Counter: iOS is Better than Android

By Jonathan Raport ‘22
 
    It is now more important than ever to stay connected with our friends and family by means of social media, video chatting and messaging via a cell phone or mobile device. While most people would agree on the importance of the cell phone, if you were to ask a room full of people which operating system is best, most would answer accurately with iOS, while others would suggest Android. I am with the correct majority, so whenever a friend or a relative asks what operating system to get on their new phone, I always recommend iOS because, despite Android’s neat features, iOS triumphs over it in virtually every way. 

    Initially, a prospective phone buyer may acknowledge the intense customization and wide variety of Android-based phones available on the market. These concepts allow Google’s Android operating system to have a far more user-customizable interface and a plethora of brands that use its operating system in their phones such as Samsung, Nokia and LG. While the customization and large market share of Android phones are somewhat substantial, these concepts end up damaging the reputation and overall usability of the platform. 
    The iPhone operating system, iOS, has a vast array of features that are incomparably better than those of Android, the most important being CarPlay, Apple Pay and, especially, iMessage. Have you ever felt that bone-chilling feeling resulting from sending a text and it turning green, meaning that your friend or family member is using an Android that simply lacks text messaging features that all recent iPhones have?
    Additionally, iOS has better and more emojis, and a faster messaging system as well as a wide library of games and other apps that integrate right into text messages. iOS’s CarPlay revolutionizes your car’s infotainment system while Apple Pay makes it easier than ever to pay whether you’re shopping in-store or online. Android simply can not compare to the greatness demonstrated here. 
    Next, Apple’s closed operating system, as opposed to that of Google, allows the company to closely integrate their iOS with its physical iPhones. The close relationship between hardware and software allows Apple to pull off mindblowing new features that dominate their competition. One example of this is Apple’s Face ID, which uses infrared and depth sensors for a fast, secure and seamless experience, something that Android still struggles with to this day.
iOS’s fine-tuning of iPhone components leads to a noticeably smoother and snappier user experience than an Android phone. iOS’s greater raw performance allows daily tasks like uploading a photo to Instagram or surfing the web to be faster, which allows its users to be far ahead of their Android-loving friends. 
    iOS is far easier to use and integrates seamlessly with Apple products. Apple has created an extensive ecosystem that iOS is a part of. This ecosystem enables features like Airdrop, something I cannot live without. Android’s version of this feature is broken up into different apps and is much slower. It also allows your phone’s text messages to be shared with your Mac computer, your calls to be sent to your Apple Watch, your music to be instantaneously streamed to your AirPods and your favorite shows to appear on your Apple TV.  This ease of use which many of us rely on in our daily lives pushes iOS’s usability over Android’s. 
    iOS is further superior to Android due to the integration of privacy features and updates. iOS is much more secure than Android because it restricts and monitors the user’s activity to ensure no viruses or backdoors are able to be downloaded onto the device. Although not every security threat will be caught by iOS, it notifies users when an app downloaded from outside the app store seems suspicious. It also clearly presents exactly what the app tracks, uses or collects from your phone like browser history, camera, microphone, etc. This is unlike Android, which allows you to download anything without any warning to the user.
    An essential feature of iOS that Android lacks is widely available updates. On an Android phone, updates are very sparse and can depend on your location, phone manufacturer, phone model, cell phone carrier and cellular plan. This creates a confusing system where people don’t know when their phone will be updated to fix bugs and introduce new features. However, iOS delivers its updates to all phones that are supported at the time. No matter where you are or what your cellular carrier is, you will receive updates when they are released. Leaving the user with up-to-date software can solve most software-based problems and add features to the phone. 
    ​iOS’s feature set is greater than that of Android. It allows more users to easily access it and do so in a safe way while Android is an open system that may be too complex for the average consumer. Android phones have some neat features that attract people, but, in the end, iOS remains superior.