of the palm when you reach for the upper edge of the screen.
The trend towards aggressive marketing in general should take into account the interests of not only Android owners. No, Google, I didn’t switch to your search engine just because it constantly flickers under my finger. Most likely I’ll go to the seller.
5. Widgets are no longer me
To be honest, when I bought the green robot, I naively recalled the old days of Android 4.4 Kit Kat and expected much more from widgets. I sweetly imagined what interactive masterpieces awaited me in the Tinkoff, Binance, Yandex, Telegram and other applications.
And what do I see? “Get gas with cashback” in Tinka, six options for traffic jams in Yandex Maps, four useless contact icons in a telegram.
This is all as stuffy, inarticulate and useless as possible. Moreover, many applications do not have widgets at all! There are other widgets for iOS, but almost none for Android.
No matter how far Android has come, in terms of widgets it has suddenly blown Apple away.
6. On Android it’s too bright and too loud for me
I want to return a little to the quick access curtain and again about it you were fast. On the first evening, I didn’t even immediately understand what was going on, what I was missing in Pixel 4. And then I realized – slider view!
Surprisingly, he is not in the curtain at all. How did this happen? I know that other sellers are tightening up the volume control on the control panel, but I don’t understand why I can’t reduce the volume in the “reference” Android without pressing a button.
The same goes for adjustment adjustment. By a lucky coincidence, they forgot to cut this slider out of the curtain, but at the same time they stuffed it into the second access level – that is, you first need to swipe the screen down to see the panel, and then swipe again to see the brightness adjustment. Brilliant solution!
By the way, I still managed to get out of the level of view. When my wife spits next to me and I press the discomfort button, I open the curtain, tap on the name of the headphones and there I set the desired level.
Convenient and fast (No).
7. iPhone cases are much more affordable
I understand that the problem primarily concerns my rare smartphone, but I suspect that I am not alone. As a result, with any iPhone model, even the most popular Galaxy M100500 or Mate 150 Pro Mega Extra will be much less known and popular – which means you’ll be looking for accessories for it.
Using the iPhone 11, I’m used to seeing cases literally all around it and costing pennies on them – at the same WB you can get cases from 49 rubles. But when I tried to find a decent case for an Android smartphone, I was seriously disappointed: even on AliExpress there are not that many of them, but in the Russian Federation there are absolutely nothing. Moreover, everything that looks more or less passable starts at 500 rubles.
In the end, I finally found a good case for the Pixel 4 on AliExpress, ordered it, and go with it. 350 rubles. And for an iPhone, exactly the same thing costs 80 rubles, although the iPhone itself is a much more expensive smartphone. Anomaly.
I’m generally silent about protective glasses.
8. Third-party Android software is visually worse
I was very surprised by the zoo of designs and designs that are present in Android software. Moreover, beautiful and minimalistic iOS applications in the Android version look like garbage. The simplest example is Telegram.
For several months I could not calmly look at the Android version of the telegram – it looks so awkward. At the moment, it’s “familiar”, plus I’ve finally built a beautiful design that’s pleasing to me.
But by default external Telegram seriously injured my applesauce. And the difficult item is the classic “three stripes” menu, opened by swiping from the edge: why is it still there in Android, where the same gesture takes a step back, but in other applications it has long been moved down?
This applies to many components of Android applications. The feeling of minimalism, aesthetics and composure of Android 13 falls apart when you start downloading software from the Play Store – there is practically no simple design code there.
I understand everything: freedom and openness, but it’s simply impossible not to compare the appearance of applications with iOS, it happens automatically in your head.
9. Google Photos Are a Terrible Photo Storage Solution
Lastly, I left a question with the gallery-media library on Android, which is still open for me.
Until I bought the Pixel, I couldn’t even imagine how awkward and inconvenient the Google Photo utility is. Naively, I think it could be simpler – make a simple and convenient native gallery! It turned out that this was an impossible problem for Google.
I have more complaints and questions about Google Photo than it currently has about my photos:
• Where is the single feed of all the images on the phone?
• Why do pictures from Telegram and WhatsApp fly around in archives?
• How can I see my screenshots without taking five steps back in the application?
• Why, after any edits to a smartphone, is the edited version categorically saved as a prosthesis?
• Where is the single feed of all photos? Oh yes, I already thought that.
Google Photos is so inconvenient that I just don’t want to open it again. Another application every now and then begs you to turn on synchronization in the cloud – and you have to periodically close the internal sign. The saddest thing is that I didn’t find any more worthy alternatives in the Play Store either.
Apple must have really spoiled me. Although her “Media Library” doesn’t offer anything supernatural, I don’t even use iCloud synchronization in it.
We need to calm down and get used to it. There are no other options
Despite all this, Android for me – let me remind you that I like to use the 13th rating. Most likely, parts of the world’s countries will not be on smartphones of other brands, but I categorically cannot stand Chinese and Korean shells, so it was rather a waste of time.
If you have always used Android, then, in my opinion, there are already obstacles to righteous anger, and weaken it slightly in time to get to the comments. However, in contrast to iOS and iPhone, all of the above is not just annoying in the first couple of days – after a year it seems strange to me, and I’m unlikely to get used to the future.
Which, by the way, won’t hurt if necessary to completely switch to a “green robot”.
Source: Iphones RU
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
