There’s no doubt about it: Android offers a fantastic ecosystem with some of the best phones and best tablets money can buy. When you opt for products powered by Google’s operating system, you’ll find devices that cover just about every need imaginable, from budget-friendly phones to feature-rich powerhouses. It’s also a highly customizable system that lets you tweak it in just about any way you can imagine, unlike Apple’s locked down offerings.
Yet despite all that, I’ve never owned an Android phone.
Sure, I had a slide-up Samsung back in the day, but that was probably before Android was even a consideration inside Google HQ (honestly, it was also a terrible phone). Instead, I’ve faithfully stuck with Apple ever since I first got an iPhone 3GS, never since venturing outside the famous walled garden.
So why have I never been tempted to switch over to the Android side and ditch my Apple products for good, despite the open appeal of Google’s mobile operating system? Well, there’s one thing that has made me an Apple loyalist for many years now: the seamless way Apple’s devices all work together, and the incredible features this enables.
Apple controls both the hardware and software that underpins its products, and this is something that I think a lot of people really underestimate. If Apple knows exactly which devices and operating systems it will be working with, it knows what kind of features it can build, and it knows that those features should work reliably for everyone.
(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
With Android, you’re talking about a huge range of diverse hardware and software configurations. That has its benefits, but it also makes it difficult for developers to account for all that variation. This throws up problems with functionality and compatibility, which limits what can be done to a degree that doesn’t happen with Apple.
For example, I love how I can place my iPhone on my Mac’s monitor and it instantly becomes a webcam, no software setup needed. Or how I can use a single mouse and keyboard on both my Mac and my iPad, or drag and drop a file from my iPhone to my Mac without a hitch.
Sure, some of these features work on Android, more or less, but they’re nowhere near as slick. Apple’s features work automatically and intuitively, with no additional software to install and no cumbersome setup process to go through. My Apple devices recognize each other and work together without a hitch.
That’s something that I just can’t get on Android – not to the same extent, anyway. So, while Android has a huge amount to offer, it falls short compared to Apple when it comes to this impactful area.
Smooth integration
(Image credit: Apple)
That said, my setup is a little more complicated than I originally made out. As well as my Apple kit, I also have a Windows PC, which doesn’t always play nice with my iOS and macOS devices. I certainly can’t use Apple exclusives like Handoff, Universal Control and more across both iOS and Windows, for example. Even though I get to enjoy Apple’s joined-up ecosystem for the most part, there are still hitches when it comes to my PC.
What I want is something that offers all this functionality across all my devices. I won’t get that from Apple with its closed-off walled garden – the company doesn’t like sharing, after all. Things like Continuity Camera will never come to Windows, at least not in a native form from Apple.
But at the same time, I definitely won’t get that functionality from Android either, which is too dispersed and fragmented to offer the same kind of integration as Apple can provide.
Ultimately, Apple still gives me the best way to have all my devices working together near-seamlessly. I absolutely love how using my iPhone, iPad and Mac together unlocks all kinds of neat functions and features that I can’t get anywhere else, and I know that if I switched to Android, I’d lose out on a lot of that.
I can’t say if there’s a solution on the horizon that works for both Apple products and the Windows/Android world. But for now, Apple has the upper hand, at least for me. Hopefully, Android can find a way to catch up in the future.
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