Switching From iPhone to Android Is Easy. This is the painful end.

Switching From iPhone to Android Is Easy. This is the painful end.

When I temporarily switched from an iPhone to an Android phone last week, I was preparing for a world of pain. I’ve only owned an Apple phone since buying the first generation iPhone in 2007. And, like most, I’ve bought other Apple products that pair well, including AirPods, the Apple Watch, and the iPad.

That kind of loyalty is the basis of an antitrust case against Apple brought by the Justice Department, which accuses the company of using its monopoly control over the iPhone to harm competitors and prevent customers from switching to other phones. To test that theory, I decided to briefly part ways with my iPhone.

I was initially surprised by how easy it was to transfer my iPhone data to an Android smartphone made by Google. Just by installing an app on my iPhone that Google made to help people switch, I was able to copy my contact list, photo album, and calendar into my Google account. Then, presto — all that data appears on Android.

I’m almost done. After I contacted my carrier, Verizon, to transfer my phone number to an Android device, my mission was accomplished: I had become an Android switcher.

At first, I was happy with my choice — I upgraded to a high-end Google Pixel phone. But by Day 6, I was ready to switch back.

A bunch of glitches are added. While I can still use most of my Apple products, I’m starting to lose my Apple Watch, which requires an iPhone to fully function. For software, I was able to find Android alternatives for all my favorite apps — except for Notes. Even though switching phones isn’t technically difficult, the Apple hook is still in me.

How Apple keeps customers loyal to the iPhone — and whether its practices harm competition — is at the heart of the government’s antitrust suit against the Cupertino giant.

Apple and the Justice Department declined to comment.

In its 88-page complaint, the department said several Apple products protect the company’s competitive advantage with the iPhone, including iMessage, the Apple Wallet app and the Apple Watch. How hard are those perks really making it throw away your iPhone? This is what I found.

Lost iMessage
For the most part, iPhone users and Android users can communicate with each other easily through email, phone calls and apps like Slack, but when it comes to text messaging, there is still a clear divide known as “green bubble versus blue bubble ” inequality.

When an iPhone user sends a text to another iPhone, the message appears blue and can take advantage of exclusive benefits like animated birthday confetti. But if an iPhone user sends a text to an Android user, the bubble turns green, many features break, and the quality of photos and videos deteriorates.

Before transferring my phone number to a Pixel phone, I used my iPhone to send iMessages to my blue bubble friends warning them that our conversation would soon turn green. “Ew!” replied a friend. But after many words made in jest, no one objected, and I continued.

Next, I had to remove my phone number from iMessage on Apple’s website to make sure my text messages would stop going through Apple’s servers and reach my phone. Unless I do this, I won’t receive texts from other iPhones. Eventually, the conversation turned green. I braced myself for humiliation.

But no one gave me a hard time or excluded me. However, I noticed that many friends suddenly stopped sending me pictures, probably because they knew the images no longer looked good.

For years, some of my closest friends messaged me only through Signal, a third-party messaging app with strong privacy protections and many of the same features as iMessage. Signals is also available on Android, keeping that tradition alive.

Apple has announced that later this year, it will improve texting between iPhone and Android users by adopting a rich, standard communication service that Google and others integrated into their messaging apps years ago. Text sent between iPhone and Android will remain green, but images and videos will be of better quality.

Lost Apple Wallet
For iPhones, the app used to make mobile payments in stores is Apple Wallet and for Android users, the equivalent app is Google Wallet. Experience using each app My wallet is the same: I load my credit card and my Clipper card for the Bay Area rapid transit service.

The Justice Department’s criticism of Apple Wallet focused on how Apple only gives its apps access to the iPhone’s payment chip, preventing competing wallet services from using that chip to make payments. But the way Apple designed its Wallet app didn’t impact my ability to switch to Android.

Loss of Apple Watch and other products
For iPhone owners, the main incentive to buy more Apple products is that they work seamlessly together. Mac laptops, for example, use many of the same apps for messaging, note-taking and reminders as iPhones, and data is synced between devices with Apple’s iCloud. In theory, the more you invest in Apple’s ecosystem — and the more Apple restricts its products from working with competing devices, the Justice Department says — the harder it is to switch away from the iPhone.

After I switched to an Android phone, my feelings about using other Apple products ranged from mild annoyance to profound disappointment:

The iPad works independently of the iPhone, but I can’t see my text messages on the tablet anymore. This is minor because I don’t text much on my iPad.

My AirPods Pro are OK — they connect quickly to the Pixel to play music. But the downside is that AirPods use Adaptive EQ, a technology that adjusts the sound quality according to the shape of your ears, and it works only with software on the iPhone. So the audio is not that good.

I can’t use my Android phone to find my AirTags, the little Apple trackers I use to find my wallet and keys, on the map. But when my AirTags are in my pocket, the Android phone shows a warning that an “unknown tracker” is moving with me, a security feature to combat stalkers.

Apple Watch requires an iPhone to set up, but its fitness tracking can work independently. Since I have my watch ready, I can continue to use it at the gym with my Android phone. But I can’t see my detailed workout data anymore.

I experienced other annoyances not specifically mentioned in the lawsuit and finally reached peak frustration when I tried to find a replacement for Apple Notes, which I use regularly on my Mac, iPad and phone for work and personal matters. I used an alternative but didn’t like it, and combined with the issues mentioned above, it was all too much.

The result: Switching is easy, until it isn’t
My experience is not universal. Some people will care more than others about how certain Apple products will change if they change phones. Younger people may be concerned about the lack of iMessage in schools, where the green bubble has been known to be an invitation to teasing and exclusion, according to education experts. Parents who use AirTags to track their kids will see losing access to them as a deal breaker.

The upshot of this experiment is that while it’s not technically difficult to switch to another phone, there are a lot of things that can make you regret it.