Android Isn't the Anti-iPhone Anymore

Summary

Android and iOS used to be fierce rivals, but these days, they feel more and more like twins. Locked hardware, walled software gardens, uniformity in design, and lacking customization were once Apple's distinctive traits, but over the years, Android adopted them, too. Let's take a look at the iPhone-ification of Android. Android’s Wild West Days Are Long Over When it first came out, Android stood in perfect contrast to the iPhone's iOS. Apple was closed-source, but Android was open-source. You couldn’t unlock or jailbreak an iPhone that easily, but you could root an Android in seconds. Back when rearranging icons was the extent of customization on iOS, Android handed us the keys to the kingdom. Sideloading apps, modding culture, easy access to the Play Store for indie developers, apps like that could link with other apps to build sophisticated automations, and the bold, experimental hardware concepts that made Android the Linux of phones (whose kernel it’s built on). Thriving communities grew around Android’s openness and empowerment that iOS couldn't hope for with its walled garden. Tinkerers and enthusiasts shared resources and helped each other on online forums. It was rebellious and exciting. That’s all long gone now, though. Almost every manufacturer has locked down their hardware. You can’t unlock bootloaders on most phones, and even if you manage to somehow root your phone, it’s (almost) certainly going to break banking apps and DRM-protected apps like Netflix. Android phones ship with something called the “Play Integrity API” that tells apps “don’t trust this user,” if they’ve rooted or unlocked the phone. The community around Android modding has mostly fizzled out. There are fewer and fewer custom ROMs floating around that once kept your phone going long after official manufacturer support ended. Google is also trying to take away sideloading now (more on that later). OnePlus is the poster child for this shift. The original OnePlus phone was a “flagship kil...