While Android as a whole continues to shrink in the US, Google Pixel keeps growing

Android is struggling to keep its market share in the United States, as Apple continues to take over in the market. But, despite Android as a whole losing ground, Google Pixel phones are becoming a bigger slice of the US market.

Counterpoint Research reports that, in Q2 2023, US smartphone shipments dropped by 24% year-over-year. That includes both iPhones and Android phones, and virtually every brand saw a drop in shipments. Samsung saw US shipments drop by 37% while Motorola saw a 17% drop. TCL saw the biggest decline at just shy of 70% year-over-year, and even Apple saw a 6% drop.

LaughingFox,
@LaughingFox@lemmy.world avatar

Yuck why do people continue to buy Apple products?

error,

Pixel is GOATed for having GrapheneOS

HiddenLayer5, (edited )
@HiddenLayer5@lemmy.ml avatar

Everyone wants to adopt the Apple model of hardware+software as one (because it’s the most profitable). Microsoft is trying with their Surface line, Google with the Pixel, Samsung with their fully custom Android-based OS.

jadelord,

If everyone is dropping in market shares, who’s gaining?

4815162342, (edited )

deleted_by_author

    •
    mayonaise_met,

    Is that the power of iMessage in the US? Peer pressure?

    I personally can’t stand iPhones because their back navigation is so inconsistent across apps. In Android with gestures on, you can swipe from either side of the screen to go back nearly anywhere. On an iPhone sometimes there is a back button up top, sometimes you use the left swipe, but the right swipe still doesn’t work last I tried. I switched between the platform in the early days, but since the 5s I’ve not been back.

    The only thing I’m definitely getting on my next phone is a flag ship chip. My OnePlus Nord is perfect for me except it’s not quite as quick as I want it to be (to render Gran Turismo 4 in native resolution at stable framerate).

    AnUnusualRelic,
    @AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world avatar

    However, in the first quarter, Apple was at 17% of market share in sales globally (still huge).

    Hazdaz,

    It’s still 45% marketshare Android vs 55% iOS. With the way the title reads, you’d think Android was down in the single digits and barely hanging on.

    Personally I just don’t see how anyone uses iOS. The iPhone I have is just awful. The UI is clunky and I’m absolutely baffled why this stupid phone weighs so much. That’s not a good thing, damn it. My Samsung is infinitely better device in my opinion. But I’d still love to see a third player come in. I was sad when Microsoft killed off their phone OS. It might not have been great at the time, but more competition is always better. And then if course there’s also PalmOS. So sad to see such a cool OS die off.

    Whirlybird,

    The UI is clunky

    What do you mean by this? Is this just another “snappy” type thing that is meaningless?

    dingus,

    iOS seems to be meant for simplicity and ease of use. I mean, not that Android is confusing at all, but it seems that the less tech focused you are the more you gravitate toward iOS. I would never want an iPhone, but they seem to really kill it in the battery and camera departments.

    basuramannen,

    Is there an Android phone that supports dual boot? I would like to have that so can use Lineage or something similar and only boot into Google android when I need to use banking app or government ID that requires the safetynet antifeture. This would free me from carrying two phones. But I suppose a locked down bootloader can not support dual boot and an unlocked will not support the safetynet antifeature.

    Dr_Duckless,
    @Dr_Duckless@lemmy.ml avatar

    almost every good android phones have locked bootloaders.

    BlovedMadman,
    @BlovedMadman@lemmy.world avatar

    Get a pixel and install GrapheneOS. The whole install process is painless and easy.

    There is also this about SafetyNet Attestation

    Perkele,

    To add to this: In GrapheneOS you can install sandboxed Google Play in a secondary profile for banking etc. This way you can keep your main profile Google free and totally isolated from their preying eyes.

    BlovedMadman,
    @BlovedMadman@lemmy.world avatar

    This, although the vast majority of users just use the one profile and just enjoy the benefits of a sandboxed and de-privileged Google.

    Derproid,

    Just be warned if your work uses Google Chat that will not work on GrapheneOS even with sandboxed Google Play.

    basuramannen,

    With a partially broken screen and weak battery it may be time for a new phone anyway. I will look into pixel and GrapheneOS. Thank you for the suggestion.

    KingJalopy,

    I love my pixel 6a. Fantastic phone for the money.

    Nonononoki,

    Use Magisk, it bypasses SafetyNet. No need for dual boot github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk

    You must install the Universal SafetyNet Fix afterwards github.com/kdrag0n/safetynet-fix

    basuramannen,

    Tkank you. I already had magisk. I tried installing the safetynet-fix, bit unfortunately it did not resolve the issue on my Xiaomi Mi A2 phone.

    Nonononoki,

    On more exotic devices, you have to spoof your device ID as well github.com/…/MagiskHidePropsConf

    basuramannen,

    Tried that, but the banking apps still claims that the security check failed.

    Nonononoki,

    You also need to hide the Magisk app and change its package name and block the banking apps in the Magisk settings.

    brb,

    Try Shelter https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.typeblog.shelter/. I had one app that refused to launch no matter what I did but this fixed it.

    SeatBeeSate,

    There’s risk in that. Unless you go through a bunch of other steps to hide magisk, there’s quite a few apps that will stop working or flag you just for having magisk, and some games may even ban you from playing. Namely Pokémon go.

    Nonononoki,

    Hiding Magisk is just 1 click in the settings

    Whirlybird,

    When you’ve got a miniscule market share it’s much easier to increase it than it is when you have a much larger market share.

    TheCee,
    @TheCee@programming.dev avatar

    This. People that can afford a higher-end phone still can. Everyone else doesn’t have the money right now due to inflation and the income gap widening etc. IPhone and Pixel are the most well-known higher-end phone brands.

    Feel free to correct me if it gets more complicated than that.

    Whirlybird,

    IPhone and Pixel are the most well-known higher-end phone brands.

    iPhone and Galaxy. Pixels aren’t well known (or if they are, they’re not desired), hence the teeny tiny market share.

    TheCee,
    @TheCee@programming.dev avatar

    or if they are, they’re not desired

    I couldnt say. They are at least the ones most advertised where i live.

    Transcendant,

    I got a pixel 7a about 6 months ago. It’s a brilliant phone, once you remove all the google shit / bloat and block all the trackers.

    iturnedintoanewt,

    GrapheneOS on my Pixel 7.

    pineapplelover,

    GrapheneOS on my Pixel 5.

    Transcendant,

    I wanted to try it out today. The install looked intimidatingly-complex to me, is there an ‘easy mode’ installation method?

    crystal,

    The web installer is pretty simple.

    It may seem intimidating because they’re being super cautious. (Stuff like “You should avoid using a USB hub” is bordering paranoia.) But that’s not because they need to be cautious. The GrapheneOS installer is very safe. The reason they’re being so cautious is because they want to be more than 99% sure it works.

    If something goes wrong, like you use the wrong browser or fail to install the driver/package, it won’t break your phone; the install just stops and you can try again.

    The one thing that may break something is if during install the cable gets disconnected or the power goes out. That’s unlikely by itself, but even if it does happen, you phone will most likely be fine.

    Transcendant,

    Thanks for the encouragement & advice. I’ll give the web installer a go once I’ve had some sleep.

    iturnedintoanewt,

    iturned

    I was shocked how damn simple the whole thing was. You just click a few times, and before you notice, the phone is rebooting and installing the full OS. Takes almost no time and it’s all super automatized. That was the easiest “custom” OS I’ve ever installed.

    nIi7WJVZwktT4Ze,

    For me, it’s the lack of a replaceable battery and the lack of an SD card slot. Otherwise, it would be a perfect phone to tinker with software-wise with all the custom ROMs that are available for Pixels.

    ratboy,
    @ratboy@lemm.ee avatar

    My Android phone fucking blows. The one I had prior was great but I lost it. I hate the constant alerts from the apps I can’t delete, I can’t take up close photos anymore without it looking like shit and not focusing, the screen will flip horizontal at random times when it’s got the lock screen option turned on. I don’t want a Google phone, though.

    Anyone have opinions on the OnePlus phones?

    huginn,

    Look into a Nothing Phone as well as you look.

    I’m biased but I like my Pixel 7 Pro quite a bit, though the Pixel 7 is also good.

    Doesn’t really matter if it’s a Google phone or not though: They track you the exact same unless you fully rip out all Google Services, which also means ripping out all banking apps and the Play store.

    ratboy,
    @ratboy@lemm.ee avatar

    Yeah, that’s a good point. I feel like in terms of tracking you have to unplug completely to be successful. No Square card readers, no social media, no Google anything, not to mention having to vet every service you use which doesn’t feel like it would be worth it.

    maeries,

    You can disable alerts on a per app basis

    ratboy,
    @ratboy@lemm.ee avatar

    I’ve done that before but after updates it seems to reset for some reason? Having to do it over and over is frustrating, unless I’m missing something which is not outside the realm of possibility

    chalupapocalypse,

    OnePlus used to be good and reasonably priced, now it’s just another also-ran at the same price point as everything else.

    notenoughbutter,

    oneplus has its own sort of problems
    I’ve heard ram management sucks on oneplus 11 with 12 GB ram because they keep killing apps in background to preserve battery(even after using the phone for weeks so it should’ve adapted)

    you should give grapheneos on pixel a try I’m using it on pixel 7 and all the apps that I use work(mostly, only bank apps have problems, check this user contributed list for verified bank apps privsec.dev/…/banking-applications-compatibility-…

    Molzor,

    Had a OnePlus for quite a while, battery was pretty bad and heated up like crazy.

    cantstopthesignal,

    Sounds like a defective battery. It happens. Mine works fine.

    ilickfrogs,
    @ilickfrogs@lemmy.world avatar

    Apps you can’t delete? Gotta be Samsung?

    Transcendant,

    I used to have a Samsung Galaxy S6, I rooted it so I could remove the facebook app… turned out they built a custom circuit in a little chip that permanently breaks NFC if you rooted it. Ridiculous.

    Whirlybird,

    I rooted it so I could remove the facebook app

    Why would you even bother doing this instead of simply permanently disabling it using the built in features?

    Transcendant,

    I found not being able to remove the app frustrating, and wanted to go further than disable it. My thinking was, it’s my phone, I want it setup my way, and I don’t want bloat… especially facebook bloat on the phone.

    Whirlybird,

    Once it’s disabled it may as well be not there.

    If it’s anything like any of my Samsung phones I’ve had, Facebook isn’t actually installed - the icon is just a stub. Opening it takes you to the store to download the actual app. Might be different where you are or if you bought a carrier phone though, I only ever buy outright from manufacturers or stores, never carrier.

    deadcream,

    Some apps can't even be disabled (including via adb).

    Whirlybird,

    Such as?

    Whirlybird,

    Apps you can’t delete? Gotta be Samsung?

    Pixels have about 25-30 Google apps that you can’t delete.

    ratboy,
    @ratboy@lemm.ee avatar

    Yep, I hate it so much

    iturnedintoanewt,

    You can adb disable them. Not the same as a full removal, if you wipe/reset the phone they come back, but for most purposes they’re effectively gone. Do a backup first, if you remove one too many or the wrong one, and other apps might start crashing.

    pineapplelover,

    At that point just use a custom os like Lineage or something

    Dr_Duckless,
    @Dr_Duckless@lemmy.ml avatar

    just…disable it after deleting updates!

    scorpiosrevenge,

    I’ve been using oneplus phones for years and theyre awesome but I’m not running the oxygenOS that it comes with, I’m running lineageOS or other AOSP type of roms.

    Haven’t messed with the stock oxygen (I think it’s called ColorOS now?) in a while, but maybe will check it out. Far as I knew it didn’t really come with any bloat ware?

    cantstopthesignal,

    I have a oneplus. Zero bloatware. The only downside is that the pictures are not as pretty as apple, that’s about it.

    ArcaneSlime,

    Thanks grapheneOS!

    ocassionallyaduck,

    Google keeps locking tons of Android features away behind their own privatized software stack.

    Better for Google, but they are cutting their nose to spite their face here, as Android as a whole suffers for it.

    Stuff like call screening in the android dialer would be possible on any brand of device. But no, pixel only.

    The pixels have the very best android experience. It comes close to iPhone. But pixels aren’t the whole market. Overall Google is trying to claw back control of the entire platform and I hate it.

    httpjames,
    @httpjames@sh.itjust.works avatar

    I think it’s beneficial for Google to distance itself from Android. By default, it’s way too entangled with Google services. It would be nice to have Google call screening on every Android device, but is it really that far fetched to expect manufacturers to develop their own suite of features? I wouldn’t expect iOS to have Android’s features of vice versa.

    bob_wiley,
    @bob_wiley@lemmy.world avatar

    There needs to be a 3rd mobile platform that isn’t tied to Android. I really wish the Ubuntu phone took off, but Linux on mobile in general would be a really good thing… stock Debian or something. Then if an OEM wants to make their own distro to customize some things they can. I know this is done with Android today, but the ties to Google and the conflict of interest will also make that a weird relationship. I think the road for that will be very long without some corporate backing to fund full time developers for it.

    redditReallySucks,
    @redditReallySucks@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    The problem of android is that it is “fake opensource”. The OS itself is open source but google locks it down with GMS so google still controls everything.

    Whirlybird,

    Bingo.

    AOSP is open source. Cool. In order to make AOSP useful to 99% of the population you need Google Play Services, which aren’t open source. To get Google Play Services you need to agree to install 20+ non-removable Google apps, none of which are open source.

    deadcream,

    Not only Google services. If you want to make a phone you need to buy SoC from Qualcomm or MediaTek and all the drivers for it are proprietary (often including Linux kernel modifications). Sure you can technically make your own but it's impossible for 99% of phone makers.

    huginn,

    There needs to be a 3rd mobile platform that isn’t tied to Android

    There wont be a 3rd platform for the same reason that America wont have a 3rd Political Party.

    You’ll never edge out the incumbents.

    bob_wiley,
    @bob_wiley@lemmy.world avatar

    Mobile operating systems aren’t winner take all like a political election. The existence of a 3rd party doesn’t hand a win to one side or the other. It could also help the incumbents avoid some anti-trust issues.

    Whirlybird,

    Especially when the biggest current one, Google, did everything in their power to stop a fantastic 3rd platform in Windows Phone from becoming successful.

    huginn,

    Not really sure they needed to lift a finger tbh.

    Whirlybird,

    They did though. Windows Phone was pretty rapidly gaining marketshare in the US and also in Europe at one point - I believe they hit 10% which is massive for a new OS.

    Google’s response to this was to block any and all third party apps for their services, even when they broke no rules. Read up on the shitshow that was Youtube on Windows Phone to see just how aggressive they were in making sure Windows Phone died. They also refused to put any of their services on the platform.

    damtux,

    Actually there’s a third platform being developed, based on Linux, by Puri.sm with their Librem 5 phone.

    huginn,

    And they’re as likely to stay around as the Green party is.

    roneyxcx,

    If you have any corporate backing wouldn’t it turn back into same situation as Android? Maintaining the app store, build tools, making new features, patching vulnerabilities e.t.c all require massive amounts of capital. Why would a company openly take initiative to do that? Meanwhile all others could free ride on it? Also any OEM’s coming in and customizing it to their liking and not following the standards because they are not bound too like in Android, wouldn’t that cause massive fragmentation. Back in the Symbian days this was the case where you need to customize your app slightly for each Symbian device, which meant you had to have the physical device. I remember back in the back in the day your office would be filled with these devices.

    bob_wiley,
    @bob_wiley@lemmy.world avatar

    Major linux distributions get a lot of contributions from corporations that don’t compromise them to the whims of the company. The same model could be used. The companies contribute, because it ultimately benefits them, even if others can also benefit.

    Fragmentation would likely be an issue, as we see with traditional Linux systems. However, systems like flatpak have helped standardize application distribution. Some of they fragmentation can also be seen as providing choice to users. As long as they all share the same protocols to talk to each other, which have been pretty well established by now, it shouldn’t be a huge issue.

    roneyxcx,

    First of all major corporations contribute to Linux kernel and there is very little contribution to a distribution. Why are they doing it? Because they benefit from their hardware being supported by Linux kernel(e.g Samsung contributing to Linux Kernel for SSD drivers) and now they can sell more, they can do this because it works with their business model. That is not the case with smartphones, in the smartphone world they are selling directly to a consumer and they need to do everything they can to differentiate themselves from other Smartphone makers. Mozilla tried the business model you mentioned but it didn’t catch on. Lastly you forget to understand the number of apps available on Google Play vs on Flathub. Google Play has ~3.5 Million Apps vs ~2000 Apps on Flathub. We are talking a different scale here

    Also speaking about Flathub, Flathub solves the issue of fragmentation by building an entire OS on top of another OS just to avoid the challenges of backwards compatibility. This has implications like huge app sizes because you are basically downloading the runtime and everything it depends on for each app. It works for most people because storage is cheap and can be upgraded at least in PC world. But still you will have issues with RAM because most flatpaks don’t share the runtime and you need to need load each runtime to memory and this implications like higher memory usage, slower app start times because you need to load the entire runtime first before even you start the app.

    bob_wiley,
    @bob_wiley@lemmy.world avatar

    Ideally, a standard would be made for app distribution that everyone could align to so they don’t have to resort to something with the overhead of Flatpak. In terms of the numbers of apps… I don’t think anyone really needs ~3.5m to choose from. I need 1 decent task app, not the 10,000+ that are probably out there.

    damtux,

    Hello, it actually exists and they started developing it with crowdfunding (now it seems like they are self-sustaining with sales)… Do you know Puri.sm?

    They started some years ago creating a new Linux phone, the Librem 5, and they are developing firmware support and a mobile GNOME interface around it that also other project, like PinePhone, is using.

    bob_wiley,
    @bob_wiley@lemmy.world avatar

    Yeah, I’ve watched some videos on a few different phones and different operating systems, but they all seem very early in development and more of hobby devices rather than anything someone can use as their daily driver. At the current rate it seems like it will be decades before it’s ready for prime time.

    damtux,

    yes, it’s true that they’re still not ready as daily driver for not-geek people

    bob_wiley,
    @bob_wiley@lemmy.world avatar

    Interesting… not long after I replied to this, I saw this post on Lemmy about Purism maybe not being so pure. I don’t have time to watch it all now, but figured I’d pass it along. Either way it’s it seems like the best Linux experience is using Ubuntu touch on an old Pixel 3a, still being tied to Google at least with the hardware, and it’s an old phone.

    lemmy.world/post/2378785

    damtux,

    thank you for the link…it’s speaking a bit fast for me as English is not my main language but I got the point. I would be curious to ask directly to Purism people what they think about this.

    Also I would consider /e/os with Murena Fairphone 4 as a good compromise and a safe choice.

    bob_wiley,
    @bob_wiley@lemmy.world avatar

    Ah, yeah, New Yorkers aren’t the easiest to follow. I got a chance to watch the full video. The main points, which you may have gotten, were that Purism didn’t honor refunds, and the security/privacy which they claim is very surface level and doesn’t stand up to any scrutiny.

    damtux,

    Yes, I watched it with subtitles and understood the 2 points explained…thank you anyway for the recap!

    18_24_61_b_17_17_4,
    @18_24_61_b_17_17_4@lemmy.world avatar

    RIP Windows Phone

    bob_wiley,
    @bob_wiley@lemmy.world avatar

    And WebOS. I know it’s still exists on LG TVs, but that shitty HP CEO killed it before it even had legs. What an idiot, he tried to shut down HP’s PC division too. He didn’t last a year in the role and WebOS was the biggest casualty. A lot of design elements from WebOS are now seen in modern phones, like the card based multitasking and swipe to close.

    SafetyGoggles,

    Stuff like call screening in the android dialer would be possible on any brand of device. But no, pixel only.

    Other OEMs also have their own features that are exclusive to their own phones. They can also implement them into AOSP, but they don’t. Instead, they keep the features to their own devices. A lot of times when there’s a new feature on Android in general, more often than not you’ll see comments like “Samsung had this since years ago”.

    So if other OEMs are allowed to have platform specific features, Google is allowed to have theirs too. Or in other words, if you want to hold Google responsible for holding back Android, you have to also hold other OEMs responsible too.

    ocassionallyaduck,

    Google owns the platform. You’re not really comparing like to like.

    It’s like saying since Google can modify some files in Windows that Microsoft doesn’t control the platform.

    Sony upstreams many of its changes, but you’re right that Samsung does not. This is both because of differentiation, but also because often the changes are in defiance of the “official” Google spec in android and merging is refused.

    One plus for example offers further customization on gesture input that is missing in Android 13, allowing corner bottom swipes, hiding the little nav line, etc. But this cannot merge.

    Google has decided a “solution”, to hell with if your features are better. I would love to see these features in android mainline. But Google won’t allow it. Sony made a theme system years ago, but Android wouldn’t fully merge it, and took another 5 or so years to make something.

    SafetyGoggles, (edited )

    It’s like saying since Google can modify some files in Windows that Microsoft doesn’t control the platform.

    You complain that I’m not comparing like to like, yet you’re taking Windows, a closed sourced operating system, as an analog to AOSP, an open sourced one?

    This is both because of differentiation

    But why are other OEMs allowed to differentiate, and Google is not?

    Yes, Google has the “official control” of how Android should be, and not all OEM changes are in line with that. But contributing upstream is not the only way to make the Android ecosystem open.

    Take for example, Galaxy Watch with WearOS. There are multiple features that the watch can do, ONLY IF ITS PAIRED WITH A GALAXY PHONE. I have a Galaxy Watch 4. It has ECG and Blood Pressure sensors. But I can’t use it (officially), because I don’t have a Galaxy phone. Why? Because Samsung is keeping that exclusive with a software lock that totally doesn’t have to be there. Measuring ECG and Blood Pressure doesn’t need anything from my phone, it’s all on the watch.

    Another example also regarding using Galaxy Watch with a non Galaxy phone, which is even more absurd, is that if you’re using a Galaxy Watch with Galaxy phone, they will sync DND status between them, but if you’re not using a Galaxy phone, it’ll not sync. They literally added codes for it to not work on non Galaxy phone.

    Also, the example you used in your original comment, the call screening feature, uses language models that Google paid for the development and trained. I think it’s fair for them to uses that technology that they invested in to help boost their own profit instead of just giving out for free.

    Whirlybird,

    Other OEMs also have their own features that are exclusive to their own phones. They can also implement them into AOSP, but they don’t.

    Well no, they can’t just implement them into AOSP - the owners of AOSP have to approve any and all changes into AOSP. Who’s that? Google.

    Whirlybird,

    The pixels have the very best android experience.

    I agree with the rest of your post, but not this. The best android experience to me is the one that isn’t the most locked down, but the one that is most open and customisable - Samsung. I’ve got a few pixels, and funnily enough my last Pixel I owned was what lead me to switch to an iPhone. I figured if I was going to have a heavily locked down non-customisable phone, it may as well be the one that’s the best at it, which is the iPhone.

    Carter,

    How exactly is a Pixel locker down and not customisable?

    chaircat,

    One thing that drive me nuts on Pixels is how uncustomizable the launcher is. Can’t even change basic things like the grid size or whether I want Google widgets locked permanently on the homescreen. Then, if you replace the launcher, gesture navigation gets all janky.

    BubblyMango,

    This. I have a pixel and i despise the launcher. Google search bar locked to the bottom of every screen, google calender locked to the main screen. The 3 buttons navigation bar is the worst i have seen and has zero customization options.

    sounddrill,

    Why not load a rom(that supports relocking) and lock it?

    Whirlybird,

    On the launcher you can change basically nothing. Can’t move or remove the at a glance widget or the google search bar that takes precedence over your app bar. Can’t change the size or number of quick setting icons. Can’t change icon packs. Can’t change the grid size. Can’t change the task switcher look.

    You can basically change nothing other than the accent colour.

    Derproid,

    You can literally change the launcher.

    Whirlybird,

    And you still literally can’t change the quick settings tiles or the theming etc.

    Also changing the launcher fucks up gesture navigation.

    Derproid,

    There’s decent customization for the quick settings tiles, what are you looking to do? Also never had changing the launcher fuck up gesture navigation. I use NeoLauncher without any issues at least.

    Whirlybird,

    What customisation for quick settings tiles is there? I want to be able to have 12+ on screen at once if I want to, I want to be able to change their size, etc. I don’t want them to be those huge arse ugly blobs.

    Also never had changing the launcher fuck up gesture navigation.

    It’s a known thing. Google basically slightly broke gesture navigation for third party launchers, likely intentionally. It still works, but it’s buggy and worse than on the default launcher.

    skullgiver, (edited )
    @skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    ocassionallyaduck,

    The AOSP dialer is based on an older version. Google removed it going forward.

    Agreed, but then why not make an api for your “open operating system” so users of Samsung/One Plus /Sony/etc could see the dialer with their call screening /assistants if they so choose?

    Instead of just removing the dialer entirely. androidauthority.com/google-kill-android-aosp-dia…

    roneyxcx,

    There is a dialer api but you need signatureOrSystem protection level, which is why it does not work, unless a user on a rooted phone makes the app a system app. I haven’t checked how it is now, but back in S3 days, I had a rooted S3 with Google Phone dialer and it worked fine.

    Gleddified,

    Can’t wait for the entire cell phone market to be a monopoly…

    fische_stix,

    Samsung and major carriers are shooting android in the foot with the bloatware. There are less and less viable android models that aren’t half filled with carrier or manufacturer specific apps that can’t be deleted. The pixel might be a tool of the Google devil but at least it provides the illustration of customization. iPhones are still Iphones. People they phone is pretty much the same butvthe hardware gets slightly better. Combine all that with messaging on Iphones essentially excluding android and ut becomes though to stick with anything but a Pixel or iphone. If I didn’t have lots of Google stuff setup for work I might reconsider iphones, but the pixel really has made my life easier via Google big brother. If work used apple big brother I would switch.

    Saneless,

    At this point google is pretty much the only company providing an Android experience that isn’t shit

    Anyone I’ve met that hasn’t liked it has used a Samsung. They try so hard to be apple but they don’t understand the parts that work and just create an overall bloated and shitty experience

    Doesn’t help that they have overpriced everything

    Whirlybird,

    At this point google is pretty much the only company providing an Android experience that isn’t shit

    They try so hard to be apple but they don’t understand the parts that work and just create an overall bloated and shitty experience

    These 2 sentences are the complete opposites of each other. Google are the ones trying to be apple, removing customisation and dumbing everything down. Samsung are the ones that are providing the android experience that most people want, which is why they outsell Google 100 to 1 or more.

    HipPriest,

    Yeah to be fair I've always had a Samsung, either flagship or midrange and never had an issue.

    Samsung has gone way overboard with their pricing for flagships recently but their midranges are pretty decent on that score and I guess I just go with them because I'm happy with what I'm getting now. The A52s is what I have now, upgraded from an S10+ which had pretty much the same specs.

    In terms of bloatware, I just disable it or uninstall it, same as I do with any software which comes on a work phone or home PC that I don't use. Is this a big deal?

    As for pixels - it's great that they get regular updates. But they're also expensive. They seem to look nice. Generally speaking though I agree they are the attempt to do an iPhone version of Android which probably only really matters in the US market

    oce,
    @oce@jlai.lu avatar

    Fairphone provides stock Android.

    Madbrad200,
    @Madbrad200@lemmy.world avatar

    I bought my phone for £150 and it’s great. I don’t understand why people spend £600+ on a phone.

    golli,

    I think the sweet spot is somewhere around the 300€ range. Below that you definitely already get perfectly reasonable phones, but you still have to make compromises. But at that price point you get most things and the missing features are not as important.

    Past that diminishing returns are hitting hard.

    The one thing that usually scales the most past that point is the camera. But a phone like the pixel 6a already takes amazing photos. And the only real difference you usually find are extra lenses (particularly zoom).

    The only time i could ever see those 1k top phones start to make sense is, if we ever get to the point where phones can replace our personal computers and you just slot them into a dock at home.

    VioletteRei,
    @VioletteRei@lemmy.world avatar

    You can dock a Samsung phone and it become like a personal computer

    golli,

    Is samsung dex any good? I think my S6 lite actually got it with an update at some point, but i’ve not tried it out yet. Also not sure if the USB 2.0 would hold it back a lot.

    VioletteRei,
    @VioletteRei@lemmy.world avatar

    Honestly yeah! It’s compatible with the majority of apps, you can use it to game (emulator or native Android games), there’s also a lot of productive apps compatible with it, like Microsoft Office (don’t know if there’s open source alternative compatible) and the majority of video and photo editing software. Personally it doesn’t remplace my computer, but while travelling it’s really pratical

    Galluf,

    Take a look at how the median income in America compares to your country.

    Whirlybird,

    I bought my phone for £150 and it’s great. I don’t understand why people spend £600+ on a phone.

    Compared to a 600 dollar phone, the camera on your phone is garbage, the build quality is garbage, the performance is garbage, as are most other things. People like good things.

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