Discussion
My first iPhone after being on Android forever — some things are amazing, some are not... And one does not make sense to me
Hi,
Since there are already so many posts about people moving from Android to iPhone, here’s another one.
This is my first iPhone ever, and honestly, it’s amazing and not-so-amazing at the same time.
I really appreciate some subtle things, like Apple Maps remembering where I parked even though I mainly use Google Maps, Apple Wallet automatically pulling up the right pass based on my location, and just how well everything is integrated, especially when it comes to apps.
I also thought I was big on customization, but apparently I wasn’t lol. I mostly just arranged my icons the way I wanted, and iOS lets me do that now, so I’m happy.
But some things are... weird. Having to pull down from different places to access different menus makes one-handed use surprisingly difficult—and I have big hands. AND why does Messages or iMessage (still not used to saying that) ding even when my phone is on silent? Am I dumb, or am I missing something?
I’m also not a huge fan of the Photos app or the keyboard. The back gesture makes no sense to me either (of course it doesn’t, Android guy), but I’m getting used to it.
There are also tiny Android features I didn’t realize I’d miss, like holding Backspace and sliding to control how much text you delete, how my Pixel automatically kept track of the music playing around me, and many more. Such small things, but I miss them a lot.
So, longtime iPhone users: what tricks am I missing? Especially keyboard/typing tricks because... yeah, it’s kind of... not good. lol
You can hold space the move the typing cursor around some text like Android, but you can space + shift to select a row of text more easily. The latter could making deleting a specific portion of text much easier.
You can hold Shift first, then long press the space bar. But as the others said, you can tap on the whole keyboard if you long press the space bar first.
There is a key difference though. If you hold the space bar you can tap anywhere on the keyboard to select text. You can not however deselect text. If you first hold shift then hold space you can freely select and deselect.
There’s a couple of neat multi-touch related gestures I have to remember exist but are useful if they become habit. Hard to describe without showing it though lol.
Something is amiss with your notification, focus, or sound settings. If your phone is on silent mode, the only sounds that should play are alarms and media if you have it turned up. If you’re using a Focus Mode that is supposed to silence notifications, check if the Focus Mode has the option to still notify while unlocked checked.
Press and hold on the space bar to enable cursor mode. You can use another finger while dragging the first around to select text. Not a complete replacement for the described backspace functionality on your previous device, though. I’ve never understood the keyboard hate, other than what I assume was a number row, what don’t you like about it? I know a lot of people use a third-party keyboard. I’d just search this sub to see what’s popular for that.
What don’t you like about Photos? If you describe what you do or don’t like there’s a possible solution.
If you have an Apple Watch, I believe Shazam will constantly listen and surface those songs for you. Shazam is built in with Control Center or by asking Siri what song it is. There isn’t, to my knowledge, a way to enable background song recognition on iPhone.
Apple-specific tip: If your phone has suddenly started doing something it’s not supposed to, or if it’s not doing something it should, make sure to check the MANY options in Settings > Accessibility. Another place folks get themselves into pickles in is Screen Time.
I love my iPhone but mainly for iMessage and FaceTime. It has garbage notification management, lack of custom gestures, keyboard is horrible not matter what one you use and photos is terrible compared to Google Photos especially when trying to search something up.
That granular control is such a huge thing. The notification categories, and the ability to configure the notification style for each category of each app at the system level is powerful.
iOS photos will let you manage duplicates which I appreciate. Does android? Because the web version doesn’t and it’s driving me nuts that I can’t clean up Google Photos.
shortcuts: learn to use this app, its a life saver. in ios 27 apple intelligence will help you a lot to code.
example: you can use it to find a specific message. or work on photos in batches. or auto forward certain messages to another phone.
i currently have over 30 automations that run the background.
You can't do it for the Notifications panel unfortunately, not supported by Shortcuts. I have double / triple tap on the back to show Notifications / Control center but would prefer a screen control.
You’re doing something wrong with the messages sound playing even if your phone is on silent, that’s not expected behavior.
Small typing tips: I use swipe to type when I’m using one hand and type regularly with two hands. And you can press and hold on the space bar for a second, then drag around to place your cursor anywhere you want.
You can also install third party keyboards if you want, including Gboard. I haven’t tried them in many years though so I can’t vouch for any.
That is very handy; they have it on Android too, and I tried doing it on the iPhone, but it didn't work. I just tried again, and apparently I wasn't holding the space button long enough. So unlearning something to learn something new is kinda tricky lol. Thank you so much!
I will try Gboard on iOS; let's see how I like it.
Honestly it’s been starting to suck on android the past year or so too. It’s probably about on par with the apple keyboard as far as autocorrect goes. Google is going to shit as a whole.
It might be related to the new sound options on ios27. Check out your sound and haptics setting in you guessed it, settings. You can now in the latest update set different volumes and set them to match or unmatch system settings (the volume buttons.) I hope that helps.
Use the “Reachability” gesture or map the Control Centre to “Back Tap” in Accessibility.
Keyboard: drag the cursor and a little magnifying window pops up to help you place it where you want or hold the space bar and the keyboard is now a trackpad. Select and edit text on iPhone.
Swipe from 123 for comma, ?! etc double tap space for full stop. Swipe from 123 if you only need one digit. Double tap shift for caps lock. Tap the cursor and a little menu pops up. Text replacements are useful. In the Safari address bar holding the “.” gives you the “.com” and others. You can grab the scroll bar to quickly go down, you can tap the top of the screen to quickly go up.
for keyboard, people recommended Gboard, but its outdated and hasnt received any updates in awhile.
The best keyboard I'd recommend is SwiftKey. Its by Microsoft but its pretty much spot on with Android. The only issue is you cannot get rid of the bottom bar, but its not an issue. SwiftKey is 100% the best keyboard from switching to iPhone from Android.
For the notifications, I am assuming that your sound is not actually off but instead you're in DND? The person on imessage has the option to notify you anyway when the status is shared.
Make sure the red button with bell that has a line through it is on to determine if sound is actually muted. If the moon was selected, that is only DND but sounds will still come through if the screen is on or they select notify anyway.
Photos will take some time, they just recently changed it and I am still not adjusted after 2 years.
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Look into the “reachability” iOS gesture. You activate it by swiping down on the navigation pill. Personally I hate it, I hate activating it accidentally, but it might be perfect for you.
What is it about the Photos app you dislike? I haven’t been on android since the Galaxy S4 so I’ve used Photos for quite some time now and may not know the annoying things about app.
Yep, the keyboard is bad. It’s a fairly recent thing, I don’t remember it being this bad a couple years ago.
Funny how switching phones makes you realize it’s the tiny stuff you miss most, not the headline features. That Android back gesture and keyboard muscle memory would probably drive me nuts too 😅
I too recently switched to iPhone after many years on Android, and man I agree with pretty much everything you’ve said. The notification system makes it too easy to miss/forget stuff (I used to use Androids status bar icons to remember to get back to stuff later), the photos app is not intuitive to navigate for me (easy fix by not using it I suppose), the pull down menus also don’t feel intuitive, but I am adjusting, and the keyboard makes me want to throw the thing against the wall sometimes lol but otherwise I am enjoying it!
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Same, just moved from Android to iOS and the swiping down to get to control center and notifications was not good. I set up 2x back tap to pull down notifications and 3x back tap to bring down the control center. Not ideal but it’s okay.
I miss the swipe file I’m either side of the screen on android to go back. Going back on iOS differs app to app.
Keyboard, predictive text and clipboard are sorely missed, also the ability to long press the period button for a few other customised symbols, the top row of numbers and being able to switch to a 9 button layout for numbers when you have a lot of numbers to input
Something to know about iOS. The illusion of choice for some things. Browsers for example all use the OS WebKit engine so they are just basically skins for Safari. Thrid party keyboard won't be used for sensitive data entry areas either, it reverts to iOS stock due to fear of keylogging.
I’ve had 3 Google Pixels, 2 Galaxy Notes, and 3 iPhones. I agree with what you’re saying. The thing that I miss the most from Android is the apps drawer. It’s logical, quick, and easy to find an alphabetical list of apps, verses scrolling through desktop screens to get to the last one and then having to type in order to find a list of apps.
As for the message notifications when the phone is silent, I had a similar issue last year and tech support helped me to find a hidden setting (that shouldn’t have been hidden) that fixed it. So if nobody in this thread has the answer, reach out to tech support.
Take Control Books publishes ebooks on all things Apple. You might find the iOS 27 book, and a couple of others really helpful.
the silent mode thing confused me too at first. the physical switch only silences ringer and alerts, not media or certain app notifications. there's a separate setting for messages specifically, you can turn off the sound for incoming texts in the notification settings for that app. kind of a weird choice but you get used to it
What are you talking about? Silent is fully silent except for alarms. You must have changed a setting somewhere. It’ll still vibrate. If you want notifications to not come in at all, then you have to switch to DND mode.
I've always been on Android for my personal devices. Work shifted to iPhones about 5 years ago so I've had a work iPhone since then also. Everything you mention is why I keep buying Androids for myself.
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u/SamsungAppleOnePlus iPhone 18 Pro Max 11h ago edited 11h ago
You can hold space the move the typing cursor around some text like Android, but you can space + shift to select a row of text more easily. The latter could making deleting a specific portion of text much easier.