We already have phone companies that sell phones with alternative operating systems and not enough people buy them to break the duopoly.

Context for the non-Norwegians: https://www.forbrukerradet.no/breakingfree/

Crazy how they even let other manufacturers modify base Android. Even the settings menus are all over the place. Searching for specific settings is basically impossible if you're not on a Pixel or something.

Don't even get me started on the dev side of things. Makes Windows habit of stacking 30 years of shit look like paradise.

This isn't the case on their flagships in the EU (not sure which is the reason).
I have never had Facebook or other crap preinstalled since my Samsung Note 10.
That said, samsung best be avoided anyway.

There's a program called universal android debloater which let's you delete pretty much anything you want. I've used it and it's like a miracle.

Still once you get to that stage it's so much more tempting to skip that and get busy on trying to get postmarketOS going or something.

From the perspective of a longtime hater of both iOS and Android:

• very mid UI design:

I can’t press everything with one hand because the phone is too big (iOS “caught up“ to this a looong time ago with the iPhone 6)

• kinda floaty feeling

The idea was that it would be customizable, the end result is that none of the menus feel “permanent.” As iOS has gotten more customizable, it now has this “feature” too.

• unpolished vibe

iOS used to feel like it had very centralized design. Android was basically a bunch of different “Androids” doing a bunch of different stuff. Nowadays, iOS feels like it lacks focus as well.

I've been an android user since I started using smart phones in the late 2000s. Android IMO has always been more user friendly and allowing someone to create their own "desktop" so to speak. Meanwhile Apple was always the "I don't like technology" phone. There was no customization, the "desktop" was just the Android app page and nothing else. Nothing could be unique to you outside of a wallpaper or a ringtone. Anyone with an iPhone just had an iPhone. It was the same thing. But someone with the same android phone could have different app placements, widgets here or there, and felt different even if it was the same phone.

Apologies for the rant, I am stoned as fuck and I ramble (And have a new keyboard I am trying to break in)

... But what has Apple "caught up to" all the "main android features"?

✨ Vibe criticism

Sorry, having unlocked bootloaders is unsafe for the children or whatever. Best we can do is mandatory OS and age verification every 45 seconds. Please do not resist.

Folders? What's that normie tech illiterate win95 nonsense? My device has directories, tyvm.

They do actually have a pretty decent file manager. Unsurprisingly you can’t access system files, at least as far as I know. It’s not nearly as robust as what you can do on android, but it is easy to use.

They're really astroturfing youtube ads right now (I know, ick, youtube, and I should use plugins; I normally don't use it at all but lately I've had a couple songs I've been listening too on repeat. I should just download them).

Like, almost every fucking ad is "some apps are traps, can you spot the trap" with these stupid cartoony characters representing apps and suddenly one (at random, with no rhyme or reason) blows up and the narrator says "google play can."

Like fuck off, google play says whatever they want to say is a trap is a trap. Meanwhile they allow all these predatory BS apps on their store. They'll let you fall for the traps they approve of. And they won't even show you what country an app developer is based in until after you download it.

But they're trying to give people this false sense of security like "oh, I can trust anything on the play store" while also making them suspicious/hesitant to use any alternative app repos. It's clearly an attempt to manufacture consent for their ecosystem lockdown, and unfortunately it will probably work. They're targeting easily-influenced young people with these supposedly "cute" (yet honestly kinda gross) characters.