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Google Android and Apple iOS have close to 98% of the global market share for operating systems driving smart devices. It’s difficult to really identify the operating system best among the two goliaths. The OS market has significantly evolved and grown at an astronomical pace, enhancing the technological capabilities of mobile applications.
New smartphone solutions and devices are defying the limits seeking creative responses. It is important to hire a dedicated iOS app developer and hire an Android app developer to build applications to leverage the features of the latest operating systems.
Smartphone Market Share
Source: https://www.idc.com/promo/smartphone-market-share/os
Quick Comparison: iOS 14 vs Android 11
Security & Privacy
In a bid to take security seriously, Android 11 gives one-time permission features. This effectively means the app gets permission to access the mic, camera or location just once and needs permission for access next time. There is an option to reset permissions for unused apps. There are several security and privacy options sent to the phone, keeping users updated with the most recent updates.
iOS 14 also makes security a cornerstone of everything with the aim to give users more control and transparency. Several new features are expected to enhance security such as receiving notification when an app wants to track across apps or websites owned by other companies for advertising, or wants to share your information with data brokers. Users will soon get the information from the App Store to understand the privacy practices of every app prior to download.
With a new feature in iOS 14, it is easy to find an app accessing your microphone or camera. There’s a new indicator that’s shown just above the iPhone’s signal meter. An orange dot will inform users that an app is currently accessing the microphone, while a green dot is an indicator that an app is accessing your camera.
Smart Home
When it comes to smart home appliances such as light bulbs, your thermostat, or entertainment system, aircon and more, it is important to ensure complete control with applications. Google and Apple have created an environment to centralize controls for smart devices with the Google Home and Apple Home apps
Apple’s Home App: Intelligently manage your smart home in a secure manner taking advantage of HomeKit accessories
Suggested automation: Get suggested and useful automation when there is a new addition to the HomeKit accessory to put it to work.
Home Status: Prioritise Home App with a visual status that requires quick attention, giving you the option to control.
Face Recognition: Video cameras and doorbells to identify people you’ve tagged in the Photos app.
Adaptive Lighting: Manage your home lights to change colour temperature throughout the day.
Messaging & Sharing
Staying connected with instant messaging is one of the key features of the mobile app revolution. Several advancements in iOS and Android operating systems have made messaging a new way ahead. iOS 14 offers an extensive suite of features such as deciding priority conversations, see, respond to and control your conversations across multiple messaging apps.
One of the key features include “Bubbles” which allow you to Pin conversations and appear on top of other apps and screens for easy access, anytime or anywhere. Keyboard autofill provides suggestions to fill in forms with information used extensively such as passwords. There is seamless sharing of files on Android devices, Chromebooks or devices running Chrome browser to quickly and securely send files, videos, map locations and more to devices nearby.
iOS offers the option of pinned conversation also to get favourite conversations on the top of the list. There is also a group conversation pin feature to show recent participants around the pin when they send a message. iOS 14 makes group chat a breeze with the facility to direct a message to an individual in a group by typing the person’s name, as well as customise an active group and receive notifications only when mentioned. Inline replies allow you to reply directly to a specific message in a group conversation.
Quick Settings
One important feature to discuss is the Quick setting in iOS 14 vs Android 11. While iOS has not made any major changes or upgrades to quick settings, apart from toggles. On the other hand, Android 11 comes with a music player widget that is now upgraded. It looks impressive. The quick settings menu saves you a lot more space.
iOS 14 Quick settings menu still looks a lot better than Android 11.
iOS 14 vs Android 11: Apps Drawers
For several years, Android had this app drawer. There is no major innovation or breakthrough in Android 11 as far as this aspect is considered. On the opposite side iOS, 14 for sure has some uniqueness in its features. Now, iOS 14 also has an app drawer that stores all the apps. These are apps you won’t want to delete yet don’t want them to be on your home screen.
Finally
Well, most features in iOS 14 were available in Android 11 and its prior versions. Clearly, the race is getting closer with iOS trying to bridge the gap. However, Android functions in their own way are indeed different as compared to iOS. With every upgrade and system launch, iOS and Android are getting robust and intrinsically similar, but they are inherently different in a few ever-shifting ways.