Both of these platforms have come a long way for the past couple of years.
What features separate the iOS 8.3 from Android 5.1 “Lollipop”?
I’m using the iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S5 to investigate the difference.
With iOS and Android being the two most used phone operating systems in the market.
The iOS is very much Apple’s software and you either accept it or just find a different
phone to use.
With Android, it allows you to swap out one dialer or SMS app for another and it also
supports home screen widgets – it even lets you install launchers.
Now that’s a few difference off the bat with these two Operating Systems.
So, let’s dive in and see what else is different between iOS and Android.
The interface designs on both operating systems are unique and easy on the eye – if you
have grown close to one of them you may not care for the other.
Apple’s mobile OS embraces the more refined visual, whereas Google’s carries more of
an impact to its design.
Don’t get me wrong, both are beautifully designed in their own way.
Both Apple and Google offer a strong set of native apps to get you up and running, even
though most of the Google’s apps are available on iOS.
Don’t get me wrong, iOS and Android have email, maps, contacts, and calling giving
us what we need, but which one is better in performance.
Most of us normally use third-party apps and most of the big hitters are going to be found
on both platforms.
In terms of new app releases, there is still a bias toward iOS dealing with Twitter’s
Periscope and Meerkat being two of the most recent popular apps – if you’re ready
to join the live-streaming world, then you will need to own an iPhone because Periscope
isn’t supported on the Android side and Meerkat recently released their app in Google
Store as beta.
App permissions are also handled differently between iOS and Android.
On Android, it’s an all-or-nothing decision that you make when you install the app.
For iOS, permissions like location and camera access are asked for one-by-one, and you able
to revoke them at any time.
When talking about security I have to give it to the iOS Touch ID.
It has improved the experience of unlocking a phone or verifying a purchase.
Various Android devices are trying to catch up with Apple’s Touch ID, but Samsung is
the only company to have brought fingerprint-sensing technology to Android.
With Android Lollipop you do get the ability to ‘trust’ areas and even devices so that
the PIN code is automatically disabled, making for a more customizable and flexible security
setup.
As for stability and performance, the waters are muddied by the mass of Android handsets
and older iPhones on the market.
It perhaps fair to say that iOS and Android operating systems both run very smoothly on
the latest hardware with some issues popping up on latest builds.
Okay, there are so many extra points to pick at when dealing with iOS and Android.
For example like Apple Health vs Google Fit, Apple Pay vs Google Wallet, Android Auto vs
CarPlay.
Soon there is going to be another iOS version and another new Android version in the market
that we as smartphone users will be upgrading to, which team are leaning towards.
I have to admit with music and movies it seems that Apple has the upper hand.
Android doesn’t have the same kind of desktop management software that Apple has with iTunes.
Android users can of course tap into Play Music and Play Movies, and while those apps
are improving, they don’t offer the same kind of control that iTunes has in managing
your own personal media library.
I barely started to scratch the surface of the iOS vs Android – many times it’s the
small differences that count such as the positioning of a button, or the way a specific feature
is handled or a trust on one particular app or another.
Apple and Google have fundamentally different ideas about the way that software, hardware,
the web, user data and privacy should be handled; making it a hard choice when purchasing a
smartphone device for yourself.
It comes down to who to trust with your data and choosing how you want to live your digital
life across smartphones, computers
and the web.