[wutbrodo]

I don't have much experience with iOS products, but I recall early in smartphone history being flabbergasted by the lack of basic affordances like a notification bar, or quick settings (eg to switch wifi on/off). I'd imagine both UIs are vastly different now, so I don't think that these examples are directly relevant. But I heard so much in those days about how iOS's UI was vastly superior and was so shocked by my first introduction to it, that I remain baseline skeptical of claims that it's objectively better than Android. People just seem too blinded to realize that their personal preference isn't a universal measure of quality. (This paragraph is mostly in response to the fact that the GP comment is so downvoted for saying "I prefer Android's UI")

As far as picking practical examples, my lack of familiarity with iOS means some of these may be obsolete, but some obvious ones that come to mind:

1) Is iOS multitasking still as poor as it used to be? Eg, are split-screen apps on the iPhone still impossible?

2) Are homescreen widgets still impossible on iOS?

3) Are you still forced to open (eg) app links with lower-quality off-brand apps like Apple Maps, or can you set your preferred app the first time you open a link of a certain type?

I'm not even going very far afield here, as I'm only picking things that a) I know iOS had a feature gap in at some point and b) I would trip over at least weekly were my OS to have these issues. I'd imagine that one could do a little research and come up with more such examples (as well as examples where iOS's UI is superior to Android's).

[dd444fgdfg]

1) yes. but I think it's better for it and obviously plenty of others do too including apple

2) no, home screen widgets in iOS have been a feature for a while now

3) no, iOS asks me if I want to open in Apple Maps or Google Maps.

I think you're conflating features and design. Whether or not there's a particular feature (turn of WIFI), is not an attribute of the design. So you can fairly say the iOS feature set was too minimal, but you can't attribute that to UI design

[wutbrodo]

> yes. but I think it's better for it and obviously plenty of others do too including apple

This is unfalsifiable, and the line of thinking that generates it is trivially rebutted with a quick look at recent history. All of the limitations I mentioned were lauded as not-actually-useful by Apple (and their partisans) until they launched me-too version, at which point everyone immediately flipped to excitement.

[wutbrodo]

The parent comment said the Android UI was better; I took that straightforwardly to mean the UI in general. He does mention "since Material", so I can see how you interpreted it as a reference to design.

That just makes the downvotes more ridiculous! There's no accounting for taste, and it's easy to imagine someone liking any design over another.

[iamtommcc]

To answer your questions:

1. Yeah, still not great. 2. No, homescreen widgets now exist in iOS 3. Short answer is "kind of". There's official support for setting default web & email clients, but many (most?) apps support setting a preference for e.g. mapping providers.

All that being said, I think you're coming at things mostly from a feature angle which is perhaps a different discussion.

From a pure aesthetic consistency, polish, and end-to-end visual experience perspective Apple still does a better job than Google.

Whether or not that extra dash of visual polish makes up for feature deficiencies or ecosystem limitations is a broader question of course.

[hesarenu]

This paragraph is mostly in response to the fact that the GP comment is so downvoted for saying "I prefer Android's UI" - heh. This is not the first time i am saying in this forum. But before ice cream sandwich Android UI was plain ugly. I am not talking about UX or other features. But with Material design they have a better UI and even better UX as well. Apple was always known for it UI but that not mean you take that as a fact instead of evaluating it as time goes by.