Introduction
There has been quite a bit of discussion and debate of late around the merits of iOS and Android, and this has coincided with my own journey into using Android. In February this year, after thirteen years using iPhones, I bought a Samsung Galaxy S23. I had long been curious about Android and had dabbled with it over the years, primarily as my work phone. I had never really picked it up and used it as my primary day to day phone though, at least not since I spent a month with a Nexus 4 way back in 2016. This time, I genuinely planned to give it a real go. I envisaged myself sticking with it for a full year, before deciding what I want to do next.
For context, while I have some limited vision, I am very much a screen reader user, with VoiceOver on iOS and TalkBack on Android. I have also tried CSR, also known as Jieshuo, on the Android side. I do not use Braille, so will not be delving into that aspect here.
In this blog post, I want to share my experiences to date, and why Iām not so sure Iāll last the year after all.
Motivation
As mentioned above, I have been an iPhone user for over thirteen years and have generally always been extremely happy with it. I also have an iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and more, so am pretty entrenched in the Apple ecosystem and the benefits which go with that. Itās reasonable therefore to ask why I would want to do this in the first place.
First and foremost I'm interested in tech. Iāve always been curious about Android, dabbling with it here and there. I like the idea of it, a more open and customisable platform, and one that offers a greater range of hardware choices too. Was I feeling a little bored of iPhone, perhaps. Though I am aware how privileged that might sound. Ultimately, we do have choice in the market, and I wanted to know what the other side was like.
I waivered between getting the Samsung Galaxy S23 or a Google Pixel 7, but ultimately chose the Galaxy as it was brand new and running probably the best processor in the Android market, so performance should never be a problem. Iād definitely be interested though to hear if peopleās experiences with Pixel differ to mine with the Galaxy.
The purchasing experience
My life with Samsung didnāt get off to the best start. The purchasing experience on the Samsung Ireland website left a lot to be desired. The website had quite poor screen reader accessibility which surprised me. I managed to muddle through, but ended up with the wrong colour device. I was sure I had selected lilac, but ended up with cream. As it turns out I like what I got, but Iād suggest thatās not the point. The post purchase experience wasnāt great either, with a lack of clarity about when I could expect the order to arrive. So this aspect was a bit of a let down compared to experiences with Apple.
On the plus side, unlike Apple, Samsung are good for offering deals. I got a discount for ordering early, plus a further discount when I added in Galaxy Buds.
In favour of Android
This post is not a hatchet job on Android by any means. There is a lot I like, so letās get into that first.
User interface
I really like the general user interface on Android. Itās intuitive and easy to navigate. I especially like the app screen, or app drawer, where I can access all of my apps without cluttering my home screens. Of course iOS does have the app library now, but I prefer the Android implementation. I can access it from anywhere with a simple gesture, and have it laid out as a simple grid of all apps in alphabetical order. Appleās screen full of automatically categorised groups of apps just doesnāt work well for me, and I wish I could just jump to a simple alphabetical list, without first having to open the search function.
On Android, you can choose how many rows and columns of apps you want on your home screens, apps screen and in folders. This is a very nice touch. In fact, it kind of annoys me that Apple have yet to introduce such a basic customisation feature after sixteen years. Moving apps and creating folders is different to iOS, but no more difficult. In fact I quite like how itās done, at least on Samsung. On Samsungās UI, you also have a feature called Edge Panels. This is a slide out drawer accessible from just about anywhere, that acts as a kind of secondary doc for apps, or even favourite contacts. I use it for easy access to utilities such as notes and home automation apps.
If you donāt like the user interface on your phone, you can download an alternative, known as Launchers, from the Play Store. In my experience, most of the main ones offer little difference in functionality, but Iām sure there are more varied ones out there too. Itās not a key point for me personally, but a nice option to have nonetheless.
Gestures
For many years, VoiceOver was widely considered to have an important advantage over TalkBack, because TalkBack lacked multi-finger gestures. Google has since added those multi-finger gestures, while also maintaining its wider range of one finger gestures. This means that, for me, TalkBack now leads the way in this respect.
As well as having the majority, though admittedly not all, of the gestures that are available in VoiceOver, TalkBack also includes multi-directional one finger gestures. You can swipe up then left in a smooth motion for example, or swipe left then right. What this means for me is that firstly, I have more gestures in total to play with, and secondly, I can carry out more of the key commands I need while using the phone one handed. A great example is Androidās equivalent to the rotor. I have this assigned to the up then down and down then up gestures, whereas on iOS I have to switch to two handed use.
Voice Assistants
I donāt need to go into detail here, as there has been enough written and said about the gap in capability. Siri currently lags behind Google Assistant, and with the progression of AI technology that gap could widen further. Iām not writing Apple off entirely though. Either way, itās not a particularly key feature in how I use my phone, plus Google services are available on iPhone, so Iām giving Android the point, but itās not actually much of a factor for me.
One caveat is that TalkBack has a tendency to speak over you when trying to talk to the assistant, but Iāve learned to ignore it and generally donāt have issues.
On screen keyboard
I will come back to the less than satisfactory typing experience later, but one area where I prefer Android is the keyboard itself. Firstly, itās that word customisation again. Support for third party keyboards is better, and I was really happy to find I could change the colour. Iām using Googleās Gboard with black keys, contrasting nicely with the usually white background of apps and web pages. It also has the number row above the QWERTY row, and the full stop and comma keys next to the spacebar. I love that.
Clear All buttons
While I wouldnāt say that the overall experience in the App Switcher, known as Recents on Android, or in Notifications, are better by any means, I do like that both have a Clear All button that is always there and easy to find. iOS doesnāt have this at all in the App Switcher, and you often have to swipe down beyond more recent notifications to find it in the Notification Centre. Itās a minor point, but something I appreciate.
Sound scheme
Of all the items discussed in this post, this is probably the most subjective, but I do quite like the sounds when using TalkBack. It would never be a deal breaker for me, but I do prefer its sounds over VoiceOver. CSR goes one better arguably, letting you download a variety of sound schemes. I would love Apple to offer that with VoiceOver. Sighted users can choose different wallpapers etc to personalise their device, so why shouldnāt VoiceOver users have something similar.
Settings app
Finally, I prefer the Settings app on Android. Itās organised more clearly and logically than its iOS equivalent in my opinion. Plus, if you do go to the wrong section, it has a nice little feature called āLooking for something elseā, which suggests other settings which it thinks you might have looked for in that location.
You can also easily get to the settings for any app from the context menu by long pressing on its home screen or apps screen icon.
Pushing me back to iOS
So if Android has all of that going for it, what is pushing, and indeed pulling, me back towards iOS?
Typing on screen
While I mentioned above that I like the keyboard options on Android, the actual typing experience has been pretty painful for me. TalkBack and CSR offer the same typing method as Touch Typing on iOS. You slide your finger to the key you want, and lift to type. However, for whatever reason, it feels painfully slow on Android compared to iOS. Not only can I type faster using this method on my iPhone 12 mini, but even my old iPhone 7 is performing better here. Add to that the fact that iOS also offers the even faster Direct Touch Typing method, which I prefer to use. The experience really is night and day.
This means that I am much less likely to post to a forum, respond to an email, or text my friends and family while using the Android phone. I have become much more reliant on dictation, or occasionally using a Bluetooth keyboard, as well as finding I just have to do more on my laptop instead. It has probably been the single most frustrating aspect of using Android.
Connect to Bluetooth earphones, in my case Galaxy Buds Pro, and the experience gets even worse. Itās like wading through treacle. By comparison, the lag on iPhone when connected to AirPods Pro is minimal.
Actions
A key strength of VoiceOver on iOS is the actions menu in the rotor. TalkBack on Android has actions too, available through the TalkBack menu. I have also assigned a gesture to go straight to the actions pop up menu. Pixel phones now also have actions in the reading controls menu, similar to the iOS rotor, but this has yet to reach us on Samsung devices.
While Iām perfectly happy with the mechanics of using actions on Android, the problem is that they have not been widely implemented. Despite being a part of TalkBack for a number of years now, few apps actually take advantage of it. Even some of Googleās own apps, such as Google News and YouTube, which have implemented actions very effectively on iOS, do not employ the feature on Android. Instead, you have additional buttons on screen offering options, cluttering the interface and slowing down navigation. Perhaps thereās a philosophical debate here, with TalkBack on Android giving a more exact representation of the visual layout, but for efficiency, itās a fail for me.
Third party apps
Whether Google bears responsibility for it or not is debatable, but the reality is that I have found the range and quality of third party apps to be relatively poor on Android compared to iOS. Android fans have understandably been frustrated in the past by Microsoftās failure to bring Seeing AI and Soundscape to the platform for example, or at having to wait several months while Clubhouse had its day in the sun.
Two of the key apps I needed to find upon switching were a podcast app and a Mastodon app. In both cases, iOS has lots of quality and accessible options, from Overcast, Downcast, Castro and Podcast Guru, to Mona, Metatext, Ivory and Tusker. I downloaded and tried many podcast apps on Android, but only found two fully accessible ones, Podcast Addict and Pocket Casts. Iāve settled on Podcast Addict, which is fine, but I much prefer Overcast. On the Mastodon side, Tusky is very good and fully accessible, but pales in comparison to Mona on iOS in terms of its feature set.
WhatsApp is an example of a mainstream cross platform app where Iāve found the screen reader experience to be simply better on iOS than on Android. It is accessible, but the lack of actions and the way messages are read by TalkBack, especially in groups, makes it harder to use. Other social media apps like Facebook and Twitter suffer from the lack of actions too.
The VeSync app I use to control my Cosori air fryer suffers with issues setting the temperature and time which are not there on iOS. The MoovIt navigation app gives you less information about upcoming public transport stops on Android than on iOS.
While Googleās Lookout app is very good, in general it seems that there are more accessibility specific apps on iOS than on Android. The previously mentioned Seeing AI and Soundscape spring to mind of course, along with Blind Square that have never come to Android. Of course I acknowledge that Soundscape is now gone though. On other occasions, developers seem to go to iOS first, a frustrating situation for android users. Hopefully they will begin to realise that there is a user base there on Android too, and that we want equity across both platforms.
Email management
While itās related to the above, Iāve pulled email management into its own section as itās a key function I want and need to carry out on my phone, and one that has proved challenging on Android. Iāve tried multiple apps, including Aqua Mail, Edison Mail, Outlook and Gmail, eventually settling on Gmail as the best option for me. None of these though give me the ease of use that I have on iOS with the built in Mail app.
Gmail does at least employ actions, but not widely enough. When focused on an email in the inbox, you can add a star, archive or delete it, but you can not mark it as read or unread, nor move it to a folder. For that, you have to take a longer route which I find more cumbersome than on iOS. I also prefer how you navigate through a threaded conversation on iOS, itās much quicker and easier. Add to that the difficulties in writing emails due to my aforementioned typing difficulties, and I find I simply canāt manage my emails nearly as effectively as on iOS.
Image descriptions
For some time now, VoiceOver has automatically generated pretty impressive image descriptions. Admittedly theyāre not as good as what youāll get now if you share them with the likes of the Be My Eyes virtual volunteer feature, but they certainly do help when you are scrolling through the photos on your phone, browsing a web page, or reading through a message chat where photos have been shared by friends. TalkBack on Android doesnāt have this, and I really miss it. Iām also pretty shocked by it. We know from Google Photos and their work in this space that they have the capability to recognise and understand images, but they chosen not to implement it for accessibility purposes.
Scrolling
While I mentioned my fondness for some of the gestures available on Android, one aspect of navigation I prefer on iOS is scrolling lists or long pages. With Android, there is a general principle that where you have a one finger swipe gesture as standard, this becomes a two finger swipe when using TalkBack. This includes opening the notifications shade and page scrolling, and works pretty well. It means that scrolling is a smooth experience similar to that of our sighted peers, with the aid of additional sounds. On iOS, you use a three finger swipe, but it is not smooth. Instead, the page scrolls in blocks of content. However you also have the benefit of the vertical scrollbar on the right side of the screen. I find this incredibly useful when trying to scroll quickly up or down a page or list. I feel I get the best of both worlds on iOS, precision when I need it, and fast scrolling when I need that.
Notifications
Iāve often heard mainstream tech reviewers say they prefer the Android approach to notifications over the iOS approach, but that certainly has not been my experience as a screen reader user.
Firstly, thereās verbosity. On every notification, the screen reader first tells you if it is expanded or collapsed, before reading the actual notification. You then have to swipe twice to get past each notification, as you have a collapse / expand button beside each one. This of course goes back to our philosophical debate discussed in the Actions section earlier.
Iāve also struggled to get to grips with groups of notifications. Itās not clear to me when an app has multiple notifications grouped, or how best to manage those. In addition, I find TalkBack often reads only the content of the notification, minus the name of the app, or occasionally, only the name of the app, minus the content. I have to expand it to get the full context. Notifications on iOS on the other hand are clear, easy to understand, and easy to manage with VoiceOver.
VoiceOver settings and customisation
While Android as a platform is generally regarded as being ahead of iOS for settings and customisation, I do feel that VoiceOver is ahead of TalkBack in this regard. First and foremost, VoiceOver simply has far more settings available to customise your experience. Plus, in contrast to the Settings app overall, The accessibility settings are better laid out and easier to follow on iOS. For example, the method for changing the TTS voice is not at all clear on Android.
Even gesture customisation is better on iOS. While both do have it, VoiceOver offers far more assignable actions to choose from. In addition, whereas Android was years ahead of iOS in having the easily accessible TalkBack menu, I get more useful functionality from the VoiceOver quick settings menu.
Apple hasnāt rested on its laurels either. They continue to add features and enhancements, so it feels like google is permanently lagging behind in screen reader capability.
TalkBack has some irritating complexities too. By default, I found TalkBack kept switching the TTS voice to a US English one when on certain types of content, despite me selecting a UK English voice. I had to fiddle around with settings to stop this behaviour. I also found that TalkBack wasnāt as responsive as Iād expect when I performed the double tap to select. I had to discover and flip a switch in the advanced settings to improve it, something I never would have found if it werenāt for help received on the Blind Android Users list.
Volume control
Both platforms allow you to independently adjust the system or media volume and the screen reader volume, so in general, thatās fine. However, as soon as I pop in my Galaxy Buds Pro, this no longer works on the Samsung. The accessibility volume controls are still there, but it only changes the system volume setting and not specifically TalkBack. This can be quite problematic when out and about. Adding insult to injury, for whatever reason, this is something I find I actually need to adjust more often on Android than on iOS.
Biometrics
The Samsung Galaxy S23 has two options for biometric unlock; an under display finger print reader and facial recognition. Itās a nice touch that you can have both active at the same time, and either can unlock the phone. According to Samsungās own documentation though, the facial recognition is not particularly secure. A photo of you can unlock the phone, but perhaps thatās a side note.
The issue I have is with reliability. Despite having these two options, I find I fail to unlock my phone more often on the Samsung than with Face ID on the iPhone. In fact, Face ID almost never lets me down anymore. The under display finger print reader is tricky, as you donāt have a clear tactile spot to aim for, but Iāve slowly but surely gotten better at it. Nonetheless, Iād still take my iPhoneās Face ID over this right now.
This is hardware specific of course, but I wanted to mention it as part of my overall experience. I previously used a Google Pixel 4a 5G for work, and I must say I quite like the physical and tactile finger print reader on the back of that phone.
Companion watch
In taking this journey, I was keen to have the full ecosystem experience, so I got myself a Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 to go with the phone. To say Iām disappointed with it would be an understatement. The performance with TalkBack is simply not what I expected. My Apple Watch series 4, which cane out in 2018, feels faster and easier to get around than the Galaxy Watch 5, which came out in 2022.
Fifty / Fifty
There are some aspects of the experience that I donāt necessarily think have a clear winner on either side.
TTS voices
Historically, the two platforms took different approaches here. On iOS, you got a suite of voices built in at no extra cost, and that was it. The range of voices was good, and Iād argue you should have been able to find one you liked, but if not, you were out of luck. Android on the other hand gave you a fairly limited set of Google TTS voices, and a Samsung engine too in the case of their phones, but you could also download third party engines like Vocaliser, Acapella and Eloquence if you were willing to pay for them. Both approaches have their merits, a good range at no extra cost, versus fewer free voices but the ability to buy more.
As I donāt like the majority of Googleās voices, and there are a few on iOS, most notably Alex, which I like a lot, Iād generally have leaned towards the Apple side if pushed.
Things have though moved on. Googleās range of voices has, I believe, expanded, while maintaining the ability to download third party voices. Eloquence though is no longer available on Android. On the iOS side, the range of built in voices has continued to grow, including the addition of Eloquence. They have also added the ability for third party TTS engines to be downloaded, though few have made it to the App Store as yet. Take your pick.
Bugs
Thereās been a lot of talk on this forum and elsewhere around bugs on iOS, and frustration with them not being promptly addressed. I canāt disagree with that. In fact, for me, one of the things thatās been delightful on Android is no longer having the screen reader focus jumping around. That bug has been frustrating me for years. Android though is not free of bugs itself. Relatively frequently for example, TalkBack just stops speaking. On other occasions, it refuses to read the full content of messages Iāve received. Iāve also had some connectivity issues with the Galaxy Buds Pro, where they will play media, but TalkBack remains on the phone speaker. Neither platform is a haven from bugs.
Dictation
As mentioned earlier, I find I rely on dictation more on Android than I did on iOS. Given Googleās history and expertise in this space, I expected the quality of dictation to be better on the Android phone, but this has not been my experience. I have tried both Samsungās and Googleās engines, but donāt find any clear improvement over the feature in iOS. Itās generally pretty good on both platforms to be fair, but I see just as many errors on Android as on the iPhone.
Conclusion
Android clearly has some great features and benefits, and I would love to bring some aspects of its user interface, its additional one finger screen reader gestures, and perhaps its sound scheme across to iOS. However I still feel that VoiceOver has some key advantages over screen readers on Android. There is a greater range of apps, and when it comes to important everyday activities such as messaging, email management and social media, I simply find the iPhone far more efficient. Itās easier and more enjoyable to get things done, and Iām less reliant on my laptop as an iOS user than I am as an Android user.
In summary, if asked could I live happily enough on Android, Iād say I probably could. But do I want to when iOS is an option, right now Iād have to say no. I see a return to iOS and an iPhone 15 in my future. Overall, it just suits me better.
I'm glad that I tried Android for real as my main phone, and I learned a lot from the experience. But for now, I think I'll go back to what works best for me. What about you? Have you ever switched from iPhone to Android or vice versa? What was your experience like? Let me know in the comments below.
Comments
Hi
As a person that has a galaxy a04s and a Google pixel seven when it comes to Apple app launches I like the Google launch better Neland my galaxy phone has a fingerprint reader on the power button as well
And my galaxy phone absolutely blows every iPhone Iāve had out of the water when it comes to battery life
Very good post indeed, whichā¦
Very good post indeed, which sums up my experiences with both platforms pretty well (I use Android for work). One thing I'd like to add is that iOS Braille Screen Input still feels superior to the way Talkback's braille keyboard is implemented. On the whole, however, I really like that one is able to input braille on screen on both platforms.
I had an android phone, but I was so unhappy with it.
Hi.
I had an android phone, but it was so laggy, and talkback crashed on me like 10000 times a day, and I needed sighted help to restore it, reboot wouldn't help.
so I was fed up with that, talked to my mom, then she bought me my first really good smartphone, which works to this day, but isn't my primary device, but yesterday it was.
it is iPhone SE, 2020
now I have latest and greatest iPhone 14 pro, and I'm happy, except one thing that annoys me but it is probably fixable by setting some options, I mean, the braille screen keyboard is kinda switchy.
it switches it's orientation and IDK how to fix it, it worked on my SE 2020, though.
iPhone
If you are going to do so, get the pro or pro max. You might want to use the many features that they provide unlike the regular iPhones. I have the 13 pro that I got in Nov. Did not get the 14 pro because I heard have issues. I might get the 15 pro or pro max when I finished paying this one.
Used an Android Phone for Years Until Switching to iPhone
I used an Android phone for years, from Android 2.3 or so up to Android 12 or 13, but then my mom got me my first iPhone two years ago. I've had a better experience with iPhone in a lot of ways than I did with most of my Android phones, so I upgraded last year and plan to stay with iPhone for now.
Text Editing
Thanks for the detailed comparison...
While I've also used an Android phone for a while and do like the fact that Android is truly more customizable and flexible in many aspects, editing, selecting, copying and pasting text appear to be more problematic on Android than on iPhone despite the fact that VoiceOver doesn't offer the best possible experience either. And now we have VoiceOver's screen recognition feature in addition to the OCR/image description feature, none of which are built into Android. I've been reporting bugs and suggestions to Apple and posting about them here and elsewhere but this doesn't necessarily mean I prefer Android, which in turn shouldn't necessarily mean it's okay to stick to iOS as it is and we should just get used to all those bugs.
If it works, use it
I've always been of the opinion of, if it works for me, I.E. the end user, who cares what operating system it runs. Do you judge someone for driving a Chevy instead of a Toyota? or a Kia? No, you don't. Apple does things well, Android does it's fair share of things well. Whatever works for you in your own personal use case, i am all set with this aspect. Now, on to IOS 17 and android 14 I think? I wish the best for users of both operating systems.
My Own Take
Here's a quote I wrote on Mastodon a few moments ago:
"Considering I switched back to Android from IOS and never going back, probably doesnāt mean a dish thing to most people. But then again, with Accessible Android one of the best sites for this stuff, it doesnāt get enough talk. Are folks scared because of Android Access and other sites before it fall by the wayside? Code Factory burning Android users? Proper coverage for Commentary not being shared among the brought circle? Google themselves? All of the above?"
PS. I won't post links here since i already have in prior threads. Unless I should, but only for broader context.
tts engines on ios and correction re the virtual volunteer ""
Dave, Great review thank you so much!! i like commentary screen-reader myself on the pixel 3a and yes, i wish we had more sounds on ios but eloquence to me is so poorly implemented I mean did apple apostrophe really apostrophe lol, consult blind consumers? why do i want to read and hear dave said apostrophe i feel great apostrophe whenever quotes are included? I digress. what other tts engines have made it now to ios apart from Espeak? even that is not fully working as it should, why can i not select the variants like northern, west midlands, carabian etc. as in pc screenreaders? Sounds would be great though i also do we know when the virtual volunteer will arrive on ios in Be My Eyes as the blog post made out it is available now, which sadly at present it is not; it is merely in beta form for now but great post. agree.
go for that iPhone 15
Go for that iPhone 15. It looks wonderful.
Thanks for your review!
I've been wavering for a while; I was initially an Android user, switched to the iPhone in 2013. The focus bug has had me so frustrated that I've been seriously contemplating giving Android another try. Your informative post has convinced me to wait, at least for now. I've noticed that lag while typing on a test Android I picked up a few years ago and was holding out hope that this would be addressed. To me, that's a deal-breaker. I type a lot on my phone, and although I do use Braille screen input, I'm also comfortable with touch typing. That lag would drive me crazy! So I'll deal with the VO focus issues for another year, Lol.
I mean I have to deal with a Galaxy phone for the next two years
Unless I can go to Telstra and train it in to get an iPhone next year
Talkback & Jieshuo Screen Reader Comparison
Well?
This is not a bad time to share the following article, especially since the above article is so well written and detailed:
https://accessibleandroid.com/comparing-talkback-and-jieshuo-strengths-and-weaknesses-of-two-screen-readers/
Also see the below article on direct touch typing using Jieshuo, which Talkback currently does not have.
https://accessibleandroid.com/turning-browse-by-touch-off-on-jieshuo-screen-reader/
NB. 'Split Tyoping' and 'Touch Typing', are both not the same as 'Direct Touch Typing', as someone argued on another community platform.
Samsung's Talkback
Thanks to a blind mastodonian meeting with Google Accessibility this week (discussed among a recent fediverse thread), and myself communicating with Samsung awhile back thanks to their Samsung Wallet feature still not being accessible at the moment for creating a PIN, said wait may finally be dealt with for faster updates to their version of Talkback and/or they just scrap their own entirely.
I sadly haven't found an easy way of making a simple script on the Mac side for replacing Talkback for Samsung with the Google one. Not that I can't deal with the terminal...
To be fair, T-Mobile wil be getting 1UI6 among the S23 line sometime at the end of July, thus I shall be testing!
Quoting the last paragraph of that Talkback vs Jieshuo article
"Androidās open nature encourages healthy competition among screen readers, which benefits users. There is room for the development of a new screen reader that incorporates the best features of existing options and learns from their weaknesses. Such a screen reader could potentially be open source, fostering collaboration between the community and professionals, much like NVDA for Windows. However, whether such an initiative will emerge in the future remains uncertain."
So Apple having total control over VoiceOver and the iniciative to release and maintain it, has made the screen reader robust and highly compatible with Apple's own devices, but it is also the very same reason why we've no longer been getting significant fixes as Apple just does its own thing and has its own agenda without having to care about any other parties pushing it to look into the bugs we face and report.
Responses
Firstly, Thanks all for the kind words.
Dominic raised the question of battery. While I mentioned the biometrics, I mostly stayed away from hardware in this post, including battery. An iPhone 12 mini from 2020 can't compare to a Samsung S23 from 2023. Battery was the biggest weakness of the 12 mini from day one really. I would though say that I am delighted with the battery of the Samsung, sometimes getting two full days out of it.
Agreed Holger, I am likely going to go with the 15 Pro, so I can try out the features that require Lidar for the first time. If the mini was still around though, I'd have a tougher decision to make.
Thanks Trenton for those links etc. I'd agree that some of those sources of info are not well known enough. I never got to fully throw myself into Commentary. I had issues with some of the settings I changed not sticking, and when I reached out to their support email address, they never responded.
Interested that you say you'd never go back to iOS. I intend to remain open minded to both, though for the foreseeable future, I can't see myself moving away from iOS as my main device.
Samsung having their own TalkBack is frustrating, or at least the fact that they are six months plus behind Google in updating it is. We shouldn't have to go through the hassle of uninstalling it and installing Google's. I know the process isn't super difficult, but it's not straight forward either. I wonder if I did, would performance be any better, or just the feature set.
Apologies Will, I didn't mean to mislead regarding Be My Eyes. My understanding is that it will be out this autumn or winter.
True that not too many third party speech engines have reached the App Store yet, but hopefully they will. On both iOS and Mac, it would be nice if third party screen readers could compete with Apple VoiceOver, but I don't see it happening.
Cheers,
Dave
the samsung talkback
hi all, so if we use samsungs talkback I read you can use the rota-like gestures so three fingers up and down to get to notifications? do we know why the version of talkback is so far behind? i mean, the samsung version? it seems their version is more advanced than the talkback version from google. each os has its own and varied feature-sets knowing both I believe is worth it and dave i guess that's where a braille user like me may have the edge, as we can i hope, use braille everywhere like we can in ios to type. Will
@DaveNason
You're very welcome for the links!
As I mentioned in another thread (similar to this one), there use to be a podcast comparing both IOS and Android, which sadly either doesn't exist anymore, or is seriously out of date since I believe it was based on the early days when Gengerbread (Android 2.3) was the new thing. We're now on tiramisu (Android 13), so there definitely needs to be a more modern IOS/Android comparison pod.
Link to post:
https://applevis.com/comment/149882#comment-149882
I had a very similar experience
I started using a Google pixel seven in February And February and just switched back to iPhone. I switched over from an iPhone 12 pro. And February and just switched back to an iPhone 13 mini.
I would agree with much of what you said, except for the dictation, in my case, I found the dictation on my pixel seven to be far more superior to anything I have experienced on iPhone. But thatās the only area in which our experiences differ. I found the typing on the pixel seven to be quite sluggish, and Iām not quite sure why. I guess my only understanding is that the screen on iPhone is more responsive, though, Iām not quite sure why, and how exactly to explain it.
Thank you for this post. I really enjoyed reading.
Good Post
Dave, thanks for this wonderful post. I'm currently in a friendly debate with my parents about whether to upgrade to a newer iPhone, or just have the battery replaced on my current one. This is an iPhone 7 with about 32 gigs of memory. I realize that Apple ended support for this series already, but would it be possible to upgrade the memory? I'm on a bit of a tight budget, and am not ruling out jumping ship at this point since it's been stated by some that Android's accessibility has improved a bit. But otoh I really like what Apple have done in terms of VoiceOver. There are certainly still bugs here and there, but the company has stated more than once their longstanding commitment to universal access. This is why I'd like to stick with iOS if at all possible. Thanks to the people who posted those Android links. I will definitely have a listen to that TalkBack tutorial sometime later this week, as I'll have some quality "me" time.
No
Ekaj
Sadly you canāt upgrade the memory of your iPhone 7, you would need to get a whole new iPhone
In response to Ekaj
Hi, Ekaj. In my experience, you really need to purchase a midline android phone that has a fast enough processor to avoid the lagging behavior that would be a show stopper. I am a very happy user of both android and Apple. phones Admittedly, I purchased a Samsung Z Flip 3 phone last year which retailed for $1,000. I would not have purchased it if there were laggy issues and for that reason, I cannot state enough how important it would be for you to visit the phone store, turn on TalkBack, and navigate the screen. If there are lag issues, which there are with the very inexpensive $200 phones, then certainly, rethink your android purchase.
In response to Dave's excellent post
This was an awesome post, Dave! I loved it! So well written and as objective as possible. Too many folks do not give one platform an honest go before they scrap it. I really appreciate you writing this piece for us.
As for myself, I got bored with my iPhone 12 Pro last year. The students at the agency where I teach were also bringing in more androids for us to teach, so I took one for the team and got a Samsung Z Flip 3. (Smile!). I love tech so it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that I would do this. I'll list a few thoughts below, but will say that I had a similar experience in many ways but they were not deal breakers for me.
In defense of android:
I really love the Vocalizer TTS voice, Malcolm. I'm an American gal with lots of British heritage, so I think that's worth the price of admission right there!
Keyboard: I really like the Board keyboard and the fact that the numbers row is right above the letters--so handy.
App drawer: Love it being alphabetical.
Hardware choices: Between all the earbuds and then the external USB-C keyboards you can plug in, I like that flexibility.
LookOut, the somewhat "Seeing AI" equivalent I like it very much. The product-reading capability is much easier and more reliable to me as someone with no vision. Finding that pesky barcode with Seeing AI is fiddly. And, the short text equivalent on LookOut is very good; it doesn't keep interrupting itself when it sees something else.
Fingerprint reader: One major deal breaker for me is Touch ID. I absolutely love it! The fact that the Samsung Z Flip 3 has Touch ID built into the power button is awesome. I will not use Face ID because it creeps me out and that's my own issue. So, to find such a hardware option in the power button is great!
Home button access: Though I've learned to use my iPhone 11 and 12 (work and personal phone) without the home button, I like the fact that there is one place on the screen where I can count on the home button to be. It is not hard for me to find and it's reliable.
Closing all apps: I like, that, too!
In defense of Apple:
Mail: I, too, find Apple mail to be more intuitive. I don't do a ton of personal emailing, so I stick to doing Apple mail on my iPhone 12 Pro which I use for content consumption and things not requiring phone calls since I transferred my line to the Samsung.
Rotor: Gotta love the rotor. I do find text editing far superior and easier for me on the Apple devices rather than Samsung/android. There are less kinds of touch gestures to memorize for doing editing tasks so I'll stick to major editing on Apple.
Braille display support: Big hairy hot topic there, but for now, even with all the issues, Braille support is still best on Apple, especially when using HID devices. Google/Samsung need to get it together with this one. If I could only choose one device with which I would need to use a Braille display, it would be Apple . For that reason, I am blessed to be able to use both platforms so I can use a Braille display more reliably with my Apple devices.
So, I'll keep one foot firmly planted in both worlds. It's not an uncomfortable stance. I'll just shift my weight back-and-forth when needed. I'm so glad we have choices. Reminds me of when we didn't. Talk software, available some 18-plus years ago cost about $250 I think and that's so that I could make a phone accessible in the first place. Kudos to options!
Iām a proud android and iPhone user
I am a very very proud iOS and actual, I have a Galaxy a 04S and a Google pixel seven and an iPhone 6s Plus iPhone SE 22 and an iPhone 12, well I donāt have that iPhone 12 anymore sadly but you know
Iād suggest getting an android phone with at least 6 GB of memory, and 128 gigs of storage
Re Comparison Podcast
Hi @Trenton-Matthews. I'm not sure what the podcast you're referring to was, or when it ended.
Here on AppleVis we did a one-off episode of the AppleVis Extra a couple of years ago; Episode 80, State of the Disunion:
https://www.applevis.com/podcasts/applevis-extra-80-state-disunion-android-versus-iphone-2021
On that, we had Warren Carr of the Blind Android Users podcast and long time Android enthusiast Steve Nutt as guests.
There had been talk of doing it again in a year or two, but I thought the Android guys might take a turn to arrange it next time š
Re Chris, SSWFTW, Ekaj et al
Thanks for the kind words once again.
Great to hear your thoughts Chris. Seems quite similar to my experience, although we perhaps prioritise different things. Choice is great as you say.
I too quite like Malcolm, and would be happy to see him turn up on the iPhone. I currently use that voice on Android and Windows. Though I do love Alex too so not a big deal.
Since I wrote the post, I have switched back to my iPhone 12 mini, and do intend to get an iPhone 15 Pro when it comes out.
I am selling the Samsung S23, but am getting a Google Pixel 7a for work, so not abandoning Android entirely. But iPhone will be my main device.
Malcolm is on the iPhone, itās just for some reason itās a
Malcolm is on iOS itās just on a different name, his name on iOS is Jamie
Dave
I think you will like the Google pixel, the design, the app draw, the launcher, the battery, the camera, the ease, the performance, all of it is top-notch
I like the pixel launch better than one new eye, and I wish I could change it to the pixel once your butt there isnāt an official pixel launcher alternative that will mirror the design of the pixel launcher
Re Dominic
Thanks for the tip, though I donāt think Jamie is the same voice. It does sound similar though so I need to use it more to be confident. Either way, I may give it a spin.
Yeah the Pixel should be nice, but it wonāt address most of my complaints. I actually like One UI, for example the edge panels are nice, and the app drawer is just as good as Pixel for me.
But this isnāt an Android forum so I wonāt get into a Samsung versus Pixel debate here.
Dave
Individual preferences for the win
I enjoyed reading your take here. I personally don't experience a lot of your issues because all my typing is done either with the on screen braille keyboard or my braille display, both of which I find to now be implimented better on the android side. In any case thanks for your even-keel take, it always frustrates me when people throw shade and claim one OS isn't accessible etc.
Bluetooth and accessibility volume
Sorry for the double comment but I realize I missed something. You can, in fact, adjust accessibility volume and regular media volume independently while using your buds pro. You have to enable developer options on your phone, do that by double tapping the build unmber in the about section of your settings seven times. This will open a developer options menu in your settings. From there you want to turn on the "disable bluetooth absolute volume" setting and you'll have the volume control the way you want. Hope that helps!
@Holy Diver
the Bluetooth and accessibility volume should just work. the advanced developer options will be over a lot of people's abilities. iOS is far better. Better image and screen recognition its OCR can be used on buttons and even in accessible websites. Spell check can be done using a bluetooth keyboard . Third party app developers take accessibility more seriously on iOS.
Tradeoffs
That bluetooth absolute volume thing exists mostly to protect peoples' hearing. If it wasn't set up like that we'd have even more people getting deaf from blasting out their eardrums than we already do so, as far as that goes, pick your poison. I'd hate to make generalizations about third party app developers caring more about accessibility on either platform, I've had better luck with that on the android side personally but we've both read people here who had the opposite experience. I'll grant you that more quality third party apps that are blindess specific exist on the app store, probably because most blind people who can afford to pay for them have been on the apple side for years especially in the US where the bulk of them are developed. As far as spell check, we all have different typing preferences. I'm just happy I can write posts like this one on my braille display without constantly needing to check if my cursor jumped to a totally different sentence for the 95th time today forcing me to edit my whole damn post again. Apple certainly doesn't give me that stability.
HID
Do people still have issues using a Braille bluetooth keyboard with android? If you looking for a android phone and want a good phone check the many reviews of Flossy Carter. He reviews them. The good, the bad and the ugly of the phone.
Iām actually very curious about android. Not for braille.
Iām actually very curious about android. I think I would like to try the. One plus 11 pro. Iām thinking android 14 is going to be a pretty big advancement for talk back. I donāt use braille so it doesnāt mean anything to me. I can appreciate people that want it and use it. It sounds cool. Although I just want stability and consistency as a whole.
Stability and consistency.
When I read those words I thought yeh thats all I want too. Exactly that. Then my next thought was, is this seriously where apples failures with voiceover support have brought me too. Itās the exact equivalent of a sighted person saying Iām so desperate Iām going to try the other phone operating system. I just need my screen to work. If apple could make my screen work then Iād stay. Thats all weāre asking for. A screen that works. A screen that doesnāt work very well is what weāve got. That wouldnāt be an acceptable state of play for an actual screen but for some reason it is when weāre talking about a screen reader.
Voiceover
Well this time I am lucky regarding VO. No issues with 13 pro that I got last Nov instead of the 14 pro. When unlucky iOS 13 came out, many issues. Hope iOS 17 will not have any. Specially with notification. It drove me nuts. I tended to get the time whenever I got a notification. Crossing fingers.
stability, developer options etc
So first I wanted to address something I missed with Dennis. I don't actually think following my specific directions, opening that menu and toggling a setting, then ignoring that menu for the rest of a person's time with a phone is beyond most peoples' ability. In any case I was talking to Dave specifically, though I later read the comments and saw he sold the phone lol. I figure he could have decided for himself if he wanted to change the setting or not, up to him to weigh his own aptitude and tradeoffs there no matter how we feel about the design.
As far as stability, I've not used an i device for a couple years, much to my chagrin, so I can't really speak to the voiceover focus issues etc. They do sound pretty bad for the folks experiencing them but I'm just reading what people write here and a few other places so take this with all the salt. Talkback, ironically, now seems to be the "it just works" screen reader, not a ton of bells and whistles but you can count on it to nail the basics really well. Voiceover seems to be more like Jaws for Windows, many more features, some of which sound super useful like the gesture commander, but also more bugs with the basics. It seems like there's no universally right answer because we all want different things from a phone. I don't really need mine for productivity, that's what my laptop and chromebook are for, but I can totally see how people with a different use case might prefer a different mobile screen reader with more customization, more navigation options on the web etc. It shouldn't be a debate about better and worse, we should be looking at the options and deciding which one fits our own life the best and, surprise, there's not one best answer for everyone.
My android experience rant in coming
I, for people who are asking about android, here is my experience. Ironically, somebody actually asked me how android was on telegram yesterday.
Telegram is definitely most definitely accessible on android, on iOS, thereās way more finicky to do
Android devices have better battery life. And iOS devices, I could usually get around 810 hours, but thatās me doing things like Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Messages, phone, audiobooks. Skype, Safari, etc. On android marginally, better battery life, on my pixel phone up to 20 also I was maybe, it also depends how do you spell phone. Phone, although Iām strongly considering going back to my Google pixel phone, I can get multiple f days out of my galaxy phone, which also includes doing the same tasks as what I did on iOS
Biometric authentication isnāt as good as an iOS. Personally, I like fingerprint sensors, Ooty. It has a fingerprint reader on the power button, whatās my Geoffs? A print sensor on the middle of the screen. My fingerprint sensor on the galaxy phone works like a charm, whilst it doesnāt on my Google pixel., Which is rather sad because I wanted to see how inspired/fingerprint sensors go
Talk back and websites, sad news guys, for some reason, my Google pixel and Galaxy phone like to jump around on the websites.
That are use.
All, and all android is good for basic tasks, itās great and battery life, both Google pixel you are in one year I launches are excellent, talkback is mostly good, my magic authentication is.
And yeah that good, but either way
Holy Diver nailed it, mostly
Hi @Holy Diver, and thanks for the kind words. Yes, I completely agree with your overall sentiments. Both operating systems have strengths and weaknesses, and ultimately it boiled down to how I use my device and what matters most to me.
I wonder would Android running VoiceOver be my ideal device, lol.
I do feel Apple has put more into accessibility than Google, at least in terms of the screen reader, VoiceOver has more features and functionality, and I missed this too much when I moved. The typing experience is an example of personal need. As I don't use Braille, it's crucial to me and I simply couldn't hack typing on Android any longer.
I have now got the Pixel as a secondary device, so will be keen to see how it develops.
I slightly disagree about the bluetooth audio. Yes I'm capable of carrying out those steps, but I agree with Dennis that I shouldn't have to. I had the device six months before even finding out about this hidden setting. You can't expect users to know these things. I also don't think the explanation of the reason for it adds up. It's not the case with wired earphones, nor is it the case on iPhone.
Samsung Watch
It's rather disappointing that the Samsung watch isn't as fast as the Apple Watch.
I wouldn't mind switching ecosystems - I'm a Windows user and I do miss being able to text from my phone (I know you can do this in Windows 11 but it's apparently not well implemented). Transferring things onto the phone is also much easier compared to an iPhone and Windows.
It's also just expensive - I'd have to switch to a phone, watch, and AirTag alternatives. Somewhat considering switching to a Samsung tablet since iPads and keyboards are a miserable experience with VoiceOver...
Can you please elaborate more on your experience with the Samsung earbuds? I'm also just curious if things like the Samsung Pay or Google Pay, health apps etc are accessible - I use Apple Pay quite a lot.
agree with Dave
I completely agree with Dave. iOS has clearly put more work into accessibility and you shouldn't have to use developer settings. Do I think Google will ever catch up? No not at the rate they are going. Apple would have to do nothing for the next 10 years then maybe. The other problem Google has is Apple innovates Google just reacts they don't innovate in the accessibility space. They just "React"
@ Dominic 810 hours of battery life?
I see your back to using dictation and not checking it. You should really learn how to type or use a bluetooth keyboard.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha
Okay, whatever lets you sleep at night
@Chamomile
Hi @Chamomile. Sure thing., Overall I was very happy with the Galaxy Buds Pro 2. They are very neat and comfortable, and stay in my ears well. I'm not a big audio expert, but I felt the quality and the noise cancellation were just as good as the AirPods Pro 2.
However, where the AirPods Pro 2 win for me is the controls. The Galaxy ones don't have a stem, so you control them with a tap, double tap and triple tap on the bud. I found I was regularly getting it wrong, registering a double tap where I wanted a triple tap for example, or accidentally tapping them when I was just trying to take them out of my ears.
The AirPods on the other hand are controlled through clicks on the stem. Additionally, you can change the volume by swiping up or down on the stem. This is a key advantage for me.
Yes, Google Pay is perfectly accessible, although because I found the fingerprint recognition trickier than Apple's Face ID, I find Apple Pay a little easier.
Bluetooth audio ettc
I'm curious how apple handles this issue on non-apple bluetooth earbuds. If they haven't implemented this absolute volume setting I suspect more iphone users will be deaf in a couple decades but, yeah, those of us who use screenreaders will be happier. I do wish they'd mirror this toggle in the talkback settings though, I'll pass that along. I'll also grant you that apple's accessibility framework has advantages. Having a screen reader that can automatically override system settings and change the layout of stuff on the screen to optimize for swiping/flicking can be super useful. Still, just yesterday I had to walk my girflriend through updating all the apps on her pixel and I liked being able to say "look for your e-mail address near the top right hand corner of the screen. Now clikc "manage apps and device" near the upper middle of your screen, now you'll see "update all" near the upper left corner." I couldn't do that with voiceover precisely because it hides so many things behind that swipe down gesture which is so helpful for so many of us.
Nice bbuzzwords there Dennis
All cheekiness aside I think both screen readers do their share of innovating and reacting. I don't see siri letting people toggle the screen curtain or change the rotor to headings with their voice, for example, neither do I see talkback letting you find a door with your phone. By the same token, as a braille user I can't navigate by columns in a web table in talkback, nor can I reliably write with voiceover and a Braille display for anything longer than a few sentences. It's not only about the number of features a product brings to the table, at least for me stability and doing my main phone tasks right every time matters a lot more than having the best swiss army knife screen reader on my pocket computer. That might be different if my phone was my only computer and had to be my everything machine all the time but it's not. I just need a really stable phone for my phone things, that's more important than adding new often buggy features with every release and watching my braille cursor jump all around the screen for no apparent reason when I just want to send my stupid e-mail already.
Bluetooth volume
Hmm. I donāt understand how allowing users to adjust screen reader and system volume separately in any way harms peoples hearing?? Apple does have volume limits, I believe in line with regulations, they just let you adjust the two separately.
Android also lets you adjust accessibility, media, ringtone etc volume all independently, including with wired earphones. Itās only with Bluetooth where it stops working. So I donāt see how this is saving anyoneās hearing.
absolute bluetooth volume
The way I understand it this setting wasn't built with accessibility volume in mind at all. Bluetooth earbuds often have really high volume limits so they just decided to tie bluetooth volume to the generally quieter media volume on peoples' phones. That way if you max your earbud volume out it's limited by the phone to a quieter level. I think the inability to control accessibility volume was an unintended side effect and I would like there to be a toggle for that somewhere outside the developer options, ideally in the talkback settings.
Re: More than Nice buzzwords
@Holy Diver These are not simple buzzwords. When my screen reader tends to talk in the middle of issuing commands to my personal assistant, when it doesn't allow me to switch TTS engines quickly without having to open the Settings first, when its spell-checker is half-baked, when its automatic image recognition doesn't work in many environments, when it doesn't offer a screen recognition mode, when its developers tend to tamper with the quality of the voices they offer from time to time, when it offers quite fewer hardware keyboard shortcuts, and when third-party developers take it less seriously compared with the competition, I'm not sure what to do about all of them. Of course, I'm so glad I do have my Windows 11 machine and others are equally happy with their Mac machines, but, like it or not, our phones tend to be our companions, so they have to be able to deliver with the most efficient way possible. Now I don't create heavily formatted MS Word documents on my iPhone, nor do I use it for heavy project management tasks. But it does deliver more or less satisfactorily in the areas for which I need it.