Here's What I (a Google Fan) Dislike about my iPhone 14

In the Android vs. Apple debate, I’ve always been in the minority corner (Android). While I haven’t loudly carried the flag for Android, I’ve defended my stance on many occasions. That opportunity always comes up when texting with an iPhone user. 

It has always been playful ridicule and comes from all angles – friends, coworkers, family, etc. No matter how hard I try to convince my attackers that it only makes sense to experience Gmail, Google Search, YouTube, Chrome and other Google-made software on a Google-made phone*, I was never taken seriously.

*Let me clarify here that I am more of a Google fan than an Android fan. That especially goes for phones. In the past, I tried Samsung and Motorola phones that operated on Android but didn’t realize how bad they were until I used a Google Pixel phone. With the Pixel, there are no duplicated browser apps, photo gallery apps or other bloatware like you find on a Samsung. I think that’s one of the bigger dents against Android in the eternal debate. 

Very recently, I caved. I had enjoyed my Google Pixel 3A (2019) right up to the fall of 2022. I decided to give the just-released iPhone 14 a try. The instant regret I felt upon powering-on the iPhone has subsided a bit in the 3 months since then but I thought now would be a good time to list the things I really miss about my Google phone. 

This is a very informal list and in no particular order.

iPhone 14		Google Pixel 3A
Extremely lacking	Wall Paper Selections	Google allowed access to beautiful, rich photos made available from professional users of Google Photos. I don’t use family photos as wallpapers because I don’t want to have an app covering my kid’s face, for example.
In the event I wake up before an alarm goes off, I cannot disable or skip the alarm in advance. The alarm must be completely deactivated, running the risk of not being re-activated.	Clock Alarms	Offers a simple “dismiss” feature that does not permanently turn off the upcoming alarm.
You cannot remove a text thread from your list of messages. So, the one text you sent to a coworker last summer will remain in your list of messages until the end of time unless you completely delete it.	Archiving Texts	With Google Messages, users can archive (not delete) text threads to keep the list of current conversations clean and manageable.
Users must open the weather app to view info	Weather – Quick Access	Actually, the same number of steps are needed to access this info but I’ll say the process seems much more simple on the Pixel.
VERY lacking. I get that Apple is way, way behind the curve on widgets but their selection of features is laughable. For example, the only widget option available for the Clock is….a few varieties of an analog clock. I’ve noticed some apps on the iPhone don’t even offer widgets.	Widgets	So much more variety.
When on its back (camera down) the iPhone 14 rocks back and forth like a table at McDonalds due to the camera lenses.	Camera bulge	I won’t knock Apple to much here because newer Pixels may very well have the same camera bulge. But my 2019 phone did not!
Not available. And let me say that Face ID is not a better option. I find that Face ID works very poorly in dark settings, when I’m wearing my glasses, if I don’t have the phone lined up directly in front of my face, etc. Unlocking my iPhone 14 takes too many steps. (And, I have to use Face ID due to some work apps)	Fingerprint sensor	I could unlock my phone before I looked at it. Think about that.
Way, way, way too complicated. Navigating my iPhone 14 does not feel natural. There are way too many “sub sections” within the Settings app.	General Navigation	It just makes more sense. Enough said.
No waving off phone calls, no wrist gestures to turn the flashlight on/off, etc. Long-time iPhone users will not think this is a big deal as they don’t know what they’re missing.	Gesture Commands	I really, really miss being able to double-tap the power button to open my camera.
The amount of spam texts and spam calls I have received since switching to an iPhone has increased by 400%. I am not exaggerating one bit.	Spam calls/texts	My Pixel had an amazing screening feature. I used it so much that it “learned” what I deemed to be spam. It was very rare to receive a spam call and 10x as rare to receive a spam text.
Frequently an issue, especially with the keyboard in Messages. I even downloaded Gboard thinking that would help. Even Gboard is different on an iPhone.	Fat Fingers	Never really an issue. Also, my Pixel’s predictive text feature was VASTYLY better than what I experience with the iPhone 14.
I tried to “Googlefy” my iPhone as much as possible. Part of those steps involved making Google Photos my go-to photo gallery. But the iPhone won’t let me text photos directly from Google Photos. This is a bigger pain that I initially realized and bigger than you might think.	Messages and Google Photos	No problem whatsoever.
3 months later, I’m still adjusting to the iPhone volume buttons being on the opposite side of the phone.	Volume buttons	Under the power button, where I’ve come to love them.
For as great as everyone thinks iPhones are, the silent mode switch seems very dated.	Silent Switch	Press the volume rocker once then tap the silent option to silence your phone. No archaic, manual switch needed.
So much heavier. Feels certain that it would shatter if dropped from any height. I can just look at it and tell it is the least durable phone I’ve ever used.	Weight and feel of device	One of the lightest phones I’ve ever owned and has near Nokia-level durability. I dropped this phone all the time on all kinds of surfaces and it never blinked.

I’m not a photographer or influencer. I really just use my phone to text and to use a few apps. So, overall, these 2 phones aren’t that different. They really are not, from my standpoint. The only difference boils down to iMessage. Please watch this video for a non-biased recap of green and blue bubbles.

That really is the only difference. Think about that – a person’s opinion of another person can be swayed by the color of a text bubble. But, want to know the real kicker? Since getting my iPhone, I have received very few – almost zero – texts from the people that busted my chops the most over the years for tainting their text threads with green bubbles.

You better believe my next phone will be made by Google. 

3 More Social Media Wishes

I was satisfied with my post about my Top-3 social media wishes but since then, I've come up with a few more wishes. Just like my original wishes, these wishes are a little nitpicky but relevant enough to really enhance my experience with these particular social media outlets. Let's get right to it.

Pandora – List the Year! 

I'm not big on music. It doesn't dictate my life as much as it did when I was in high school. However, I do enjoy playing a radio in the background when I'm working on a project at home. Pandora does the trick for me. Hearing some of my favorite songs my own 90's Alternative channel really takes me back to days with fewer responsibilities (yet more angst). Pandora is great about providing details of songs such as the artists, the cover art from the album on which the song originally appeared and even the lyrics to the song. What isn’t provided is the release year of the song – and that sorta bugs me. XM Sirius displays the year of songs currently played by users and my DRV guide lists the release year of movies in the channel description. I always catch myself looking at the screen and searching for the year when Pandora plays a great song. I'm sure they have their reason for excluding the year but this would be a great addition, in my opinion.

(By the way, Pandora is a social media network because it requires a unique, personalized profile and custom channels can be shared with other users. Also, if you're in the Birmingham area and like 90's alternative music too, check out 94.9 The Alt FM. They play a lot of songs from the 90's and 00's with a tolerable amount of late 00's Emo music and today's "HEY" music.)

Google+ - Let the People Hoot! 

I enjoy using Hootsuite to schedule social media posts. It's very flexible and allows me to send messages from all of my social media messages – except Google+. Yes, you can send and schedule messages for your Google+ business page with Hootsuite, but not your personal profile. From what I've determined, this is a Google decision – they won't permit users the ability to manage their personal G+ posts with Hootsuite (or any other social media dashboard, from what I can tell). This is a real head-scratcher. It seems that Google would allow this type of connectivity if it ever wanted Google+ to shake its "ghost town" image. Sure, there are workarounds available through IFTTT but they're too convoluted. I'll just continue to keep my fingers crossed in hope of day when Google throws Hootsuite users a bone. Facebook does…just sayin'. Then again, it may not matter as Google seems to be repositioning Google+ as a business tool, according to this recent

video.


Tumblr & IFTTT – Can't We All Just Get Along? 

I use Tumblr primarily as a place to share content from others. IFTTT helps streamline a lot of "sharing steps" for many of my social media profiles. For a reason I cannot determine, YouTube and Tumblr do not want to connect via IFTTT for me. I've tried several recipes that are built to take the YouTube videos I like and instantly share them on my Tumblr. I've even tried building my own recipe to accomplish this but to no avail. It just…does…not…work. It's the only recipe I have trouble with and, even though it won't cause me to quit YouTube (never!) or Tumblr, my Tumblr experience sure would be a lot cooler if there was more harmony in this relationship.

Share your social media wishes with me in the comments below or with me on Twitter! Who knows? I may add even more wishes soon!

Condensed Content for Quick Consumption

Have you noticed that the technology we use to coordinate our days, hours and minutes is largely responsible for our lives being so chaotic? Sure, it helps us manage time more efficiently but any free time that is created is often filled in with more activities, not leisure. Weirdly, we like it that way.

Marketers have adjusted their delivery methods to our desire to be occupied at all times. Paid advertisements in social media feeds are great examples of this tactic. So are video screens at gas pumps. Twitter, which causes a lot of the competition for my attention, has seen its turf become so crowded that it recently unveiled Twitter Highlights, a feature Twitter says is, "an instant summary of the best Tweets from your timeline." It's like Twitter is surrendering to the fact that we users are so busy that we only have time for the cream of its crop.

Despite being so busy, we still like to call the shots when it comes to staying informed. But the rub is that we're too busy to call said shots. That's why we have an increasing appreciation for content, news and other information to be delivered to us in concentrated doses. I've noticed three big-time examples that help us achieve an acceptable information delivery flow that is considerate of our available consumption time.

INBOX

Google's attempt to make managing all of your email was introduced in late 2014. Not only can you access messages from various accounts with Inbox, it also prioritizes your emails so that you see what's important sooner.


THIS.

This. is a budding, invitation-only social media platform that allows users to share just one link per day with other users. That limitation really makes you think before sharing (and really cuts down on the cat pics!). Each day, the editors at This. send an email to subscribers that features the most shared links of the day.

THE DAILY RALLY

Sports fans that are crunched for time will appreciate the roundup of headlines that arrive each morning via email. Each delivery features a broad but short collection of links to articles and videos that recap sporting events from the previous day (and night). This is a very new venture staffed only by a pair of capable sisters. I’m already a fan and I hope they can maintain what has to be an exhausting pace.

WE HAVE LAUNCHED. Head over to thedailyrally.com to sign up! What a great day.
Posted by The Daily Rally on Monday, September 7, 2015

I expect to see more new content sources that conform to our information overload threshold. It will be interesting to see if and how existing sources adjust. Thanks for reading and please let me know your observations in the comment section!