I was an iOS supporter until iphone 5 then I discovered the beauty and freedom of Android.
To this day with Samsung s22+
But currently I am a bit tired, there is no android phone that I am passionate about, oneplus has given me nothing but problems, Samsung with exynos is a disaster (not to mention the new blockages at sideload and the green stripes on the display), I don’t even want to go near all the other Chinese brands, and Nothing is not what it promised to be.
I want to go back to iOS but there are a few things holding me back:
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how can sideload be managed on iOS? Are there modified apps like youtube, reddit?
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I follow a lot of NSFW channels on telegram, discord and reddit itself, are there any problems on iOS? are there ways around this? (my girlfriend has iOS, and every time I want to forward an nsfw gif she doesn’t see it)
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surf the sea, is it complex on ios? Especially in terms of gaming?
TBH only yt, nsfw and modded apk keep me on android. Thanks a lot in advance
there is no android phone that I am passionate about,
Not what you asked for:
A phone is a tool which should enable you to do stuff. Be passionate about friends, hobbies, art, not a piece of plastic.
Being forced to use iOS (work phone) and Android (Samsung, also work), both suck IMHO but Android sucks less.
My next Android will be a Pixel, as others suggested custom roms are the way to go, but even vanilla Android is more functional/open/practical for my needs than iOS.
I would never buy Apples shit with my own money: Dumped down, locked down and in the end you are renting a device from Apple to pay fees for their Appstore and Cloud offerings and vendor lock in. No thanks.
I will add that, after getting my first Pixel as my previous phone, I’ve found the Google vanilla Android experience is better than Android on other carriers that fill the phone with bloat that you can’t get rid of without rooting.
Have you looked at Sony phones? I recently switched to the Pixel Fold from a 1 Mark IV. Sony phones are some of the best IMO.
OMG I was a Sony user long time ago, Xperia X was so so beautiful!
Sony excels at product, sucks at marketing. Their phones are truly fantastic.
How? Even though sony makes camera lenses, their smartphone cameras are terrible compared to the competition and their own standalone cameras
Uuh. I wouldn’t do it. As far as I know iOS is still pretty locked down and that won’t change.
Long time Samsung user. Get a Pixel 8. Install Obtainium. Use it to install Neo Launcher and 99% of the apps you probably use. Or just switch to GrapheneOS. You will be happy again.
I also found filly changing my layout helps. My daily calendar, task list, and clock are the only things on my first home screen.
Filly? What does that mean in this context?
I think they typoed “fully”
OH! Got it! Thank you! I was legitimately just like “is this new lingo I don’t know”
Yes, it’s new lingo, that’s what I was using. Mmmhmm. You should too… Totally…
+1 for GrapheneOS
Agreed, grapheneos is great
Obtainium
Didn’t know about obtenium. I think pixel 8 seems the only good choice also if it’s pricey and I’m afraid that is a lot smaller than the s22+ that I think is a right size
Yea, they have gotten pricey. I ended up going down in phone size instead of getting the bigger 8, really like being able to reach all the way across the phone again. Using a tablet for reading things probably made a difference here, though.
The telegram thing is caused by telegram itself
Login with a pc and disable safety filters for your account and you’ll be fine
iirc the play store version of telegram is the same as the App Store version, but on android maybe you downloaded it directly from the telegram website (?)
Anyway, safety filter can be disabled
iOS is way too locked down. Granted, it depends on what you do and what you need, but since you’re asking in this community yeah… not the best choice.
Honestly just get a Android phone that’s just pure Android OS and nothing else, you don’t have to deal with the added junk that Samsung or whoever want to add on top of the OS. e.g. Google Pixel is quite excellent for this. And even still, if you end up wanting a different OS try installing GrapheneOS & see how it goes.
*cries in s23 ultra
I really want to jump on Pixel, because, again I hate how iOS is locked for everything. but I hate in the same way that G2 seems to overheat. I didn’t know grapheneOS this is interesting…
I’ve been using two different (refurbished) Pixel phones with CalyxOS for over 3 years now. It is a really great experience :) And the photos the phones can take are great, too!
Pixel phone with GrapheneOS, it’s an unbeatable solution. Rock solid, reliable, safe & secure and private. A lot of people mentioned Pixel 8 gen to be really with very long-term support (about 7 years if I not mistaken), so that’s really worthy!
Edit: typo
Removed by mod
- For nsfw I use Quix but its shareware
- For youtube I use Yattee
- I don’t use reddit since some of us moved to lemmy
- For gaming I use RetroArch
- I don’t know how are things with sideloading
Ever tried custom ROM?
my girlfriend has iOS, and every time I want to forward an nsfw gif she doesn’t see it
Say what? There’s no content censoring that I’m aware of. I’ve had no issues looking at all kinds of NSFW/NSFL content.
Regardless, you’re likely not going to enjoy the lack of modified apps and game piracy; I don’t do either of those. Maybe it’s possible but you’ve gotta jump through so many hoops IMO it wouldn’t be worth it.
Zero issues with NSFW though, that’s bizarre to me. There’s screen time web content filtering but I believe that only affects safari.
My partner can’t view webp/webm content on ios either. It’s a real pain once in a while.
Yeah but there’s a difference between’doesn’t support webp’ and ‘blocks porn’
I can tell you that there are channel marked as NSFW that share video and gif and if I send it to my gf, on her phone (even with nsfw enabled) she get the message “this channel is used to share pornographic material” while on android I can see everything.
What do you mean by channel, like on Telegram?
This is a region specific Telegram setting if so, it’s not iOS. Tell her to disable the adult content filter.
Apple did something a while back to limit nsfw stuff on iOS. There was a setting in discord that you had to change to see nsfw stuff and some communities you had to join it from the desktop before you could view it on the phone.
I’m remembering more now, Apple had a policy that was like we might block your app if it’s for nsfw. So some apps got worried and limited nsfw stuff on iOS.
I have recently gotten an iPad, because my carrier had a banger of a deal (30% off on the 2024 Air, 48 months payment no interest) and my Huawei tablet was getting long in the tooth, so I jumped.
I have owned Android since the first Galaxy (no number), tablets since the first 7" Galaxy Tab.
I have gone through a few tablets, 3-4 Samsung, Lenovo, Huawei, a couple of no names, and I got the iPad, because for tablet things is still the reference. Best experience hands down.
Would I get an iPhone? NO WAY.
The iPad is an occasional use device. I use it for media consumption, some social media (not much of a user) and for graphics stuff with the Affinity suite, which BTW is reason enough to get an iPad if you do design/photo. It’s the device for when the laptop is too cumbersome, or overkill. It’s great to take notes, scribble, sketch. It’s awesome to edit pics on the go, which I do a surprising lot.
But… Apple limits what I can do. Too much.
Would I accept the constraints of iOS in my main electronic device? No. I can live with the iPad’s constraints because I have a super capable phone (a 4 year old Xiaomi which is truly fantastic), which I can tune as I wish, and because it’s use case is fairly well defined. I would not compromise with my phone. Simple things like changing the launcher, what goes on my lock screen like alternate number / emergency contact, or whatever clock I want, or the keyboard, or installing apps from wherever I want, or rooting and changing the ROM (not all phones) or not dealing with iCloud bullshit, or having proper Firefox with extensions, or torrenting, or any of the tweaks, modifications, or whatever that make my Android MINE.
Just search for “things that iphones can’t do”. You’ll have reading for an afternoon.
Same here. iOS is so severely limited compared to Android it would be unusable to me as an phone.
As a tablet I use it 99% for streaming apps (music and series) that I put on while cooking or doing chores, 1% as a backup device for things like access to my bank app.
THIS ^
Thank you so much, I didn’t think about Firefox, I’m a firefox user on every system I have, and I rely a lot on extensions. And I have my little server with sonarr, radarr, jellyfin and syncthing that is not so much, but it works and I had fun making it, I don’t want to lose the joy of do what I want with my phone.
There are other mobile OSs besides Android and iOS. That being said, iOS is one of the most locked-down restrictive platforms on the planet, and any “freedom” you have now can be taken away in a single update as soon as Apple gets an angry letter from Nintendo or the RIAA or whatever.
This comment has definitely stopped me from wanting to switch to iOS, I can’t do it, if I don’t sail the high seas I don’t feel comfortable, I only spend my money where I have a grain of apparent freedom
Wait WHAT BLOCKS ON SIDELOADING for Samsung?? I’m not in the loop
Normally it’s blocked by default which is pretty easy to get around (It’s just a setting toggle) but apparently Samsung added a second “safety” autoblocker to a recent update. (Which can also be turned off, so I’m not sure what all the fuss is about, aside from being a mild inconvenience.) https://www.androidauthority.com/enable-sideloading-one-ui-6-1-1-3463446/
Interesting. I don’t like this at all. Remember AT&T tried this with locked phones (or something like that I believe) where unknown sources was completely gone?
Normally I wouldn’t worry about it, Samsung just apes everything Google does. It’s part of their tug of war, basically Samsung is saying “if you ever pull a Huawei on me and disable every Google feature I’ll still have a copy of everything”.
Then again the US market is wierd so I don’t know. You can unlock Sony bootloaders everywhere else without a hitch but they cut a deal with US carriers so they won’t give unlock codes to US models. If Sony did deals like that so can Samsung.
Wait so when if I bought a Sony phone from then directly they wouldn’t fucking let me unlock it??
Just to be clear, I’m talking about bootloader unlock (so you can root it and install custom ROMs) not carrier unlock. Normally Sony offer bootloader unlock codes on their website, but not for US models.
Carrier (network) lock and unlock is done by the carriers, manufacturer doesn’t care.
Oh bootloader was exactly what I was talking about. Would this be the case if I bought it directly?
Yes, sorry. The way you bought it makes no difference. The unlock code is generated on the Sony website based on the IMEI of the first SIM slot. They can tell when it’s the IMEI of an US model and will refuse to give out the code.
Ya it’s not a good look of things to come, but so far it’s not a huge issue (yet).
Ya it’s not a good look of things to come, but so far it’s not a huge issue (yet).
Not a huge deal now, but…I don’t like this move…I don’t like it AT ALL…
Have you looked at Sony phones? I recently switched to the Pixel Fold from a 1 Mark IV. Sony phones are some of the best IMO.
Came here to say, why is OP dealing with all these bloatware companies? Samsung is the Apple of Androids - decent hardware decent OS for those who like it, but ridiculously bogged down with prevention features.
I also have the Sony Xperia 1 IV and it’s been stellar. Lineage support if I don’t want the main Android, otherwise I’m pretty much free to do whatever I want on the phone. Plus I actually have a headphone jack still and an SD card slot.
Sonys have the stupid 21:9 aspect ratio that’s like a tv remote. Camera also sucks vs the competition despite sony making the lenses and their own standalone cameras
The camera’s don’t suck, it’s that Sony doesn’t apply post processing. If you edit the photo like a photographer would they look as good or better.
iOS is probably the most locked down option you can pick. The EU even told Malus to open it up and Malus tried to fuck around. Now they might be in for some monetary justice, but that might take a year or two. Emulation was even only recently allowed, but only of old shit like Windows XP.
Android is still the most open, mainstream, phone OS out there. Get yourself a phone that can run a ROM like LineageOS, eOS, FairPhone or (if you want to give Google more money for surveillance) a Pixel to put GrapheneOS on it (easy process, you just need a browser and USB-C cable). That’ll get you more freedom to keep the phone alive longer and optionally become more private (if you can learn to live without Google).
To save money, you don’t even need to buy a new one. Get a refurbished phone. They are often 100-200€ cheaper than new phones and are sometimes as good as new.
iOS will lock you in, give you less options, and cost you loads to boot.
