‘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 fantasy has been perpetuated and brought for gospel: Apps suck on Android tablets, however they’re wonderful on the iPad. I wasn’t satisfied by that again in 2011 and, as I maintain the most recent iPad Mini 2024 and stare at my Pixel Tablet, 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 depends upon what you need your pill to do. For those who’re utilizing the big display screen to browse the online, 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 exploit, 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. Ultimate Minimize, Logic Professional, Procreate, Affinity Designer, LiquidText, LumaFusion, Reeder, and plenty of extra apps are constructed from the bottom as much as run, look, and behave very effectively on the iPad. For those who’re a designer, photographer, video maker, architect, or work on something artistic and media-oriented, you’re going to get the perfect expertise on an iPad due to the sheer selection of apps and the standard of that selection.

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 artistic 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 plenty of different apps that I personally use every single day are merely not made for Apple’s bigger display screen. Nonetheless, you may get the iOS model of the app, open it, faucet the broaden button, and get an unsightly, typically pixelated, and unoptimized mess in your stunning massive show. I’m by no means going to hike with my iPad, but when I wish 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 wish to take a look at an ideal app one second after which change to a crappy one the subsequent. I don’t perceive how Apple is okay with offering customers with such a foul expertise; perhaps it’s all a ploy to pressure extra builders to optimize for iPadOS, but when Instagram has but to make an iPad app within the yr 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 made out of the bottom as much as be versatile when it comes to show facet ratio and determination. Blame this on the million and one Android phones 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 tip result’s oftentimes nice, as is the case with the GetYourGuide and AllTrails apps proven beneath.

Generally, although, this won’t result in the prettiest end result, as evidenced by the stretched-out panorama Threads app you possibly can see within the screenshot beneath, however I respect that it’s a minimum of potential to have an honest fullscreen expertise. There was a short time when Google tried to stymy that by adopting an Apple-like method 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 pressure all apps to go fullscreen. In contrast to Apple’s broaden button, which does nothing besides stretch pixels for a bigger show, Android’s fullscreen setting principally works. That’s as a result of, as soon as once more, each app is made out 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 dangerous keyboard expertise, it’s the again gesture. Or lack thereof. I’ll die on this hill, resurrect, and die 1,000,000 extra instances, however I merely don’t perceive how Apple followers put up with this. Examine the screenshots beneath, for instance. Wanderlog, on the left, makes use of a house button on the highest left to return. Todoist, on the correct, makes use of an in depth button on the highest proper of an overlay, which I may also 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 outdoors of a pop-up to get out of it. And even when the left-side swipe is applied, there’s no quantity of swiping again that’ll shut the app and take me again to the homescreen. No, to do this, I’ve to swipe up.

There’s no common “take me again” gesture like there may be on Android, and I’ve to maintain second-guessing how I’m alleged to make my manner again to the earlier display screen. It’s so dangerous that I virtually by no means use the swipe gesture even when it’d work as a result of earlier expertise has advised me to anticipate a 20-30% success charge 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 wish to get pleasure from 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 — typically — are unpredictable and unintuitive, then they’re not offering expertise. And anybody who says this isn’t a difficulty has by no means had the pleasure of utilizing Android and understanding they’ll at all times — at all times — swipe from both the correct or left aspect (excellent when you 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 misperception that apps are higher on the iPad has lived lengthy sufficient and outlasted its welcome. By now, we should always all bear in mind that it’s a matter of relativity and use instances.

For those who’re into gaming or creating/modifying media, then sure, the iPad will usually have a greater app expertise for you than Android tablets. There are a whole lot of nice apps accessible, all optimized for Apple’s massive display screen and offering a easy and highly effective expertise.

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