iOS 14 vs Android: Why Apple beats Google on 'new' features
iOS 14 vs Android: Why Apple beats Google on 'new' features
It happens every summer: Apple unveils a new version of iOS, and that update includes at to the lowest degree a feature or ii that bears a hitting similarity to one Android users accept enjoyed for years.
Inevitably, the same tired arguments are dragged out of the woodwork. Either Apple is pathetic for taking so long to copy Google, or Apple is undeniably more clever considering it waited until the characteristic in question could exist washed properly, and its approach is more refined than what Android has to offering.
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As with near things in life, the real answer lies somewhere in the centre between those two extremes. In some respects, Apple is legitimately offering fresh takes on features that have been exclusive to Android for years, and iOS 14 introduces some welcome enhancements. In other instances, Apple is simply flirting with new ideas, and Google's approach remains the superior i.
To make sense of it all, nosotros've identified six areas in which the freshly unveiled iOS fourteen borrows heavily from Android. And, because nosotros have both iOS fourteen's Programmer Beta and the public beta of Android 11 live on two of our devices, we can weigh in on which tech giant really did it better in each case.
Here's a closer await at some of the identical features in iOS xiv versus those in Android.
This is the big one. Of class, iOS has had widgets for some time now; equally information technology stands in iOS 13, they reside within the Today view, to the left of your beginning home screen. They span the width of the brandish and you pretty much have to scroll vertically to view them all.
Historically, iOS' widgets accept never behaved similar Android's, which can accommodate multiple sizes and sit on the very same grid that app icons do on your abode screen. But that's all irresolute with iOS 14.
Non only can widgets in iOS 14 sit aslope apps, they too come in a variety of sizes. For the about part, there isn't much that separates their behavior in iOS 14 from the precedent Google established upon Android's inception, though Apple's widgets practise accept a few useful and exclusive benefits.
The first is that they're stackable. You lot can driblet a Smart Stack — which is a collection of widgets for dissimilar apps in one space — anywhere on your home screen, or you tin elevate 1 widget into another to create a stack from scratch. You can and so swipe through the stack to see the particular widget you demand in that moment, or you can allow iOS 14 to use context to determine which is about useful to you at that point in time. Neither of these things are possible in Android 11, and the fact that space for i widget can serve multiple purposes helps keep a tidier, less-busy dwelling screen.
Another plus to Apple's approach is the manner y'all edit settings for widgets. People don't often talk about this, but it's an absolute task in Android to arrange settings for a widget you've already placed on your dwelling house screen. You have to dive into the particular app the widget belongs to, sift through its settings menu and find the widgets department, which is a dissimilar process for every slice of software and increasingly grating if you want to test out pocket-size tweaks only to come across how they wait.
Even so, iOS 14'south approach carries forrard one of Apple's great ideas from Bone Ten's heyday. Just similar on the Mac Dashboard of former, you can tap a little data icon when editing a widget that flips the widget in question effectually and offers options to conform it straight, correct in that location.
Finally, it has to exist said: iOS 14'south widgets simply expect better compared to Android'south, which Google has allowed to languish in terms of both form and function. Arrangement-level Android widgets are marked past antiquated designs dissimilar the rich, colorful experiences iOS 14 brings, while third-political party developers on the whole tend to ignore the value of developing good Android widgets.
Widgets on Android also rarely seem to ever change. Google Calendar'south widget doesn't jibe with the current blueprint of the app, and the stock Android clock widget has been exactly the same since KitKat. In fact, the only core Android widget that Google improves with any regularity is the At A Glance i that dynamically serves up appointments, traffic alerts and the weather in a neat footling bar.
Really, the only advantage Android'south widgets take over iOS 14's is that they can be hands resized afterwards you've placed them. In the initial iOS 14 Developer Beta, you lot have to remove an existing widget and supersede information technology with 1 of a dissimilar size if you want it to accept up more or less infinite on your home screen. But that'due south really the only positive to Google's method, and it's safe to say Apple has pushed Google to play catch-upwardly at its own game when it comes to widgets.
iOS xiv vs. Android: App Library
Don't telephone call it the app drawer. Apple has a different proper noun for the identify apps are stored in iOS 14 — information technology'due south called the App Library and information technology lives to the correct of all your home screen pages. It besides intelligently groups apps based on category, rather than offering pages and pages of apps with no advanced sorting system.
Now, there'due south a caveat to this detail circular, because there's no single way in which Android OEMs model app drawers. Stock Android and the Pixel's slightly-customized iteration goes for the nigh stripped-down arroyo: an alphabetized list with a search bar upwardly top, headlined by suggested apps based on machine learning. That's quite different from Samsung's tack with its Ane UI interface, where you take the option of sorting past alphabet or a custom order of your choosing, and manually creating folders for apps you decide to group together.
Samsung's system doesn't automatically categorize apps either, which Apple'due south does. And the accurateness and utility of Apple's categorization scheme won't be entirely clear until we've spent more just a few days with iOS 14. At get-go glance, the logic seems to check out, though it takes a little getting used to, because groupings of apps in the App Library both offer shortcuts to launch software directly every bit well as an boosted "icon" (made upward of 4 smaller app icons) to view the overflow of software across the first three in a category. Visually, it's a picayune overwhelming and unintuitive, though peradventure it's something that'll evidence useful in fourth dimension.
iOS xiv vs. Android: Translation
The iPhone at present has its own translation app — called Interpret — and it can conduct alive, on-device translation and transcription without pinging a server to crunch all the data. That'due south a tremendously powerful capability, and one Android has enjoyed for some fourth dimension now, thanks to Google Translate. iOS fourteen also bakes translation within Safari, which has long been i of Chrome'south about powerful features.
The issue for Apple is that Google's been at this for a much longer time, and so Mountain View has clustered a far larger trove of languages that tin be translated to and from, all locally stored on the phone. While iOS 14'southward on-device translation tops out at 11 languages, Google Translate currently incorporates 59.
An attempt to transcribe English phrases using a new iPhone SE running iOS 14 and a Pixel 4 running Android eleven side-by-side showed that while Google'due south software is faster at translating words on the fly without context, Apple's is ultimately able to produce a final consequence merely a shade quicker.
The interface of Apple tree'southward Translate app is likewise a little more intuitive, because it automatically switches to conversation manner just by turning your device sideways. That's more user-friendly than Google Translate'due south conversation fashion, which inhabits a divide space within the app and thus takes an extra step to become to. However, both Apple'south and Google's apps take the capability to listen for phrases in either language simultaneously, without requiring each speaker to press a microphone button for transcription in ane linguistic communication or the other.
iOS 14 vs. Android: Picture-in-picture
Phones today have more than enough power to do two things at once, and that'south especially truthful for Apple's iPhones. And so information technology's about time Cupertino caught up with its rivals and enabled picture-in-picture video that floats atop apps and other content in iOS xiv.
In terms of software and the user interface, Apple's approach to picture-in-picture is well thought out. You lot tin resize the picture-in-movie window by pinching or expanding with two fingers, which you can't exercise on Android. Y'all can besides slide video away for times when you desire to hear audio, merely y'all don't necessarily want to be watching something with your full attention.
Android's picture-in-picture implementation is backside in those areas, however you lot could even so make the case that it'due south improve, for one very simple reason: support. As it stands at present, iOS fourteen's picture-in-picture capabilities are extremely app-express. YouTube doesn't support picture-in-film on iOS, for example, and neither does video playing via Safari. Apple Goggle box Plus does comprise picture-in-moving-picture show, which is great if you enjoy (and subscribe to) Apple Television set Plus, simply pretty meaningless if you lot don't.
And and so, Apple will take to work with third-parties to close this gap and enable picture-in-picture video in more places. Until information technology does, information technology's not going to affair to many iPhone owners.
iOS 14 vs. Android: App Clips
A few years dorsum, Google introduced a new class of Android apps called Instant Apps. These apps were trimmed downwards versions of larger, existing apps, made to serve specific functions without requiring installation, and they work well for that purpose.
App Clips are iOS fourteen'due south reply to Android'due south Instant Apps, and they're very much cut from the same cloth. The principal deviation between App Clips and Instant Apps is less their functionality and more than the fashion in which you lot might encounter and use one.
Apple envisions App Clips beingness triggered by QR codes, or links sent from friends in Messages. The perfect case is parking payments: Nobody wants to download an app for a parking meter they might use one fourth dimension, and so you scan a code near your stall or tap an NFC tag, and your iPhone will instantly send you to the appropriate app. You're authenticated using Sign In With Apple tree — saving you the indignity of spending five minutes to make an account — and ideally, you can pay and be on your way in a snap.
That's a stark dissimilarity to Google's Instant Apps, which have struggled to catch on just because they're a solution to a problem Google never bothered to place. Instant Apps tin can't be triggered by links from friends, or outside sources — or if they can, that'southward never how they're encountered. Instead, yous're most likely to find an Instant App by looking for a regular app, either on Google web search or the Play Store, and borer a "Effort At present" button to give it a whirl before downloading and installing the full app. And that's simply non very useful.
What's more, because Instant Apps aren't all that useful, third-party Android app developers haven't taken to the characteristic in large numbers. A list of the latest Instant Apps on the Android Developers website ruby-red picks a number of small services and startups your boilerplate user probably has never heard of earlier and will never demand an Instant App from. Meanwhile, even though Apple tree'south initiative is only in its infancy, it seems as though iOS' App Clips volition enjoy much more than support from brands similar Panera, ParkWhiz and Etsy.
iOS 14 vs. Android: Default apps
Finally, we make it at default apps and the ability to choice your own — one of iOS' most often-requested features from ability users, and something any Android-to-iOS convert surely misses.
The freedom to customize default apps has been a staple of Google'southward mobile platform since its inception, and it's beloved considering information technology allows yous to replace a system app you don't similar with one that you practice, to serve the same purpose. For example, if you lot'd prefer to use Outlook for email instead of Gmail, you tin can prepare Outlook equally your default email client on your Android device, and then that new drafts won't open up in Gmail by default, which wouldn't do you much good.
Apple, ever concerned about directing and curating experiences on its products, unsurprisingly never opted to let users to set custom default apps before. However, that'southward changing in iOS xiv — at least, in two small respects.
Unfortunately, Apple has limited default app settings to web browsers and email clients. Those are arguably the two most critical app categories y'all'd want to set your own default for, though they're far from the only ones. Music players, media galleries and social media apps (for platforms that let third-party apps, like Twitter) remain restricted to Apple'due south arrangement default, or the official software associated with that type of link.
It's worth pointing out at this juncture that Apple tree runs its ain paid music streaming service and cloud storage photo platform, and it'd really prefer if yous used those and not hateful old Spotify or Google Photos.
In that location's an obvious conversation to exist had here concerning antitrust laws and how much command a platform maker should have over the software its customers use on it. But at face value, iOS fourteen's approach to default apps is flatly worse than Android's. Information technology doesn't grant users the same freedom, which is the whole purpose of default app controls in the starting time place. We're glad Apple tree is starting to entertain the thought, let's just promise it does what's best for iPhone owners and actively expands it down the line.
iOS 14 vs. Android: Outlook
It'south true Google did all of the above first on Android, and in some cases, did information technology extremely well out of the gate. That said, y'all can however recognize that fact while too acknowledging that Apple has improved on some of these ideas.
iOS xiv's widgets feel more premium and are dynamic in a way Android'due south aren't. App Library is arguably more than intuitive than a dumb alphabetized list, and App Clips are a great idea precisely because Apple has figured out a better, more visible method of distributing them so they actually have an opportunity to relieve y'all time.
But in other areas, Apple hasn't gone far plenty. Translate is a cinch to utilise and looks and feels really squeamish, simply it's limited in terms of the languages it supports at launch. Likewise, the picture-in-picture video experience on iPhone is technically sound, but information technology's not supported by video apps people actually apply yet. And Apple'south half-hearted approach to setting default apps is as limiting as it is overdue.
Possibly Apple tree can address some of these shortcomings by the fourth dimension the full version iOS xiv launches this autumn. These are fixable problems, though, and if they're non dealt with in the next 3 months, nosotros take promise they'll exist a connected area of improvement for iOS in successive releases. And who knows — peradventure Google volition copy them back?
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/ios-14-vs-android-why-apple-beats-google-on-new-features
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