Is iOS’s closing kind simply… Android?

If we’ve in contrast Android to iOS as soon as, we’ve in contrast them 100 occasions. At this level, we could have truly in contrast them 100 occasions. It’s not all the time the identical comparability — we’ve checked out all the pieces from area of interest AI instruments to revamped customization options — and the identical working system doesn’t all the time come out on prime. Nonetheless, at this level, we’ve spent sufficient time bouncing backwards and forwards to note a couple of tendencies, and none has been extra stunning than the gradual, regular Android-ification of iOS. I’d go as far as to say that iOS is beginning to really feel like considered one of my favourite Android skins, and right here’s why.

I’m sufficiently old to recollect when each iPhone felt nearly precisely the identical — it’s solely been a 12 months or two, in spite of everything. Jokes apart, you solely have to return so far as iOS 16 or 17 to lose most of the Android-level customization options that we’ve come to know and love, and in the event you return so far as iOS 14, you lose entry to widgets in your iPhone altogether. That’s a surprisingly brief timeline of simply 4 years since Apple’s software program was about as locked down as might be.

And don’t get me fallacious — as an Android fan, I’m glad that Apple has made a number of progress within the final couple of years. It’s precisely the kind of competitors my most well-liked working system must hold transferring ahead. I imply, the truth that Apple has caught up to some issues I’ve been doing since I had an HTC Droid Unbelievable 4G in my pocket a decade in the past ought to have Google quaking in its boots. Okay, this time, I actually am finished busting on Apple for its gradual, regular method.

In any case, the comparatively new customization choices turned out to be one of many best methods for me to persuade my pals to replace their telephones for as soon as. I couldn’t win them over with RCS or Apple Intelligence (since that might have required a brand new cellphone), however the concept they may out of the blue prepare apps round their pets’ faces was all it took. In equity, it’s labored on me, too — I don’t dread my annual dip into iOS practically as a lot now that I can keep on with the two-folder, two-widget residence display screen that I really like a lot. Apart from, as so many Android units and skins begin to look increasingly more alike, it’s good to see somebody utilizing the previous “Be collectively, not the identical” tagline.

After all, there are nonetheless loads of customization options that Android does far, much better than iOS, but it surely’s good to see Apple upping its recreation. I nonetheless a lot want the color-matched app icon expertise on Android, which picks out a coloration palette based mostly in your wallpaper quite than merely making each piece of the interface one coloration and giving your icons darkened backgrounds. Possibly it’s higher than Apple’s earlier free-for-all method, but it surely’s nonetheless much less cohesive than Android. On the intense facet, Apple has already modified how its themes work a minimum of just a little bit, as selecting a coloration now not tints my Spotify widget and makes it more durable to learn.

I’ll additionally give Android the sting in the case of widgets, if solely as a result of it presents significantly better shapes and extra third-party apps to choose from. I nonetheless love that Google opened up the Photographs widget to freeform shapes in Android 12, and Nothing’s mixture of round, pill-shaped, and sq. widgets makes what would in any other case appear to be a grid system far more enjoyable. The day Apple ventures exterior its sq. (or perhaps rectangular) widgets is after I begin pondering it’s caught as much as Android.

And but, I’ve to present Apple just a little credit score for its lock display screen widgets. Though Android technically had them first, they have been a short-lived function from Android 4 to Android 5 earlier than disappearing — although they could come again formally as a part of Android 16. Apple, alternatively, launched them when it overhauled its complete lock display screen customization system in iOS 16. In true Apple style, although, they’re restricted to small, not all the time legible squares and rectangles, and it’s important to set them every time you alter your lock display screen.

Whereas customization might be the obvious instance of iOS trending in the direction of Android, it’s removed from the one factor Apple has pinched from exterior its walled backyard. Because the open-source working system with much more builders engaged on good skins like One UI, Good day UX, and Oxygen OS, it’s simpler for a function to hit Android first and get scooped up by iOS later. It typically comes all the way down to when Apple will undertake a function, not if.

Look no additional than the always-on show to see simply how far behind the eight-ball Apple might be. Relying on who you ask, it’s been round on Android for the reason that days of the Moto X practically a decade in the past or on Nokia telephones even additional again. Apple? Yeah, it didn’t come round to an always-on show till the iPhone 14 Professional launched in 2022, and even now, it stays a Professional-only function. Some — together with me — may even say that Apple’s AOD is just a little bit too always-on, provided that I don’t all the time have to see my wallpaper after I’m simply glancing down for a notification.

Even one thing as ubiquitously Android because the App Drawer lastly made its strategy to iOS after a number of years of ready. If I needed to guess, I’d say that you simply don’t keep in mind ever utilizing an Android cellphone with no swipe-up drawer for its apps, just because it’s been a key a part of the working system ever since Android 1.0, and it’s powerful to go additional again than that. iOS, alternatively, solely added its App Library — which organizes your apps by class quite than alphabetically — with iOS 14 in 2020.

In hindsight, I would even say that iOS 14 was the start of Apple’s Android-ification, because it marked the addition of a number of different options beforehand reserved for our favourite open-source platform. It was the identical 12 months that Apple added the power to set sure default apps — although not each app — matching a functionality from Android 2.3. iOS 14 additionally marked the beginning of picture-in-picture help, which stays as near a real split-screen mode as we’ve seen from Apple.

After which, there’s battery saver mode — a factor that each smartphone consumer ever has wanted at one time or one other. Battery life has come a good distance over the previous few years by way of effectivity, however for a very long time, Apple merely relied on its top-tier optimization to remain forward of the battery life curve. Then, in 2015, it added Low Energy Mode as a key function of iOS 9, only a few years after Android introduced it system-wide with Energy Saver in 2011.

To me, there are two methods to have a look at iOS changing into extra like Android — you might be scared that it’s going to draw customers away from Android and into the protection of Apple’s walled backyard, or you’ll be able to see it as Apple admitting that it’s not all the time proper. As a Pixel fan, I’m going to lean into the second possibility. In any case, I praised Google when it chased after Apple concerning {hardware} high quality and reliability, so why not reward Apple for stress-free its beforehand strict management over its working system?

Apart from, it’s not like Apple is actually changing into Android. It’s nonetheless by far the extra locked-down, tighter-controlled working system, with stricter necessities for submitting an app to the app retailer, limits to what you are able to do by way of side-loading apps, and optimizations of each final side of its software program to squeeze each final minute of battery life out of in any other case tiny cells. I don’t have a major concern with any of these issues as a result of Apple’s potential to push years and years of software program updates to its iPhones greater than makes up for the constraints.

And perhaps, simply perhaps, that is the kind of strain Android wanted from iOS all alongside. Regardless that software program options like FaceTime and iMessage stay dependable methods to strain individuals to change to iOS — a minimum of within the US — Android’s customization choices had lengthy been sufficient to present individuals second ideas. They have been adequate and versatile sufficient for individuals to disregard that their pals noticed them as inexperienced bubbles just because spending hours modifying their residence screens or discovering simply the correct widget for any scenario was extra gratifying.

With iOS sporting most of the similar wrinkles, it’s time for Android to seek out one other strategy to differentiate. Possibly meaning leaning on its AI options, whether or not from Gemini, Galaxy AI, or someplace else completely. Or maybe it means leaning even additional into foldable kind elements, particularly now that the HUAWEI Mate XT is greater than only a idea and Samsung’s personal triple-foldable is tipped for a summer season launch.

But when Android makes use of AI as its differentiator going ahead, I hope it does so fastidiously — generally Apple’s gradual, regular method does repay.