iOS 16 vs. Android 13: Which smartphone OS is the best?
Android and iOS are excellent mobile operating systems and capable options for your everyday smartphone needs. They have grown more similar over the years, but there are still differences between the platforms. That’s why some people prefer one over the other.
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In this article, we look at what’s new in the latest releases and compare the original Android 13 and iOS 16.
Android 13 March Feature Drop vs. iOS 16.4
Google and Apple don’t offer a single big release every year. Instead, their software teams continually bring minor enhancements to existing OS versions. That’s why we’re looking at iOS 16.4 and the Android 13’s March Feature Drop for Pixel phones. Both bring a slew of enhancements to the respective platforms. Given the numbers, you could tell they aren’t even the first updates to hit the platforms. Apple has three more point releases, and Google published the December Feature Drop before the one for March, which we’re also incorporating in this rundown.
Web apps finally get push notification support in iOS 16.4
Apple has long been dragging its feet and is only now adding an essential feature that Android has supported for ages: Web apps can finally send you notifications. While Android allows you to set up notifications for any website, you need to add a website to the home screen on iOS to enable notifications for it. Once that’s done, they behave more like native apps and get some elevated access, with notifications being the latest to be added. If you’re concerned about notification overload, don’t worry. Apps have to specifically request the notification permission, just like on Android. In related additions, Apple now also allows you to add web apps to your home screen through third-party browsers like Chrome.
Apple steals a top Pixel feature in iOS 16.4
Just a few months after Google introduced Clear Calling for the Google Pixel 7 and 7 Pro (which we’re talking about a little further below in this article), Apple is bringing a similar feature to iOS 16.4. The company’s Voice Isolation option is becoming available for regular phone calls. Both Clear Calling and Voice Isolation aim to make it easier for people on the other end of the line to hear you more clearly when you’re in a loud environment. Previously, Apple’s Voice Isolation was only available for calls through the company’s own services, like Face Time.
Fall detection on the Google Pixel Watch in March Feature Drop
Like Apple, Google is also looking on the other side and copies what makes sense. With its March Pixel Feature Drop, the Pixel Watch received support for fall detection, which is supposed to automatically call emergency services for you in case you fall and remain unresponsive. A similar feature has been available for the Apple Watch for a while now.
Synced up timers on Pixel phones and smart home with March Feature Drop
For anyone living in the Google ecosystem, Google has added support for synced timers across smart home speakers and Pixel phones. This makes it easier to see how much time is left at a glance, as smart speakers lack a display that could show you this information.
Security key support in iOS 16.3
Apple released iOS 16.3 in January 2023. It is primarilya bug-fixing release, but one keyfeature brings iOS up to par with Android. Starting with iOS 16.3, you can protect your Apple ID with a hardware security key such as a YubiKey, which cansecure your online accounts.
When you turn on this option, you must pair a security key with your Apple ID to replace the two-factor authentication code you usually get when you sign in to a new Apple device. Then, you’ll unlock your account with your password and hardware security key. This is one of the safest options, as it requires access to the physical security key. It’s great to see Apple catching up with Google in this regard.
You don’t have to authenticate yourself with your hardware key every time you unlock your device or make a purchase on the App Store. This is primarily meant to authenticate yourself on new devices.
Freeform and Advanced Data Protection in iOS 16.2
Before iOS 16.3, there was iOS 16.2. The most significant new feature to come to that version is unrivaled compared to the Android onboard tools. Apple offers the Freeform app on iPads, iPhones, and macOS computers that brings a blank canvas that you can fill with notes, drawings, and attachments. It can also be used collaboratively with friends and colleagues. It also offers the potential for all kinds of projects, as long as your peers use Apple devices.
Another awesome iOS feature is Advanced Data Protection for iCloud, which encrypts iCloud backups, including photos, messages, and notes, with strong encryption that prevents even Apple from seeing what you have on your devices. The feature appears to be so powerful that it has intelligence agencies raising national security concerns, which is a good thing for the privacy of your data. Google One backups are also secured, but these don’t offer the same level of protection.
Live activities in notifications and iCloud photos libraries in iOS 16.1
Before these two updates, iOS 16.1 supported shared iCloud photo libraries, which you can also have on Android, thanks to Google Photos. Google is the pioneer here, as the option to share specific photos based on rules like subjects has existed for a long time. Apple takes it a tad further with more rules surrounding start dates, a stricter separation between libraries, and more.
iOS 16.1 also brought new “live activities” to notifications, which allows developers to show automatically updating info in the notifications on any iPhone’s lock screen or within theiPhone 14 Pro’s Dynamic Island. While Android phones can’t compete with the Dynamic Island, dynamically updating notifications have existed on the platform for a while.Citymapperoffers one of the best implementations of that on Android. There are further tweaks in iOS 16.1, which you can read aboutin Apple’s extensive changelog.
Clear Calling, Recorder enhancements, and more in the Android 13 December Feature Drop
On the Android side of things, we got our hands on Android 13’s first Feature Drop, which launched in December 2022. The update is mainly for Pixel phones, which received several new features that differentiate them from other Android phones and the iPhone. Google introduced a Clear Calling option for theGoogle Pixel 7 Proand its smaller sibling, helping you understand the other side better in loud environments. The company added a unified Security & Privacy center in system settings that is rolling out to Android phones. It makes it easier to manage all relevant options in one single place.
The Pixel-exclusive Recorder app became more powerful with this update. It now recognizes individual speakers and labels them as different persons in the transcript without the audio leaving your device for speech analysis. Meanwhile, the iPhone Voice Memos app still can’t make transcripts. Google is gearing up to launch spatial audio, which is supposed to compete with Apple’s feature under the same name. With it activated, you can hear sounds relative to your phone’s and head’s position in certain videos or music.
We took a deeper dive intowhat’s new in Android 13’s December Feature Drop. Overall, development doesn’t stand still on Android or iOS, and it’s good to see the companies continuing to compete even after they launch their yearly updates.
Android 13 vs. iOS 16: Lock screen and homescreen customization
Android 12 and, to a lesser extent, Android 13, stepped up the interface design game with Material You, the wallpaper-based theming engine that applies a fitting color palette to supported apps. While Apple hasn’t made any fundamental design changes to its platform since iOS 7 in 2013 and has focused on iterative improvements, the company has added some neat and unexpected upgrades to iOS 16. Among them is a lock screen that comes with widgets, quick switch options, and focus mode compatibility.
Apple’s iOS 16 lock screen is leaps and bounds better than Android 13’s. While Android used to support lock screen widgets (they were removed with Android 5 Lollipop in 2014), Google seems to have lost interest in the concept as widgets were being treated as an afterthought by app developers. Apple changed how developers think about widgets when it introduced them to iOS in 2020, and two years later, the company is adding a selection of them to the lock screen.
To do this elegantly, Apple leverages the work developers made to create Apple Watch compilations. Apple’s lock screen widgets aren’t really widgets. The widgets are actually watch compilations. This approach allows you to add a lot of information to a relatively small space underneath the clock.
Apple introduced more than widgets to the lock screen. The company has made it possible for the clock to be concealed by subjects or objects in the wallpaper. This makes for an immersive, three-dimensional experience. Combine that with the option to change your preferred font and the wallpaper, and lock screens have never been as personal as they are on iOS 16. Using Apple’s Focus Mode, you can automatically have your iPhone shuffle through different lock screens and wallpapers. You can set this up so that you only get notifications from work apps while you’re at work and only personal apps when you’re home or out and about.
All these flashy additions can’t conceal the fact that some people are not fans of Apple’s notification options. It’s not possible to keep notifications always visible on the lock screen, and making iOS notifications work to your liking can be challenging.
Apple also can’t compare with Android 12’s and Android 13’s Material You theming. While theming your lock screen with custom fonts and widgets is fun, it can get tedious if you want to set it and forget it. Google’s theming engine is great for this. Material You takes the heavy theming work from you by applying colors based on your wallpaper to app interfaces, making for a highly personalized experience in many parts of the phone, including the lock screen.
Android 13 vs. iOS 16: Per-app language options
Android 13 is the first release on Google’s side to introduce official support for per-app language options. This makes it possible to use any app on your phone in your preferred language, independent of your system language or the one set for other apps. The option is an absolute boon for those who speak more than one language, which is estimated to be around half of the world’s population.
Google gives you two intuitive ways to switch an app to another language. On Pixel phones and many others, you can long-press the app on your homescreen, then tap the app info button (often displayed as a smalliin a circle) at the top of the popup. In the screen that opens, scroll down until you see aLanguagemenu option. Tap it, and then select whatever you prefer. This is the fastest way to adjust languages on the fly.
You can also go through a list once and set your apps to your preferred languages. Go to the system settings, look forSystemwith theLanguages & inputmenu inside it, and then theApp languagesentry. You will see a list of supported apps and the languages you assigned to them. You can then tap one of them to change your preferences.
As nicely as Google thought out this system, the company still threw in a roadblock. Even if an app supports multiple languages, developers must opt into per-app languages manually with a few lines of code. You might only have a small selection of supported apps for this feature on your phone running Android 13.
You can work around this with anADB command discovered by Mishaal Rahman, which loses the opt-in requirement and makes individual language switches possible for all apps. We haven’t run into any issues with this setup on aGoogle Pixel 6and enjoy many apps in either English or German.
Your mileage may vary as this ADB command unlocks an experimental option. You might experience app crashes.
Meanwhile, per-app language options aren’t new to iOS 16. Apple has supported the feature since 2019’s iOS 13. The company has made the process easier for its developers than Google has. If an app is localized into more than one language, the developer doesn’t need to add extra code to their project for the per-app language switching option to show up in system settings.
On iPhones, changing the language is slightly more complicated than on Android 13, and you need to know where to look for the option. You can’t long-press the homescreen icon to go straight to the language settings. Instead, you’ll go to system settings and look for the app in the list toward the end. Tap it to find the option to switch the language. iOS doesn’t have a list that shows which languages are assigned to which apps like on Android 13. This is something that Apple hasn’t changed for iOS 16.
Neither of these solutions is perfect. Still, Apple’s approach is somewhat better, as developers don’t have to make changes to support per-app languages.
Android 13 vs. iOS 16: Keyboard, dictation, and clipboard
Before we dive into keyboard comparison, it deserves mentioning that pitting Apple and Google against each other here isn’t entirely fair. The iOS keyboard is part of the system in the Apple ecosystem, while Google’s Gboard is an app that can be updated via the Play Store at any time. This allows Google to iterate on features faster than Apple, as it doesn’t have to push out a system update. Plus, Gboard is available on virtually every Android device, not only Google Pixel phones.
We still see changes coming to the Google and Apple keyboards as part of system update announcements. For example, Gboard received powerful on-device dictation options as part of the Pixel 6 series launch and Android 12. Apple tried to follow suit with iOS 16. The way dictation works on both platforms is similar, but there are some key differences. Punctuation is added automatically on both platforms, and it’s possible to seamlessly switch between voice input and typing when you need to make corrections or want to tweak what you said. You can also dictate a selection of common emojis on both platforms.
Apple’s iOS 16 dictation is a step forward for the company and has become more reliable, but the Cupertino company can’t catch up with Google in that regard. With Gboard on the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, it’s possible to use dictation to send and clear messages and to undo your last bit of dictation. This is achieved with voice commands like “send,” “clear,” “clear all,” or “stop.” You can also keep the microphone active indefinitely, allowing you to talk as you chat with someone without touching your phone.
Another topic tangential to the keyboard is the clipboard, and Google is winning with Android 13. Gboard has always stored the last few items you copied for later use, including screenshots. Now, Android 13 has a clipboard editor in the system. A small popup appears in the lower-left corner when you copy a text or an image. You can either share your clipboard with apps or edit the contents of the clipboard. This is helpful when you want to share specific parts of something you copied, like a street in an address. Universal Clipboard on iOS makes it easy to copy and paste between your iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Last but not least, Apple added something to its iOS keyboard that’s been on Android for what feels like forever. You can enable haptic feedback for every key press.
Android 13 vs. iOS 16: Media player
The media player hasn’t seen huge changes on either platform with their respective upgrades, but some things are worth highlighting.
The Android 13 media player is more visually appealing than its predecessor. Instead of pulling colors from your wallpaper like the rest of the interface, the player comes with the album art of the song you’re playing as a background. The player’s play/pause button and other interface elements pull their colors from the album cover rather than the system color theme. On top of that, the progress bar squiggles when you play music, making it visible at a glance that audio is currently playing. While you may find the design clashing with your general system theme at times, it’s a great way to showcase music and other media.
Apple’s redesign is smaller, but the company shuffled things around. Instead of appearing at the top of the lock screen when music is playing, the media notification appears at the bottom, like other notifications on iOS 16. You can tap the album art to see a larger version in the middle of your lock screen, complete with a background that pulls its colors from the album cover. Like Android 13, iOS 16 provides a little visualization when music is playing.
This new visual detail only shines once you look at the new iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. When music plays in the background, you’ll see the visualization and parts of the control interface at the top of the screen, rounding up the “Magic Island” interface that Apple built around its pill-shaped front camera cutout.
Android 13 vs. iOS 16: Smart drag-and-drop
As good as Google is with image recognition, thanks to the pioneering work it could achieve in Google Photos, Apple is playing more than catch-up in iOS 16. Apple’s new smart drag-and-drop Visual Look Up tool seems like it’s out of this world, and it is something that wealready wished to have on Androidthe moment Apple introduced it. The feature allows you to pick a random subject or object from any photo on your screen, tap and hold it, and then drag it into another app as a standalone object.
From our testing, the feature works well. Apple’s algorithms are good at recognizing where an object ends and where the background begins, and the cutout areas are on point most of the time. While manual editing in Photoshop gives better results, the process on iOS 16 is as seamless as it can get. It’s a shortcut to send personalized stickers to your friends and family, which you would usually create in a tedious process on WhatsApp or Telegram.
Apple also introduced the option to copy live text in videos. This allows you to hold and select text in paused video frames so that you can copy or share the text in it.
While Google hasn’t introduced features like these in Android 13, the company already offers similar capabilities, at least when it comes to text. When you enter the Recents overview, you’re able to either tap and hold the text you want to extract or tap theSelectoption in the lower-right corner. While Google was first here, its feature isn’t as reliable as Apple’s. It often recognizes Instagram photos with text in them as photos you can’t extract text from but rather share as cropped screenshots. It also doesn’t let you extract text from YouTube videos. DRM-protected apps like Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video are left out of the equation in the first place as you can’t see their videos' contents from the Recents screen (or rather, you can’t make a screenshot of the content, which is what needs to be done for Google’s text recognition to work).
Android 13 vs. iOS 16: Digital Wellbeing and Focus
Apple brought Focus Mode to iOS 15, and with iOS 16, the company is stepping things up. The feature stops certain apps and people from reaching you and your notification shade at certain times of the day, so you can stay focused at work and relax at night, only talking to friends and family. However, the boundaries aren’t clear for all apps. You might use the same Calendar and Mail app for personal and business purposes, and only some of the web browsing on your phone might be work-related. That’s where iOS 16’s Focus filters come in.
Focus filters allow you to set boundaries in individual apps like the calendar, mail, or browser apps. Then, you can use Focus Mode to hide parts of the apps from your eyes, like your work tab group when you’re out and about or your business appointments when you’re winding down at night. Third-party apps can also tap into the filters with a new API. Apple revamped the setup process for Focus Mode with the latest iOS release, promising to make things simpler.
Apple’s solution feels complex and convoluted when you first set it up. You need to consider which apps you use for work, which apps you use in your free time, and which people are allowed to contact you under which circumstances. As powerful and simple as Focus filters can get once you set them up, this feature feels geared toward power users, and you would expect it on Android rather than on iOS.
On Android 13, Google hasn’t changed things regarding its focus and winding down feature set, collected under the Digital Wellbeing umbrella. Google doesn’t bother with different focus modes for different occasions. It has another approach that’s simpler to grasp. The company offers a single Focus Mode accessible under Digital Wellbeing in system settings. It lets you select distracting apps and turn them off based on a schedule or manually. During that time, you’re able to’t access blocked apps (unless you allow yourself a five-minute break). For everything else, you are encouraged to use Do Not Disturb, which silences notifications and calls other than exceptions you set up. This solution may not be as granular as Apple’s, but it’s less overwhelming and not as complicated.
These two Android features have been relatively unchanged since 2020.
Android 13 vs. iOS 16: Good ideas on both fronts
Android and iOS have become great operating systems that are mostly on par with each other, even though each has its strengths and weaknesses. Android’s openness allows for more customization and freedom, and Apple’s closed approach makes it a more secure option. Overall, switching between platforms is mostly seamless, except some things are easier on iOS and others are easier on Android. Still, there are a fewthings you won’t like about switching from Android to iOS.
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