Can I do these specific things on an iPhone as easily as on Android?
March 26, 2019 8:23 PM Subscribe
I’m considering moving from Android to iOS and I have some questions about stuff that can’t really be tested at the Apple Store. Are the following things that I do on my Android possible -- or similarly easy -- to do on an iPhone?
-When dialing a number, I like that Android can be set to automatically use my Google Voice account when it detects that I’m making an international call. I don’t have to open the Google Voice app, it’s done right in the dialer automatically.
-I have a lot of contacts and I keep them organized in Google with tags (Google calls them groups but they function as tags). I don’t want several hundred seldom-used contacts cluttering my phone’s contact list, so one of the tags I utilize is named ‘visible on my phone’. In Android I can then choose to have only contacts with the ‘visible on my phone’ tag appear in my contact list.
-My preferred browser on Android is Firefox (I’m aware of how iOS places limitations on third-party browsers). When reading things in Firefox, I often do a long-press to highlight a name or phrase. That same press brings up a context menu giving me an option to do a Google search (or use whatever search engine I set as the default) of that highlighted text in a new tab. I do this all the time and love how few taps it takes.
-Similarly, long-pressing on a link brings up a context menu with the immediately visible option to save the link to the Pocket app (no scrolling through a long list of apps to find the one I want to share the link with).
Additionally… will iOS allow me to:
-open Google Maps by default when clicking on addresses in a browser?
-use a content-blocker that’s as good, lightweight and flexible as uBlock Origin?
-When dialing a number, I like that Android can be set to automatically use my Google Voice account when it detects that I’m making an international call. I don’t have to open the Google Voice app, it’s done right in the dialer automatically.
-I have a lot of contacts and I keep them organized in Google with tags (Google calls them groups but they function as tags). I don’t want several hundred seldom-used contacts cluttering my phone’s contact list, so one of the tags I utilize is named ‘visible on my phone’. In Android I can then choose to have only contacts with the ‘visible on my phone’ tag appear in my contact list.
-My preferred browser on Android is Firefox (I’m aware of how iOS places limitations on third-party browsers). When reading things in Firefox, I often do a long-press to highlight a name or phrase. That same press brings up a context menu giving me an option to do a Google search (or use whatever search engine I set as the default) of that highlighted text in a new tab. I do this all the time and love how few taps it takes.
-Similarly, long-pressing on a link brings up a context menu with the immediately visible option to save the link to the Pocket app (no scrolling through a long list of apps to find the one I want to share the link with).
Additionally… will iOS allow me to:
-open Google Maps by default when clicking on addresses in a browser?
-use a content-blocker that’s as good, lightweight and flexible as uBlock Origin?
The contacts app on iOS allows you to only show particular groups of contacts (using the same term, groups).
I don’t know what the process would be to get iOS to recognise the groups you already have in Google; it would be nice to believe it Just Worked, but I expect there are some hoops you have to jump through.
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 1:25 AM on March 27, 2019
I don’t know what the process would be to get iOS to recognise the groups you already have in Google; it would be nice to believe it Just Worked, but I expect there are some hoops you have to jump through.
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 1:25 AM on March 27, 2019
Additionally… will iOS allow me to:
-open Google Maps by default when clicking on addresses in a browser?
Yes, you can set Google Maps as default (even in Safari) - this is how I have my phone set. I just double checked and clicking on an address does open it in Google Maps for me.
I believe you can set any browser as default, but I'm not 100% sure. You can definitely set Gmail as the default email app instead of the apple mail app.
posted by insectosaurus at 4:39 AM on March 27, 2019 [2 favorites]
-open Google Maps by default when clicking on addresses in a browser?
Yes, you can set Google Maps as default (even in Safari) - this is how I have my phone set. I just double checked and clicking on an address does open it in Google Maps for me.
I believe you can set any browser as default, but I'm not 100% sure. You can definitely set Gmail as the default email app instead of the apple mail app.
posted by insectosaurus at 4:39 AM on March 27, 2019 [2 favorites]
meowzilla did a great job of addressing your specific points, so I just wanted to add that I predict you will not enjoy using iOS. Your question suggests that you have very specific preferences and practices based on how you think your device should perform, and this is pretty antithetical to the iOS mindset. iOS works best when you are willing to adapt your practices and workflow to the decisions that Apple's designers have made for you. To be fair, they are often VERY GOOD choices, but I have found that when people who have already made those choices for themselves try to use an iOS device, the conflict can be insurmountable.
I believe you can set any browser as default, but I'm not 100% sure.
No, you can't change iOS's default browser.
posted by Rock Steady at 4:51 AM on March 27, 2019 [2 favorites]
I believe you can set any browser as default, but I'm not 100% sure.
No, you can't change iOS's default browser.
posted by Rock Steady at 4:51 AM on March 27, 2019 [2 favorites]
I believe you may be able to achieve some of these things with the iOS app Shortcuts which is supposed to allow you more control over how your phone behaves and/or give it some rules. So maybe do some research on Shortcuts to see if that will help.
posted by girlmightlive at 6:30 AM on March 27, 2019
posted by girlmightlive at 6:30 AM on March 27, 2019
dancing leaves, I just spent some time looking through my settings and I can’t figure out how I set Google Maps as default. My phone is not jailbroken. If I use Safari to google a store or whatever, I can click on the address on google.com and Google Maps opens. Perhaps my google settings allow this? I’ve been trying to find a clickable address on another website - not just google - and I haven’t been able to find one to figure out where it’ll open.
posted by insectosaurus at 8:02 AM on March 27, 2019
posted by insectosaurus at 8:02 AM on March 27, 2019
Response by poster: Thanks everyone so far! I don't expect iOS to behave like Android in every way -- I'm just trying to get a sense of what the differences are and what adaptations I'd be making.
posted by theory at 8:19 AM on March 27, 2019
posted by theory at 8:19 AM on March 27, 2019
Best answer: I can tell you, as an Android-to-iOS person, that some of the things you can't do are annoying at first -- Android is so customizable, and iOS just isn't. I can ALSO tell you that, with one exception, I ended up being more happy on iOS than I ever was on Android because Things Just Work... like, ALL THE TIME. The bugginess of Android was just something I tolerated for the sake of a completely customizable phone, but it turns out that Just Working is, in the long run, more desirable for me than having total control over everything. Just my two cents. For instance, I too was a dedicated Google Maps person but it turns out Apple Maps has gotten waaaay better in the past few years, to the point where it gives me better directions than Google 99% of the time. Same thing with
If you're curious, the only thing that still annoys me about iOS is the inability to set the notification sounds for ALL of my apps -- like half of them have the default iOS sound and it's like, great, that could be any one of like five different things, NOT HELPFUL APPLE.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 8:38 AM on March 27, 2019 [1 favorite]
If you're curious, the only thing that still annoys me about iOS is the inability to set the notification sounds for ALL of my apps -- like half of them have the default iOS sound and it's like, great, that could be any one of like five different things, NOT HELPFUL APPLE.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 8:38 AM on March 27, 2019 [1 favorite]
If I use Safari to google a store or whatever, I can click on the address on google.com and Google Maps opens.iOS lets apps hook in to Safari so that if you navigate to certain webpages, they open in the app instead. For example, Amazon pages open in the Amazon app (if installed) and Google Maps pages open in the Google Maps app (if installed). I believe this is the behaviour you’re seeing: you’re clicking on a link in Safari to Google Maps and Safari is passing it over to the Google Maps app.
posted by kyten at 4:45 PM on March 27, 2019
Apps like Purify act famously as ad and contact blockers in iOS, and it works really well. I have very few issues with unwanted content.
The default browser question is complex. Apple allows only Safari as web browser, but it doesn't prevent you from using other browsers. The complications come in when it comes to apps that use browsers. Almost all apps have their own internal browsing capability, based on Safari, but others allow you to choose another browser. There's nothing to stop you from opening Chrome or Firefox, etc. and browsing with it. Find find I'm perfectly happy with Safari on my iPhone and iPad.
I've never used any mapping app but Google maps. I have uninstalled Apple maps.
posted by lhauser at 7:17 PM on March 28, 2019
The default browser question is complex. Apple allows only Safari as web browser, but it doesn't prevent you from using other browsers. The complications come in when it comes to apps that use browsers. Almost all apps have their own internal browsing capability, based on Safari, but others allow you to choose another browser. There's nothing to stop you from opening Chrome or Firefox, etc. and browsing with it. Find find I'm perfectly happy with Safari on my iPhone and iPad.
I've never used any mapping app but Google maps. I have uninstalled Apple maps.
posted by lhauser at 7:17 PM on March 28, 2019
I believe this is the behaviour you’re seeing: you’re clicking on a link in Safari to Google Maps and Safari is passing it over to the Google Maps app.
I believe this is correct. I do not have iOS but believe one difference is that on Android, you can tap on an address (not a address with a link, but just text) or a phone number, and the phone will recognize it is an address/phone number and give you a context-senstive popup that lets you open in maps/call/add as contact.
The thing you're tapping does not have to be a link, but needs to be recognizable, usually it'll have a number and the word street or avenue, or if a phone number will be 10 digits.
posted by dobbs at 10:52 AM on April 18, 2019
I believe this is correct. I do not have iOS but believe one difference is that on Android, you can tap on an address (not a address with a link, but just text) or a phone number, and the phone will recognize it is an address/phone number and give you a context-senstive popup that lets you open in maps/call/add as contact.
The thing you're tapping does not have to be a link, but needs to be recognizable, usually it'll have a number and the word street or avenue, or if a phone number will be 10 digits.
posted by dobbs at 10:52 AM on April 18, 2019
This thread is closed to new comments.
My native contacts on my iPhone (which are synced to Google via my Gmail account) don't have the labels that are displayed on Google's Contacts app. I do know that if I can sorta label them if I put the label into the "company" field in the contact. I don't think it does the auto-filtering that you're using as "visible on my phone".
Searching selected text in a browser seems to be similar. In Safari, in the context menu, you have to click on "Look up", which will take you to the dictionary definition, but will also display a "Search Web" button. Clicking on that will do a browser search. Firefox has something similar but the context menu has a "Search with Firefox" button which removes the middle step. The Chrome app acts like Safari.
Long clicking a link in Safari will bring up a context menu, the last of which is "Share...". Clicking on that will bring up a share sheet, and you can make the first one be Pocket.
Addresses in a browser - Chrome might, but definitely not Safari.
Content blockers - I think the way they're implemented in Safari, they're just blacklists of sites.
It's sorta possible to use an iPhone and stay completely within the Google ecosystem. You can use GMail, open web pages in Chrome, and navigate through Google Maps, because those apps are specifically written to communicate with each other. But you're going to hit the edges of it and find yourself in a non-Google app pretty quickly and frequently.
posted by meowzilla at 9:42 PM on March 26, 2019