Apple. I want nothing to do with a closed ecosystem and I loathe how central AppleID is to absolutely everything.
I have fdroid and a few custom apks that wouldn't be available on their store, so those would be hooped as well.
Apple and I have very different notions of what it means to own something.
Honestly, just navigating the phone is a giant pain in the ass. I bought my wife an iPad and finding basic settings or locating an app is a nightmare. Any time she needs help with it I feel like I'm pulling teeth.
This is part of it for me. Apple decides how a device should be used and you have to learn a new "intuitive" interface that is unlike every other computer device.
They have streamlined everything to the point that you can't deviate from their use flow and it drives me insane trying to do a task in an alternative way from how they envision it being done.
Android is like using a computer, IOS is like using a computer of you have never used one.
The back button being top left still baffles me to this day. Let's put it in the most hard to reach spot.
I don’t really get this. As an android user since 2009 and the evolution of android os I am now for the last year an iOS user, and the interface is the same as it was for me and my last phone. Swipe up to get to the Home Screen, long hold to see tabs running and swipe from the left to center to go back. Is this because my last phone was an LG?
The first thing I do on any new android is disable gesture navigation.
Ah ok. I honestly hate how much I love my iPhone. Its my wife’s late mothers phone and I took it kind of as a gag so I could FaceTime my family and then I figured I would go back to my LG. But damn i get day and a half to 2 days of battery life and the pictures are way better. The iOS lets me hide all my apps which is something I always hated about iPhones and there are widgets. If I could only disable the photos and maps app this phone would be mint.
Firefox with ublock and a normal engine
Newpipe for downloading stuff off YT
OSMand for offline navigation
f-droid for foss software
Rethink to carefully ban everything that doesn't need internet from connecting
a phone with a nice amoled screen and all-day quickcharging battery that costs 180€ (motorola g52)
not one ad anywhere
a better question is, why would I want anything else? An iphone seems like a sharp downgrade.
Just fyi: OSMand is available on iOS.
I know, and the last time I saw it it was just complete buggy shit with a different UI and nowhere near feature parity.
It continues to be buggy shit. I tried switching from Google Maps to OSMAnd on iOS and didn’t last a week
not one ad anywhere
iPhone doesn’t have ads
If you go to a website in a browser it has ads, yeah?
Cuz FF with ublock origin prevents that on Android but i don't believe that's an option on iPhone
we have AdGuard that works just as well
Oh, in safari?
Yup
Neat, I had no idea it allows that now
I’m an iPhone beetch but I DEFINITELY would be so happy to have uBlock. There’s some stuff like AdGuard and Wipr but uBlock Origin is undefeated.
Wipr is also dope! I think AdGuard works better, though.
The web does without ublock origin.
Ublock origin isn’t the only adblocker, duh
I know that and you can keep the others. Take also the new chrome version of ublock origin for manifest v3
I wouldn't buy a car that could only drive on roads approved by the maker, so same goes for phone.
Preference.
My dealbreakers:
No proper file management on iPhones.
No sideloading allowed on iPhones.
No playing back local music files without doing the cumbersome syncing through iTunes on iPhones.
No headphone jack, no MicroSD slot, huge storage markups on iPhones.
I love my iPhone BUT I would LOVE to be able to drag and drop FLACs and MP3s to it… the only reason I have iTunes is for the zero effort full image backup…. But I also hafta use it to put my music on my phone. D:
every time I have to use anything apple related, I'm instantly annoyed by the horrible user experience
Paying 20% - 40% more for dumbed-down OS that limits what software I can use. I mean literally any one of those alone is a deal breaker. It was never gonna work.
If they had full support for side loading, and supported the thunderbolt standard I feel most of my hardware problems could be solved with a type c case that's adds it a headphone jack and SD card slot
My list of problems:
Too expensive, no 3.5 mm Headphone jack, no expandable storage, lack of foss apps and stores like f-droid, and the lack freedom to install and do what I want with the device I payed for.
To be fair most android phones fit this description also.
proper adblocking with AdAway
ability to patch official apps to remove ads and improve the usability with ReVanced
being able to root the device and use HttpToolkit to analyze the data that flows from apps to the web
extensive customization (I can choose my own launcher and keyboard application)
proper file management, especially with Total Commander
watching Dolby Vision .mkv files with mpv
price (iPhones are all way too expensive)
Apple's stance against repairability
And this point is more hardware-related, but I've started to really love my Nothing Phone and its LED lights on the back, which produces amazing photos because the light is much softer than the small flash used by other phones. There isn't a single Apple device with a feature like this. You could probably get a case, but it's nice to have this integrated into the phone.
This guy phones
iOS is trash. Simple as that, my parents have iPhones and I'm like 'oh you can just do X', then I go to look, get lost in menus, then find out the basic feature doesnt even exist. I can't sideload apps, I can't customise my UI, it's just incredibly limiting. iPhones are for basics, calls, texts, web browsing. If you wanna do anything else you are better off with an Android.
User error
In all seriousness, the biggest benefit of apple products is that the user experience just does not change over time. They are very conservative with the changes they do make, even though they will hype them up as the next big revolution in computing. It just seems arcane to you because you aren't used to it. Apple is great for old people because things stay the same forever
Edit: I reread your comment and realized I completely misunderstood you. Yeah, apple is super behind and is lacking basic features for the reason I just mentioned. For a while you couldn't even copy/paste on the iPhone. Really dumb imho. But the good thing is that things look the same forever, so you never have to be confused by your phone's layout changing when you get a new phone.
Sideloading apps
Paying x4 times the price for a device
I don't like Apples attitude. And I want control of my own phone, not just whatever crumbs Apple will allow me.
Apple's walled garden is anti-consumer, anti-developer, and pretty much anti-everyone-but-apple.
It just doesn't make sense to me to use or develop for Apple under those conditions.
Why would I pay more than 3 times more for a Brick, that gives me less freedom to do what I want and doesn't have app support and features I require.
I feel like I'm using a toy phone I bought for a 7 year old.
File level access to files. I would love to have the option of moving files in folders and connecting it to a PC to drag and drop files.
True multi tasking.
Ability to install apps from other sources.
I'm used to Android
I enjoy using apps from F-Droid
A central nervous system
Much like many of the iPhone users when you asked the converse question, it's not so much that something is stopping me, but that I have no interest in it. I don't see any benefits that I care about, and it would cost time and money to switch.
Let's pretend for a moment that I did have some desire to switch, perhaps due to some new hardware from Apple or changes to Android I found unpalatable. Here are some things I'd consider major barriers:
Sideloading - I want to install stuff without permission from the hardware or OS vendor. Maybe I'll even write a niche app without asking permission.
Administrative access - I have root on my Android phone, and I didn't have to fight it to gain root (I know that's not true of every device). If I don't have root or can't get it easily, it's not really mine.
That's... basically it, but those are big things and Apple's position on them is so opposite mine that they're risking severe sanctions from the EU to comply with the EU's sideloading regulations in the most useless way they can.
I'm a developer and android is more friendly to developers, i have more control over my device. I can use any browser without being stuck with Safari. If i don't like my phone i can choose from many more manufacturers without losing my apps and subscriptions.
I think most of all i have problem with Apples culture, their smugness and acting like they invented everything. I don't think I'm their target audience.
Battery life. Forced ecosystem. Lack of options. Apple watches suck. I love my s pen. I can watch YouTube for free with no ads. The refusal to integrate the messaging system compatibility. How they refused to move to usb-c until they were literally forced to by Europe. Spearheading the removal of audio Jack's and micro USB slots.
I dislike Apple as a company. I'm still miffed that Bill Gates bailed Apple out and saved them from bankruptcy in the 1990's. All he asked was that they would be more charitable if they got back on their feet. They obviously did that, but then proceeded to continue being one of the least charitable companies in the fortune 100.
Then there was the crap with forcing an update to underclock their iPhones in order to hide hardware issues causing reboots from their still under warranty batteries failing to provide enough voltage to supply the apu. Or the time when they told customers they were holding their phones wrong when they designed the antennas in a way that would kill their reception if part of your hand was on the side of the phone.
All of that I feel you on these points, but it seems like the iPhone nowadays has better battery life than a lot of phones. Not all of them obviously, but a fair amount.
That's just it though. It's may have a better battery than many phones, but there are still other options that handily beat iPhone if you want that feature.
I've been forced to use iOS for my work phone and it is absolute dog shit... it feels like Android from 10+ years ago. The lack of customization and dumbass work flows drive me crazy every day.
So many screens in different apps. make you reach way to one corner or the other to go back a screen. In Android, back is one motion that can be done anywhere from any edge. And that behaves consistently across every app. In iOS some apps behave differently, even the same app with a different screen will handle the same gesture differently. It's an absolute shit show.
Want to open my app list, I just swipe up from anywhere on my screen. Want my notifications, swipe down from anywhere on my screen. In iOS I have to perfectly hit the top edge and slowly drag it down.
There are plenty of other reasons.
Access to the filesystem. Wtf! Lmao. I download a PDF and can't just open it? I have to basically share it with the app, it's so dumb.
Split screening apps.
Complete lack of customization. The launcher is ass.
Horrible keyboard and the one I like, SwiftKey is completely neutered and lacks the customization of Android. And some apps will use the apple keyboard even though I changed it to use Swiftkey. Again, no consistency.
Messages will pop a notification then when I open the messenger app they are not there. I can read the message in the notification area, but there is a period of time that it doesn't display in the actual app. Lmao. Dog shit.
Many, many other things.
Apps and services dying to backgrounding like the hotspot for one will just stop working after a certain amount of time.
Want to know how I change my brightness in Android? I just slide across the status bar in any app on any screen.
When I want to turn my flashlight on, all I do is hold my power button down for 3 seconds. Don't have to turn my screen on and click anything.
So many things. The settings in iOS are also a joke and the way they are organized, I just hate everything about it. It feels like I'm running Android from 2010 with less customization.
Basically iOS is complete ass.
Thorough and many good points.
I think sandboxing the filesystem by default is a good security measure. For Android it makes sense since you can sideload an app and that always carries risks. I think it can be improved on the UX side without compromising much on security but that is not my expertise. And note that I have not used iOS devices in ages too so I don't know how they handle the filesystem now.
I've owned apple devices in the past. The thing I hate most is the ecosystem, it's so limited and simple to the point of frustration. They are missing basic features and customization options. Apple has the worst settings menu of any device I've ever used. If that wasn't bad enough the devices are incredibly over priced.
The phones being worse than the ones I prefer to use.
Like, they’re objectively less functional devices. I can’t pretend the features drops for every new model/OS aren’t just things android has has for years.
Open source.
F Droid
Running mull, ad blocker, newpipe
I want to own my phone.
Actually being the owner of my phone. Apple decides everything for their users and allows them little freedom. I want to be able to put random apps on my phone, including maybe even my own.
Price. Shit's expensive. I now got a Pixel 8 for less than 500 euro's. Before that I had phones around the 300 euro price range.
Their ecosystem. They try to lure you into an everything Apple ecosystem. Stuff like iMessage is horrible for consumers. With an Android phone I have choice of apps, smart watch, earbuds, etc. Apple will always try to force you into buying their fancy but expensive things.
No benefit, there's plenty of cool Android phones.
Etc etc.
Apple, with its love of walled gardens with no keys
I want to be the owner. <--- see the period there?
Notification light. Repairability (I can practically op this thing open like the hood of a car). Far cheaper options. Headphone jack. Side loading. Fingerprint sensor. Dedicated shutter and focus button. Non proprietary charger that isn't terrible. Emulators. Firefox plus adblocker. Customisability (least important for me honestly).
I am just happy that I have options. I can do whatever I want with this hardware. I own this device and have complete freedom. I work in repair and I am thoroughly aware of apple's anti-consumer practices and it disgusts me. I could never buy a device from apple out of principle.
It sickens me when I have to tell customers "your totally repairable device is fucked because apple makes it arbitrarily impossible to repair.". It makes me even sadder when they just buy another apple device, rewarding them for their behaviour.
Can't have the wifi and hotspot on and the same time
Can't record calls
Can't make homepage icons small
Can't remove the default keyboard
Worse apps
The biggest issue is Apple and their closed ecosystem. I can modify, remove, or disable most of the apps and settings I don't like on an Android phone. I can even load a different OS if I want. With Apple most of that isn't even possible.
I used to use a Macbook daily before I got a Windows laptop.
The way Apple designs their products is akin to how parents treat their toddlers. You aren't allowed to do anything that Apple hasn't graciously allowed you to without painful workarounds or loopholes. Plus, whereas Android and Windows have janky solutions that still work, Apple refuses to implement something unless the masses can use it. The result is that Apple's software is years behind, and there is very little you can do about it.
Needless to say, after a few years, I just installed Windows on that Macbook, and eventually I got fed up with the bad drivers and got an HP Spectre instead.
Which is ironic since macOS is much more modifiable than windows
Ahahaha!
I am using it for work for last two years and I can say that I never worked on worse O/S. Even Gnome shell is more customizable than MacOS' GUI.
Can you turn on natural scrolling for a touchpad and disable it for a mouse on MacOS (without using external apps)? Can you work with two or more monitors with multiple spaces without going mad? Is there even basic focus stealing prevention?
Surely the other way around ?
But why ?
Lack of choice
Lack of stylus
Lack of app stores and side loading
Lack of customisaistion
Shitty Apple policies
Plenty of useful apps that cannot run on iOS. Mostly Termux and SDR-related apps (rtl_tcp server, SDR++, SatDump, Welle.io, SDRAngel, Dump1090,...)
I can run full-on desktop in Termux and access it via VNC server. I can also access it via SSH server. I can run a web server, HTTP proxy server, Kiwix server, Navidrome server, Jellyfin server, port-forward using socat. And that's just what I use or tried. In the past there was someone on Reddit running a public BBS server on an Android phone in Termux.
There's likely many other apps I use not available on iOS.
So if I'll be switching to a different platform, maybe PinePhone running Arch Linux with Plasma mobile? Probably only as a secondary phone for now though.
iPhones are too close to feature phones for me. Best thing they can run is probably a browser.
I have a really, really hard time navigating an iPhone. Whenever I take my girlfriend's phone, I'm lost. Their type of ergonomics doesn't fit my needs.
im constantly asking her where the back button is
Me in the 90s as a kid. My uncle had a Mac. One button on the mouse. I'm like wtf is this? Two buttons too complicated? Never looked back.
Same!
Same thing the other way around. It depends on what you're used to.
I agree.
The question is framed such that it implies an iPhone to be the better choice. Most people don't even consider switching to iPhone because it typically is a lot of effort for the average person who already has an Android. IOS has worse app support, it is more restrictive, with fewer features than Android typically has. Many people stick with what they have because it is what they are used to.
I personally don't use an iPhone because I use root and terminal tools often which aren't available on iOS and also don't want that Apple spyware in my life.
I had an ipad pro and it was an awful experience for me. Lack of customizations I deem normal, lack of real choice, limitations at every step. The walled garden felt hostile to me, the user.
I sold it and got a Samsung tablet instead and it's been perfect. The only thing missing is procreate, but I have alternatives that do 99% of what I wanted.
Simple. I don't want to. I like android phones. Do I need another reason?
Hate how they handle photos. You can't easily download your pictures like with Android you can just plug your phone into the computer and it becomes a hard drive you can mount and download them.
This is factually wrong and I just tested it to make sure. When I plug my iPhone into my windows laptop I get a pop on the screen that asks me if I want to let the computer access my phone and then windows pops up the internal iPhone folder with all my pictures in it.
on my android, I can install any os I want, install apps from anywhere, not just the app store
android gives me more options with hardware, from 200 to 2000 dollars
If I pay for something, I want to do whatever the fuck I want with it, so a big NO for apple devices.
More expensive. Less (no?) emulator support. Inertia. Don't care for apple interfaces or ecosystem much.
At this point you'd have to shoot me to go back to a junk drawer of apps. I like my alphabetical list on Niagara.
My mom doesn't have her apps organized at all on her iPhone. I dread having to use it for any reason because it takes me a couple minutes to find what I'm looking for.
I have tried Apple products before (2 iPods as gifts). All the good memories I have are from pirating them, the bad ones are from the base operation of the products. An Apple product on its own is a terrible experience. Only together with other products of the same brand is it worth it. But to achieve that you have to pawn your whole life and almost join a cult.
Besides, I'm not willing to pay a crazy amount of money for a device that does what my current phone already does but better (for my needs).
I have no reason to switch. Android is generally better and upper-end android phones are much better.
I categorically refuse to use anything made by Apple.
Apple products are terrible and overpriced. I don't understand why anyone would ever use one.
And that's been true since before the year 2000.
There are some truly great apple products, so I don't think it's fair to dismiss them all as terrible. But they are overpriced across the board. They also have a habit of anti-consumer practices like giving you a worse experience if you don't exclusively use apple products.
Choosing my own default apps, getting apps from other locations (like F-droid), adblockers. Those are the big ones.
YouTube Vanced and Red Reader
money
I do not want to support a trillion dollar company that makes it impossible to repair my own stuff.
Can't run GrapheneOS.
I only use FOSS
With a de-googled custom rom like LineageOS, I'm not forced to choose between 2 mega corps.
Who's phone did you buy and what stock OS was on it?
You chose.
It's a Motorola and you know what I meant. In either case, I haven't used my mobile in months, it's been sat dead in a drawer collecting dust, and I prefer life without being connected all the time, so honestly I don't really have a whole lot of interest in whatever argument you're trying to get into.
At the point where they are running a custom ROM, this feels like a bad faith argument. It's like claiming someone running Linux is clearly a Microsoft supporter when they bought a laptop preinstalled with Windows and replaced the OS day 1.
Exactly what alternative are you proposing? They don't buy any hardware at all? It materializes out of thin air?
I'm saying that picking android to flash a custom ROM is still picking a side. It's a valid answer to the original question. I was just being cheeky.
A foss os with hardened security.
Privacy.
Default Android < iOS < custom roms without Google play services and with DNS blockers
Just price, end old phones drop in price quick can get a good one thats a couple years old for like $250.
My phone doesn't mean much to me anymore, they were fun in the early 2010s when I could root them and overclock them and every new one was way better than the last.
But now any phone I get can do lemmy and discord and phone calls perfectly and last like 2 days on battery without being expensive.
I don't want to
In 2003 (or thereabouts) I was a paying user of an Apple music product. They deliberately broke the way that I used their product, then once someone found a workaround, they broke that, too.
I tried to be their customer, and they kicked me out for not using Windows or MacOS. Now I'm emotionally invested in not giving them any money, ever.
My iPhone experience is a couple of years old now, but my biggest thing has been the flexibility of the home screen in Android. I can modify the home screen and run very convenient widgets for some apps with a 3rd party home screen app.
It got a lot better. Now (or I should say, in a few months) you can place icons wherever you want on the homescreen.
It's so funny that they act like they've reinvented the wheel by introducing a feature Android users had for years.
To be honest: they didn’t. They were perfectly clear in their announcement that they are not the first to do it.
Not having a functioning browser. And no, it's not Chrome. Why would you want to use an ads pushing piece of garbage?
Can't put graphene on it, can't sideload apps, can't even organize your home screen in an acceptable manner last I checked which was admittedly long ago, never bought into the hype (which is the only reason to use apple).
Reason 1: I once owned an ipad, the experience with it was so bad that I stayed away from iphone.
Reason 2: I now have Mac for work. My experience with it is so bad that I'm staying away from iphone.
I've used iPhone before
Never again
The short time I used an iPhone, I just didn't like how it felt. The restrictive nature, personally really don't dig Apple's whole UI design. It felt like a quality phone, build wise, but Apple just ain't for me.
Also, price. I paid $100 for my Motorola that's good enough to last me the next 2 to 3 years, and features a headphone jack, which is all I really wanted. Could take or leave the Dolby Atmos shit, but the sound quality is decent for a phone.
I used to have an original iPod. It was so buggy getting songs into it. It would freeze up half the time and corrupt its filesystem. I later found out that Apple deliberately made the windows experience buggy to draw more people to buy Macs. That's unforgivable behaviour.
lock-in and Apple tax
I don't want to pay for something that costs five times what's worth (like all Apple products).
No phone is worth more than $150~200
I get a headache every time I have to help my mom with her iPhone or try to do something on my kid's iPad. I know part of it is that I'm just very used to Android, but there's no excuse for finding an app or setting being so tedious on iOS.
Lack of interest in dealing with that again. I had a company iphone so I could support staff who had iphones and itunes was massive shitty bloatware.
Termux
Apple control on every single detail of the device. I dont want that simple as that.
There's a certain 'luxury' or 'sex appeal' to Apple products, but there are things I value more. I run /e/ os on a fairphone. I often ask people what kind of phone they have, and when they occasionally ask back, they are blown away that what I do is an option. The fact that I can show people there is another way is reason enough, in spite of everything I personally value.
I had iphones for a while and had to jailbreak them to get them to do what I wanted. Then one bricked and I got an android. I didn't have to jailbreak it, I owned it, I wasn't stuck having to use iTunes, and I wasn't forced into thececosystem.
Also, Smart Audiobook Player is android only.
Price. Also i don't wanna get locked into their ecosystem.
For me it's a trust issue.
I don't trust that Apple (or Google) won't use their software against my interests on a device I own and have with me at all times.
With a non-apple phone I can ensure that my interests are preserved by vetting different software options.
I don't make very much money, and the phones I buy are usually between $100-200. The only way to do that with iphone is to get a phone that's both old and used. There's no new options in that price range at all.
However, even if there was, or if I just bought used, it doesn't offer me any benefit to swap. My experience with ios was never very good back when I did use it, it restricts how you can use your phone really heavily. I love being able to install apps from F-droid or my web browser, and changing launchers gives you a lot of customization of your home screen. I also really value that once your android device isn't supported with software updates anymore, the community can still develop up to date android versions for those devices so you can use newer versions of android than the manufacturers intended
Um, everything.
I have an iPhone for work and it's unintuitive.
Hahaha great question. It's funny how I thought it was a silly question when asked the other way. In a way, my response is the same for both phones: 'The main thing stopping me is that I am not considering switching'.
That said, I carried both for years, so I can probably provide some insight. I switched from Windows Mobile to iOS in 2008. I had one phone until 2012. My "main" phone was iOS from 2008-2017. The biggest factor was (and still is somewhat) who had the best camera. Pixel 1 had a better camera, so I switched to Android as my main in 2017. These days, both have great cameras and it wouldn't be a reason to switch.
My current job doesn't need me to have two phones, but I still carry an iPad mini, so I remain in both ecosystems.
I prefer Android on my phone for lots of little reasons, but they all basically boil down to the same thing: Android lets me do what I want with my phone.
It's difficult to explain if you haven't been an Android user. If you don't know what a launcher is, it's the interface between you and your apps. I've never much liked Google's launcher. I don't like Google's keyboard, so I use my own. I like to change the default number of rows/columns of my app icons. I like switching between two bottom-row docks. Then there's stuff like default apps, and way better widgets, of course. Plus I can arrange my apps how I like.
Now - if you are on iOS and have never had this stuff, you won't miss it. If you want your phone to "just work" and never think about personalizing it, you have no reason to even value the personalisation that Android offers. But, if you've gotten used to your personal phone layout, being forced into the Apple way is restrictive.
Not giving a crap about what thing launches my apps on my pocket oracle
Because I used an iPhone for most of my life and then realized what a walled isolated island it was. Android offers infinitely more freedom and I would never go back. The mere fact that you can't entirely customize an iPhone hoke screen is still shocking to me.
Mostly IOS. Price as well I suppose.
Genuinely can't think of a good reason to switch at all.
Sideloading apps
The home screen layout (I'm sure this can be changed up though), gotta love launchers
Live backgrounds that also work with launchers
More styling options such as app icons for home screens.
While less relevant with gestures now, their navigation setup
The punchouts and larger things in the screen. I hate them, and hate that on android too.
Apples lock in, esp things like file transfers. Google has some too of course, but Apple is worse.
FREEDOM!!!! :-)
Termux/X11, sideloading, native Godot, file management, devic recycleability/reuseability, THE FUCKING BACK BUTTON, and crazy enough sometimes privacy even against apple's marketing stance (this is a bit more controversial, but in a high privacy situation things like universal android debloater just can't exist on apple - and having Icloud 'helpfully' store your encryption keys for you has felt as private as keeping it in my garage server)
But hey for some people the fisher-price option is the best option
I have no desire to change.
I'm sure an iPhone would be a completely acceptable phone for me but I have no problems with android that iOS would solve. My phone already does everything I want it to do and more.
And I don't want to re-learn what all the best apps are. I already found great ones for what I need and I know many of them would be different on iOS. No need for me to go through that relearning.
More than that though, I love that my android can do USB OTG and allow me to plug in flash drives, SD cards, game controllers, and Ethernet adapters. I love that i can change the home screen app to entirely change the interface. I like that I can root it when it's getting slow to debloat it a bunch, or do thorough backups, or fuck around with app files. I love that the dev ecosystem doesn't require a yearly subscription.
How paranoid apple is with everything requiring a password, a two factor authentication, push notifications, etc. And the lack of customization without having to jailbreak or go through an insane amount of menus.
Switching to an iPhone, mostly.
I had to use a borrowed iphone for some time and the only thing I really missed about it was Apollo for Reddit. And that's gone now, so yeah. To change my ringtone, I had to use Bandcamp since there's no way to run itunes on Linux. There's no way to install third party games downloaded from places like itch.io. If I want to use my own phone to test mobile game prototypes, it's simple and cross-platform for Android. I need a damn Mac for iphones. I don't think Android phones are very good OS-wise or UX-wise either as of late, but at least they're slightly less locked down. Slightly.
Nothing is actively required to prevent me from using apple products.
I've had a z fold4 since release and I'm unwilling to go back to a regular phone. Also, more freedom on an android (like sideloading). I had 2 iphones before my current phone (7 plus and XS Max) and they weren't bad phones but I really missed android.
It makes no sense to switch from either to the other imo. It would make sense to switch to mobile linux for those who are tech savvy and once it is more polished, the others.
Apple being apple
If I wanted a phone nobody else has, I'd get a Pinephone.
Price, convenience and honestly a good reason.
I think the strongest feature of Android is that many apps are released first on Android and take months or years before they are ported to iOS. And even when they do, they are missing functionality I take for granted on Android. iOS is in fact more secure in general (if we assume Apple is altruistic) but this comes at the cost of basic things like apps running in the background, informative notifications and notification history, spam call filtering, and fast charging.
Also, if you are a normie it's a big plus to have all the default Google apps pre-installed on most phones. If you aren't, it's a big plus to have the freedom to strip all non-foss apps from your phone, replace the OS with a more FOSS-friendlt OS, and otherwise customize your phone.
Apple. I want nothing to do with a closed ecosystem and I loathe how central AppleID is to absolutely everything.
I have fdroid and a few custom apks that wouldn't be available on their store, so those would be hooped as well.
Apple and I have very different notions of what it means to own something.
Honestly, just navigating the phone is a giant pain in the ass. I bought my wife an iPad and finding basic settings or locating an app is a nightmare. Any time she needs help with it I feel like I'm pulling teeth.
This is part of it for me. Apple decides how a device should be used and you have to learn a new "intuitive" interface that is unlike every other computer device.
They have streamlined everything to the point that you can't deviate from their use flow and it drives me insane trying to do a task in an alternative way from how they envision it being done.
Android is like using a computer, IOS is like using a computer of you have never used one.
The back button being top left still baffles me to this day. Let's put it in the most hard to reach spot.
I don’t really get this. As an android user since 2009 and the evolution of android os I am now for the last year an iOS user, and the interface is the same as it was for me and my last phone. Swipe up to get to the Home Screen, long hold to see tabs running and swipe from the left to center to go back. Is this because my last phone was an LG?
The first thing I do on any new android is disable gesture navigation.
Ah ok. I honestly hate how much I love my iPhone. Its my wife’s late mothers phone and I took it kind of as a gag so I could FaceTime my family and then I figured I would go back to my LG. But damn i get day and a half to 2 days of battery life and the pictures are way better. The iOS lets me hide all my apps which is something I always hated about iPhones and there are widgets. If I could only disable the photos and maps app this phone would be mint.
Firefox with ublock and a normal engine
Newpipe for downloading stuff off YT
OSMand for offline navigation
f-droid for foss software
Rethink to carefully ban everything that doesn't need internet from connecting
a phone with a nice amoled screen and all-day quickcharging battery that costs 180€ (motorola g52)
not one ad anywhere
a better question is, why would I want anything else? An iphone seems like a sharp downgrade.
Just fyi: OSMand is available on iOS.
I know, and the last time I saw it it was just complete buggy shit with a different UI and nowhere near feature parity.
It continues to be buggy shit. I tried switching from Google Maps to OSMAnd on iOS and didn’t last a week
iPhone doesn’t have ads
If you go to a website in a browser it has ads, yeah?
Cuz FF with ublock origin prevents that on Android but i don't believe that's an option on iPhone
we have AdGuard that works just as well
Oh, in safari?
Yup
Neat, I had no idea it allows that now
I’m an iPhone beetch but I DEFINITELY would be so happy to have uBlock. There’s some stuff like AdGuard and Wipr but uBlock Origin is undefeated.
Wipr is also dope! I think AdGuard works better, though.
The web does without ublock origin.
Ublock origin isn’t the only adblocker, duh
I know that and you can keep the others. Take also the new chrome version of ublock origin for manifest v3
I wouldn't buy a car that could only drive on roads approved by the maker, so same goes for phone.
Preference.
My dealbreakers:
No proper file management on iPhones.
No sideloading allowed on iPhones.
No playing back local music files without doing the cumbersome syncing through iTunes on iPhones.
No headphone jack, no MicroSD slot, huge storage markups on iPhones.
I love my iPhone BUT I would LOVE to be able to drag and drop FLACs and MP3s to it… the only reason I have iTunes is for the zero effort full image backup…. But I also hafta use it to put my music on my phone. D:
every time I have to use anything apple related, I'm instantly annoyed by the horrible user experience
Paying 20% - 40% more for dumbed-down OS that limits what software I can use. I mean literally any one of those alone is a deal breaker. It was never gonna work.
If they had full support for side loading, and supported the thunderbolt standard I feel most of my hardware problems could be solved with a type c case that's adds it a headphone jack and SD card slot
My list of problems: Too expensive, no 3.5 mm Headphone jack, no expandable storage, lack of foss apps and stores like f-droid, and the lack freedom to install and do what I want with the device I payed for.
To be fair most android phones fit this description also.
And this point is more hardware-related, but I've started to really love my Nothing Phone and its LED lights on the back, which produces amazing photos because the light is much softer than the small flash used by other phones. There isn't a single Apple device with a feature like this. You could probably get a case, but it's nice to have this integrated into the phone.
This guy phones
iOS is trash. Simple as that, my parents have iPhones and I'm like 'oh you can just do X', then I go to look, get lost in menus, then find out the basic feature doesnt even exist. I can't sideload apps, I can't customise my UI, it's just incredibly limiting. iPhones are for basics, calls, texts, web browsing. If you wanna do anything else you are better off with an Android.
User error
In all seriousness, the biggest benefit of apple products is that the user experience just does not change over time. They are very conservative with the changes they do make, even though they will hype them up as the next big revolution in computing. It just seems arcane to you because you aren't used to it. Apple is great for old people because things stay the same forever
Edit: I reread your comment and realized I completely misunderstood you. Yeah, apple is super behind and is lacking basic features for the reason I just mentioned. For a while you couldn't even copy/paste on the iPhone. Really dumb imho. But the good thing is that things look the same forever, so you never have to be confused by your phone's layout changing when you get a new phone.
Sideloading apps
Paying x4 times the price for a device
I don't like Apples attitude. And I want control of my own phone, not just whatever crumbs Apple will allow me.
Apple's walled garden is anti-consumer, anti-developer, and pretty much anti-everyone-but-apple.
It just doesn't make sense to me to use or develop for Apple under those conditions.
Why would I pay more than 3 times more for a Brick, that gives me less freedom to do what I want and doesn't have app support and features I require.
I feel like I'm using a toy phone I bought for a 7 year old.
File level access to files. I would love to have the option of moving files in folders and connecting it to a PC to drag and drop files.
True multi tasking.
Ability to install apps from other sources.
I'm used to Android
I enjoy using apps from F-Droid
A central nervous system
Much like many of the iPhone users when you asked the converse question, it's not so much that something is stopping me, but that I have no interest in it. I don't see any benefits that I care about, and it would cost time and money to switch.
Let's pretend for a moment that I did have some desire to switch, perhaps due to some new hardware from Apple or changes to Android I found unpalatable. Here are some things I'd consider major barriers:
That's... basically it, but those are big things and Apple's position on them is so opposite mine that they're risking severe sanctions from the EU to comply with the EU's sideloading regulations in the most useless way they can.
I'm a developer and android is more friendly to developers, i have more control over my device. I can use any browser without being stuck with Safari. If i don't like my phone i can choose from many more manufacturers without losing my apps and subscriptions.
I think most of all i have problem with Apples culture, their smugness and acting like they invented everything. I don't think I'm their target audience.
Battery life. Forced ecosystem. Lack of options. Apple watches suck. I love my s pen. I can watch YouTube for free with no ads. The refusal to integrate the messaging system compatibility. How they refused to move to usb-c until they were literally forced to by Europe. Spearheading the removal of audio Jack's and micro USB slots.
I dislike Apple as a company. I'm still miffed that Bill Gates bailed Apple out and saved them from bankruptcy in the 1990's. All he asked was that they would be more charitable if they got back on their feet. They obviously did that, but then proceeded to continue being one of the least charitable companies in the fortune 100.
Then there was the crap with forcing an update to underclock their iPhones in order to hide hardware issues causing reboots from their still under warranty batteries failing to provide enough voltage to supply the apu. Or the time when they told customers they were holding their phones wrong when they designed the antennas in a way that would kill their reception if part of your hand was on the side of the phone.
All of that I feel you on these points, but it seems like the iPhone nowadays has better battery life than a lot of phones. Not all of them obviously, but a fair amount.
That's just it though. It's may have a better battery than many phones, but there are still other options that handily beat iPhone if you want that feature.
I've been forced to use iOS for my work phone and it is absolute dog shit... it feels like Android from 10+ years ago. The lack of customization and dumbass work flows drive me crazy every day.
So many screens in different apps. make you reach way to one corner or the other to go back a screen. In Android, back is one motion that can be done anywhere from any edge. And that behaves consistently across every app. In iOS some apps behave differently, even the same app with a different screen will handle the same gesture differently. It's an absolute shit show.
Want to open my app list, I just swipe up from anywhere on my screen. Want my notifications, swipe down from anywhere on my screen. In iOS I have to perfectly hit the top edge and slowly drag it down.
There are plenty of other reasons.
Access to the filesystem. Wtf! Lmao. I download a PDF and can't just open it? I have to basically share it with the app, it's so dumb.
Split screening apps.
Complete lack of customization. The launcher is ass.
Horrible keyboard and the one I like, SwiftKey is completely neutered and lacks the customization of Android. And some apps will use the apple keyboard even though I changed it to use Swiftkey. Again, no consistency.
Messages will pop a notification then when I open the messenger app they are not there. I can read the message in the notification area, but there is a period of time that it doesn't display in the actual app. Lmao. Dog shit.
Many, many other things.
Apps and services dying to backgrounding like the hotspot for one will just stop working after a certain amount of time.
Want to know how I change my brightness in Android? I just slide across the status bar in any app on any screen.
When I want to turn my flashlight on, all I do is hold my power button down for 3 seconds. Don't have to turn my screen on and click anything.
So many things. The settings in iOS are also a joke and the way they are organized, I just hate everything about it. It feels like I'm running Android from 2010 with less customization.
Basically iOS is complete ass.
Thorough and many good points.
I think sandboxing the filesystem by default is a good security measure. For Android it makes sense since you can sideload an app and that always carries risks. I think it can be improved on the UX side without compromising much on security but that is not my expertise. And note that I have not used iOS devices in ages too so I don't know how they handle the filesystem now.
I've owned apple devices in the past. The thing I hate most is the ecosystem, it's so limited and simple to the point of frustration. They are missing basic features and customization options. Apple has the worst settings menu of any device I've ever used. If that wasn't bad enough the devices are incredibly over priced.
The phones being worse than the ones I prefer to use.
Like, they’re objectively less functional devices. I can’t pretend the features drops for every new model/OS aren’t just things android has has for years.
I want to own my phone.
Actually being the owner of my phone. Apple decides everything for their users and allows them little freedom. I want to be able to put random apps on my phone, including maybe even my own.
Price. Shit's expensive. I now got a Pixel 8 for less than 500 euro's. Before that I had phones around the 300 euro price range.
Their ecosystem. They try to lure you into an everything Apple ecosystem. Stuff like iMessage is horrible for consumers. With an Android phone I have choice of apps, smart watch, earbuds, etc. Apple will always try to force you into buying their fancy but expensive things.
No benefit, there's plenty of cool Android phones.
Etc etc.
Apple, with its love of walled gardens with no keys
I want to be the owner. <--- see the period there?
Notification light. Repairability (I can practically op this thing open like the hood of a car). Far cheaper options. Headphone jack. Side loading. Fingerprint sensor. Dedicated shutter and focus button. Non proprietary charger that isn't terrible. Emulators. Firefox plus adblocker. Customisability (least important for me honestly).
I am just happy that I have options. I can do whatever I want with this hardware. I own this device and have complete freedom. I work in repair and I am thoroughly aware of apple's anti-consumer practices and it disgusts me. I could never buy a device from apple out of principle.
It sickens me when I have to tell customers "your totally repairable device is fucked because apple makes it arbitrarily impossible to repair.". It makes me even sadder when they just buy another apple device, rewarding them for their behaviour.
The biggest issue is Apple and their closed ecosystem. I can modify, remove, or disable most of the apps and settings I don't like on an Android phone. I can even load a different OS if I want. With Apple most of that isn't even possible.
I used to use a Macbook daily before I got a Windows laptop.
The way Apple designs their products is akin to how parents treat their toddlers. You aren't allowed to do anything that Apple hasn't graciously allowed you to without painful workarounds or loopholes. Plus, whereas Android and Windows have janky solutions that still work, Apple refuses to implement something unless the masses can use it. The result is that Apple's software is years behind, and there is very little you can do about it.
Needless to say, after a few years, I just installed Windows on that Macbook, and eventually I got fed up with the bad drivers and got an HP Spectre instead.
Which is ironic since macOS is much more modifiable than windows
Ahahaha!
I am using it for work for last two years and I can say that I never worked on worse O/S. Even Gnome shell is more customizable than MacOS' GUI.
Can you turn on natural scrolling for a touchpad and disable it for a mouse on MacOS (without using external apps)? Can you work with two or more monitors with multiple spaces without going mad? Is there even basic focus stealing prevention?
Surely the other way around ?
But why ?
Plenty of useful apps that cannot run on iOS. Mostly Termux and SDR-related apps (rtl_tcp server, SDR++, SatDump, Welle.io, SDRAngel, Dump1090,...)
I can run full-on desktop in Termux and access it via VNC server. I can also access it via SSH server. I can run a web server, HTTP proxy server, Kiwix server, Navidrome server, Jellyfin server, port-forward using socat. And that's just what I use or tried. In the past there was someone on Reddit running a public BBS server on an Android phone in Termux.
There's likely many other apps I use not available on iOS.
So if I'll be switching to a different platform, maybe PinePhone running Arch Linux with Plasma mobile? Probably only as a secondary phone for now though.
iPhones are too close to feature phones for me. Best thing they can run is probably a browser.
I have a really, really hard time navigating an iPhone. Whenever I take my girlfriend's phone, I'm lost. Their type of ergonomics doesn't fit my needs.
im constantly asking her where the back button is
Me in the 90s as a kid. My uncle had a Mac. One button on the mouse. I'm like wtf is this? Two buttons too complicated? Never looked back.
Same!
Same thing the other way around. It depends on what you're used to.
I agree.
The question is framed such that it implies an iPhone to be the better choice. Most people don't even consider switching to iPhone because it typically is a lot of effort for the average person who already has an Android. IOS has worse app support, it is more restrictive, with fewer features than Android typically has. Many people stick with what they have because it is what they are used to.
I personally don't use an iPhone because I use root and terminal tools often which aren't available on iOS and also don't want that Apple spyware in my life.
I had an ipad pro and it was an awful experience for me. Lack of customizations I deem normal, lack of real choice, limitations at every step. The walled garden felt hostile to me, the user. I sold it and got a Samsung tablet instead and it's been perfect. The only thing missing is procreate, but I have alternatives that do 99% of what I wanted.
Simple. I don't want to. I like android phones. Do I need another reason?
Hate how they handle photos. You can't easily download your pictures like with Android you can just plug your phone into the computer and it becomes a hard drive you can mount and download them.
This is factually wrong and I just tested it to make sure. When I plug my iPhone into my windows laptop I get a pop on the screen that asks me if I want to let the computer access my phone and then windows pops up the internal iPhone folder with all my pictures in it.
I use arch BTW
Or at least you get a dialog to allow you to transfer the pictures.
I have too many brain cells
no interest
on my android, I can install any os I want, install apps from anywhere, not just the app store
android gives me more options with hardware, from 200 to 2000 dollars
If I pay for something, I want to do whatever the fuck I want with it, so a big NO for apple devices.
More expensive. Less (no?) emulator support. Inertia. Don't care for apple interfaces or ecosystem much.
At this point you'd have to shoot me to go back to a junk drawer of apps. I like my alphabetical list on Niagara.
My mom doesn't have her apps organized at all on her iPhone. I dread having to use it for any reason because it takes me a couple minutes to find what I'm looking for.
I have tried Apple products before (2 iPods as gifts). All the good memories I have are from pirating them, the bad ones are from the base operation of the products. An Apple product on its own is a terrible experience. Only together with other products of the same brand is it worth it. But to achieve that you have to pawn your whole life and almost join a cult.
Besides, I'm not willing to pay a crazy amount of money for a device that does what my current phone already does but better (for my needs).
I have no reason to switch. Android is generally better and upper-end android phones are much better.
I categorically refuse to use anything made by Apple.
Apple products are terrible and overpriced. I don't understand why anyone would ever use one.
And that's been true since before the year 2000.
There are some truly great apple products, so I don't think it's fair to dismiss them all as terrible. But they are overpriced across the board. They also have a habit of anti-consumer practices like giving you a worse experience if you don't exclusively use apple products.
Choosing my own default apps, getting apps from other locations (like F-droid), adblockers. Those are the big ones.
YouTube Vanced and Red Reader
money
I do not want to support a trillion dollar company that makes it impossible to repair my own stuff.
Can't run GrapheneOS.
I only use FOSS
With a de-googled custom rom like LineageOS, I'm not forced to choose between 2 mega corps.
Who's phone did you buy and what stock OS was on it?
You chose.
It's a Motorola and you know what I meant. In either case, I haven't used my mobile in months, it's been sat dead in a drawer collecting dust, and I prefer life without being connected all the time, so honestly I don't really have a whole lot of interest in whatever argument you're trying to get into.
At the point where they are running a custom ROM, this feels like a bad faith argument. It's like claiming someone running Linux is clearly a Microsoft supporter when they bought a laptop preinstalled with Windows and replaced the OS day 1.
Exactly what alternative are you proposing? They don't buy any hardware at all? It materializes out of thin air?
I'm saying that picking android to flash a custom ROM is still picking a side. It's a valid answer to the original question. I was just being cheeky.
A foss os with hardened security.
Privacy.
Default Android < iOS < custom roms without Google play services and with DNS blockers
Just price, end old phones drop in price quick can get a good one thats a couple years old for like $250.
My phone doesn't mean much to me anymore, they were fun in the early 2010s when I could root them and overclock them and every new one was way better than the last.
But now any phone I get can do lemmy and discord and phone calls perfectly and last like 2 days on battery without being expensive.
I don't want to
In 2003 (or thereabouts) I was a paying user of an Apple music product. They deliberately broke the way that I used their product, then once someone found a workaround, they broke that, too.
I tried to be their customer, and they kicked me out for not using Windows or MacOS. Now I'm emotionally invested in not giving them any money, ever.
My iPhone experience is a couple of years old now, but my biggest thing has been the flexibility of the home screen in Android. I can modify the home screen and run very convenient widgets for some apps with a 3rd party home screen app.
It got a lot better. Now (or I should say, in a few months) you can place icons wherever you want on the homescreen.
It's so funny that they act like they've reinvented the wheel by introducing a feature Android users had for years.
To be honest: they didn’t. They were perfectly clear in their announcement that they are not the first to do it.
Not having a functioning browser. And no, it's not Chrome. Why would you want to use an ads pushing piece of garbage?
Can't put graphene on it, can't sideload apps, can't even organize your home screen in an acceptable manner last I checked which was admittedly long ago, never bought into the hype (which is the only reason to use apple).
Reason 1: I once owned an ipad, the experience with it was so bad that I stayed away from iphone.
Reason 2: I now have Mac for work. My experience with it is so bad that I'm staying away from iphone.
I've used iPhone before
Never again
The short time I used an iPhone, I just didn't like how it felt. The restrictive nature, personally really don't dig Apple's whole UI design. It felt like a quality phone, build wise, but Apple just ain't for me.
Also, price. I paid $100 for my Motorola that's good enough to last me the next 2 to 3 years, and features a headphone jack, which is all I really wanted. Could take or leave the Dolby Atmos shit, but the sound quality is decent for a phone.
I used to have an original iPod. It was so buggy getting songs into it. It would freeze up half the time and corrupt its filesystem. I later found out that Apple deliberately made the windows experience buggy to draw more people to buy Macs. That's unforgivable behaviour.
lock-in and Apple tax
I don't want to pay for something that costs five times what's worth (like all Apple products).
No phone is worth more than $150~200
I get a headache every time I have to help my mom with her iPhone or try to do something on my kid's iPad. I know part of it is that I'm just very used to Android, but there's no excuse for finding an app or setting being so tedious on iOS.
Lack of interest in dealing with that again. I had a company iphone so I could support staff who had iphones and itunes was massive shitty bloatware.
Termux
Apple control on every single detail of the device. I dont want that simple as that.
There's a certain 'luxury' or 'sex appeal' to Apple products, but there are things I value more. I run /e/ os on a fairphone. I often ask people what kind of phone they have, and when they occasionally ask back, they are blown away that what I do is an option. The fact that I can show people there is another way is reason enough, in spite of everything I personally value.
I had iphones for a while and had to jailbreak them to get them to do what I wanted. Then one bricked and I got an android. I didn't have to jailbreak it, I owned it, I wasn't stuck having to use iTunes, and I wasn't forced into thececosystem. Also, Smart Audiobook Player is android only.
Price. Also i don't wanna get locked into their ecosystem.
For me it's a trust issue.
I don't trust that Apple (or Google) won't use their software against my interests on a device I own and have with me at all times.
With a non-apple phone I can ensure that my interests are preserved by vetting different software options.
I don't make very much money, and the phones I buy are usually between $100-200. The only way to do that with iphone is to get a phone that's both old and used. There's no new options in that price range at all. However, even if there was, or if I just bought used, it doesn't offer me any benefit to swap. My experience with ios was never very good back when I did use it, it restricts how you can use your phone really heavily. I love being able to install apps from F-droid or my web browser, and changing launchers gives you a lot of customization of your home screen. I also really value that once your android device isn't supported with software updates anymore, the community can still develop up to date android versions for those devices so you can use newer versions of android than the manufacturers intended
Um, everything.
I have an iPhone for work and it's unintuitive.
Hahaha great question. It's funny how I thought it was a silly question when asked the other way. In a way, my response is the same for both phones: 'The main thing stopping me is that I am not considering switching'.
That said, I carried both for years, so I can probably provide some insight. I switched from Windows Mobile to iOS in 2008. I had one phone until 2012. My "main" phone was iOS from 2008-2017. The biggest factor was (and still is somewhat) who had the best camera. Pixel 1 had a better camera, so I switched to Android as my main in 2017. These days, both have great cameras and it wouldn't be a reason to switch.
My current job doesn't need me to have two phones, but I still carry an iPad mini, so I remain in both ecosystems.
I prefer Android on my phone for lots of little reasons, but they all basically boil down to the same thing: Android lets me do what I want with my phone.
It's difficult to explain if you haven't been an Android user. If you don't know what a launcher is, it's the interface between you and your apps. I've never much liked Google's launcher. I don't like Google's keyboard, so I use my own. I like to change the default number of rows/columns of my app icons. I like switching between two bottom-row docks. Then there's stuff like default apps, and way better widgets, of course. Plus I can arrange my apps how I like.
Now - if you are on iOS and have never had this stuff, you won't miss it. If you want your phone to "just work" and never think about personalizing it, you have no reason to even value the personalisation that Android offers. But, if you've gotten used to your personal phone layout, being forced into the Apple way is restrictive.
Not giving a crap about what thing launches my apps on my pocket oracle
Because I used an iPhone for most of my life and then realized what a walled isolated island it was. Android offers infinitely more freedom and I would never go back. The mere fact that you can't entirely customize an iPhone hoke screen is still shocking to me.
Mostly IOS. Price as well I suppose.
Genuinely can't think of a good reason to switch at all.
Sideloading apps The home screen layout (I'm sure this can be changed up though), gotta love launchers Live backgrounds that also work with launchers More styling options such as app icons for home screens. While less relevant with gestures now, their navigation setup The punchouts and larger things in the screen. I hate them, and hate that on android too. Apples lock in, esp things like file transfers. Google has some too of course, but Apple is worse.
FREEDOM!!!! :-)
Termux/X11, sideloading, native Godot, file management, devic recycleability/reuseability, THE FUCKING BACK BUTTON, and crazy enough sometimes privacy even against apple's marketing stance (this is a bit more controversial, but in a high privacy situation things like universal android debloater just can't exist on apple - and having Icloud 'helpfully' store your encryption keys for you has felt as private as keeping it in my garage server)
But hey for some people the fisher-price option is the best option
I have no desire to change.
I'm sure an iPhone would be a completely acceptable phone for me but I have no problems with android that iOS would solve. My phone already does everything I want it to do and more.
And I don't want to re-learn what all the best apps are. I already found great ones for what I need and I know many of them would be different on iOS. No need for me to go through that relearning.
More than that though, I love that my android can do USB OTG and allow me to plug in flash drives, SD cards, game controllers, and Ethernet adapters. I love that i can change the home screen app to entirely change the interface. I like that I can root it when it's getting slow to debloat it a bunch, or do thorough backups, or fuck around with app files. I love that the dev ecosystem doesn't require a yearly subscription.
How paranoid apple is with everything requiring a password, a two factor authentication, push notifications, etc. And the lack of customization without having to jailbreak or go through an insane amount of menus.
Switching to an iPhone, mostly.
I had to use a borrowed iphone for some time and the only thing I really missed about it was Apollo for Reddit. And that's gone now, so yeah. To change my ringtone, I had to use Bandcamp since there's no way to run itunes on Linux. There's no way to install third party games downloaded from places like itch.io. If I want to use my own phone to test mobile game prototypes, it's simple and cross-platform for Android. I need a damn Mac for iphones. I don't think Android phones are very good OS-wise or UX-wise either as of late, but at least they're slightly less locked down. Slightly.
Nothing is actively required to prevent me from using apple products.
I've had a z fold4 since release and I'm unwilling to go back to a regular phone. Also, more freedom on an android (like sideloading). I had 2 iphones before my current phone (7 plus and XS Max) and they weren't bad phones but I really missed android.
It makes no sense to switch from either to the other imo. It would make sense to switch to mobile linux for those who are tech savvy and once it is more polished, the others.
Apple being apple
If I wanted a phone nobody else has, I'd get a Pinephone.
Price, convenience and honestly a good reason.
I think the strongest feature of Android is that many apps are released first on Android and take months or years before they are ported to iOS. And even when they do, they are missing functionality I take for granted on Android. iOS is in fact more secure in general (if we assume Apple is altruistic) but this comes at the cost of basic things like apps running in the background, informative notifications and notification history, spam call filtering, and fast charging.
Also, if you are a normie it's a big plus to have all the default Google apps pre-installed on most phones. If you aren't, it's a big plus to have the freedom to strip all non-foss apps from your phone, replace the OS with a more FOSS-friendlt OS, and otherwise customize your phone.