For some cause, individuals prefer to take sides on issues that actually don’t must have sides in any respect. You’re a fan of iPhones? Cool. You’re extra snug with Android telephones? Use it in good well being.
However we dwell in a aggressive society, and so the one firm that produces iOS-based telephones and the myriad manufacturers that make Android-based telephones all the time really feel that they should clarify why their product is extra spectacular, extra versatile, safer, extra enjoyable, and extra no matter than those powered by the opposite OS. Because of this, each time an organization introduces a characteristic that’s new to its OS, it proclaims it as revolutionary, great, and by no means seen earlier than. Anybody who has attended or watched a product introduction — from Apple, Google, or Samsung — is aware of what I’m speaking about.
Apple is arguably the largest offender right here, with a historical past of taking its time to develop a characteristic that different firms have been fast to leap on as successfully beta-testers. You’ll be able to virtually set your watch to the Twitter takes and memes about how iPhone customers are all the time late to the social gathering of concepts they could assume are wholly new if taking Apple at its phrase.
And right here we’re once more. Apple is introducing its newest telephone line, the iPhone 14, and the newest model of its working system, iOS 16. There are numerous enhancements and new options that shall be both helpful, enjoyable, or each. And actually, many of those options are coming to older iPhone fashions, whereas some are restricted to the brand new iPhone 14 {hardware}.
However whereas Apple touts all of them as all new and all nice, a few of them are — both fully or in some trend — already acquainted to Android customers. Right here’s a listing of no less than a number of the options that Apple is now providing however that Android has had for some time.
A number of stops in maps
You’re in your means residence after visiting your Aunt Bea, and also you all of the sudden understand that in case you take a brief facet journey, you possibly can cease in at one in every of your favourite bookstores. Don’t need to get misplaced? Now, in iOS 16, you possibly can rapidly add the tackle of the bookstore to your journey agenda and get instructions that can allow you to cease there after which discover your means again residence.
It’s a really helpful characteristic that Android has had since round 2017. Apple Maps has definitely come a great distance since its disastrous launch 10 years in the past, however the potholes within the path alongside its growth have been like this instance — requiring a long-overdue filling at every replace.
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iOS 16 now permits you to add stops alongside your route.
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Android has allow you to add stops for some time.
E-mail: schedule, undo, remind later, and follow-up
In iOS 16, in case you hit “Ship” on an e-mail and all of the sudden understand you place the fallacious individual’s title on it, you now have 10 seconds to vary your thoughts and undo the ship (assuming the opposite individual can be utilizing iOS 16). You may also schedule an e-mail to be despatched anytime you want or use Remind Later to remind your self of an e-mail you don’t need to cope with instantly.
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The Undo Ship on the backside of the display permits you to change your thoughts — in case your recipient additionally has iOS 16.
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The Mail app can remind you to learn an e-mail.
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Now you can schedule an e-mail to exit if you need it to.
Gmail has had an unsend since about 2018, however you get a selection of 5, 10, 20, or 30 seconds to vary your thoughts (you possibly can set the time in Gmail’s internet app). You may also Snooze an e-mail so it would pop up later and schedule an e-mail to be despatched if you need it.
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You’ll be able to cease an e-mail earlier than it’s despatched by hitting Undo.
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If you happen to don’t need to cope with an e-mail instantly, you possibly can Snooze it.
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You’ll be able to schedule an e-mail so it’s despatched later.
Apple Reside Captions
iOS 16 has added Reside Captions, which supply real-time transcription for movies, audio, and dialog. That is an especially helpful characteristic, not just for individuals with listening to disabilities however for anybody who wants to trace a dialog.
In reality, Android has had a Reside Caption operate since 2019 and at present supplies fast translations for these captions in a number of languages (though the accuracy of these translations will most likely not dwell as much as these of a human translator). However hey, even when Apple is as soon as once more late on this, it’s definitely a win for accessibility — and for watching movies together with your telephone muted if you’re too lazy to choose up your earbuds.
Haptic suggestions on keyboard
Typing on a telephone nonetheless principally sucks in 2022, and a part of that’s from the shortage of suggestions you get whereas tapping. Not each enter machine must have the suggestions of a mechanical keyboard, but it surely’s good to know if you’ve really typed a letter on an onscreen board. Because of this, iOS 16 has now launched haptic suggestions on its onscreen keyboard. Android has had it for just about so long as we are able to bear in mind.
The principle distinction right here is that you need to allow haptic suggestions in iOS 16; in Android, it’s routinely enabled on most telephones (however you possibly can disable it if you wish to). Let’s chalk this one as much as the “How has it taken this lengthy?” tally of options, and we’ll be sure you sing from the rafters that iPhone customers now fortunately have this fundamental performance.
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iOS 16 now gives haptic keyboard suggestions.
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Android’s Gboard keyboard makes use of haptics by default.
Shared libraries
iOS 16 will quickly allow you to create shared photograph libraries — known as the iCloud Shared Photograph Library — primarily based both on a date or on who’s within the photographs. You’ll be able to share your photograph library with as much as 5 individuals. (Apparently, this characteristic gained’t instantly ship when iOS 16 does, so you might want to attend a bit.) Google Photographs permits you to share your total library — primarily based on a beginning date or on who’s within the photographs — with a single companion.
At all times-on show
Okay, this one’s a biggie. One of many many options launched on the latest Apple occasion is an always-on show, which is able to solely be obtainable on the iPhone 14 Professional and Professional Max. At all times-on shows allow you to look on the time and widgets and get different useful information even when the telephone is asleep. It’s one thing Apple Watch customers have had entry to for the reason that Collection 5, however Apple is just placing it within the iPhone now — and gating it to the fancier Professional fashions.
That is one thing that Android telephones have had for the higher a part of 10 years. It’s a characteristic that Google actually put within the forefront with Android 12, the place it made the always-on show present a big digital clock by default when the telephone’s display sits at relaxation. In the meantime, all this time, each iPhone has simply been a dull black rectangle till it’s touched or when a notification is available in.
That being stated, at this level, Apple’s new always-on show on iPhone is extra customizable and information dense than what you see on Android telephones, with widgets, pictures, and many colour. And certain, an always-on show goes to empty just a little extra battery than preserving the display fully off, however in most telephones, it’s a trivial quantity. We’re pleased that we’ll quickly see a number of much less black mirrors sitting on desks and tables, devoid of life and character.
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Telephone health app
The Apple Watch is a well-liked method to measure your health — however in case you have been an iPhone consumer who didn’t have a watch, you couldn’t use the official Apple Health Plus app (though you would, in fact, use any of the third-party apps on the market). Now you need to use the Apple Health Plus app whether or not or not you might be utilizing an Apple Watch.
Google’s official Match health app has just about all the time been obtainable for Android telephones, whether or not you utilize a watch or not. (After all, you would argue that there are few Android-compatible watches which might be price worrying about until you’re a Samsung fanatic…) It comes bundled with Pixels, whereas Samsung consists of its personal Well being app. And whereas a telephone won’t monitor your coronary heart charge or temperature with out the help of a wearable, it’s nonetheless good for anybody to have the ability to get a fundamental estimation of steps walked, energy burned, and many others.
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Apple’s Health app can now be used and not using a Watch.
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Android’s Match app has by no means required an related machine.
Lock display widgets
That is really a reasonably bizarre one. iOS 16 now lets you add as much as 4 widgets to your lock display (supplied the app developer gives one).
Android 4.2 supplied lock display widgets about 10 years in the past however, for no matter cause, determined to take them away once more in Android 5.0. So whether or not we must always depend this or not is as much as you.
Maybe Apple’s principally clear monitor file of sitting on concepts till they’re totally baked (Siri and authentic HomePod, however) will pan out right here, and lock display widgets will develop into a key mainstay of most iPhone customers’ habits. Or, perhaps it would simply be one other odd quirk solely used and beloved by a few of us weirdos — , like how common widgets are within the first place.
Crash detection
Apple’s presentation on September seventh typically felt like a lesson in “Why you ought to be scared,” with its seeming emphasis on options that will summon assist in case you have been misplaced within the wilderness, let you know in case you have been having a coronary heart assault, or name emergency providers in case you have been in a serious automotive crash. This final characteristic — automotive crash detection — is now obtainable within the new iPhone 14 telephones in addition to within the upcoming Apple Watch Collection 8.
Pixel telephones have automotive crash detection as nicely; Google added it to the built-in Private Security app again in 2019.
Excessive-megapixel digital camera sensor with pixel binning
A greater digital camera is the explanation many individuals select to improve to a more recent telephone mannequin, and for years, many producers have been dead-set on utilizing 12-megapixel sensors whereas performing as many software program tips as computational pictures might permit. Main gamers like Google and Samsung have just lately began upping the decision of their principal digital camera sensors to round 40 or 50 megapixels — not as a result of all of us want large picture recordsdata, however as a result of capturing all that data and sizing it right down to a “regular” picture round one thing like 12 megapixels helps with artifacts like low-light noise. It’s a part of the newest software program techniques being utilized to make our tiny smartphone sensors over-perform and rival what some devoted cameras can do (in the suitable state of affairs).
This method is known as pixel binning: taking close by pixels on a high-resolution sensor and mixing them to enhance picture high quality at a decrease decision. It’s a genuinely helpful characteristic in case you don’t want the native decision of the high-megapixel sensor, although it’s removed from new tech. Even the Nokia 808 PureView did this to a point again in 2012. It’s additionally not a magic trick that fixes the whole lot — you’re nonetheless reliant on the standard of the picture sensor and the processing pipeline.
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Now Apple has this characteristic within the 48-megapixel principal digital camera of its new iPhone 14 Professional and Professional Max — confidently throwing round phrases like Quad-pixel and Photonic Engine. It sounds thrilling as a result of Apple is excellent at making issues sound thrilling, and it could very nicely be a big generational enchancment. Although we must always understand that, as soon as once more, others have been right here first — Huawei, Samsung, and plenty of others dabbled with high-res sensors for years. We’ll see if Apple and its knack for slow-burn growth actually set it aside from the pack.