After the news cycle recently exploded with the announcement that Google would require every single Android app to be from a registered and verified developer, while killing third-party app stores …
What about it is better? Honest question, from someone who uses both.
So yeah, on Android you can do a little more with home screen customisation. It used to be a lot more — I can’t believe it took Apple how many years to figure out how to place an icon to the right of or below an open space? It’s closer now, they both steal from each other, but you can do a lot more. My Android phone is partly a cosplay prop: it’s a real-life NookPhone, from Animal Crossing. My icons are huge, they’re the ones from the game, but they open real apps, and they’re in a 3x3 grid. Definitely can’t do that on iOS. But I don’t need that on my daily driver. And many people say — and I’m inclined to agree — that when an app is on both, it’s better on iOS due to fewer hardware configurations to support.
Also, we have Delta, the emulator that backs everything up to, ironically, Google Drive. So I can show you this app on my iPhone. I can also AirDrop you any game I have. Long press, share, AirDrop, find your iPhone, you open it with the same app, you got it now. Super easy. But I can also uninstall the app, it removes all the files and whatnot. I can go into Files, double check all my games are gone. Saves, all of it. Then I reinstall it. Nothing… but as soon as I sign into Google Drive, it re-downloads everything. I just wish the emulator ran on the Mac, too — I’d have cross-device sync. Also, the emulator is Nintendo only, no PlayStation, no Sega, nothing like that.
And then the privacy issue. I think it’s wild so few people care about their private information being sold. Then again, Facebook, TikTok, and others are huge. So I might be the outlier caring about that. But I still do.
What about it is better? Honest question, from someone who uses both.
So yeah, on Android you can do a little more with home screen customisation. It used to be a lot more — I can’t believe it took Apple how many years to figure out how to place an icon to the right of or below an open space? It’s closer now, they both steal from each other, but you can do a lot more. My Android phone is partly a cosplay prop: it’s a real-life NookPhone, from Animal Crossing. My icons are huge, they’re the ones from the game, but they open real apps, and they’re in a 3x3 grid. Definitely can’t do that on iOS. But I don’t need that on my daily driver. And many people say — and I’m inclined to agree — that when an app is on both, it’s better on iOS due to fewer hardware configurations to support.
Also, we have Delta, the emulator that backs everything up to, ironically, Google Drive. So I can show you this app on my iPhone. I can also AirDrop you any game I have. Long press, share, AirDrop, find your iPhone, you open it with the same app, you got it now. Super easy. But I can also uninstall the app, it removes all the files and whatnot. I can go into Files, double check all my games are gone. Saves, all of it. Then I reinstall it. Nothing… but as soon as I sign into Google Drive, it re-downloads everything. I just wish the emulator ran on the Mac, too — I’d have cross-device sync. Also, the emulator is Nintendo only, no PlayStation, no Sega, nothing like that.
And then the privacy issue. I think it’s wild so few people care about their private information being sold. Then again, Facebook, TikTok, and others are huge. So I might be the outlier caring about that. But I still do.