‘iPad apps are better than Android tablet apps’ is such a bad myth

It’s been 13 years since I held my first Android pill, the Acer Iconia A100, and in these 13 years, one fable has been perpetuated and brought for gospel: Apps suck on Android tablets, however they’re superb on the iPad. I wasn’t satisfied by that again in 2011 and, as I maintain the newest iPad Mini 2024 and stare at my Pixel Pill, I’m nonetheless not satisfied by that widely-accepted “reality.”

The truth, in my view, is far more nuanced than that. Some apps are higher on the iPad, others higher on Android tablets, and it actually is dependent upon what you need your pill to do. In case you’re utilizing the massive display screen to browse the net, watch YouTube, and stream content material, then I’d wager that iPads and Android tablets are on equal footing. I haven’t discovered a single app that works higher right here or there. Firefox, Chrome, Plex, YouTube, Spotify, Prime Video, Amazon, Twitch, Netflix; all of it works simply the identical.

Me, although? For the grand majority of the apps I take advantage of, Android tablets present a greater app expertise than the iPad, and it’s not even shut.

Apps constructed from the bottom up for the iPad or optimized to run on iPadOS are, no doubt, the spotlight of Apple’s large-screen expertise. Closing Reduce, Logic Professional, Procreate, Affinity Designer, LiquidText, LumaFusion, Reeder, and lots of extra apps are constructed from the bottom as much as run, look, and behave very properly on the iPad. In case you’re a designer, photographer, video maker, architect, or work on something inventive and media-oriented, you’ll get the very best expertise on an iPad due to the sheer alternative of apps and the standard of that alternative.

The identical is true for gaming — I’m not a gamer, however my Android Authority colleagues inform me that gaming on Android tablets is a joke in comparison with the standard of video games you get on the iPad.

However stray a bit farther from these inventive or gaming grounds, and the iPad expertise isn’t that totally different from an Android pill expertise. In some situations, it’s even worse. Instagram? Not optimized for the iPad. WhatsApp? Not optimized for the iPad, although a beta is offered. Threads? BlueSky? AllTrails? GetYourGuide? Roborock? And lots of different apps that I personally use on daily basis are merely not made for Apple’s bigger display screen. Nonetheless, you will get the iOS model of the app, open it, faucet the develop button, and get an unpleasant, typically pixelated, and unoptimized mess in your stunning massive show. I’m by no means going to hike with my iPad, but when I need to plan a hike on my massive display screen, why can’t I’ve a correct iPad app to take action?

It’s that dichotomy of experiences that kills the iPad’s aura for me. I don’t need to have a look at an ideal app one second after which change to a crappy one the subsequent. I don’t perceive how Apple is ok with offering customers with such a nasty expertise; perhaps it’s all a ploy to power extra builders to optimize for iPadOS, but when Instagram has but to make an iPad app within the 12 months of our lord 2024, then it’s secure to say that technique ain’t workin’.

In distinction, Instagram and WhatsApp have already got native apps constructed from the bottom up for large-screen Android foldables and tablets.

Plus, Android apps are constituted of the bottom as much as be versatile when it comes to show facet ratio and backbone. Blame this on the million and one Android telephones which have ever been launched and the notorious Android fragmentation, however the finish result’s that when a developer makes an app for Android, they make it for all of Android. The top result’s oftentimes nice, as is the case with the GetYourGuide and AllTrails apps proven under.

Typically, although, this won’t result in the prettiest consequence, as evidenced by the stretched-out panorama Threads app you may see within the screenshot under, however I admire that it’s at the least doable to have an honest fullscreen expertise. There was a short time when Google tried to stymy that by adopting an Apple-like strategy to unoptimized apps (black bars on both aspect of the app), however that was understandably a short-lived experiment.

Now, in Android 15, there’s a setting to power all apps to go fullscreen. In contrast to Apple’s develop button, which does nothing besides stretch pixels for a bigger show, Android’s fullscreen setting largely works. That’s as a result of, as soon as once more, each app is constituted of the bottom as much as be resizeable and adjustable.

The inconsistent again gesture in apps ruins the iPad’s massive display screen expertise

If there’s one factor I detest extra on my iPad Mini than the unhealthy keyboard expertise, it’s the again gesture. Or lack thereof. I’ll die on this hill, resurrect, and die one million extra instances, however I merely don’t perceive how Apple followers put up with this. Test the screenshots under, for instance. Wanderlog, on the left, makes use of a house button on the highest left to return. Todoist, on the best, makes use of an in depth button on the highest proper of an overlay, which I may shut by swiping down. This drives me insane.

In a single app, I can swipe from the left aspect to return; in one other, I can’t. At one level, I’ve to faucet the X button on the highest left (of all unreachable locations!) to shut a menu and return; at different factors, I’ve to faucet exterior of a pop-up to get out of it. And even when the left-side swipe is carried out, there’s no quantity of swiping again that’ll shut the app and take me again to the homescreen. No, to try this, I’ve to swipe up.

There’s no common “take me again” gesture like there’s on Android, and I’ve to maintain second-guessing how I’m imagined to make my manner again to the earlier display screen. It’s so unhealthy that I virtually by no means use the swipe gesture even when it would work as a result of earlier expertise has advised me to count on a 20-30% success price with it, so why waste my time?

On the smaller display screen of an iPhone, that is already an issue for me. However on the bigger show of an iPad? It’s much more annoying due to the longer pointless hand journey between each type of the go-back interplay. This sort of friction is foolish if you simply need to take pleasure in your content material.

Each app suffers due to that inconsistency. Regardless of how optimized it’s for the bigger display screen, irrespective of how easy, highly effective, and distinctive it’s, if apps — normally — are unpredictable and unintuitive, then they’re not offering a great expertise. And anybody who says this isn’t a problem has by no means had the pleasure of utilizing Android and understanding they will at all times — at all times — swipe from both the best or left aspect (excellent for those who change the hand you’re holding your pill with) to return one step, irrespective of the place you had been or what you had been doing.

The misunderstanding that apps are higher on the iPad has lived lengthy sufficient and outlasted its welcome. By now, we should always all remember that it’s a matter of relativity and use circumstances.

In case you’re into gaming or creating/enhancing media, then sure, the iPad will usually have a greater app expertise for you than Android tablets. There are a number of nice apps obtainable, all optimized for Apple’s massive display screen and offering a easy and highly effective expertise.

However for those who don’t care about both of those, your wants will in all probability fall someplace close to mine: looking, studying, productiveness, content material consumption, social media, messaging, journey/exercise planning, and so forth. For these use circumstances, the app expertise on Android tablets is both equal or superior — particularly on the subject of unoptimized apps like Instagram, Threads, and others. It’s even unmatched for those who care about constant person interactions all through your apps.