Switching from iOS; questions about app quality

[FredHolden]

Hey, so I'm going to go ahead and get the Nexus 4 in a week or so's time, coming from iOS. I've been doing loads of research over the past few days about the new incarnations of stock android (used to have a desire on 2.2 sense and hated the interface), and as an OS it seems vastly superior to Apple. Having said that, all the apps I use regularly on my iPhone and Pad without issue (such as netflix, spotify, facebook, alien blue) have awful reviews on Play, or don't exist at all. In fact, I struggled to find one app not made by Google that had any good reviews for their latest versions. They all say things like 'after latest update, lucky if you can get past loading screen' or something similar. I don't recall apps being quite so bad when I was on Android. All I remember is video/audio streaming services (like iPlayer) being almost unusable.

tl;dr - Are people just whining on Play, or are there genuine problems with Android apps?

Thanks guys :smokingsomb:

- Fred

 

[drowe]

If you like the apps on the iphone, stay there. If you want something new and DIFFERENT, welcome to android. The apps are different, not better, not worse, different. There are hundreds of threads here saying "I used Blah, Blah on my iphone and I can't find the same thing on android". There is no <insert iphone app name here> on android, but there are apps or ways to accomplish the same thing. My point is to identify the TASK you want to accomplish with your phone, look at the ways each system accomplishes it and choose iphone or android.

 

[gtbarry]

Personally, I think people are whining. But like you, I do pay attention to reviews and ratings in the Play Store. I would think that what you are seeing is mostly people who are motivated by anger posting.

The first three you mention by name work fine on my Galaxy Nexus running 4.1.1. I would say that overall the ios apps are more initially intuitive than Android apps and also tend to share more commonalities. But, there are some examples of where Android shines compared to ios. Evernote on Android being an example of being vastly superior than the clunky ios version.

I think you will find the most basic common apps (facebook, etc.) will take some slight adjusting and not be too much better or worse. But for some apps you may have to find replacements that you feel comfortable with. In some cases you may be able to consolidate some ios apps into one Android app or visa versa.

 

[chrlswltrs]

There are very few apps that work better on iOS than Android in my experience (I use my iPad a lot). Plus there are a lot more useful apps for Android.

A lot of the bad reviews for Android apps come from people with older or unsupported phones. Personally I don't expect devs to support versions of Android that are over 2 years old and hate when the app gets rated poorly because of it. Or when a 2+ year old phone doesn't have the processing power necessary to run the graphics of more advanced games or apps.

 

[ktchong]

How important is (mobile) gaming to you?

Compared to iOS, Android is severely lacking and falling further and further behind. When I was making a decision between iPhone and Android, I rationalized that Android vs iOS would duplicate the market paradigm of Windows vs Mac.

i.e., at the time, iPhone was ahead of Android in terms of apps and games. I read that Android would overtake iPhone in market shares. I thought that as more people adopt Android, it would naturally (or so I thought) receive more apps and support from developers, more so than iOS in the future. That was how the PC market turned out for Windows vs Mac. I expected the same outcome for Android vs iOS. So I went with my intuition/expectation, and bought an Android instead of iPhone.

Unfortunately, the smartphone and tablet markets have not panned out as I thought (or hoped) they would. Honestly I am very much regretting investing in and having spent so much money into Android.

During the past year, iPhone and iPad have been getting more and more exclusive games (and apps) that are not available for Android. In addition, many developers simply refuses to make anything for Android (e.g., Epic Games, TellTale Games, 2K Games) or have tried developing for Android and then abandoned Android (Mika Mobile) for various reasons. There are so many nice games on iPhone or iPad that are not and will never be available for Android.

More and more often I find myself looking frustratingly at some mobile games on YouTube, games that are only available for iOS but NOT for Android. The situation seems to have gotten worse over the recent months. Android has not been catching up with iOS as I had hoped. Instead, Android seems to be losing grounds in gaming.

Of course, if you do not care about games, then this warning is useless to you.

 

[chrlswltrs]

I disagree. Android has just as many great games as ios now. TDKR, GTAIII, Need for Speed, Call of Duty, Madden, just to name a few.

In fact I think Android has the advantage here because I can play those game using a Wii or PS3 controller.

So where exactly is Android lacking in games?

 

[ktchong]

I disagree. Android has just as many great games as ios now. TDKR, GTAIII, Need for Speed, Call of Duty, Madden, just to name a few.

All which are also available on iOS.

On the other hand, i can give you a long list of good games that are available on iOS but NOT Android. Here are just a few samples right off the top of my head.

King of Dragon Pass
Sword and Sorcery Bros
Myst series
Pirates and a few other Sid Meier title (2K Games have been making apps for iOS for over two years...but not Android)
All of Telltale adventure games: Back to the Future, Walking Dead, etc. (TellTale adventure games are so good.)
Epic Games (of Gears of War fame) also make games for iOS but, again, NOT Android. Their Infinity Blade is a major iOS-exclusive IP.


Of course Android has games including some good games. However, NONE of those games are EXCLUSIVE to Android. Whatever you can play on Android, you can get it on iOS; and most likely the iOS version is superior to the Android version, (e.g., Settlers of Catan, Cascarone, Battles for Wesnoth.) On the other hand, there are too many games that you can play on iOS but are NOT available for Android, and that list is getting longer and longer all the time. In terms of gaming, Android does not have a single good EXCLUSIVE right now, but iOS has plenty.

 

[Stuntman]

I find that most apps are good. A some are not that good. For your specific apps, I know that NexFlix is good. Facebook sucks, but I have heard that it also sucks on iOS.

 

[chrlswltrs]

I find that most apps are good. A some are not that good. For your specific apps, I know that NexFlix is good. Facebook sucks, but I have heard that it also sucks on iOS.

Facebook is actually almost identical on Android and iOS.

 

[Rxpert83]

Make sure you filter reviews by device. Most of the time i find it is people trying to use intensive apps on a dated phone that can't keep up with it.

You'll have no issues on the nexus 4

 

[ktchong]

I do pay attention to reviews and ratings in the Play Store

I do as well. I would NOT buy or install an app if its rating is below 4 (out of 5.)

 

[FredHolden]

How important is (mobile) gaming to you?

Compared to iOS, Android is severely lacking and falling further and further behind. When I was making a decision between iPhone and Android, I rationalized that Android vs iOS would duplicate the market paradigm of Windows vs Mac.

i.e., at the time, iPhone was ahead of Android in terms of apps and games. I read that Android would overtake iPhone in market shares. I thought that as more people adopt Android, it would naturally (or so I thought) receive more apps and support from developers, more so than iOS in the future. That was how the PC market turned out for Windows vs Mac. I expected the same outcome for Android vs iOS. So I went with my intuition/expectation, and bought an Android instead of iPhone.

Unfortunately, the smartphone and tablet markets have not panned out as I thought (or hoped) they would. Honestly I am very much regretting investing in and having spent so much money into Android.

During the past year, iPhone and iPad have been getting more and more exclusive games (and apps) that are not available for Android. In addition, many developers simply refuses to make anything for Android (e.g., Epic Games, TellTale Games, 2K Games) or have tried developing for Android and then abandoned Android (Mika Mobile) for various reasons. There are so many nice games on iPhone or iPad that are not and will never be available for Android.

More and more often I find myself looking frustratingly at some mobile games on YouTube, games that are only available for iOS but NOT for Android. The situation seems to have gotten worse over the recent months. Android has not been catching up with iOS as I had hoped. Instead, Android seems to be losing grounds in gaming.

Of course, if you do not care about games, then this warning is useless to you.

Well it's funny you should say that. I was aware of just what you say, and went on to say which is that there's nothing android exclusive, but lots that is iOS exclusive. This almost swayed me, until I really analysed how I use my mobile for a few days. 99% of what I did was maps or Internet based. Two things which google does extremely well, and apple strangles development on. I don't care about games like gtaiii; I always buy them and never use them because a blockbuster gaming experience is just not what I want when I'm on the bloody tube (not to mention my thumbs get in the way). I want something easy and non committal like angry birds.

Also, scaredy cats like telltale who are worried about fragmentation (who have no qualms about releasing software on pc, the most fragmented market I can think of, but that's not for here) don't bother me. The ability to get scummvm from the official app store, along with snes gba and ps1 emulators gives android a monumental leap in terms of gaming potential. Can't play tales of monkey island? Big deal! I could play the originals.

 

[chanchan05]

The point really is, if you are looking to buy a TOY, then an iOS device is the obvious choice. If you are looking to buy a tablet and/or phone to be productive with it, that's when things open up. You have to define productivity. For example, while there are several very good illustrator apps for iOS, none of them can match the accuracy of drawing on a Galaxy Note 10.1, so it boils down to better drawings vs more apps to choose from. And as stated above, and from my experience, I prefer the web browsing experience on Chrome than Safari (mobile). Then Windows 8 enters the tablet race, and well hands down both iOS and Android loses to Windows 8 (using Pro version, not RT) since Windows Surface Pro can run all PC productivity apps. Fire up desktop versions of Photoshop, Lightroom, and even After Effects on it and it will run.

In the end, what you will be doing with your tablet will define which OS to buy into.

 

[Stuntman]

Facebook is actually almost identical on Android and iOS.

I heard it sucked on iOS as well. There was some changes for Facebook on iOS that is supposed to make it better. Not sure what is happening on Android other than Facebook forcing its developers to use an Android device to experience how much it sucks.

Well it's funny you should say that. I was aware of just what you say, and went on to say which is that there's nothing android exclusive, but lots that is iOS exclusive. This almost swayed me, until I really analysed how I use my mobile for a few days. 99% of what I did was maps or Internet based. Two things which google does extremely well, and apple strangles development on. I don't care about games like gtaiii; I always buy them and never use them because a blockbuster gaming experience is just not what I want when I'm on the bloody tube (not to mention my thumbs get in the way). I want something easy and non committal like angry birds.

The stuff that is available on Android and not on iOS are apps that take advantage of Android OS features. Things like widgets are the obvious ones. Other utilities like keyboards and launchers are also available on Android, but not on iOS due to iOS limitations on what a developer can do.

You no doubt have heard about the map comparisons between iOS and Android. Web browsing can be richer on Android due to Android supporting Flash. I find that there are still many web sites that have Flash content. It is nice to be able to view all of that content on my mobile devices.

 

[chrlswltrs]

You no doubt have heard about the map comparisons between iOS and Android. Web browsing can be richer on Android due to Android supporting Flash. I find that there are still many web sites that have Flash content. It is nice to be able to view all of that content on my mobile devices.

Actually, Android no longer supports flash. The default browser is chrome for Android which doesn't support flash. And you can no longer download flash from Google Play. Adobe has ended support for mobile.

There might still be a couple 3rd party browsers that can play flash video, but I'm not sure which ones.

 

[Rxpert83]

You can side load flash pretty easily and many browsers still will let you use it.