How does the Pixel 2 make my Google life better than an iPhone?

[dmark44]

Since you use Google services, you will probably find them more integrated with notifications, assistant and the Google Now page. Reminders and calendar items automatically added from your emails in Gmail.

Over time, the Google ios apps have become more full-featured, so you probably don't miss much as far as app-specific featurea between platforms anymore.

I have an iPad and an Android phone. Personally the notifications on Android work better for me. I also like the do not disturb mode. I also like how meetings on my calendar to automatically silence the phone during the meeting times. My wife relies on the hold switch on her iPhone and is always forgetting to turn her ringer back on .

I like using apps like Sound Profile to automate my settings around my work schedule. And I use another app (Trigger) to automate sounds and settings further for Driving, workouts, etc.

I am also liking the little picture-in-picture style Google Maps navigation window so you can still see your turn by turn directions when you leave the maps app.

If you use Amazon, you will notice you can actually buy/rent digital content like Kindle books, music, etc directly on Android apps. Apple will make you leave their device and come back to view it.

Lastly Siri has her plusses, but Google Assistant knows me better and is more capable in web searches.

 

[raqball]

I have a Mac at home and hate it. I wish I had never switched from a PC. Because of this it's not integrated at all with my phone, so no loss there. However, I do have an iPad as well and would miss the integration with the phone.

Yeah integration is a big deal for me as well. I strictly use Chromebooks (currently using the Pixelbook) and I am also a Project Fi user.. I use Hangouts as my SMS on Fi because I can sync them up to the Pixelbook, respond from the Pixelbook ect.

I also like that everything I do on the phone syncs up to the computer and vise-versa..

 

[osubeavs728]

BTW, Google calendar integration on Assistant sucks. I put most of my events on my work calendar but use my home account for Assistant and it can't access my work calendar even though my work calendar is shared with my home calendar.

Different accounts indicate different user profiles. It doesn't suck, it's just not supposed to work that way. That's why you can set up different defaults and settings based on the Gmail account.

 

[VivaTerlingua]

Yeah integration is a big deal for me as well. I strictly use Chromebooks (currently using the Pixelbook) and I am also a Project Fi user.. I use Hangouts as my SMS on Fi because I can sync them up to the Pixelbook, respond from the Pixelbook ect.

I also like that everything I do on the phone syncs up to the computer and vise-versa..

I have a Chromebook as well but there's a few programs I need a regular laptop for (Lightroom, Quicken, and NSBasic (aprogramming language)), so I'm not using the Chromebook exclusively. It's more of an experiment for me.

Although Android apps for the phone have mostly caught up with apps for the iPhone, the same is far from true when it comes to tablets. So, I can't ever see abandoning the iPad.

Another tough thing for me is Facetime. Almost all my friends and family have iPhones and it's not really practical to ask them to add another app to just do video calls with me. Not that I do a lot of Facetime, but it is one more thing to deal with if I switch.

 

[VivaTerlingua]

Different accounts indicate different user profiles. It doesn't suck, it's just not supposed to work that way. That's why you can set up different defaults and settings based on the Gmail account.

When I ask Assistant or Home about my day it ought to be able to tell me the events on my shared calendars.

 

[raqball]

I have a Chromebook as well but there's a few programs I need a regular laptop for (Lightroom, Quicken, and NSBasic (aprogramming language)), so I'm not using the Chromebook exclusively. It's more of an experiment for me.

Although Android apps for the phone have mostly caught up with apps for the iPhone, the same is far from true when it comes to tablets. So, I can't ever see abandoning the iPad.

Another tough thing for me is Facetime. Almost all my friends and family have iPhones and it's not really practical to ask them to add another app to just do video calls with me. Not that I do a lot of Facetime, but it is one more thing to deal with if I switch.

I think losing facetime might be your biggest obstacle.. If the people you know all use it then that's a hard one to lose. iMessages is another where some would incur difficulty making the switch..

Tablet apps are night and day better on iOS no doubt. I use Android apps on my Chromebook but they are nowhere even close to being as polished as on iOS. Google has been fighting this problem for years and even tried Honeycomb a few years ago to try and combat the problem, which was a miserable failure..

Not really sure why Google has a hard time getting developers to make tablet optimized apps, but they do.. With as much money as Google has you figured they'd offer up sweet deals for developers to do so.. Something like reduced fees on app sales for apps that are tablet optimized..

 

[anon(10092459)]

When I ask Assistant or Home about my day it ought to be able to tell me the events on my shared calendars.

I thought they recently (November) added this function. I think there is multiple calendar support now.

https://support.google.com/googlehome/answer/7029002?hl=en

 

[darkmanx2g]

Are you really saying you can't see the difference? Google services suite is tightly integrated in Android especially in the pixel 2 xl. You sign in one account and your signed in to all Google apps. iPhone I have to sign in every single app. Google assistant is also tightly integrated with Google home and your home products. If you can't see a reason to switch to Android for Google apps from an iPhone it's best to stay with iOS.

 

[DesertTwang]

In the two-and-a-half weeks I've had the Google Pixel 2, the assistant has impressed me more than Siri has in the two-and-a-half years I've had the iPhone 6.

 

[VivaTerlingua]

I thought they recently (November) added this function. I think there is multiple calendar support now.

https://support.google.com/googlehome/answer/7029002?hl=en

In theory yes, but my work calendar does not show up as an option.

Here is what I have on my PC:


And here is what shows in my settings in Assistant:

 

[Dano1200r]

When I ask Assistant or Home about my day it ought to be able to tell me the events on my shared calendars.

If it was being shared in the settings of your work computer it should sync. Maybe your system administrator prohibits it.

 

[osubeavs728]

When I ask Assistant or Home about my day it ought to be able to tell me the events on my shared calendars.

Does Siri?

 

[anon(5630457)]

Like others have said, once you sign into your Google account on the Pixel, that's it. You're signed into everything--Google Home, Calendars, Drive, Photos, Gmail, etc. On iPhone, you have to sign into each and every one of the Google apps.

 

[anon(10092459)]

In theory yes, but my work calendar does not show up as an option.

Here is what I have on my PC:
View attachment 275409

And here is what shows in my settings in Assistant:
View attachment 275410

I can understand what you mean. You do have to have writeability access on the shared calendar for GA to function properly. So if the administrator of you calendar has restricted that access, that's probably the issue. Makes sense, they probably don't want everyone going in and changing the hours, I would imagine.

Your original post stated you are interested in how a Pixel 2 makes your life easier with Google services. Considering you're pretty immersed in the Google ecosystem, That's a great thing for you since the ecosystem works well cross platform.

Now, the Pixel can't do anything about an Apple proprietary feature, like Facetime or iMessage. That's gonna take some effort on your part to make something like that work out for you and the people in your circle.

The device itself, though, is built with the Google ecosystem at the center. It works best with Google services without question. My advice it to work GA to the fullest with this in mind. Google knows everyone important to me, so when I ask GA something like "show me pictures of my mom when we were in Texas" it brings exactly the pictures of her up from my Google photos without using a specific contact name. It's a very intelligent phone. Use it to it's fullest and you may see the difference and the answer to your original post.

 

[VivaTerlingua]

Does Siri?

Yes

 

[drvier8]

the gboard keyboard and google translate access in all apps are my use-case for prefering Android. i have friends that primarily speak spanish and we can easily communicate because i can translate right in the keyboard.

gboard does not support this function in iOS.

 

[Guto Aaron]

In theory yes, but my work calendar does not show up as an option.

Here is what I have on my PC:
View attachment 275409

And here is what shows in my settings in Assistant:
View attachment 275410

Are your work calendars G Suite for Business or G Suite for Education? They aren't supported by GA

 

[VivaTerlingua]

Are your work calendars G Suite for Business or G Suite for Education? They aren't supported by GA

Yes, I found this on their site.

Unsupported calendars:
Other Google Calendars — Birthday, weather, and holiday calendars.
G Suite Calendars — Calendars created from a G Suite domain.
Imported calendars — Calendars imported from URLs and iCal calendars.
Calendars that don’t have read or write access to events. For example, a calendar with only free or busy information

So I can’t access my work calendar, my Tripit calendar, or my girlfriend’s calendar since I have view only rights.

Ps. I use Tripit because it pulls stuff from both of my email accounts where Google Trips only uses one.

 

[matty032]

The events are already automatically added to my calendars by the gmail server regardless of which phone I am using. When I open an event on my iPhone using the Google calendar app (which I use as my calendar app on the iPhone) I can tap on the location and it opens in Google maps.

BTW, Google calendar integration on Assistant sucks. I put most of my events on my work calendar but use my home account for Assistant and it can't access my work calendar even though my work calendar is shared with my home calendar.

In the Google Home app you can setup "Fetch my Calendar." It will then read you your work calendar through the Google Assistant.

 

[VivaTerlingua]

In the Google Home app you can setup "Fetch my Calendar." It will then read you your work calendar through the Google Assistant.

Unsupported calendars:
Other Google Calendars — Birthday, weather, and holiday calendars.
G Suite Calendars — Calendars created from a G Suite domain.
Imported calendars — Calendars imported from URLs and iCal calendars.
Calendars that don’t have read or write access to events. For example, a calendar with only free or busy information