iOS 14 vs Stock Android 11 – Which One is Better for You? - 2021

Welcome Viewers, you have AYAZ Blogger and in today’s blog i am gonna do a comparison between stock Android 11 and iOS 14

I did the same comparison between stock  Android 10 and iOS 13 last year and since  

then Google & Apple added a lot of new features  and refinements to their operating systems,  

so, it’s time to take another look to see  which operating system is better for you,  

now let’s take a closer look at each OS but 

so, let’s jump in. 

Now let’s start with the look and feel, once I  unlocked my iPhone 12 pro max, I started to see  

how good the animations are in iOS. in every  action I take like, launching & quitting apps,  

navigating the recent apps screen, checking my  notifications, scrolling, haptic touch & more. 

Overall It feels a lot smoother  in iOS than stock Android 

The second thing I liked in iOS is the home  indicator or the small bar at the bottom of  

the screen, in iOS it floats over apps and it  looks the same way in every single app but,  

in android there are some inconsistencies  sometimes, it floats over apps like in iOS,  

sometimes you see a black bar at the bottom  of the screen and sometimes you see a thin  

line that separates between the app and the home  indicator. So, Android lacks consistency here. 

Next, the icons and widgets in iOS they  have a subtle 3d effect that gives more  

depth between the icons and the background,  while, in Android they are totally flat,  

in my opinion iOS approach gives a better  visual experience specially when I use a  

colourful wallpaper, in stock Android it feels  a little bit messy and it’s hard for my eyes  

to differentiate between the icons and the  background while on iOS it looks just fine. 

That’s why on my Android phone I always use  minimal wallpapers with 1 or 2 colours maximum  

and sometimes I use a third-party app to blur the  background and add extra depth between the two.

Also, Apple used the same compact design  of Android in iOS 14, so, now Siri and the  

phone app have better designs in my opinion. So, overall, when it comes to the look & feel  

the win goes to iOS 14, this doesn’t mean  that stock Android 11 has a bad design,  

I do like the simplicity of the Stock Android but,  the lack of consistency in the animations & the  

overall design is the main reason why I chose  iOS over stock Android in this category. 

Now let’s talk about the system  navigation, and in this category,  

Android was a lot easier for me and here’s why: in iOS the control centre and the nonfictions  

are separated which requires 2  different swipes to access each one,  

while in Android with one swipe you get access  to both at once which easier and less confusing. 

I understand that you can add your home kit  devices to the control centre and that could  

be the reason why the notification centre and the  control centre are separated to have more space,  

but, with Android 11 when I press and hold  on the power button I get the new power menu  

that includes the power controls, Google  pay cards & my smart devices all together,  

if we gonna compare that to iOS to power  off my phone I have to press and hold on  

the power and volume down keys, to get my Apple  pay cards I have to double press the power button  

and to get access to the smart devices I need to  go to the control centre so, these are 3 different  

things vs only one press for all on Android. Next accessing the app library and app drawer,  

in iOS requires me to scroll all the way  to the right, so if I have 3, 4 or 5 pages  

in my home screen it will be annoying. in Android to access the app drawer you  

simply need to swipe up from home screen while  in iOS the swipe up gesture is not even utilized. 

Next, there are couple of things that annoyed  me while navigating iOS, for example there is no  

shortcut for the settings in the control centre or  the notifications shade like in Android, so, every  

time I need to change something, I have to look  for the settings icon or use the spotlight search. 

Some buttons like “cancel” are always located at  the very top and to tab on it I had to use the  

reachability gesture or use two hands as usual, in  Android with a simple swipe from any of the edges  

I can cancel or get back one step which is easier. This doesn’t mean that Android is perfect, but it  

has a couple of issues as well, the back gesture  sometimes overlaps with the horizontal scrolling,  

so you might accidentally go back one step. Accessing the hamburger menu using the peak  

gesture on Android also overlaps with the  back gesture sometimes but, am glad that  

Google started to remove the hamburger menu from  some apps like google photos and google maps to  

work better with the gesture navigation. As an alternative I can use the 3 buttons  

navigation on Android 11 to overcome this  issue but it’s not a big deal for me so,  

I will stick with the gesture navigation for now. So, overall in the system navigation category  

the win goes to Android 11 as, it was easier  to use and required less steps to navigate.

Now let’s talk about multi-tasking, in iOS 14  Apple added the picture in picture feature,  

which is already available on Android for years  but, in iOS it’s limited only to facetime calls  

and playing videos while, in Android it’s part  of a bigger feature called display over apps,  

this feature allows you to have floating  chat heads like in Facebook messenger,  

you can use picture in picture with videos, you  can use it with Google maps, it gives you the  

ability to use floating keyboards and more. The only advantage in iOS is the picture in  

picture is easier to use while playing videos,  first it supports pinch to zoom, you can dock  

the window to any of the sides and get it back  easily finally, it has more sizes to choose from. 

In Android you can resize the picture in  picture window by dragging your finger  

on any of the corners no pinch to zoom, it has  less sizes to choose from and when you hide it,  

you have to re-open the app and close it  again to get it back which is inconvenient. 

The second thing to talk about is  the split screen, and this is one  

of the features that I love in Android, it  helps me a lot in calculating my budget,  

shop for products while watching videos and more. It’s a shame that Apple didn’t add the split  

screen feature in iOS 14, the iPhone 12  pro max I have here has 6.7 inches display  

which is almost the same size of tablet, so,  the split screen on it will be very useful. 

Overall, when it comes to multitasking the  win goes to Android 11, because you get the  

display over apps feature which is more capable  than the picture in picture feature of iOS 14  

in addition to the split screen. Now let’s talk about managing notifications 

In this category Android was better than iOS in  most cases, in Android 11 the notifications are  

categorized in 3 different categories, silent,  default & priority, silent are the notifications  

that don’t make any sound or vibration but  you still can see in the notifications shade,  

the default notifications are the exact opposite  to silent and priority gives you the ability to  

set certain conversations within your messaging  apps to always notify you even if do not disturb  

is active, these notifications will always  appear at the top of your notifications list  

and you will be able to see the profile  picture of the contact in your status bar. 

On the other hand, iOS 14 has only 2 types  either the normal or quite notifications  

both work the same way as Android, but it does  not have the priority option and I couldn’t  

find a way to mimic the same behaviour on iOS. Next Android 11 has the notification history  

feature which doesn’t exist in iOS 14, this  feature allows me to check my dismissed  

notifications up to 24 hours back. So, if  I dismissed any by mistake or if I don’t  

remember the app that sent me a specific  one, I can easily check that in the history 

Next Android smart replies which also doesn’t  exist in iOS, smart replies allow me to quickly  

replay to messages while doing other  things without touching the keyboard.

But I only found one thing that iOS 14 does better  in this category which is the ability to listen  

to voice messages from your notifications. So, overall, the win goes to Android 11 in  

managing notifications because  of the more features I have. 

Now let’s talk about messaging and here  am referring to the native messaging apps,  

with Android 11 Google messages now supports RCS  messaging which is the same thing as iMessage,  

but the question is which one is better, for me  am not into using any of them because, I would  

rather go for a cross platform messaging app  like WhatsApp or Telegram over an app that only  

works on one operating system. But if we gonna  compare both, I see iMessage should be the winner,  

because it has more features like mimoji, Animoji,  digital touch & the bubble effects, while Google  

messages offers only the basic functionalities  like sending stickers and GIFs but, the only  

advantage Google messages has is the ability to  be use it through the web, so, you can chat with  

others on any computer with a web browser. Now let’s talk about the apps & games,  

when it comes to games iOS was a lot better,  I even subscribed to Apple Arcade and Google  

Play Pass to get the most out of each operating  system, and I found that iOS exclusive games are  

better and more fun to play, even if the same  game is available on both operating systems,  

the iOS version will always have better graphics. When it comes to apps, the iOS version usually has  

better design, but this is not a big deal  as far as both apps function the same way 

but the advantage Android has is  most of the apps & games are free,  

but you have to deal with the ads. Overall, when it comes to apps and  

games iOS has better quality, but Android is more  wallet friendly so, I will call this one a draw 

Now let’s talk about the virtual assistant or  in other words Google assistant vs Sir but,  

it requires a separate video, so, if you didn’t  check my previous Siri on iOS 14 vs the new  

Google assistant you can click the link showing  now on the screen or in the description below. 

Just to sum up everything  Google assistant is way smarter,  

and it can be integrated with more services.  So, the win goes to Android in this category. 

Now let’s talk about the ease of use, and  here I will go through a lot of generic  

features that make my life easier while using  my Android phone and how things changed after  

switching to iOS so, let’s start with  the things that Android does better. 

In Android 11 I can have the media controls  of multiple apps in my quick settings area,  

scroll through them and resume playing from  whatever app I want without the need to open  

this app which is something I could not do in iOS. In Android I can copy text from the recent apps  

screen which is very useful in cases where  the app am using doesn’t support copying. 

iOS Widgets are not interactive like in  Android, for example the calendar widget  

allows me to scroll through the months and tab  on the day I want, to quickly jump to that day  

in the calendar app, while in iOS no matter where  I tap on the widget it will keep opening the app  

on today’s date, other widgets in Android support  scrolling which is also not available in iOS. 

In iOS I miss Android’s now playing feature, it  automatically identifies songs in the background  

and store the names for me to check later and  with the latest feature drop I can multi-select  

the previously identified songs and create a  playlist in YouTube music. While, In iOS your  

only options are shazam or Siri and in some  cases the song playing might end before you  

even make your music ID app ready, so, the now  playing feature is very useful and convenient. 

Now let’s talk about the home screen for a  second. Once I started using my iPhone I wanted  

to reorganize my apps and make everything the way  I want but, I knew that I will face a hard time  

doing so, every time I move an app it keeps  reorganizing everything, as am not allowed  

to have empty spots in my home screen which is  very confusing, and when it comes to widgets I  

couldn’t resize my widgets after adding them, if I  want to change the size I have to remove it first  

and then add the size I want, plus I couldn’t  place my widgets in the centre instead, I have  

to stick to any of the sides. While in Android  I can place any icon or widget anywhere I want  

on the screen as far as it fits, I can move any  app without impacting the position of other apps  

and I can resize my widgets after adding them. Next the keyboard, in Android 11 the keyboard is  

way more useful than in iOS 14 and here’s why: The numbers row is available at the top without  

the need to download a third-party keyboard,  there is clipboard manager that allows me to pin  

any text or images I want to keep for future  use, I can search for GIFs from within the  

keyboard in any app I want, I can translate text,  adjust the keyboard hight and use the floating  

keyboard that helps in the split screen mode. While in iOS its extremely limited, first,  

I didn’t have the ability to show the numbers  row at the top, I couldn’t search for online  

images or GIFs from within the keyboard in  third-party apps, it only works in iMessage  

and similarly all other extensions only show up  in iMessage, there is no option for resizing,  

no clipboard manager and no floating keyboard.  I tried to improve the experience on iOS  

by using a third-party keyboard and I found  Swiftkey delivers the best experience on iOS,  

because it has a clipboard manager, a numbers  row & I can search for GIFs in any app I want. 

Next the smart camera features, In Android 11  with the help of Google lens I can use my camera  

to copy text, scan the contact information  on any business card, search for products,  

scan QR codes, translate text and more. In iOS the  only thing you can do with the camera is to scan  

QR codes which is very limited, but I was able  to get my hands-on Google lens by downloading  

the Google app but the experience is not as good  because I have to open a separate app for this. 

Talking about the camera, in IOS I wasn’t able to  access the camera settings from within the camera  

app which is annoying, sometimes I need to make  sure I have the right settings before taking the  

shot and if I want to do this I have to quit the  app, go to settings, locate the camera and then  

do what I want, in Android with I can get access  to the camera settings in a couple of seconds. 

Next organizing the quick settings or  control centre, in iOS you can only  

organize the control centre icons in settings,  while in Android you can do this right within  

the quick settings area which is easier. Next voice memos, in Android I use the  

Google recorder app which can identify sounds  and transcribe speech on the fly and the reason  

why it’s important to me because, I use it to  add captions to my YT videos in case YouTube  

did not automatically generate one for me. so,  I play my video, start recoding and wait for  

it to transcribe my words then I take the text  from the app and add it to my video on YouTube. 

But in iOS the voice memos app is very  basic, and it can only record audio. 

Next the default apps, in IOS 14 you the option  to use third-party apps as your default browser  

or email client, which is better than before  but still limited, in Android you have a lot  

more options, you can use a third-party  launcher, digital assistant, phone app,  

messaging app and browser, you can also manage  the type links each app can open by default. 

There are other gaps that Google addressed  with Android 11 like the inbuilt screen  

recorder and the Nearby share, which  is Android’s equivalent to Airdrop,  

the screen recorder works pretty much the  same on both operating systems, but AirDrop  

was faster than nearby share so, if you want  to see my detailed comparison between AirDrop  

and Nearby share please click the link showing  now on the screen or in the description below.

Android 11 Power menu After this very long  

list of stuff that I missed while using iOS I  found few things that iOS does better as well,  

like the ability to choose the Wi-Fi network or  the Bluetooth devices from the control centre,  

something I used to have in Android but not  anymore, the ability to take full page screen  

shots in Safari, which is something am looking  forward to have in Android and the back tap  

gesture, that allows me to do certain actions by  tapping the back of the device which is expected  

to be available in Android but not at the  time of filming this video, I still can add  

this functionality to my Android phone by using an  application called tap tap from xda-developer but,  

certainly it’s better to have it built in the OS. So, in the ease-of-use category stock Android 11  

was better by far due to the deep integration of  Google smart services which is unmatched in iOS,  

less restrictions & more customizations. Next the Ecosystem and here Apple is better  

than Google because with Apple’s ecosystem you  have the Apple Watch which is better than smart  

watches that use WearOS, you get better  accessories like AirPods Pro, AirPods Max,  

beats head phones & MagSafe accessories. Apple also offers more services  

like TV+ & Fitness+. But Google started to scratch  

the surface by acquiring Nest and Fitbit  to have a better ecosystem in the future  

and there are a lot of steps in the right  direction like the Chromecast with Google TV,  

Pixel buds 2, Google Stadia & nest accessories.  But they still lack behind in the wearables so,  

hope fully fit bit acquisition will do the trick. Finally, the software updates and in this area both operating systems were fine, they get day one software updates which is a draw between the two. 

So, now let’s sum up everything, from my  experience I recommend iOS if you are into gaming,  

if you want a better ecosystem and care about  the visual design of the operating system,  

While stock Android is for people who want  simplicity, to do things faster by utilizing  

Google smart services and multitasking  capabilities, it’s also for people who want  

less restrictions and more customizations. So, that’s pretty much it for today that was my comparison between stock  Android 11 and iOS 14.