Switch from Iphone to Android - top tips

[HidingFromDD]

(and I know IANBU but couldn't find another topic)

So have finally decided to move away from iphone and have ordered the P20 Pro, primarily because the camera looks great, but also because I find over the last few years Apple have increasingly controlled what you are (and aren't) 'allowed' to do and I don't like that.

But, I've had an Iphone for years (also have a macbook) and know the first few weeks are going to be painful. Any top tips? Has anyone use a transfer programme to move the data from one to the other?

Also, anyone got the P20 Pro and has any good tips for that?

I have googled all of this, but wanted people's personal experience

thanks

@SadieHH

Not here for a fight, promise! But I've been a committed (and heavy) iPhone user since their launch in 2007 and I'm yet to find a single thing that I can't do. What are all these things that Apple is not letting you do?

I'm sure some things have changed but I went Android after having an iPod touch because I couldn't drag and drop files onto it like I could with Android, I couldn't bluetooth anything between devices, in some cases I couldn't move files between apps - for example, if I edited a photo in one app, I couldn't always open the edited version in a different app to make some more changes. Then there's the whole iTunes issue, can't stand it, especially after it managed to edit some of my MP3's and make the end of the songs stutter and repeat.

I'm not convinced that any changes since have improved the situation, especially after having to try and get some photos off a colleagues iPad when he didn't have a lead and didn't l know his Apple account password. If it had been an Android tablet it wouldn't have been a problem, but because it was Apple it was. I eventually had to email them off in groups of five or something (over 50 photos) and then had issues with the file names. Just reconfirmed that I don't like Apple products that much because they make simple things unnecessarily hard to do.

I have a p20 pro, I love it. The camera is amazing, it was easy to set up, I use widgets for all of my favourite apps etc. My only downside is that you need an adapter for the headphone port...I have had it a week and lost it.

I have been an iPhone user since the 4 came out. I changed to Android a few years ago (google nexus) and HATED it........ I went swiftly back to iOS

I switched to Android some years back and would never go back to Apple. I would highly recommend buying direct from Google if you can - their customer service is amazing.

Seriously considering the move to android and the same phone P20 pro - but what happens to my photos on iOS!

Do they copy these over too? Xx

I went from a iPhone 6s to a galaxy s8 after it got really slow (even after a battery change) and the screen was forever breaking. The 6 felt so much more fragile than the 5s. I really like the galaxy and the tip about SwiftKey has made it perfect as that's the only thing I was struggling with was the typing.
It's far more customisable and the swap over was so easy through the cable included.
Iv also dropped it 5 times and the screen hadn't cracked yet.
The downside is finding a decent screen protecter that will stay on the edge

Ooh I'm having the same thought this week! Then I get scared of leaving Apple. Then I get annoyed because this is what they WANT

Turn on the notification light. Rejoice at useful notifications (not just the light, android notifications are much more useful in general).

Notifications and tasker are the main reasons I could not switch to iPhone, despite my ipads, macs and apple tv.

You don't need iTunes. I've had every iPhone (except the 5c and the 6) and I don't think I've used iTunes since the 5s.

It appears that some folk bemoaning Apple's control over the hardware and software are confusing that with not understanding how to do things (like being able to transfer files by Bluetooth) or are running much older versions of iOS.

Drag and drop, multiple open app support, sharing documents between apps has been in iOS (some iPad only, sure) for sometime.

Supposed nobody's mentioned the lack of a headphone jack. 😂

Anyway all that aside there's benefits to both Android and iOS so chose what works for you. I've used Apple gear since 1984 so it kind of works for me - yes I've used plenty of Android phones too. They don't work for me.

No tips.

But android offers so much more flexibility and customisation. I love them!

Would never ever own an Apple product .

Love android. I love apple laptops etc, but for a phone it must be android.

My only question is, has anyone figured out how to remove the blinking bloatware?

it's the Samsung keyboard for texting & emailing that I haven't got the hang of

You can download different keyboards to use if thats any help

But what is the flexibility and customisation? No one can ever tell me. I totally get that different operating systems suit different people and needs, but I really don't understand what it is I'm not able to do, because I can do anything I want as far as I can see.

My only question is, has anyone figured out how to remove the blinking bloatware?

Much of it can be disabled in the App Manager. It will still be there, but not taking up any active memory or processor time.

For Samsung phones, there is an excellent app called Package Disabler Pro which allows you to disable any program on the phone.

Former Android user, now iOS. Like many people commenting above, I don't get what it is that's so great about being able to customise everything? Pretty sure you can customise a good bit on iOS, and for me (hugely subjective) why would you want to?
And, again, what is it that you can't do on iOS that you can on Android?
To me, Android is way too open and prone to malware. Prefer something that just works.
Cue people who know tech support workers who ONLY use iOS/Android...

But what is the flexibility and customisation?

For me it is largely to do with widgets, although there is a ton of other stuff you can do which I can't be arsed to learn about like different launchers etc which behave in different ways and are customisable so you can genuinely get your phone to act exactly as you want.

My main thing is that it is very useful to me to have a full page readable diary of the month on my second page - I just swipe left to see everything just as it would look on Google calendar. I find this tons more useful than having to click on the icon. I can also interact with this, add events, change which month is displayed etc. Other widgets display weather forecasts, music stuff, bus and traffic info, what day of my cycle I am on etc. If I want to go to the app, I just tap on the widget but I mostly don't need to.

I like being able to control what's on my screen - so I don't need to have every app icon on my home screens which inevitably means a bunch of folders I never look at. I can just have the ones I want to access all the time and the others are accessible in a different way (one gesture). Because I am running stock android rather than a Samsung or whatever version or indeed iOS, I can uninstall everything I want to. There is absolutely no bloatware on my phone. Everything that is on it is something I want to have on it and find useful or fun.

The back button is one of the things I love about Android that immediately became useful even before I started customising things. If I'm in FB and click on a link that opens in Chrome and want to go back to the FB post, it's one click and it works much better than the equivalent process in iOS.

I have set the phone up to do useful things like mute my phone if I turn it face down (so much easier if in meetings or whatever than having to physically push buttons), turn on Bluetooth (so phone can connect to the car and automatically start playing music) and mute phone call notifications when I start driving - it even sends people an automatic message saying 'I'm driving now, I'll get back to you when I can' if someone calls or messages when I am in the car, turn off Bluetooth and turn phone sound up when I get home. They are all little things but they do make my life better and it is a lot better that all this behaviour is chosen by me so it fits with how I like to run my life. It is all automatic so I never need to remember to do any of it, it just happens.

There are more things that I can't remember off the top of my head I am sure and perhaps Apple has caught up with some of this, but DH doesn't seem to be able to do any of them with his iPhone. Maybe he just can't work his phone properly! Not unlikely, tbh...

I don't personally use the notification light any more, but when I did use it, I could (with an app) get a yellow light for a text, blue for a missed phone call, green for finished charging, red for low battery etc. It is quite useful in some ways but I found it was a bit battery-draining at times. Now I have a Pixel 2 with huge battery life, I might go back to the light.

Thanks Glaciferous. You're the only person who has ever attempted to answer my question. iOS can do a lot of the things you mention but sure, there are some things you list, such as the calendar, that you can't do unless you jailbreak which I've never done and even then I don't know what would be possible.

llangennith Fri 29-Jun-18 08:01:38
Reluctant IPhone user here, scared of changehmm What’s a widget?

Haha I was about to ask the same question.

Thanks @BertieBotts

@Glaciferous Many Thanks that was good clear info. ((Hug))💕⭐️

No problem, Sadie. I last used an iPhone for myself in around 2012 so I am sure they have caught up to some of this stuff just as Android has probably caught up to other stuff (getting messages on my PC is one that springs to mind) that Apple offers. As I said, for me the widgets are my primary driver. That and getting rid of bloatware - though eg Samsung users will have to try harder to achieve this than someone running pure stock Android. Curious to know which of the things I have mentioned are available on Apple products as DH seems unable to do any of them, though this may be a user problem as I said before!

Widgets are cunning little things that sit on your home screens. They can be larger than the 1x1 app icon but you can usually choose how big they are and therefore how much info is visible. They offer some functionality that is supplied by the app without having to actually open the app. So I can see the weather forecast for the next couple of days without having to open an app. I can see all my calendar stuff (and DH's and DD's, colour-coded) without having to open the calendar app. I can stick a widget on my homescreen that tells me how much data I've used or when my next period is likely to start or how many unread emails I have or how long until I will need to charge my phone. There's a widget for almost anything. You choose which widgets you have and what is useful to you. Does that make any kind of sense?

Thanks for the hug, MaddHugger!

Those with a pixel - is it worth it over something like a Samsung? I've had HTC for years but there's nothing worth having there. Not sure I like Samsung, but looking at the P20 and the Pixel

Samsung will have bloatware issues. I don't know about the P20. I would recommend the Pixel 2 based on my experience of it. It's REALLY zippy, easy to use and has great battery life (I often get two days out of it with normal but not constant use). The camera is amazing. I had a Samsung ages ago and it was a lovely phone but having used stock Android I would not go back to the Samsung version. I don't know what the P20 runs but it looks like a lovely phone. Personally, I would prioritise stock Android when buying a new phone and always buy from the Google store. If the P20 runs stock Android and does not feature bloatware, it is probably a good option. It gets good reviews.

I would say that Google's customer support is great if you buy direct from the Google store. My last phone was a Nexus 5X and when I had a problem with it it went like this...

Me: fill in short form on website, name, phone number, address, short description of issue etc.

Two minutes later...

Google: call from genuinely nice person who understood the problem and believed me when I said I'd already done the troubleshooting stuff on the internet instead of making me do it all again.

Me: my phone is dead! Waaaah!

Google: We'll send you a new phone and a box to pack up your old one.

The box arrived the next day with the new phone, packed it up, sent it back, no further issues, no charge for any of this. I found this much better than DH's experience of Apple Genius bars etc which seemed to involve a lot more waiting around and having to go to inconvenient locations where they did not actually solve his problem on the first try (and sometimes not on the second or third). In both cases, the end result was a new phone. My experience was better and more convenient.

PS There is a new Pixel about to come out so I think Pixel 2 phones are reduced in price atm.