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Top 6 ways iOS is becoming more like Android
For many an Android fanboy, we know enough about Apple’s shortcomings with iOS not to be swayed by the prospect of a few dozen more applications and games. For many years, we’ve watched as Apple — slowly but surely — began implementing many of Androids best features into iOS, repackaging them as their own.
This year’s WWDC 2014 was no different and those of you that watched the live stream of the event know that Apple was up to their same old tricks, reinventing many features we as Android users have been enjoying for years. We ain’t even mad. They made a good effort. Now, let’s take a look at best 6 “new” features in iOS 8, and see how they compare with their Android counterparts.
Keyboard with predictive text / 3rd party keyboard support
It’s probably the biggest pet-peeve many have had with iOS since its not so humble beginnings: lack of 3rd party keyboard support. Apple confined all its users to their keyboard, and their keyboard only. Why? Because they know best. To be fair, Apple’s keyboard is one of the better software keyboards and for iOS 8 and the inclusion of predictive text (ala Google Keyboard), makes it even better. But that’s only half the equation.
The other half is that after all these years, the new Tim Cook lead Apple is finally allowing 3rd party keyboards in the App Store. I know, it’s almost silly to watch as iOS fanboys everywhere lauded the new move, but when you’ve been in shackles for so long, it’s easy to get excited at the ray of sunshine peeking through the crack of a cell wall. While no 3rd party keyboard apps were specifically mentioned, we did see a mockup of Swype working on iOS 8 and we’re sure SwiftKey is already busy coding up something for iOS 8 as well.
Widgets
Just like we saw with 3rd party keyboards, we’re seeing another big with the slightly more “open” iOS this year. Addressing complaints since the dawn of iOS, Apple is finally introducing — wait for it — widgets in iOS 8… Well, sort of.
No, you can’t place them on the homescreen. Instead, developers can take advantage of new APIs that they can use to place widgets inside of Notification Center. They’re pretty functional too, showing information like sports scores or eBay auctions. But don’t expect to see the same robust widgets that we’ve enjoyed on Android all these years. As so often is the case, iOS’ implementation is much more simple.
Actionable notifications
Android’s notifications panel saw a major redesign back during Ice Cream Sandwich and it only got better in Jelly Bean. Apple, still being somewhat new to the concept of notifications (Notification Center debuted back in iOS 5), is now finally introducing new actionable notifications for iOS 8.
Soon, users will be able to interact with their notifications while inside another app, without having to jump inside another app to respond or address a notification. Sliding down a notification banner will display actionable items, giving users the ability to reply to SMS messages, address calendar events, or like a comment on Facebook. Once again, it’s not the same robustness we’ve seen on Android, but something is better than nothing.
Messages
For iOS 8, Apple is introducing a handful of new features that brings Messages closer to Hangouts than ever. First up, iOS users will soon be able to send their location to other friends and/or family, handy when you don’t feel like searching for or typing up an address. Also new is the ability to send short video or voice messages. Once again, useful when you’re hands aren’t free to type something out.
If you’ve been using Hangouts on iOS, you’d know that a few months ago they added the ability to send video messages (although it’s not available in the Android version yet). So we’ll hand it to Apple, they done did good. What’s more is messages can be set to self-destruct a la Snapchat and they also added new options for group messaging so users can finally leave group chats, or rename them.
Apple is also making it extremely easy to receive calls and messages from your phone on your OSX computer. Of course, you can do this right now using Hangouts and it works whether you’re using OSX or Windows. However, we will admit, Apple’s implementation is nice in that it works right out of the box with little-to-no setup.
Extensions (sharing)
The crowd went nuts when Apple announced the extensions for iOS 8. Essentially a way for apps to communicate with one another, it’s just another feature we’ve long enjoyed on Android for countless releases. Of course, Apple is using it a bit differently in that developers will first need to enable this feature in their apps. Once (if) they do, it will be possible to open up a picture in the Photos app, and share it to a photo editing app. We know, your minds are blown. The benefit Android has is that sharing is built into the core OS. In other words, “It just works.”
Always-listening Siri
It’s a killer feature found on the Motorola Moto X (and technically possible on any Snapdragon 800 device): the ability to send voice commands to your phone without ever touching it. Apple is adding this breakthrough new feature in Siri for iOS 8, allowing users to speak the command, “Hey Siri,” (much like “Okay Google Now”) and further direct the phone to perform searches, or queue up Shazam to identify a song.
*****
Before we leave, we just want to say we’re not trying to start a flame war. Although it can be fun to play devil’s advocate, we get it. At the end of the day, both mobile Android and iOS are great and serve their specific purpose. While we agree that it can be irritating to watch another company bite/copy/steal some of Android’s best ideas, it’s just the evolution of modern software and something that comes with the turf. Borrow one idea, improve it, and so forth.
We’ve felt for awhile now that mobile OS’ will soon match each other in terms of features, and at the end of the day, which platform you align yourself with is your prerogative. Still, when it comes to openness, customizations, and options — we still choose Android.
Google Now is killing Android apps
As some of you may know, last week I went away on my honeymoon. I am not someone who does a lot of traveling, so whenever I go on a big trip I download a bunch of travel apps that I think I will need. TripIt, Yelp, Foursquare, and Delta Airlines are a few of the apps I tried. Something very interesting happened while using all of these apps, and it’s something I’ve noticed in the past.
Google Now was providing much of the same information that all of these apps could, and it was doing it equally as well or even better. By the end of the trip I uninstalled most of the travel apps and just relied on Google Now. Other Google apps have had the same effect on me in the past. On the surface this may sound great, but could it be the beginning of the end for Android?
The Good
As I mentioned above, Google Now is great for consumers. At the airport it was invaluable for quickly locating gate numbers and flight times. Google Now updated with new information faster than Delta’s own app when one of my flights got delayed. It would also get the gate number for connected flights faster than any other app I used. Having all of this information just a swipe away was incredibly handy.
Google Now can do much more than just travel. It was also telling me the weather at my destinations without me ever having to ask, and remembering where we parked our car. Of course, as you know, Google Now also provides suggestions for nearby places and events. The list of applications that were created to do these sorts of things is gigantic. Now it can all be done with one app from Google. So where is the problem?
Remember how popular Dolphin Browser was back in the day? Now that Google Chrome has come along you hardly hear about it. Other Google apps like Keep, Hangouts, Play Music, Play Games, Device Manager, and Drive have stepped on the toes of popular 3rd-party offerings.
The Bad
One app being able to do the job of many other apps is great for consumers, but not for developers. Suddenly the app that you spent time and money on has been replaced by an app that comes pre-installed on most phones. Some phones can even access Google Now right from the launcher with a swipe to the left. This is an unfair advantage over other Android apps. It’s no surprise that Google Now and other official Google apps have had an impact on developers.
One example of this happening is in our Phan Favs polls. In one poll we asked you to tell us which apps you use to check the weather. There are hundreds of great weather apps available in the Google Play Store. Many of them have powerful tools, but the super simple Google Now came in 4th place. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles, but it’s always there and you don’t need to install an app to do it. When we asked about messaging apps you picked Hangouts by a landslide, and in our music poll you selected Play Music by a mile.
So what?
Developers get turned off when consumers stop downloading apps because the core OS can do most of the things they need. One recent example of this is Microsoft’s Windows Phone. In the beginning Microsoft built it to do almost everything you would want without the help of apps. You could even use Facebook and Twitter without installing an app. I don’t need to tell you about the app problem Windows Phone has now.
iOS was the opposite. If you don’t install any apps on your iPhone there isn’t a ton that you can do. Hence the need for apps and the massive App Store that followed. Right now Android is closer to iOS on the spectrum, but it is quickly filling up with more Google apps. As we’ve found out in our Phan Favs polls, Android users are flocking to Google’s own app offerings. This is good for Google, but it could be bad for the future of Android. Developers are the life blood of any successful ecosystem.
What about you? Do you find yourself using less and less 3rd-party apps in favor of Google’s apps? Has Google Now replaced other apps on your phone? Do you think these things are bad for Android? Let us know!
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