[noblethrasher]

More "sandboxed" in the sense that iOS apps start in a small sandbox that gets progressively and opportunistically larger. Instead of demanding all permissions upon installation, they demand them contemporaneously with attempted access to certain resources. The idea is that user consent is more informed.

In contrast, Android apps demand all of their permissions up front.

[runeks]

More importantly, if you ask me: iOS allows you to install an app, and deny it permission to something. Eg. I can deny the Facebook app access to my contact list, and the app still works.

With Android, you grant an app access to everything it asks for, or you aren't allowed to install it. This seems obviously inferior to me.

[easytiger]

With Ap Ops since 4.3 you can twiddle them individually.

[theshrike79]

But won't the apps still crash, because they are expecting the rights to be there?

[vlunkr]

Even beyond that though, if an iOS app requests ALL possible permissions, it doesn't have the same capabilities that an android app does.

[kelnos]

I consider that a weakness of iOS as a platform. There are some pretty cool and useful things you can do with an Android app that you just can't do on iOS, period.

Android's permission-granting model does leave much to be desired, though.

[robmcm]

This is the other edge of the privacy sword. Look at OSX applications distributed via the Mac App Store vs traditional methods. The Mac App Store is very limiting but far more secure.

I value my privacy and the privacy of those I have information about on my device over some "feature" that "could be cool" but will almost certainly be exploited. http://news.yahoo.com/android-malware-only-pretends-turn-185...

[smokeyj]

> There are some pretty cool and useful things you can do with an Android app that you just can't do on iOS, period.

Such as?

[kelnos]

First things that comes to mind:

Intercepting calls before they go out through the main dialer, and instead using some form of VoIP.

Intercepting an incoming SMS that's used for phone number verification, rather than requiring that the user switch to their SMS app and manually enter a code.

For that matter, replacing the SMS app with something better.

Reasonable app backgrounding support for any purpose you can think of, not just for those that Apple has graciously allowed you to do.

Hell, you couldn't even have custom keyboards on iOS until recently.

Apps can also have access to stuff that iOS never allows: e.g. I have a 3rd-party app that backs up my SMS database to Google Drive every night. It can also do backups to Dropbox and a couple other services. With iOS your one and only cloud backup solution for "system related things" is iCloud, and you can't change that.

None of these things require rooting the device. Yes, all of these things can be abused. But I prefer permissiveness that requires a little vigilance on my part over living in a restricted environment.

[runeks]

Another: the inSSIDer Android app isn't available on iOS, because it requires permissions to the wifi hardware that iOS doesn't give permission to. This is one of the apps I really miss after moving from Android to iOS.

[Fargren]

Running in the background is on I stumbled with porting an app from Android to iOS. what an an iOS app can do while it's not the current app is tremendously limited. This is for battery reasons, and I get it, but it would be nice if the choice was up to the user; instead Apple just decided the practice was unacceptable.