Top 10 Reasons Android is Better Than iOS - Gear Up^

How nice of Apple to limit you on what you can do with how your iPhone screen looks and operates. No widgets or live wallpaper, you can’t remove some apps, and Apple tells you which mail, contacts and calendar you should be using. And Safari? Compared to Chrome? Fuggetabout it. Oh, and so nice that when you plug your iPhone into your car, Apple CarPlay won’t let you use Google Maps or Waze – only Apple Maps – an inferior product. While pretty, iOS is limiting and linear, with very few ways to customize the experience like Android does.

Siri may have been the first, but she’s showing her age. Siri has lost a lot of her luster over the years compared to other personal assistants – and I’m the guy who wrote the book “Siri for Dummies.” Google Assistant, on the other hand, is a lot smarter of an A.I. companion, and is also predictive instead of reactive, meaning, with your permission, you can have Google tell you about things you may want to know BEFORE it happens, like detecting traffic on your way to work – before you leave home – with a suggestion to leave earlier.

When it comes to apps, Apple’s “walled garden” approach might be more desirable than Android’s “wild wild west” since Apple tries to weed out the bad apples for you, but Google Play has come a long way over the years. You’ve also got access to MORE apps than App Store, too, with more than 2.5 million apps at Google Play compared to about 2 million at the App Store. And 2.3 million apps out of the 2.5 million are free, which is 92 percent of them – a much higher percentage than the number of free iOS apps.

Surprise, surprise. Apple doesn’t trust you to download iPhone apps outside of the App Store. That’s like telling you you can only buy your groceries from one supermarket. Sheesh. Android, on the other hand, lets you download from other places OTHER than Google Play, such as other app stores, websites, bit torrent sites, and more. You may have to enable your Android device to allow this, but it’s easy enough to pull off.

iPhone users must use iTunes – bloated, complicated and restrictive software – to transfer music between your iPhone and a computer. Oh, and that’s only one way – as you can’t copy music from an iPhone to a computer for safe keeping. Only the other way around to help reduce piracy, presumably. And you can only sync your iPhone to only one computer. Uninstalling iTunes can be a headache, too.
Android, on the other hand, doesn’t require iTunes, and you’ve got a lot more choice in both downloadable and streaming music services. Same goes for other media like TV shows and music, games, books, and more.

On an iPhone, multitasking merely means you can listen to music while browsing the web. Whoopee. With an Android phone, you can truly multitask by having two apps open at the same time. For example, I often snap a video onto the top half of my Android screen while on the bottom I have my email open, a web browser, a notepad, or something else. As I said earlier, iOS is more of a linear experience on iPhone, to perform one thing at a time, while Android lets you mix and match to truly experience two apps at once.

iPhone and iPad do not let you add a microSD card, therefore whatever memory you commit to when you buy the iOS device is all you’ll ever have. With most Android phones, you can pop in an inexpensive memory card into the side or back of the device to expand storage considerably. Yes, streaming services -- like Spotify and Netflix, as well as cloud storage services -- means we’re not downloading as much these days, but ask anyone who owns an iPhone and you’ll probably hear stories about running out of storage until you delete some items off your device to make room. On a related note, many Android phone offer a dual SIM tray so you can keep two numbers on the same phone – ideal for having two lines, one for work and one for play, or renting a SIM in another country.

Speaking of missing a key hardware feature, most Android phones have a headphone jack so you’re not forced to go wireless – meaning you must keep your earbuds charged or you can’t hear your music – and you don’t need a dongle to plug wired headphones into the Lightning connector like Apple makes you do with iPhone. And what if you are using the adaptor to listen to wired earbuds and you want to charge up your iPhone at the same time. You’re out of luck – unless you’ve got an iPhone 8 which has wireless charging. Many, many Android phones have had wireless charging and a waterproof body for years but Apple is finally catching up years later.

Another reason why Android is better than iOS? Selection. You’ve got literally thousands of Android devices to choose from ranging in price, brand, size, feature set, and more. With iPhone, there’s only a couple of options available, all from the same company, and priced at a premium. By going with Android, you’ve got a ton of choice out there, so you’re not limited in what you buy. Want a ruggedized Android phone for working in harsh environments? No worries. Prefer a smartphone with a stylus pen tucked into the back? Sure thing. Want an Android phone with integrated thermal camera? These exist. How about an Android phone with a removable battery? You get the idea.

Because Android is owned by Google, all the services you know and love are preinstalled and ready for your sign in – whether it’s Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Maps, YouTube, Google Docs, Google Music, Chrome, Google Drive, and more. these are likely the services you’re using anyway, so it’s convenient they’re all preinstalled and ready for your single log in. But should you want to use another mail program or browser or what have you, you can easily do it.
On a related note, Android offers more cloud storage. Google Drive offers a full 15 gigabytes of cloud storage, while iCloud only gives 5 GB for free – hardly enough for all your photos and videos. And if you want to upgrade your iCloud storage, Apple charges more than Google.
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OK, WatchMojo fans, what do you think? Do you agree Android is a superior operating system, even though the fanboys and iPhone-loving girls won’t admit to it? Feel free to leave a message in the Comments section.
Thanks for watching Gear Up; I'm Marc Saltzman. For more tech-tastic lists, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com. Ciao for now.