‘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 rather more nuanced than that. Some apps are higher on the iPad, others higher on Android tablets, and it actually is determined by what you need your pill to do. In the event you’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 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, indisputably, the spotlight of Apple’s large-screen expertise. Closing Minimize, 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 the event you’re a designer, photographer, video maker, architect, or work on something artistic and media-oriented, you’ll get the very best 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 completely 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 out there. Threads? BlueSky? AllTrails? GetYourGuide? Roborock? And plenty of different apps that I personally use on daily basis are merely not made for Apple’s bigger display screen. Nevertheless, you will get the iOS model of the app, open it, faucet the increase button, and get an unpleasant, generally pixelated, and unoptimized mess in your stunning giant show. I’m by no means going to hike with my iPad, but when I need to plan a hike on my giant 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 swap to a crappy one the subsequent. I don’t perceive how Apple is okay with offering customers with such a nasty expertise; possibly it’s all a ploy to drive 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 comprised of the bottom as much as be versatile by way of show side 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 beneath.

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 beneath, however I respect that it’s not less than attainable to have a good 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 facet of the app), however that was understandably a short-lived experiment.

Now, in Android 15, there’s a setting to drive all apps to go fullscreen. Not like Apple’s increase 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 comprised of the bottom as much as be resizeable and adjustable.

The inconsistent again gesture in apps ruins the iPad’s giant 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 one million extra occasions, 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 suitable, 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 facet 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 speculated to make my manner again to the earlier display screen. It’s so dangerous that I nearly by no means use the swipe gesture even when it would work as a result of earlier expertise has informed me to anticipate 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 type of friction is foolish while you simply need to take pleasure in your content material.

Each app suffers due to that inconsistency. Irrespective of how optimized it’s for the bigger display screen, irrespective of how clean, highly effective, and distinctive it’s, if apps — typically — are unpredictable and unintuitive, then they’re not offering a great expertise. And anybody who says this isn’t a difficulty has by no means had the pleasure of utilizing Android and understanding they will all the time — all the time — swipe from both the suitable or left facet (good when you swap the hand you’re holding your pill with) to return one step, irrespective of the place you have been or what you have been doing.

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

In the event you’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 quite a lot of nice apps obtainable, all optimized for Apple’s giant display screen and offering a clean and highly effective expertise.

However when you don’t care about both of those, your wants will most likely fall someplace close to mine: shopping, 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 in relation to unoptimized apps like Instagram, Threads, and others. It’s even unmatched when you care about constant consumer interactions all through your apps.