A couple of weeks in the past, my trusty evaluation unit of the iPhone 16 Plus wanted to be despatched again, so I made the choice to not hunt down one other iPhone however to maneuver utterly to the Android ecosystem. As you’ve little question seen from the headline, issues didn’t go fairly in response to plan.
Earlier than any aspect of this argument begins to boost its banners, let it’s stated that though I’ve primarily been an iPhone consumer for the final couple of years, since turning into a contract author initially of this yr, there hasn’t been every week passed by that I haven’t additionally had an Android telephone in my pocket.
I’ve been fortunate sufficient to evaluation a few of the finest Android telephones of 2025, and I like the quantity of selection that you could find when venturing outdoors of Apple’s partitions.
For next-level DSLR-style cameras, the Xiaomi 15 Extremely can’t be crushed, while the CMF Telephone 2 Professional is a marvel of engineering on the funds finish of the market. Personally, I made a decision to make a transfer to the Honor Magic V5 as its bigger show may be very useful for writing articles on the go.
Thomas Deehan / Foundry
With the Magic V5 in tow, I made positive to maneuver over logins to key apps, prepare the homescreen to my liking and arrange Google Pay with all of my primary playing cards – all the issues I assumed I wanted for a clean transition.
However because it seems, there’s much more to Apple’s ecosystem than I had initially anticipated, and it’s largely dictated by your partner’s telephone of selection.
The household ecosystem
My spouse has been a die-hard iPhone fan ever since making the leap to the iPhone 8 from an previous HTC gadget, and with an Apple Watch and a pair of AirPods Professional 2, she has no inclination to ever retreat throughout that Apple/Android divide. As somebody who additionally used an iPhone, this by no means introduced any kind of concern…till I stepped outdoors of the ecosystem.
In relation to arranging our weekly meals store, I’ve at all times relied on a shared checklist within the Apple Notes app, and I assumed that it could be a straightforward sufficient course of to nonetheless edit that checklist on my iPad after which copy it over to Google Preserve in order that I might entry it on my telephone. Reader, I used to be grossly mistaken.
At current, Google Preserve doesn’t allow you to add useful tick containers to a listing with out including such a field to each single line of textual content. This meant that my rigorously constructed checklist of required produce, meats and necessities changed into a UI catastrophe that made it onerous to maintain monitor of what I wanted to get.
Thomas Deehan / Foundry
I additionally didn’t anticipate that it could disrupt sure parts of dialog all through the day.
My spouse and I always ship one another tales from Apple Information which have caught our consideration, however it’s one of many few Apple apps that doesn’t have a model constructed for Android, which additionally implies that any tales I used to be despatched couldn’t be learn till I bought residence and booted up my iPad.
Even smaller situations, similar to serving to each other to trace down a tool utilizing Apple Discover My, aren’t simple to do when Android is within the combine.
The second I logged again into my iCloud account, it felt like a wave of reduction had washed over me
The Apple advantages that may turn into a entice
On the {hardware} entrance, I knew forward of time that lacking out on MagSafe was going to be a difficulty.
I’ve written earlier than about how useful Google’s Pixelsnap design on the Pixel 10 collection is in serving to iPhone customers to make the transition, and whereas there are MagSafe-compatible circumstances which you can purchase for different Android telephones, the standard of these circumstances might be hit-and-miss. One such case that I nabbed noticed the metallic ring come away from the adhesive layer after solely a day.
What proved to be extra time-consuming was making an attempt to detangle the iCloud+ unique ‘Disguise My Electronic mail’ function, which generates a proxy e-mail that can be utilized when creating an account to save lots of your actual e-mail from ending up in knowledge leaks.
I had been utilizing the function for fairly some time and, with out pondering an excessive amount of about it, had created an extended checklist of proxy emails and passwords, which then wanted to be carried over manually with a purpose to maintain utilizing stated accounts on Android. It’s precisely the kind of function that appears nice till you not want it.
Thomas Deehan / Foundry
Even with all this in thoughts, I had deliberate to stay issues out with Android.
Nevertheless, I bought my palms on a refurbished iPhone 16 for a separate article I’m writing about second-hand telephones. Let me inform you, the second I logged again into my iCloud account, it felt like a wave of reduction had washed over me, understanding that every little thing was the place it wanted to be and no additional problem was required. As soon as I realised how a lot I missed that comfort, I made a decision there after which that I had to return to Apple.
I nonetheless really feel, greater than ever, that there are nice advantages available from each iPhone and Android, however I’d implore shoppers to be extra conscious of the digital quicksand that each camps attempt to put you in, because it’ll solely make the method of leaping ship that a lot tougher.
Not tied to a selected ecosystem? Our information to the very best telephones you should purchase contains the highest iPhone and Android choices.
