Most iOS users just don't know how much better it is on Android.

As a developer, I can make apps for my own device without telling (or paying) anybody and use old devices like somebody else might use a Raspberry Pi.

I can use real Firefox with real uBlock Origin.

I can get free apps from Amazon App Store. I can get verified secure open source apps from F-Droid.

I can use separate restricted accounts on my for kids and guests.

I can use a separate launcher experience for driving without needing to purchase a head unit.

I can watch videos (including the "GIFs with sound" that proliferate on Reddit) with the sound off and on-device generated captions. I can copy text from arbitrary screens, even if that text is in a picture.

I can route all my calls through Google Voice or any other calling service. I can open map links in any mapping app I like.

I can use emulators and native apps for game streaming services.

I can have my photos automatically upload in the background.

I can update my browser engine and a lot of other "system software" without a reboot.

I can use headphones without ever charging them. I can unlock my phone while wearing a mask.

I can filter notifications the same way I filter my mail.

Using iOS would be a massive productivity drain as well as an entertainment drain and security loss. Most of the people I have demonstrated these things to have found one or more of these abilities compelling enough to have switched.

I used Android for a few years. Then I used iOS for a few years (iPhone and iPad). I switched back to Android two years ago.

I liked a lot of things about iOS. Apps for Android tablets are still largely terrible and there is some bizarre behavior around SPens and multi-touch that I don't understand. But I could never go back.

The biggest benefit is I have all my files automatically synced between my phone, tablet and laptop. I never have to manually push something to the right app, then figure out how to get that on my Windows laptop. It's just there. Whether it's emulator save files or ebooks or documents or photos or anything else.

As someone who's used Android for a really long time, I've never set out to accomplish something like this. What do you use for it?

It's hard to pin down a single use-case, because there are so many situations where it turns out to be useful.

Maybe I wrote a document on my laptop, which I don't have on me and I forgot to send it. I always have my phone, so I'm in never in a position where I don't have access to that document and can't complete that task.

Maybe I have to wipe my phone or I get locked out of it, and I don't have to worry about losing anything and I don't have to put in any extra effort into backing things up (with the risk of forgetting something).

Except emulators and actual web browsers you mean?

Not to mention various IDEs and a lot of specialized tools basically compiled from a Linux distro. Still it's far from ideal given that everything needs to be compiled against the bastardized Bionic c library using the wonky at best Android NDK. Not to mention issues the Termux project uncovered where newly introduced "security" features prevent you from running binaries that were not installed from an APK (breaking many Linux distro chrome usecases and IDEs).

In short, a proper mobile Linux distro is needed, as Android is already far from perfect and getting worse. Hopefully some of the projects spawned around and related to PinePhone can cover that over time. :)

Android hardware is not very compelling as of late. Nor are the users, to be entirely honest.

I assume this is meant as a joke but it is in very poor taste

Not sure what’s wrong about it, it’s fairly well known that Android users don’t pay for software?

I use Android and I pay for software

That said, I mistook your comment as disdaining Android users - not saying that they were a market you were not interested in, which is more reasonable and I should've understood that initially.