Considering switching back to iOS/Apple — convenience vs privacy/control

farbenfisch

I’m considering switching back to iOS/Apple.

At work, I use a MacBook, and I feel like I could benefit a lot from features like AirDrop and the overall Apple ecosystem. I think that might be the biggest advantage for me.

A good camera for photos and videos is also important to me. I also feel like iOS has a smoother and more polished UI/UX, fewer bugs, and in general things “just work” more often. I could use my phone for payments, wouldn’t have to worry as much about banking apps suddenly not working, and overall I think I might gain some quality of life.

Right now I use a Garmin watch, but an Apple Watch would also bring some advantages, especially if I fully move into the Apple ecosystem.

Of course, the downsides are clear too: I would have less control, less flexibility, and probably less privacy compared to my current setup.

For people who have switched between GrapheneOS/Android and iOS: how did you decide? Did the convenience of the Apple ecosystem outweigh the privacy/control trade-offs for you?

Would love to hear your thoughts.

Murcielago

farbenfisch

I could benefit a lot from features like AirDrop

Maybe you'd like to try LocalSend? It's also available for macOS, and you can use it to share photos, videos, documents, and text between devices on the same Wi-Fi network.

Reading the rest of the text, it seems you’ve come up with some good reasons in favor of both iOS and GrapheneOS—only you can weigh them against each other.

GrapheneOS itself seem to consider iPhones to be a solid option for people who can't or don't want to use GrapheneOS:

GrapheneOS is a major security upgrade over the stock Pixel OS or iPhone, but it doesn't mean we're on board with spreading misinformation about either of those. They're the most secure smartphone options and iOS is a clear next best overall choice for privacy after GrapheneOS.

source: https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/113276072670478222

and

GrapheneOS is easily the most private and secure general purpose smartphone OS. The competition is iOS, none of these products. It's certainly more secure than everything you've listed here. iOS and AOSP are far more secure than any traditional desktop operating systems. We would simply say GrapheneOS is more secure than iOS in lockdown mode when looking at the whole picture despite iOS having a more secure base for the kernel for now. iOS has a lot of merits, but these things don't.

source: https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/20464-is-grapheneos-the-most-secure-os-in-the-world/3

For people who have switched between GrapheneOS/Android and iOS: how did you decide? Did the convenience of the Apple ecosystem outweigh the privacy/control trade-offs for you?

I haven't switched myself, but I've set up some devices for friends and family lately.

My personal feeling has been that I have to work actively against the OS to configure it the way I want it. It felt like I ended up spending more time disabling all the telemetry and such in iOS than it takes me to, say, set up GrapheneOS from scratch. Personally, I also find Apple's nudging for iCloud, Apple Care, and whatever else is flashing in the menu quite annoying.

GrouchyGrape

farbenfisch I daily both a GOS phone as well as an iPhone. If I ever have to do anything more than basic communication (e.g. messaging, email, etc), I use the GOS phone. I agree with Foggy that the "it just works" mentality of apple is nonsense. I also use a macbook for work, it's equally (if not more frustrating).

I moved my primary sim card to the iPhone so that I would A) have things like imessage and B) force myself to use it more and give it a fair shot. It's truly awful, IMO. You may wonder why I still use it? Partly for compartmentalization, but primarily because it's still awful that I'd rather just not be on my phone and enjoy the life around me. There's zero temptation to pick it up and do anything with it.

Byku

farbenfisch
I switched from iPhone to Pixel with GrapheneOS and I don't regret anything. My opinion is that there's really nothing so stellar about iOS like some people would want you to believe. It did track me alot based on targeted advertisements that I don't get now. One function that was sometimes helpful was the ability to tell Siri to send a message for me so I didn't have to touch the phone while driving but nowadays my car can do that.

theyycmonk

farbenfisch

I left iOS for GrapheneOS last December. I'd left MacOS for Linux a decade ago. I won't go back. I gave away my apple watch too.

I have far more time for things that matter and less stress/anxiety in my life now.

Convenience, in my personal experience, doesn't equal peace of mind. It isn't always a good thing to be instantly reachable or to instantly satisfy every impulse. Also, I don't like being reduced to a data set for the techbroligarchs' AI consumption.

Kamika242

Murcielago Maybe you'd like to try LocalSend?

Great, that's something I was looking for as an alternative to QuickShare, I'll try it out now. Available on F-Droid, it can't be better!

Foggy

I switched from iOS because I found 'it just works' to be largely illusional. Things were either overcomplicated or just impossible, and any time you question why in the Apple community you get responses of 'I don't know why you'd want to do that' or similar to Jobs' 'you're holding it wrong ' (ie you're the problem, not Apple). This was just for basic stuff like not being able to lock screen rotation on landscape mode, which is/was only possible by having the floating accessibility button onscreen all the time.

GOS was a breath of fresh air in that basic things like that 'just worked'. I do put up with a few banking apps not working, but my Garmin watch is IMO better than an Apple watch as I only need charge it once a week. Generally on Android there are ways to improve annoyance points which can be lacking on iOS.

Probably what I'd do if considering a switch is what I did with GOS: get a cheap used iPhone and run them in parallel for a while. Then you'll experience both together and decide if a switch is preferable or not. If so then buy your new daily driver iPhone.

mar2112

Foggy I agree. I've never found Apple products to be intuitive. Work forced me to use an iPhone and it was not obvious how to turn off GPS. When I searched online for instructions I experienced the "you don't need to do that" response. Saving battery and increasing privacy really isn't optional for me.

Dan-Jessen

Byku this is something I have said time and time again and the zellots find every excuse to try to dismiss it. I was on android for years, gotbsick of the bloat, and was always being told iOS was better, safer, more private and as has been said above "just works". Now granted I did use ddg app protection on the Samsung before I switched to iOS, but, as soon as I did I noticed all the things I used to hear others talk about. Uncanny adverts appearing mostly on Instagram, about things searched in private browsing and even watched on TV. it NEVER happened prior. I simply won't accept that apple isn't doing something or allowing something on terms of data sharing. I'm glad others have noticed the difference too
Iphones look slick and the cameras are excellent, but they age verification is annoying now, and there are lot a of great cross platform apps

brandy078

I switched to GOS after using iOS for 15 years. Even when I'm still missing some apps like Apple Mail, Calendar Maps and Airplay I never regret leaving my iPhone behind.
The benefits I'm having with GOS overweight the cons by far - for me.
Much better privacy and security, 2 days of battery live to name just a few.
I also use two Macs. My private Mac runs on Linux now. And on my work Mac with Apple silicon chip I still use macOS for work, but just because there are two apps I haven't found a good working alternative for. Just a question of time until I use Linux for work too.
I'm much digital independent than before. For me this is much more important than a "more polished UI"
But these are my two cents. You might see it completely different.

treenutz68

brandy078

2 days of battery life!? That is amazing.

With a VPN and Molly running, I can barely get through the end of 1 day.

bennyblanco

I moved from iPhone to standard Pixel because iCloud and the file system for iPhone is truly awful IMO, it's slow and just seems less intuitive design wise than pretty much everything else. Photos isn't brilliant, neither are Pages or Numbers, so I was already using Google for these. I even ditched the Podcast and Music apps which I used to really like. I realised I'd finished up ditching most of Apple's services in favour of other more usable/intuitive/more feature rich options. If I wasn't gonna be using any Apple software, did I really need to be paying for their phones? The answer was no. So I moved to Pixel. From stock Android I went to Grapheneos pretty quickly. I still use a few Google apps on GOS, but I like the ability to choose rather than having them forced on you via Google Pixel OS and the ability to choose your permissions and how much Google you want in your life. In Google's defense, I like a lot of their products I think they're infinitely better than Apple's for the most part, just not keen on their creepy side.

My Pixel 10 Pro is still my daily driver but with less Google tracking than before but with the tools I need still there, so it's win win. You don't have to give up all the 'luxury' of big tech if you don't want.

I've been lucky with my banking apps working on GOS, I don't miss Apple Pay - it was more a usable quirk than a necessity. The things I prefer on iPhone are the camera. Colours seem better SOOC, but that's a minor thing. I also miss iCloud Mail a bit.

I also ditched Mac for a couple of used Dell Latitudes which run Linux Mint. I like having 'stripped down' Google on my phone and everything else Google running in/contained to Chrome, which I don't use for anything else.

not-a-rola

farbenfisch switching back to iOS/Apple

Papers, please!

https://www.techradar.com/phones/iphone/apple-rolls-out-age-verification-in-the-uk-with-ios-26-4-right-after-meta-and-google-get-fined-for-not-protecting-kids

MineralWater

I think the days where Apple/iOS "just works" are long gone.

I switched from an iphone to gos, but I still use an iPad with up to date firmware.

And I must say that iOS has lots of bugs, isn't that easy to work with like it used to and specially basic things like file management even got worse.

Android isn't perfect either, but I wouldn't know what iOS can do that Android can't.

Just from the usability I don't see any difference anymore, I find android even easier to use.

iOS looks better, that is true.

koocmit

farbenfisch I use a MacBook

https://github.com/sameerasw/airsync-android or KDE Connect tries to provide the same "ecosystem" benefits if you wish to explore.

farbenfisch good camera

I agree, google has dropped the ball on this a lot. Using Google Camera helps somewhat.

farbenfisch smoother and more polished

I disagree. MacOS is just bad, and iOS has too many issues (bad keyboard, horrible settings page UX, lack of actual VPN, safari is just a worse browser compared to chrome, and Siri is just lobotomized, pardon my french).

farbenfisch Apple Watch would also bring some advantages

I, and other independent reports seem to agree, find Garmin to be much more accurate compared to Apple watch, not to say of the chasm in battery life (Apple watch needed charging every night when I used it). Trying Gadgetbridge is a nice idea if you wish to use Garmin without depending on their proprietary systems.

farbenfisch how did you decide?

I did not find iPhone convenient at all. Felt like working in a hostile environment, with advertisements everywhere (upgrade you drive storage!!!!!), app store just slopware central, and most of the "it just works" usually meant "it just works as long as you do exactly what we think you should".

Of course I am mighty biased, but I have moved almost my entire family away from iOS and we did not have much hiccup as long as I setup everything for them (Signal replaces iMessage, otherwise whatsapp dominates Europe anyway, and most services we used were cross platform anyway like Spotify). I was their tech support with Apple, so I don't mind being the same for Graphene.

Overall, I find macbooks much harder to replace than iphones for family, so I have setup KDE Connect for them (also trialling airsync which I shared above).

scythian2000

koocmit safari is just a worse browser compared to chrome

how?

maro

farbenfisch I understand the point that there is a higher risk that something will not work on GrapheneOS (although I have a very positive experience with GOS in this case so far). However, for me personally on iOS I have an impression that the system is trying to think and make decisions for me and did not pose to set up things in my own way and it is annoying. As for UI, on Android I use a custom launcher that I love, and it is not available on iOS.

maro

maro on iOS I have an impression that the system is trying (...) make decisions for me

And in some cases against me.

koocmit

scythian2000 seems like somewhat off topic here, but the reasons are: Slower than chrome, lags in web standards, web apps are unreasonably restricted, less secure across pwn2own competitions, evaluation by many academic papers, etc., no movement towards memory safety at the level of rust (swift is not rust, and thus suffers from specific types of memory vulnerabilities), and chrome is recommended by most security firms and experts over anything else for security.
On the more subjective side, I disliked safari browsing experience when I used it, mostly because it misrendered some websites I used to visit a lot.

Mikeg

GOS even got a mention.

https://www.bgr.com/2143616/reasons-power-users-choose-android-iphone/

LeaFygReen

I'm currently using an iPhone 17 Pro Max and Pixel 10 Pro with GOS. In all honesty I do feel the IOS is more polished overall, I wouldn't say it's perfect but to me it's a bit simpler for the lay person to use. I have the iPhone privacy as secure as I mostly can but my main reason for keeping it was for continuity working with my partner who has an iPhone and this seems to work well.

What I like about GOS is that it isn't as smooth despite what some say, it's a little bit more challenging and I like that. I like that I have to work a little bit more to get the same results, it takes me out of my comfort zone and the accompanying privacy that goes with that is the reward. I find taking photos and editing a bit more painful than with IOS as too with music and podcasts.

I feel both systems are far from perfect and I'd be much happier ditching them both in all honesty, just sticking with a dumb phone and a separate camera would be more pleasant...

N1b

farbenfisch I can't provide you with experiences since I would never go to iOS because privacy there is just a good marketing campaign (now even worse with AI). But maybe here's an idea: Get a cheap, used iPhone, comparable to your current Pixel and use both for a while. See whether it's like you remembered, what works and what is more inconvenient or even impossible on iOS. iPhones have a good resale value, so if you opt for GOS it won't be an expensive experiment. And if you go back to the full Apple ecosystem, it would be an informed decision that works best in your situation.

As for the "probably less privacy" on iOS I recommend having a look at this and this video.