No offense meant but are Apple phones better for everyday tasks?

[theproman23]

So, it's that time again where my contract is coming up for renewal and I'm contemplating upgrading to the next Samsung phone. I currently have a Samsung Galaxy 7 Edge and although I love what the phone itself has to offer I'm thinking about things that you can do easily on the Iphone that I feel like may be I haven't mastered on my android or have not discovered or all together not possible. I hope it's more the first two than the latter and I'm hoping the good folks on here can educate me.

1. Sharing media through SMS - Anytime I send videos through SMS the quality is almost always garbage. It seems to be the same when I receive video. The picture is distorted and I'd imagine this is a restriction with the amount of data you can send over SMS. I know there are apps like Facebook messenger/Whatsapp etc. that can help with this issue but it warrants that the other person has these apps installed and actively monitors their notifications (a friend off mine can't get Whatsapp notifications to work on his Iphone). I actually don't even use the stock messaging app and have Textra installed, which I do like, but it seems to have similar restrictions to the stock app. I've also tried numerous other messaging apps including Android messages and again each app seems to have it's short comings.

2. I routinely trade voice messages with a friend of mine and he has an Iphone so anytime he wants to send me a message this way he just simply opens his stock messaging app, hits a few buttons and the message is on its way. I on the other hand can't do the same. I've resorted to using a voice recording app to record my message then have had a hell of a time attaching through SMS so I have to turn to one of the other data reliant apps such as Whatsapp. Then last year I discovered that you can record messages directly in Whatsapp so I started doing that and recently discovered that I have to hold on to the Microphone button while I'm talking. I routinely record these messages while driving so obviously it's not safe for me to use Whatsapp now for this purpose. And again every time I send him a message through the app I have to text to him let him know that there's a voice message waiting on Whatsapp

3. Face time - I've got a baby on the way and I travel for work from time to time and I feel like Face time is such a convenient feature that Iphone users have that makes it easier to have easy "face to face" conversations with loved ones. I know I can use Skype etc. and again the other person needs to have the same app

I for the very first time in my life am contemplating switching to an apple Iphone which I never thought would be something I'd think of and would love for some insight from folks on here that can help me change my foolish thinking of switching to an Apple!

 

[lparsons21]

I'm fully into the Apple ecosystem but also use Android on one phone and a few tablets.

1. Media messaging - Messaging in general is a hot mess! Apple's iMessage strengths come from a couple areas. If you are fully into the Apple ecosystem and most of your friends too it can't be beat by any other messaging app out there IMO. That's because when it works between Apple users it isn't using SMS/MMS at all.

But when it works between an iPhone and something not Apple, then the results are exactly the same as what you are seeing now, ie; the sms limits. So the media you send isn't all that good. One of my daughters is on an Android phone and complains about the picture quality she gets in messages all the time.

2. speech dictation works fine on Apple, but it works just as fine on Android too in my experience. Neither is better than the other.

If you are on Verizon then their Message+ app is excellent with lots of the strengths of Apple's iMessage

Otherwise Android Messages will be pretty close when all carriers and phones support the full RCS. Some support is out there already but it is fairly limited. One notable that will probably be missing is Apple, so far they have indicated no interest in getting on board with RCS.

IMO, if you like Android and are not into the Apple ecosystem I can think of nothing compelling to make the change.

 

[L0n3N1nja]

1. Apple has imessages set up as a chat program on it's own servers, it's more like using Facebook messenger than SMS. Its this reason that they are able to send larger files like high quality photo/video. Android has no true competitor because Google doesn't invest in it, and carriers keep SMS restricted.

2. I have no response or experience on.

3. It may depend on your carrier, but Verizon added HD voice and video calling a few years ago. I rarely use it and most people I know use Android, but to my knowledge its cross compatible with iPhone.

 

[Mezzanine7]

For #2 and #3 .

#2 . For voice recorded messages download Message+. It is a great text messaging app for voice to text or it has a microphone button you hit to record voice then hit send. real simple.

#3 . download google duo. Download the app, setup takes less than a minute then you can make all the video calls you want.

hope this helps some.