It's quite nice to see some of these non-critical features that have been part of the Android experience for years making their way into IOS.
My first smartphones were Android* until a point at which there simply wasn't a decent enough Android phone available in my upgrade cycle and I swapped from my Sony Z something to an iPhone 7 (which I used until upgrading to a 2nd hand iPhone X, followed by a new iPhone 12 and currently on a iPhone 14 Pro).
Initially (for about 2 weeks or so), I missed the customisability but it was more than compensated for by the build reliability and consistency (relative to Android at the time) of the iPhone and, although the thought crossed my mind at various times over the years (if the Pixel was available here I'd probably have tried one a couple of years in), I can say with full honesty that the positives have overwhelmed the few features that I missed from the Android ecosystem.
Once I started adding the other Apple products (airpods, watch, ipad, laptop, apple TV, etc), any incentive to migrate back evaporated. It is however nice to see some of the things I enjoyed tinkering with making its way across though
* my wife and kids were moved onto Apple as soon as I could afford to do so (around iPhone 4S/5 I think) since Apple had already started establishing the reputation for high build quality and consistency across phone generations (back then, every update to Android felt like it changed the entire way of interfacing with the device, and migrating from one phone to another was a pain leading to what felt like an unending litany of complaints). I had also read that the "support and maintenance" load on the resident techie in the family would decrease, and was pleasantly surprised when this proved to be true in practice. The build quality likewise proved to live up to reputation, and while I was upgrading every 2 years or so (ah, the good old days of handset contract subsidies), those devices were usually shot and I couldn't pass them on or use them as spares, while the iPhones just chugged along.
Example: my wife went from an iPhone 5s to a 7 plus and then eventually to a 13 (which she is still using), and the only reason she upgraded each time was because I insisted - the 5s continued to be used and I still have the 7 plus as a 'spare' (which is was useful when one of the kids phones had to go in for a screen replacement). My mom used Android phones for years until about 18 months ago when I finally got thoroughly fed up with being called to "please come and sort out my phone" and got her an iPhone X - 18 months later and the only cellphone support call I received in that time was when she accidentally unpinned me from her Whatsapp favorites and she thought she'd deleted me by accident
) - I'm looking forward to upgrading her to an iPhone 12 donated by her pizza delivering grandson (she lent him her car for work for 3 months while his was being repaired a while back), he is getting a 15 and passing the 12 along in thanks. The upgrade will be seamless, everything, including the icon layout, colours, etc will be duplicated, so from her point of view, there will literally be no difference, which is exactly what she wants.
I wasn’t told this upfront.
