Things to Know Before Switching to iPhone from Android

If you are using an Android smartphone and planning to purchase Apple’s iPhone, you might be worried about moving to a new operating system (iOS) and Apple’s echo system. Don’t worry, this article will assist you in making the correct decision.

I’ll tell you what things will you enjoy and what things will you lose, if you switch to iPhone. After reading this article, you’ll be able to understand whether is it worth to switch from Android to iPhone for you or not.

There are many things which are exclusive to iPhones but at the same time, there are many features which are missing and not available in iPhones. I’m also among those users who switched from Android to iOS. I was using Android smartphones since many years when Samsung released the first Galaxy smartphone. I was a longtime Android user but recently I decided to switch to iPhone because there are no small, compact and lightweight mobile phones available in Android market. So I moved to the tiny Apple iPhone 12 Mini.

I’m using Apple iPhone since 6 months approx. and I have observed several features in iPhone which are better than Android phones. At the same time, I missed a few important features in iPhone which I was regularly using in my Android phone.

So in this article, I’m going to share my personal experience with iPhone and I’ll share the advantages and disadvantages of using an iPhone.

If you are going to buy an iPhone, this article will definitely clear all your doubts and will answer all your questions regarding iPhones.

Please keep in mind that the issues mentioned in this article depend upon personal choice and usage. If you need a feature which is missing in iPhone, it’ll be an issue for you but if you don’t care about the feature, it’ll not be an issue for you. In fact, you’ll not notice it at all.

I’ll try my best to include everything you need to know about Apple iPhones before making the move. Let’s start!

[Pros 1] iPhone’s Touch Experience is Buttery Smooth

The touch experience in iPhone is extremely smooth as butter. I have used so many Android smartphones in past including all Samsung Galaxy S series premium phones, Google Pixel, etc but believe me the touch experience in iPhone is better than any expensive Android phone. The navigation and animations are so smooth.

You’ll enjoy while navigating through apps, launching recent apps or going back in apps. The haptic feedback is superb in iPhones.

[Pros 2] iPhone is a Power House Which Never Slows Down

While using my iPhone, I never noticed any lag or slow speed in any app or game. The RAM management is excellent in iPhones. No matter how many apps you open in iPhone, each app will work without any lag or delay. Believe me iPhone never hangs or slows down even if I opened 20+ apps.

I didn’t face any heating problem while using iPhone. Overall it’s a power house which never hangs.

[Pros 3] 5+ Years Software Updates Make iPhone Future Proof

iPhone is the only smartphone which comes with guaranteed 5 years OS update support. In fact, every iPhone gets 6 or more years iOS updates. The good old iPhone 6s was launched with iOS 9 and it received updates till iOS 15.7 version. No Android smartphone company delivers OS updates to any mobile phone model for so long time.

Another interesting fact about iPhone OS updates is that each and every iPhone model receives the new iOS update on same day. Apple releases the new iOS version to all compatible iPhone models on the same day. So older iPhone users do not need to wait for the new OS updates.

[Pros 4] iPhone Camera is the Best Among All Smartphones

There is no need to say that iPhone camera is the best. Everyone knows this fact. In fact many people buy iPhone only because of its camera quality. I have personally experienced that the photos taken from iPhone look great and better compared to the pics taken from Android smartphones.

If you switch to iPhone, you’ll never complain about its camera. Your friends and relatives will ask you to take their pics using your iPhone camera and you’ll feel on top of the world.

[Pros 5] You’ll Love the iPhone’s Side Silent Switch Button

iPhone comes with a dedicated and exclusive hardware ring/silent switch button present at the left side. You can use it to quickly put the phone to silent mode or restore the phone to ring mode. Just move the slider button up or down and it’ll put your iPhone to silent or ring mode. No need to first turn on the phone screen and then select the sound toggle option to put the phone into silent mode. A single silent switch will do the job.

It’s a very handy feature in iPhone and if you put your mobile phone in silent mode frequently, you’ll love this quick toggle button.

[Pros 6] iPhone Face Unlock is the Best, Accurate and Super Fast

The face unlock mechanism in iPhone is the best among all smartphones. It’s very accurate and works super fast. As soon as you turn on your iPhone screen, the face unlock immediately scans your face and unlocks the phone. It happens very quickly and you’ll enjoy the face unlock functionality specially while using locking features in apps such as WhatsApp, PayTM, etc.

[Pros 7] Call Quality, Mic and Earpiece Speaker are Great

While using iPhone, I noticed that call quality is excellent. Specially, the ear speaker sound and mic quality is very good. The caller’s voice comes very clear and the background noise cancellation feature works perfectly.

Now let’s talk about some issues and unavailable functionality in iPhones which I observed while using the iPhone.

No Home, Back, Recent Apps Buttons on Bottom Bar in iPhone

This is the first thing you need to know about iPhone. There is no bottom bar or status bar present in iPhone. In Android smartphones, you get a dedicated bottom bar containing Home, Back and Recent Apps buttons. But in iPhone, there is no bottom bar available containing these buttons.

Everything is done using gestures i.e. touch actions. For example,

• To go to home screen, you need to swipe up from the bottom.
• To go back in any app, you need to swipe from bottom left of the screen.
• To access recent apps screen, you need to swipe up and hold from the bottom.

It’ll take some time in getting used to these touch gestures if you were using direct home, back, etc buttons in your Android mobile phone. But once you get used to the gestures in iPhone, you’ll enjoy them.

No Fingerprint and Pattern Unlocking Available in iPhone

If you use fingerprint unlocking in your Android smartphone, you’ll be out of luck in iPhone. No fingerprint sensor comes with iPhone. Only the cheaper model of iPhone i.e. iPhone SE comes with fingerprint unlocking. Standard iPhone models lack the fingerprint sensor.

Similarly, the pattern unlock is also unavailable in iPhone.

iPhone comes with face unlock functionality which is super fast and accurate as mentioned above. You can also use PIN or password as unlocking mechanism.

No Call Recording in iPhone

If you are planning to switch to iPhone and you require call recording for business or other purposes, keep in mind that call recording will never work in iPhone, no matter how many apps or workarounds you try.

Call recording is not possible in iPhones. Although many 3rd party call recording apps are available on Apple’s App Store and many websites provide methods to record calls in iPhone but all are waste.

I have posted a dedicated and exclusive article about iPhone call recording in past. You can read it at following link:

iPhone Call Recording: Possible or Not? Explained in Details

Truecaller doesn’t Work Most of the Times in iPhone

If you use Truecaller app to identify unknown callers and spam calls in your Android smartphone, keep in mind that Truecaller doesn’t work properly in iPhone. It hardly identifies incoming callers because of the limitations and restrictions present in iOS. You’ll not get any caller information pop-up during incoming calls.

Following article contains details of Truecaller issues in iPhone:

[Fix] Truecaller Not Working in iPhone, Not Showing Caller’s Name

If you don’t use Truecaller, it’ll not be an issue for you.

Do Not Disturb Mode Rejects Calls with Busy Tone in iPhone

This is a major issue which I faced while using iPhone. When the DND (Do-Not-Disturb) mode is enabled in iPhone, it automatically rejects incoming calls and gives a busy tone to the caller. The caller thinks that you are talking to someone else. On the other hand, you never get any alert or missed call notification during DND in your iPhone.

This issue occurs in countries where the telecom operator doesn’t provide Voice call facility such as India.

Following article contains details about this issue:

Here is Why iPhone Rejects Incoming Calls When You Enable Do Not Disturb

If you don’t use Do Not Disturb feature, you don’t need to worry about this issue.

Connecting iPhone With PC and Transferring Content is Not Easy

If you were using Android phone, it was super easy to connect the phone with your computer and copy photos, videos, songs and files from your PC to the phone and vice versa. Android smartphone arrears as a drive or folder in File Explorer and you can copy/paste files in your phone without any issue.

But iPhone is different. You’ll need to use Apple’s iTunes software or recently released Apple Devices app to sync the files and photos between your iPhone and PC. There are many limitations present in this process such as no contacts sync, no MP3 or other files support, etc. You can’t just copy/paste stuff in your iPhone.

You’ll need to use cloud backup functionality, if you want to take regular backup of your important iPhone data.

Screen Mirroring or Casting is Too Complicated in iPhone

We can connect and project our Android smartphone screen to our smart TV without any issue. Just turn on screen mirroring or similar toggle option present on the notification bar in Android phone and it’ll automatically detect the smart TV. We can tap on the TV and it’ll start casting or mirroring our Android phone screen to our smart TV.

On the other hand, iPhone doesn’t detect the smart TV directly. You’ll need a Wi-Fi router or hotspot to connect the iPhone and smart TV. Once you connect your iPhone and smart TV to same Wi-Fi network, then your iPhone will detect the smart TV and you’ll be able to cast or mirror the iPhone screen.

Casting iPhone to Apple TV is easier, obviously.

All App Specific Settings are Present Together in Main Settings

I’ll not say it’s an issue but I found it a little bit annoying that all app settings whether it’s camera, Safari browser, notes, reminders, etc are present inside main Settings app rather than available directly inside the app itself.

In Android, if we open an app, we can customize and change its settings using the cog wheel or hamburger (Settings) icon present inside the app. But in iPhone, almost all built-in or stock apps do not contain any Settings option. You need to launch main phone Settings app and then select the app which you want to customize and then you’ll be able to customize its settings.

Some users may find it a helpful feature as all settings are placed in a single place.

New Users may Face Difficulty in Turning iPhone Off

When a new iPhone user tries to switch off or shut down the phone, it might annoy the user. In Android smartphones, we can press and hold the power button to switch off or restart the mobile phone.

But iPhone comes with different functionality. If you press and hold the power button in your iPhone, nothing will happen. You’ll need to press and hold Volume Up or Down button along with the Power button to get the screen to select Power Off option. Now you can select Power off option to switch off your iPhone.

There is no direct option available to restart iPhone. You need to first power off the phone and then press and hold Power button to switch it on.

You can also select Shut Down option from iPhone Settings -> General page.

You can’t Kill All Apps At Once in iPhone

iPhone doesn’t allow killing all apps at once. When you open recent apps screen by swiping up and hold from the bottom, you’ll need to kill all apps one-by-one by swiping up the app thumbnail as there is no dedicated kill all button available. According to Apple, the company doesn’t provide this functionality to improve battery management. In fact, Apple suggests iPhone users to keep the apps running in background to improve battery backup. When you don’t use an app in iPhone, it automatically goes in sleep state and when you re-open it, it launches instantly and takes less battery power.

If you have a habit of clearing all recent apps in your Android smartphone, you’ll miss the feature in iPhone.

No Number Row in iPhone Default Keyboard

The default keyboard in iPhone doesn’t contain a dedicated or separate numeric row at the top. You’ll need to download and install 3rd party keyboards such as SwiftKey to add this functionality. Although there is a super easy shortcut available in iPhone keyboard to get numeric key row temporarily. While typing, press and hold the “123” key on the keyboard and you’ll be able to type numbers and symbols from the numeric row. Leave the “123” key and the alphabet keyboard will come back. After some practice, you’ll love this functionality.

Casting iPhone Screen to PC is Difficult

iPhone doesn’t allow casting its screen to PC. You can cast your Android smartphone screen to your PC using free software such as Scrcpy but there are no free software available for iPhones to do the same. There are some casting software available for iPhone but all are paid.

For a normal user, it’ll not be an issue.

Weird Video Call Issues in iPhone

I encountered some weird issues during video calls on my iPhone. Sometimes there was no video available when I accepted incoming video call. I had to access the notification panel and selected video call and then I was able to view the caller’s video. A few times, there was no video showing at all and I didn’t get any option to disconnect the video call. The call was minimized and still going on. The caller was able to hear my voice. I had to switch off the phone to disconnect the video call.

To be honest, it might be a network issue. Here I’ll like to add one plus point! The video call quality in iPhone is excellent specially when you use the FaceTime app.

Unknown Outgoing International SMS Charges in iPhone Bill

One more thing to mention, sometimes you may get unwanted charges of outgoing International SMS in your mobile phone bill. The phone number will be unknown and you actually never sent any SMS to that number.

It happens due to iPhone’s iMessage and FaceTime activation fees. Read following article for details:

SMS Message to +447786205094 Unknown Number in Your iPhone Bill

Transfer Data from Android Smartphone to iPhone is Complicated

Last but not the least, you’ll face difficulties while moving your data from Android smartphone to iPhone as both use different OS. You’ll need to use cloud functionality to transfer data but some data might not get transferred.

Moving WhatsApp chats, etc from Android to iPhone was very difficult in past but now it’s possible as mentioned in this guide.

That’s all for now. I tried my best to share my experience with iPhone. I pointed out all the positive and negative points which I noticed while using my iPhone.

If you also want to share any good or bad thing about iPhone, feel free to share it in comments section.

Also Check:

We Want a Small, Compact and Lightweight Android Smartphone

How to Activate and Enable 5G in iPhone in India