Everything Apple iOS 18 Will Do, Android Already Does

Me watching WWDC: “Android already does that.”
Me watching Google I/O “iOS already does that.”
- In ten years all phones will be crabs
  
  I knew there was a link between cell phones and cancer!!
  
  if only i could be as successful as mr. krabs....
  
  I'm experiencing déjà vu..
  EDIT: Found this thread in the wild, then stumbled upon it. That's why.
- Windows phone 10 had most of these things in 2015
  
  It had everything except apps.
  
  I miss Windows phone, still the most intuitive phone UI I’ve ever seen.
  
  Qnx had a lot of features before windows phone in 2013.
- I would argue that it’s the nature of having a mature and complex product. Adding new stuff is hard because you have a lot of legacy code / UX that you have to accommodate for. You need to move slower because it’s easier to break stuff in a more mature product.
  I’d also argue that Apple and Google’s research teams are generally hearing the similar stuff out of their end users, so it’s to be expected that both companies are going to prioritize similar functionality.
  That was my experience when I’ve worked on massive products. The complexity of the product impacts development speed, and shared understandings of user desires results in similar feature sets between competitors.
- Exactly. You get it. At the end of the day they are all going to get many of the same features.
  They both copy from webOS anyway, at the end of the day. That webOS from Palm was way ahead at the time but lacked the hardware and Carrier support needed to succeed.

Yes. Android already does all these things. But I think the things I’m excited most about are not on this list at all.
A private local LLM. With the on-device context of my notes, messages, calendar, etc, I’m rather excited to have a more personal LLM than ChatGPT.
Personal messaging via satellite. I love that I can stay in touch with people outside of a cell network.
- Did I understand correctly that this is only going to be in the iPhone 15 pro? Because that’s a lot more expensive than a pixel, more than I’d ever spend on a phone tbh.
  
  The satellite im fairly sure is only pro
- also excited for hands free unlock of smart door locks. not sure if android/google home does that.
- But there’s literally zero phones which can use it
- I'd add to that list. If Siri is 3/4 as capable as shown in the presentation, that's sick. Android does not have that.
- A private local LLM. With the on-device context of my notes, messages, calendar, etc, I’m rather excited to have a more personal LLM than ChatGPT.
  No need to wait for iOS 18 to have that: https://llmfarm.site/
  
  That’s great, but the fact it’s local and private means it can consume my personal data and be a more personal LLM. This just doesn’t hit that mark.
- A private local LLM
  Running on a phone? No way, not without being absolutely horrible, slow or making your phone churn through your battery anyway.
  Good LLMs are olready slow on a GTX 1080, which is already miles faster than any phone out there
  
  I hear you, but also I would be shocked if Apple were to roll this out and it be an absolutely terrible experience. Like their MO is “luxury” products with “premium” experiences, it would not be fitting of the brand to have a piece of crap experience on their flagship announcement.
  I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one.
  
  It's not a LLM, it's a much smaller model (~3B) which is closer to what Microsoft labels as a SLM (Small Language Models, e.g. MS Phi-3 Mini).
  https://machinelearning.apple.com/research/introducing-apple-foundation-models
  
  You would be surprised. If you haven’t tried to run a LLM on Apple silicon, it’s pretty snappy but like all others, RAM can be a significantly limiting factor unless the model is trimmed down to do very specific things to reduce the size.
  
  I think It’s running on their “Private cloud compute” platform, not locally (I’m not sure though)

I'm an android user but honestly bored of hearing this shit every single year. "Android already does that" yeah, we know. It's like having a friend that is constantly trying to one-up you, or trying to steal attention away from you at your own birthday party.
- As long as you own the fact that you paid more money for an inferior product because you think it will make you look cool.
  
  I use Apple because it’s easier to manage a grandma and a daughter. Android is great if you’re technologically adept and can install a custom ROM, but I don’t want that freedom for my “users”. Grandma used to have an Android phone for years. I’d have to clean that thing out every few months because she would just click on shit. I switched her to iPhone and now when I check, there’s far less nonsense going on. It’s just easier to be the family admin this way. There are numerous other things that Android can also do, better, and for free, but at the cost of one’s time. It’s a trade off I’m willing to make. I reject the notion Apple is outright inferior; by which criteria? It’s also not about looking cool. Everyone has smartphones and they’re not special like they may have been in the 2000s. They’re the most commodified computer people use around the world. There’s no phone that makes you cool regardless of brand. It’s a fucking phone.
- Are you talking about apple copying the features but being a bit late?
  
  Both Android and iOS copy from eachother
  
  Honestly who gives a shit, we are talking about phone OSes. I dont have a strong enough opinion about any of this to care which of them does what first. Use what you like and move on mentally

Android can do satellite messaging? Android phone makers are shipping on device LLMs?
I'm not an Apple fanboy nor do I use an iPhone currently but this headline is ridiculous.
- Satellite messaging is already available in Android 15 beta
  Perhaps in software, but I don't think there is a current phone that has the hardware to take advantage. For now, this is essentially an Apple only feature. It's a pretty good bet we are going to see some flagships released with it in the next year though.
  
  But is Android doing the on device LLM already? Because it sounds like they aren’t..
  
  Android 15 beta... so it'll be available on phones, out of the box, without anyone having to build/install a custom, on phones actual normal humans buy in about 2030 then.
- Android phone makers are shipping on device LLMs?
  Do people actually want these?
  
  Yes, in fact that is the only kind of ai i would ever use and entrust my data to. Not the apple one, but an open source model that is running only on my device and answering only to me; using the data I provide only for my interests? That one I would use.
  
  LLM is AI correct? If my phone is going to do AI at all, I prefer it be done on device for sure. For privacy reasons if nothing else. But it's not anything I've really looked into. I have the S24 and the only AI feature I use is the Circle to search... which I don't consider to be AI.
- "Android phone makers are shipping on device LLMs?"
  ...yes?

As much as I hate apple and google, I want a future where all these can be done locally without massive servers and sending all data to cloud . Apple clearly have a edge over google in that regards.
- Ah, you mean like the sync that Palm OS used to have? Yup, that was neat, and I'm still waiting for Android to pick up some of the neat features from back then.
  
  I miss palm OS. I think it had some undeniable jank but it also had great features and a bit of “charm”. I’m pretty sure I still remember most of the Graffiti alphabet!
- It definitely comes at a cost though. The private local models will be inherently dumber because of less compute and smaller data sets.
  And, unfortunately, this is a hard thing to communicate to the public. All they know is that Assistant responded to a request better than Siri.
  
  Look into the past , what a huge server does now a small SBC can do now . In 10 years what chatgot runs in cloud could potentially be running in a smartphone

My last brand new Pixel phone had debug strings in the user interface and the UI was not responsive. It’s the daily annoyances and details that made me get an iPhone. Comparisons have been stupid since the beginning of smartphones.

This has been the case for at least 11 years.
- Idk, I think Apple was first to do face unlock. That's all I got...
  
  I used to unlock my desktop with my face a long time ago (20 years or so)... No clue when it came to mobile devices, I could totally see Apple bringing that to mobile first.
  
  What about round corners?

I didn’t realise android did free SMS over satellite when there is no cellular connection
- Looks like it's been available on some android devices for at least a month. I don't know about free though, I think it depends on your carrier. I know T-Mobile has been talking about supporting it using Starlink satellites.
  https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/comments/1ct1no1/satellite_messaging_option_appeared_on_my_pixel_7/ https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrier/first-spacex-satellites-launch-for-breakthrough-direct-to-cell-service-with-t-mobile
  
  But with the iPhone it’s free, and not carrier dependent and works outside of the United States for those of us in the rest of the world….
  
  For me the importance is that it’s free - I wouldn’t even pay $5 a month for a service that I’d use in very unlikely situations probably once or twice a year.
- Isn't the satellite thing just free temporarily?
  
  They said it’s free for 2 years with any new purchase of iPhone since iPhone 14; and now they’ve extended it for 1 more year. No one has had to pay for any of it yet - and it’s unknown if/when/how it’ll be a paid service

Android is 5 years ahead of iPhone 60% of the time
- Not anymore. That was true for a few years but iOS has definitely overtaken Android. Plus when you include the entire Apple devices ecosystem, Arcade, TV+, Homepod, Continuity etc iOS FAR, FAR outstrips Android.
  Android is a stand alone device but iPhone is one piece in a mosaic of devices and services.
  This is why now, after the last 4 years on Android, I'm switching back to iPhone.
  Plus the hardware and cameras on budget Android devices are shit and I'm tried of paying for shit.
  The Snapdragon 695 came out 3+ years ago and yet Qualcomm just released this year the Snapdragon 6s gen 3, which is .... the 695 with a slightly higher clock speed... 🤦
  For €300 - €550 they keep selling us the same junk with a different name and colour and I'm done with that bs.
  
  You are using "they keep selling us the same junk with a different name" to justify apple? Hilarious.
  
  they keep selling us the same junk with a different name and colour and I'm done with that bs.
  Proceeds to buy an iPhone.
  
  What's more far ahead than an ecosystem that you can't leave without replacing all devices because they work poorly with anything other than Apple. If you don't like all their products or Apple makes changes that you disagree with then sucks to be you, I guess.
  
  As evidenced by: this article
  Oh wait
  
  Oh no most definitely. Since I’ve been using iOS (IOS 15) every update is just playing catchup on Android features. It’s actually why I finally switched from Android to iOS. iPhones have abandoned so much of their own design philosophy in favor of Androids, that iOS is practically just another flavor of Android like Samsungs or Huaweis. The friction to switch between phones has never been lower. I did however have to wait for iPhones to finally bring decent refresh rates to iOS before switching (above 60hz).

That’s great! Competition in this space is working to improve both.
Instead of this stupid fanboy shit of Android vs iOS, we should celebrate an actual success in development.

Good for Android, now if they’d only implement all of the Apple-only features that create the lock-in appeal then maybe they’ll get somewhere. When my Pixel Buds flow seamlessly from device to device to the third and fourth device then maybe we’ll talk
- I have the Pixel Buds Pro and they kinda do that, but yeah not very well. I have them paired to my phone and my laptop, and sometimes randomly they'll silently disconnect from my laptop and permanently pause whatever I was watching if my phone plays a notification. I can't fix it until I disconnect from and reconnect to my laptop multiple times.
  One time I was watching a video on my laptop and they randomly connected to my desktop! I hadn't used them on my desktop in at least a year, until then!
  All in all, they can flow seamlessly, but it's 60/40 on if it works properly
  At least the noise cancelling and passthrough are fun to mess with
  
  How many devices do you switch between? For me, it’s phone, tablet, two laptops and my watch. I think that the Pixel Buds can switch between two without needing a re-pair. Meanwhile, I can stream my Apple TV audio to my AirPods as they’re also an audio source! Even if Google released basic support for this today, they still wouldn’t be able to fully catch up because they have no truly realized desktop/laptop OS so I’d live in a mixed ecosystem.
- Exactly. Also memoji on Android would be nice as well as the better emoji content on iPhones..
  The bedtime mode on iPhone is also very cool as well as the ability to set your contact photo which other iPhone users will see when they call you.
  Plus I think Apple have done a better job with widgets because they look nicer and are stackable.
  Imo as an android user, android has been neglected by Google for a while and apart from Samsung no other OEM's are adding for software to rival Apple.
  Which is one of many reasons why I'll be switching back to iPhone. I see more and better user features being added to iOS.
  The only thing Google has done with android lately is Material You, and it's not as rich as apples customisation. And circle to search is a stupid feature which only benefits Google more than the user.
- Presumably need Pixel everything for that but even then, as an android user I would rather be locked into an Apple eco than google.
  
  My SO has current gen Pixel devices all around and it’s yet to materialize. To my mind, Google could sync Bluetooth pairing info across all Android devices if they put their minds to it. But even if they did, they would need to work with Microsoft and other vendors to get the kind of ambiguity that would compete with Apple’s product line. As it stands, if you buy the Apple product you get the best hardware and the software compliment is five years ahead than the competition. Google and Microsoft need to leapfrog

To be honest as an Android user, if Apple makes their phone less locked down and give more affordable choices for phones I may try an iPhone, as I am a bit fed up with Android, and there are no other real alternatives.
- I'm happy with GrapheneOS on my Google Pixel. It's basically Android without the Google crap. It's not for everyone though.
  That said, I'd really like a third option. iOS is too locked down, Android phones have short support cycles (getting better, and is a huge reason why I picked Pixel), and Linux phones have fundamental hardware and software issues. I'm sad Microsoft, Palm, and Blackberry all gave up, there were interesting things happening in the mobile space back then.
  
  I switched to Graphene in December and I can't say it enough, GrapheneOS is everything I wanted Android to be for the past 15 years.
- I can't afford a new one so I'm looking at used IPhone's to get. Because Apple tends to support them for 5+ years, I still should get at least 2 years OS updates with a used one.
  I'm thinking iPhone 13 is a good one to get.
- iPhone SE is their affordable line. Don’t see that changing anytime soon as it sells well.
  
  It still costs nearly as much as minimal wage in my country (OK, ~$200 USD less), I am not going to buy it anytime soon.
- With or without the Google services, I bought my first Pixel years ago and have never looked back.
- Locked to trust them. I have been a long time iPhone user. Is by far the best mobile OS. Is overpriced , yes and since at this point of my life where I give less fucks , next one would be whatever good cheap crap I can get.
- You realize that Android being too open is a major reason for why it sucks and iOS being more locked down is precisely how they avoided going the same way, right?
  
  Can you elaborate because this is not obvious to me. Maybe we sre thinking different things when we talk about "openness" in this context.

I mean Android, and Samsung in particular, borrow from Apple all the time as well. Hell Samsung frequently bad mouths Apples for the anti-consumer choices one year then follows suit and does the same thing in a year or 2 themselves.
These kinds of takes are not the flex some seem to think they are in my opinion.
- So what you're saying is, if you want advanced phone features sooner buy an Android, if you want to be subjected to dodgy business practices sooner buy an Apple
- Yeah remember when Samsung charged you double?
  No ?
  Yeah me neither.
  
  Eh? Their bog standard device cost is usually pretty on par. And Apple definitely isn’t charging you double.

i still like my android but i do wish they would get back to prioritising widgets again, like apple has done - and get developers to do it as well.
i also like apple watch over my samsung watch. i think the apple watch is top in it's class - that combined with apple fitness+.
if apple could set defaults, use actual browsers (like android), and have an open in menu like android, i'd switch. i don't think i could ever get used to apple's notifications though. android is still superior there.
- I’ve switch between iOS and Android, but good news on one of those you can set your default browser now on iOS.
  https://support.apple.com/en-us/104975#
  
  not the same, though; browsers are still webkit.
  also you can't set phone or messaging or other defaults. in android, i can not have a default and get a pop up every time (or use linksheet) to ask how i want to open something

Lifelong iOS hater who moved to iOS 2 years ago here. They're different strokes for different folks.
If you're like I used to be, get an Android! Flash a custom ROM on it! All the freedom is amazing.
Now I have an iPhone. It may even lack some features Android has. It gets them slower. But the experience is ridiculously polished and consistent. This is a device I can't have fail on me.
I still use Linux on my gaming PC and one of my work laptops. I love it. I love fiddling with things. I just want my phone to be an appliance like my fridge now. I buy it and forget it for the next few years.
- My second work phone is an iPhone, so I'm a lifelong iOS hater but I've had a few generations of them. Let me tell you these things crash all the time, it is only slightly better at covering for itself.
  
  I'd say a good negative use case really fits in the "reliability" category. So often at work, coders expect everything to always succeed, and have no thought towards what happens if one cog ever falls out of place; but good systems can react well or even help you get to what you generally need.
- Sometimes I miss tinkering on my android phone, but I just get my fix handled with the homelab and keep my iPhone nice and stable. I wish it wouldn’t take lawmakers to get things like usb c and rcs, but hey still getting it done.
- I mean, if you spent the kind of scratch on an android phone you would on an iPhone and then not fuck around with it, you'd have a similar experience on Android.
  Years ago I used to flash roms and generally tinker until I decided I needed my phone to be stable and stopped. My Note 20 is polished and stable, no complaints.
  My wife has always had iPhones. I've used both and find iOS frustrating. These days, unless you're scraping the bottom of the barrel, it's mostly about comfort and preference.
  
  I've done that once. Then I made the mistake of updating past the Android version it came with. Suddenly it was no better than most of the cheap androids I'd owned before that. It was the Oneplus 7 Pro and it just started lagging like hell 2 years in.
  I'm now 2 years into my iPhone 13 mini, have also kept up with software updates and it hasn't slowed down at all.

I know this is an old feature, but do we have the NFC money transfer thingy?
I mean the one where you touch other phone with your phone and transfer money.
If we do I am unaware of it, I use AOSP.
- I think Google Pay used to have something similar, until Google axed the whole thing in favor of Google Wallet
  
  .... And that is why competition and "stealing features" is always good, being Apple's or Google's competition.
- Nope. Apple only.
  I'm switching to iPhone because Google has let Android languish for years now. Samsung does more for android than Google does for goodness sake.
  Apple users get fun and cool updates which is why they love it. Plus best in class photos and videos so they can share photos with friends and family with confidence, as opposed to android which has shit cameras and even shittier video.
  
  Samsung does more for android than Google does for goodness sake.
  I agree with you, even when I dislike One UI... I think Google although simpler is more of my liking... But oh boy stock AOSP is so limited that for some users it is even too similar to iOS, with the distinction that you can sideload easier (for now).
  Lots of features that Google releases each Android iteration literally have been here in One UI, MIUI, Color OS you name it.

Like math notes. And handwriting fonts. And a customisable control centre. And phone mirroring. And locking apps natively. And pretty much all of Apple Intelligence (particularly Genmoji because I want a hyena emoji and Unicode doesn't have one).
- Hold on. This control centre thing is really annoying me over here on Android. iOS separates notifications and control centre into two separate groups. I have to swipe down twice on Android to do what took a single swipe on iOS. On top of this, clearing all notifications closes the drawer after a delay, automatically. Why? I can close it faster myself, and sometimes, I want it to stay open, but NOPE!
  And then the control centre itself. Volume control just.. doesn't exist (key word: CONTROL). Brightness (which I use often) is all the way at the top, rather than the middle. Then, the control centre is split into PAGES at HALF SIZE, and they're all just wide rectangular buttons. Then, no volume control. What the HELL is this!? I could long press to get an easy brightness slider for my torch, everything internet related was quickly accessible in a single square, and now you're telling me iOS is even FURTHER ahead?
  Did I mention there's NO. VOLUME. CONTROL. I have to press a volume button, then a tiny on-screen button after that, and then I get sliders after I wait for the menu to pop up. Granted, that's sliders (plural), but fuck me. This one HURTS. I sometimes find the buttons a little bit too stiff, so I usually use on-screen controls during screen on, and buttons while off.
  So much for owning my phone, since I can barely change any of this, and I can only see the way my control centre looks after I've edited it.
  FUCK!
  This absolute abhorrence. The Gods forsake this wretched control centre design. It is genuinely agonising using this afterthought of an interface. This cannot stand.
  
  I have to swipe down twice on Android to do what took a single swipe on iOS.
  swipe down with two fingers
  
  That doesn't sound like my phone. Have you tried launchers? Or it could be specific to your manufacturer. That's part of the problem with android - too many manufacturers wanting to customise their interface without a clear idea of what good UX is
  
  I hate Apple and love Android but I can see the value in all the stuff you said. Doesn't make me want to change teams but just letting you know there is an Android fanboy that sees value in what you said.

Always was

Yes, but apple will market them better so people will think it's new .

Surprising no one?

Nobody cares nerds. Nobody.

But android doesnt run the llm locally. Can someone please make a foss app that can do simmillar things.
- No phones can run "LLMs" currently because by definition, large.
  Some Android phones however can and does run smaller models locally. Gemini Nano runs on Pixel 8 and can run on Samsung phones.
  https://deepmind.google/technologies/gemini/nano/
- There isn't a FOSS app, but there is this
- You could use this
  
  The point of a local llm is u can give it access to contacts notes app control fucking everything simmillar to whaf apples done cool app tho.

What about RCS support in the new IOS?
- It has it

I’m looking forward to iOS 18 as I have to run an iPhone for work.
From what I understand, this update is gonna bring a lot of things iOS was lacking in terms of personalization.
Now I would really want them to improve on how things are handled outside of their walled garden as I’ll never buy a new mac (maybe an old one to run Linux) and they’re never gonna convince me with their old tricks of keeping special features between Apple devices.
We need a Linux version or equivalent to iTunes to backup your phone, better interoperability with Windows/Linux..
The iPhone is a great product but I feel like the walled garden is preventing me from fully enjoying it.
- On Linux you can use https://libimobiledevice.org/ for backups and management.
  
  Yeah I know but honestly it looks really complicated for someone who's not at ease with terminal. Just finding the instruction to install it on Fedora (so no sudo apt install) is difficult, so I'm scared to do anything wrong, especially with important data.
  So now I'm still using a Windows 10 virtual machine even if it's awfully slow on my not powerful computer..

This is the best summary I could come up with:
The iPhone’s next major software update will roll out later this year, featuring plenty of AI infusion—Apple Intelligence—plus other quality-of-life improvements across the platform.
At WWDC 2024, Apple announced that iOS 18 would finally let you place app icons wherever you want on the Home screen, freeing them from the stringent rail it was on before.
The iOS 18 developer beta shows that the color accents pick up based on your wallpaper and system theme.
Still, even though Apple quietly announced RCS support this week during its developer conference, Google doesn’t get its victory lap.
On the plus side, messages between iPhones and their green bubbles will be able to share features like high-resolution photos and Tapback animations later this year.
In Android 7, the Quick Settings in the notification shade added editable tiles, which were eventually opened up to third-party app developers.
The original article contains 888 words, the summary contains 143 words. Saved 84%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Except one: be good at what it does

The only thing iOS really does better imo is the quick settings menu
Holy shit it sucks on Android compared to iOS
It looks better, it has more options, it has better overview and grouping
- except it's basically made useless by the fact that wifi/bt toggles don't actually toggle off their respective radios, but just disconnect from the current network

Cool. Good for Android users.

And yet still no back button, the most basic feature that iPhones sorely lack :(

Been that way for a long long time now.

Yep, and Android also suffers from plenty of malware within the Play Store. I’d rather a company focus on combating that than worrying so much about minor features.
Edit> Yeah I figured I would be downvoted. People are very tribal and base their identity on such which means they will disagree with me. I am a pragmatist and don’t want to deal with malware and a shitshow of fragmentation — so while it does suck to be within Apple’s walled garden, it at least fits my needs.
- $1000 computer stand*
  
  This is a common argument and it always makes me wonder what people mean by it. No ill intent from my end here, I use and like Apple as well as FOSS, but I can’t think of anything I can do on Android that I can’t on iOS. I admit I’m a very basic user though, I prefer to do heavy lifting on a laptop.
  I am genuinely curious. Do you have some examples?

Good, I'm happy for iOS users. They always wait patiently for the features and they often come in a polished form.
- It’s a myth that Apple waits to release features until they’re “polished “.

Ok. And android still sucks compared to Apple. Always full of bloatware and can never get updated or long term support. Only the Google phones have a decent OS
- This is a ridiculous take. You can change any of that in Android easily, Apple locks you into BS without extreme measures
- So you most likely wanted to say "and Samsung still sucks compared to Apple?" Google phones also run Android, you know.
  
  Samsung has even cut most of the horseshit out. My S22 had like a few Samsung apps, they live in a folder and I never see them. But that is similar to all of the Apple apps you couldn't remove either (don't know if that's changed, haven't had an iPhone since the 4)

Does your Android phone get 5+ years of software support?
- 7+ actually
  
  *from the manufacturer