This isn’t an iOS vs. Android thread, although I’m aware this might come off that way to some. I’ve been using Android phones since the Galaxy S4 and at the time it felt like Android was far and ahead the best smartphone OS at the time. It was objectively better than iOS in 2010 in just about every metric apart from UI fluidity.

I’m not so sure about that any more. I still do prefer Android - the UI, the customizability, the ability to sideload apps, etc. That said, why is it that every single time Android gets a feature that truly makes the phone more usable, Google goes ahead and guts that functionality, only for Apple to actually give a shit about that feature a few years later and do it way better.

Just off the top of my head, I can’t believe Google screwed up:

  • Android Beam
  • Google Now on Tap (not to mention all the things it did that Google Assistant can’t)
  • Hangouts (not necessarily Android but it could have easily been better than iMessage)
  • Nearby Notifications
  • Android @ Home
  • Bump!

I get that Google as a company is out to make money, but do they really have to shut down any functionality that isn’t directly generating revenue?

  • Sendbeer@lemmy.worldEnglish
    15·
    2 years ago

    So many Google things get half assed and then never get updated. I used an iPad today and it was kind of crazy having the autofill service just work. On Android I always need to click between user and password several times, do a long hold to select autofill and have THAT do nothing. Do a long sigh, open up Bitwarden and copy the password and return to the app only to find the autofill popup offering to fill in the password now. It’s been that bad since day 1 and is pathetic they have never updated what would be such a nice feature.

    So yeah, I’d agree sometimes they are pretty incompetent.

    • ඞmir@lemmy.mlEnglish
      6·
      2 years ago

      I’m fairly sure they only tested the Autofill feature for their own Google Password Manager, and even that one only works 75% of the time in Firefox

    • Resolved3874@lemdro.idEnglish
      3·
      2 years ago

      The thing I like most about the auto fill on iOS is that 9.9 times out of 10 you get the little key icon in the top right of the keyboard to open up your icloud key chain, bitwarden, etc. You don’t have to wait for any kind of auto fill to figure itself out you just kinda do it.

    • MLSC87@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 years ago

      I love my Fold 4, but as a life time iphone user, this is one of my many frustrations with Android.

  • HughJanus@lemmy.mlEnglish
    6·
    2 years ago

    No you’re completely right and these are great examples.

    I get that Google as a company is out to make money, but do they really have to shut down any functionality that isn’t directly generating revenue?

    I mean these are all revenue-generating functionality. Making people want to use Android generates money. That’s why they make it.

    But yeah their incessant need to kill off their services instead of improving them makes me personally want to switch to iOS. Their only saving grace is that iOS ALSO sucks so badly at so many things, and that’s without getting into the ethical complications of Apple the company.

    My hope is that PWAs usher in an era of platform agnosticity(?).

    • BeMoreCareful@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      2 years ago

      Their fail fast policy is not really suitable to anything customer facing.

      Probably works great with advertising though.

  • sbv@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    4·
    2 years ago

    but do they really have to shut down any functionality that isn’t directly generating revenue?

    I wish they wouldn’t, but depending on internal accounting, they probably have good reason to.

    Google Now on Tap was so awesome I happily would have paid for it.

    • Acamon@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 years ago

      I still get frustrated when I can’t just make my phone figure out a appointment from an email or whatever on the screen. Tap was so useful back then, and if they’d stuck with it and developed it with Google Lens, and AI stuff now, it could be fantastically functional.

      But nope, we get slow, dumb Google assistant :(

      • ඞmir@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2·
        2 years ago

        Google Assistant but less focussed on voice and more focussed on what it saw on your screen. Assistant can still do most of its features but you just have to hope it feels like doing it…

  • jetsetdorito@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    2 years ago

    Googles current structure just isn’t good at maintaining products. It incentivizes creating something new and flashy over making a product good in the long term.

    I’ve listened to some panels from some android developers and from some of their comments the communication between departments seems so disjointed.

  • danielfgom@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    These services you mentioned are not really Android specific. But yes, Google will kill any product that doesn’t get popular or make money.

    However Android itself is better than ever, especially with Material You.

    • randromeda@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
      1·
      2 years ago

      Which one of them isn’t Android specific? They were all features that once existed on Android and were taken away.

      • danielfgom@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 years ago

        They are primarily web based services which also work on Android and iOS. They aren’t part of the Android OS.