using an iphone after four years of android

about a week ago, i switched back to an iphone after four years of using android, since i wanted a new phone (i got tired of the flipping of the galaxy z flip) and wanted to see what life is like inside the walled garden again now that i have a mac. while the transition has mostly been smooth, there are some major differences between the two that have and will take some adjusting for me, and i wanted to list them in case anyone is looking to make a similar switch. this is everything i've discovered within the first week, and i'm sure there will be more differences i encounter, but these are the major ones that stuck out to me (i tried to keep nitpicks mostly off the list)

for reference, the devices i'm coming from are the galaxy z flip 6 and galaxy watch 7. the devices i've switched to are the iphone 17 pro and the apple watch se 3

fun fact: i seem to swap between android and ios every 3 to 4 years, starting with android in 2014. i’m not sure why, but it does kinda help me keep up-to-date with each OS. to be honest, i’m not really sure which i prefer, if any at the moment

notifications, sound, and haptics

android has three different sound modes: sound (which makes ringtones/notification tones and vibrates), vibrate (which only vibrates), and silent (which does none of the above). ios only has sound and silent mode, both of which have vibrations turned on always. while you can set haptics to play/not play in silent mode, there doesn't seem to be a quick toggle for this option, you have to go looking for it in the settings. i find this frustrating because i rarely use sound, usually opting for silent mode 90% of the time, or vibrate if i'm travelling and need updates from airlines or friends
notifications work quite differently between ios and android. i'm not quite sure how to explain it, but to give an example: notification badges on android are based on how many notifications from that app your currently have in your notifications list. but on ios, notification badges are instead based on how many items need your attention from that app. i.e. even if you swipe all your message notifications away, telegram/whatsapp/etc will still have a badge prompting you to read your messages
i miss the notification icons in that status bar on android, so i could see at a glance if anything is waiting for me. there's no such thing on ios, nor even an indicator for new notifications. in addition, when you're on your lock screen/notification area, you occasionally have to make sure you swipe up to make sure you don't miss any notifications, since they hide there sometimes (there's a predictable pattern to this, i just haven't figured it out yet)
ios has this concept of "time sensitive" notifications, notifications that would like your attention as soon as possible, i.e. checking in for a flight or a task you've set a reminder for. these notifications can break through different focus modes (if you allow them to) so that you don't forget about them. i actually quite like this feature, and i've never seen this distinction on android before. it's nice because it means that, even if you have certain apps muted when you wanna focus on something, you still won't miss something important

apple carplay

you can only change the wallpaper to preset options, all of which are solid colors or gradients, so i can't have my fursona as my car screen background :(
i much prefer the layout of apple carplay to android auto. i like being able to swipe between the app launcher and the maps/media view, rather than pressing a dedicated app launcher button. the taskbar on the left makes more sense on my limited 7-inch car screen, as it provides more screen real-estate for directions and seeing where i'm going. android auto kinda squishes everything together
you set your carplay settings on the car itself, you can't do it from your phone. with android auto, you can modify settings from the phone itself, and they'll apply next time you're in your car. i don't like this, because i like to mess around with settings, but once i get in my car, i'm hella focused on getting to where i'm going, and i'm likely to forget to change a setting i meant to
with android auto, even with your phone on do not disturb or silent, you can press the clock button to see any notifications you have on your phone. there's no notification shade on apple carplay, as it only opts to show message banners if you're not on silent mode (which, as established earlier, i often am). i refuse to turn on siri's notification announcements because i don't like it reading my business out loud lmao
when i plug my android phone into my car, it automatically starts playing media, and it continues to play when opening android auto. when i plug my iphone into my car, media will play, but when i actually open carplay, it pauses for some reason. this doesn’t feel like intended behavior, maybe it’s a bug?

apple watch

i ended up buying a watch to go with my iphone because i found my galaxy watch quite helpful, even though i only used it for a few things – heart rate, not-so-sneakily checking notifications, and an exercise monitor. so, i naturally wanted the apple equivalent

apple watches also doesn't have just a "vibrate" mode, same as the ios (points for consistency, i guess)
the digital crown is probably my favorite thing about the apple watch. it allows you to scroll through notifications, widgets, apps, pretty much anything just by rotating it. of course, you can still swipe, but the crown is less effort lol. my galaxy watch had something similar where i could swipe around the edges of the screen (clockwise to go right, counterclockwise to go left), and while it worked decently well, i found it less consistent
just like android wear os, apple watchOS has several different watch faces you can pick from and customize to your liking. on my galaxy watch, i used a face that was very info dense, but still allowed me to set custom background images. on apple watchos, the only watch face that lets you pick a background is the "photos" face, and it's not data-rich at all. but i put up with it because i like seeing my fursona on my wrist :)

i use telegram all the time (it comes with being a furry), so i quickly noticed a few differences between the android and ios versions

sometimes, when i'm looking for a specific sticker that's not in my recents, i search the name of the pack i need. when you search the name of a sticker pack on ios, it brings up a preview of the sticker pack you're searching for rather than the whole pack. you then have to press and hold on the preview in order to bring up all the stickers and select the one you want. on android, it just brings up the whole pack, which i much prefer
on android, you can customize your chat list swipe gesture, so when you swipe left on a chat, it can mark it as read, archive it, mute it, delete it, change it's folder, or pin it. on ios, you don't get that customization. swiping from the left edge of the screen to the right on a chat lets you mark it as read or pin it, swiping from the right edge of the screen to the left lets you mute it, delete it, or archive it. if you have chat folders, swiping anywhere in the middle lets you switch between them, which isn't something on android and i quite like, actually
in order to be able to join nsfw groups or see nsfw content on telegram, you have to log into the web version of telegram (yes, specifically the web version) and enable it. apple doesn't like nsfw content lol

misc

there's mostly a lot of weird one-off things i've noticed that don't quite deserve their own section, so i'll list them here

background downloads: i have a couple playlists on yt and yt music that i like to download automatically so i can have stuff to listen to while i'm travelling or flying. on android, when i open their respective apps, these playlists will automatically begin downloading any new content, and i can go do other things on my phone while they download with a notification showing me download progress. on ios, they will automatically begin downloading when i open the app, but if i go to do something else, downloads are either entirely paused or slowed down, and i don't get a progress notification
files: ios doesn’t have a file system you’re allowed to access like android does, but there is a files app you can use to browse files within certain apps (i.e. creative software) and cloud storage services. any downloads from your browser goes to your downloads folder within icloud, and automatically syncs to other devices (for some reason…) unless you’re out of cloud storage (which is likely since you only get 5gb for free), so you have to pony up at minimum $0.99usd a month for 50 gb of storage (which you need for icloud device backups)
app sideloading: you’re technically allowed to sideload apps on ios now (after years of resisting, the EU made them do it lol), but the process seems to be a massive pain. it’s nowhere near as simple as downloading an apk file, allowing installing apps from unknown sources, and installing it, like you do on android. i’m not even going to attempt to explain the installation process for ios, just read this guide on installing the altstore. to make matters worse, apparently it’s easier to install apps from external sources in the EU than it is anywhere else, and there’s also a lot more stipulations
transit with wallet: apple wallet doesn’t have nearly as much public transit options in the US as google wallet does. not a major deal, but i was looking to move to seattle later this year, and was disappointed to find that i can’t purchase a digital ORCA transit card
single-language siri: with google assistant on android, you can set multiple languages to use: a primary language, and any secondary languages. and your primary language could be different from the language the phone was in, so i'd set my primary language to japanese, and my secondary to english (listen, i gotta get at least a little speaking practice in, since i'm not enrolled in japanese classes anymore and i don't really have anyone to talk to ;-;). siri only works with one language (which i've currently set to japanese)
apple intelligence vs google gemini: it’s actually so refreshing how easy it is to disable the AI features on ios. it’s literally just a single toggle under ”apple intelligence & siri” in the settings. on android it’s a whole song and dance