Apple released iOS 13 beta 5 for developers on Monday, and it’ll likely follow that today with iOS 13 public beta 4. This latest release focuses mainly on bug fixes, obviously, though beta 5 in particular seems to have added more bugs than it squashed. Still, the stars of the show in Apple’s iOS 13 betas are the new features like Dark Mode and all the big changes in Apple’s official apps.
Something Apple fans don’t often consider when they start using a new version of iOS like iOS 13 is that the new features Apple adds to its mobile software don’t just shape the future of devices like the iPhone and iPad, they also help shape the future of Android devices. When building new versions of Android each year, Google often looks to Apple’s iPhone and iPad software and pulls in features for its own mobile platform. This isn’t a bad thing — Apple takes features from Android all the time, too. When cool and useful new features arrive on one platform, why wouldn’t the other one want them as well?
After last year’s iOS 12 release was focused mainly on fixing the many, many problems in iOS 11, this year’s iOS 13 release is all about adding new features. And now, hardcore Android fans have gotten together and shared all the cool new iOS 13 features they wish Google would copy and add to Android.
About a week after Apple unveiled iOS 13 in June, an Android blog called Android Police penned a post covering all the new iOS 13 features that they wished would come to Android. The blog said that some of the new iOS 13 features Apple unveiled during its big WWDC 2019 keynote presentation left it “doe-eyed and jealous,” and it went on to list a whopping 25 different features it wants Google to copy.
There are indeed some terrific new features that Apple introduced in iOS 13, and the ones noted in this post were all pretty good ones. Among them are Sign in with Apple, which is a far more secure way to handle universal sign-ins; automatic Dark Mode, which allows the user to configure a schedule that enables and disables Dark Mode automatically; optimized battery charging, which uses AI to learn the user’s charging habits and adjusts the phone’s charging schedule to extend battery longevity; the new offline Find My device location support; full-page screenshots; more powerful reminders; and more.
It’s a solid list of features that Android would undoubtedly benefit from if Google incorporated them at the OS level. But we wondered what other Android fans might think of the list.
For whatever reason, hardcore fans of Android or iOS often have trouble acknowledging nifty features in the other mobile OS. And they almost always refuse to admit when their platform of choice copies something from the other one. That’s why we were so surprised when we came across this thread on Reddit, which links to the aforementioned Android Police post. The Android subreddit is full of hardcore Android fans and we figured they would take issue with the mere suggestion that Google should copy features from Apple. Instead, most of the comments in the thread cover the best new features in iOS 13 that they think Apple did a terrific job on.
Some of the highest praise was heaped on iOS 13 features like Sign in with Apple, offline Find My support, and optimized battery charging. Some Android fans even noted some older iOS features that they wish would come to Android, such as AirDrop and the ability to give an app permission to access certain APIs (location, camera, etc.) only while the app is open. All in all, it’s a great thread that could help other Android users appreciate the iPhone. It also could help Google figure out which new Android features its users want most, so let’s hope the company is paying attention.
