Over the years, switching from one phone to another has meant a lot of different things. Back when I was navigating the Android Army, switching between HTC, Samsung, LG, and whatever other company I was interested in checking out, it meant digging through heavily modified versions of Google’s mobile operating system, and trying to find a coherent experience from one device to another.
Despite Android being on all of those devices, that wasn’t always possible. Moving from HTC’s older iterations of Sense UI, for example, and then switching to Samsung’s bloated and heavy TouchWiz could be a painful experience. Throw in other proprietary user interfaces from other companies and, well, it could only get worse in a short period of time.
But it was typically worth it. Of course, jumping ship from Android to a completely different operating system was typically a more jarring experience. Moving between Android’s early days and iOS, or iOS to webOS, with a sprinkling of Windows Phone experience in there could leave one scratching their head.
The companies out there have always been trying so hard to make their hardware stand out, thanks in large part to the software installed on it, that the experiences are typically quite a bit different one to the next. Of course, that’s a good thing because if they were all doing the same thing, that could get pretty boring.
Which is probably why it’s a good thing companies like HTC, Samsung, LG, and others have implemented custom user interfaces.
I think one positive of using so many different platforms is being able to use the features baked within each experience. iOS is different from Android, and Android is different from Windows 10 Mobile. Even if sometimes they’ve got features that look strikingly similar to what you’d find on a competing platform.
That’s inevitable, though. When a solid, noteworthy feature is developed and rolled out to the public, it’s more than likely going to get copied in some way or another. The hope here is that the copy isn’t just a carbon reprint of what’s found on the competing platform, but changed in some way, improved in others, and implemented in the best possible way to enhance the overall experience.
I don’t care that iOS uses Android features and Android uses iOS features, or any other scenario. I just want the best possible experience.
Last year when I got my hands on LG’s G4, I knew that it was going to be my favorite phone of the year. And it was. I used a lot of different phones, but the G4 won my heart. Unfortunately, while I loved that camera and the hardware, the software was missing things. Not anything in Android, either — but from iOS, actually.
To be specific, two things: The first is iOS’s Control Center. Swiping up from the bottom edge of the display will bring up this feature, which allows you to, for example, quickly play/pause or change the volume of a song you’re listening to. And second, the ability to quickly and easily change audio sources. I move between my headphones and Bluetooth a lot, and being able to quickly select which one I want, without having to unplug my headphones or dig into settings, is pretty fantastic.
As far as I know, these are features that are still missing in Android. And yes, I know that if you slide down the Notification Shade in Android that you get music controls, and I can deactivate a ton of features, like Bluetooth, but this is simply not as good as Control Center. Especially if you have a big phone. Control Center is easily accessible, and both of those aforementioned features are baked into it. And, yes, I know there are apps out there that can make this a reality, but I don’t want to install an app to get this functionality.
As an Android user, this is one thing that I like from iOS that I wish Google could implement in Android. I want Google to roll with that idea and make it even better — make it customizable, for instance!
I want to hear from you, though, Android users who aren’t afraid to tell the world what features in iOS you’d like to see added to Android, but with tweaks to make it (or them) even better. Let me know!
