Switching From iPhone to Android Is Simple. It’s the Aftermath That Stings.

Once I briefly switched from an iPhone to an Android cellphone final week, I used to be bracing for a world of damage. I’ve owned solely Apple telephones ever since shopping for the first-generation iPhone in 2007. And, like many, I’ve purchased different Apple merchandise that pair properly, together with AirPods, an Apple Watch and an iPad.

That kind of loyalty is the idea of an antitrust case in opposition to Apple introduced by the Justice Division, which has accused the corporate of utilizing monopolistic management over the iPhone to hurt rivals and deter clients from switching to different telephones. To check that idea, I made a decision to briefly break up with my iPhone.

I used to be initially stunned by how easy it was to shift my iPhone knowledge to an Android smartphone made by Google. Simply by putting in an app on my iPhone that Google made to assist folks change, I used to be capable of copy my contacts checklist, picture album and calendar into my Google account. Then, presto — all that knowledge appeared on the Android.

I used to be nearly achieved. After I known as my provider, Verizon, to switch my cellphone quantity to the Android gadget, my mission was achieved: I had grow to be an Android convert.

At first, I used to be proud of my alternative — I had upgraded to a flowery Google Pixel cellphone. However by Day 6, I used to be prepared to change again.

A bunch of annoyances added up. Regardless that I might nonetheless use most of my Apple merchandise, I began lacking my Apple Watch, which requires an iPhone to totally work. For software program, I used to be capable of finding Android options for all my favourite apps — aside from Notes. Whereas switching telephones wasn’t technically laborious, Apple’s hooks had been nonetheless in me.

How Apple retains clients loyal to the iPhone — and whether or not its practices hurt competitors — is on the coronary heart of the authorities’s antitrust go well with in opposition to the Cupertino big.

Apple and the Justice Division declined to remark.

In its 88-page criticism, the division stated numerous Apple merchandise protected the corporate’s aggressive benefit with the iPhone, together with iMessage, Apple’s Pockets app and the Apple Watch. How laborious do these perks actually make it to ditch your iPhone? Right here’s what I discovered.

Shedding iMessage

For probably the most half, iPhone customers and Android customers can talk with one another simply via e mail, cellphone calls and apps like Slack, however on the subject of textual content messaging, there’s nonetheless an apparent break up often known as the “inexperienced bubble versus blue bubble” disparity.

When iPhone customers ship texts to different iPhones, the messages seem blue and might faucet into unique perks like an animation of birthday confetti. But when an iPhone consumer texts an Android consumer, the bubble turns inexperienced, many options break, and pictures and movies deteriorate in high quality.

Earlier than transferring my cellphone quantity to the Pixel cellphone, I used my iPhone to ship iMessages to my blue bubble comrades warning them that our conversations would quickly flip inexperienced. “Ew!” a good friend replied. However after many remarks made in jest, nobody protested, and I soldiered on.

Subsequent, I needed to detach my cellphone quantity from iMessage on Apple’s web site to make sure that my textual content messages would cease going via Apple’s servers and arrive on my cellphone. Except I did this, I’d not obtain texts from different iPhones. Finally, the conversations turned inexperienced. I ready myself for humiliation.

However nobody gave me a tough time or excluded me. I did discover, nonetheless, that many mates had out of the blue stopped texting me pictures, maybe as a result of they knew the photographs would not look pretty much as good.

For years, a few of my closest mates have texted me solely via Sign, the third-party messaging app with robust privateness protections and lots of the identical options as iMessage. Sign can be obtainable on Android, preserving that custom.

Apple has introduced that later this yr, it should enhance texts between iPhone and Android customers by adopting wealthy communication providers, an ordinary that Google and others built-in into their messaging apps years in the past. Texts despatched between iPhones and Androids will stay inexperienced, however photographs and movies will likely be greater high quality.

Shedding Apple Pockets

For iPhones, the go-to app for making cell funds in shops is Apple Pockets, and for Android customers, the equal app is Google Pockets. The expertise of utilizing every pockets app was equivalent: I loaded up my bank cards and Clipper card for the Bay Space’s speedy transit service.

The Justice Division’s criticism of Apple Pockets facilities on how Apple offers solely its app entry to the iPhone’s fee chip, stopping competing pockets providers from utilizing that chip to make funds. However the way in which Apple designed its Pockets app had no influence on my means to change to an Android.

Shedding the Apple Watch and different merchandise

For an iPhone proprietor, a most important incentive to purchase extra Apple merchandise is that they work seamlessly collectively. A Mac laptop computer, as an illustration, makes use of lots of the identical apps for messaging, observe taking and reminders because the iPhone, and the info is synchronized among the many units with Apple’s iCloud. In idea, the extra invested you might be in Apple’s ecosystem — and the extra that Apple restricts its merchandise from working with competing units, the Justice Division says — the harder it’s to change from an iPhone.

After I switched to an Android cellphone, my emotions about utilizing different Apple merchandise ranged from average annoyance to deep frustration:

• The iPad labored independently from the iPhone, however I might not see my textual content messages on the pill anymore. This was minor as a result of I don’t do a lot texting on my iPad.

• My AirPods Professional had been OK — they linked shortly with the Pixel for taking part in music. However the draw back is that the AirPods use Adaptive EQ, a expertise that tunes sound high quality to the form of your ear, and it really works solely with software program on the iPhone. So audio doesn’t sound pretty much as good.

• I couldn’t use my Android cellphone to find my AirTags, the tiny Apple trackers I take advantage of to seek out my pockets and keys, on a map. However when my AirTags had been in my pocket, the Android cellphone confirmed an alert that an “unknown tracker” was transferring round with me, a security characteristic for combating stalkers.

• The Apple Watch requires an iPhone to arrange, however its health monitoring can work independently. As a result of I had already arrange my watch, I might proceed to make use of it on the fitness center alongside my Android cellphone. However I might not see my detailed exercise knowledge.

• I bumped into different annoyances not particularly known as out within the lawsuit and eventually reached peak frustration after I tried to discover a substitute for Apple’s Notes, which I take advantage of frequently on my Mac, iPad and cellphone for work and private errands. I used options however didn’t like them, and mixed with the aforementioned points, it was all an excessive amount of.

The upshot: Switching is simple, till it’s not

My expertise isn’t common. Some folks would care greater than others about how sure Apple merchandise would change in the event that they switched telephones. Youthful folks would in all probability care loads about missing iMessage in colleges, the place a inexperienced bubble has been identified to be an invite for mockery and exclusion, in response to schooling consultants. Mother and father who use AirTags to trace their kids would view dropping entry to these as a deal breaker.

The upshot from this experiment is that whereas it’s not technically laborious to change to a distinct cellphone, there are many issues that would make you remorse it.