For immoderate reason, radical similar to instrumentality sides connected things that truly don’t request to person sides astatine all. You’re a instrumentality of iPhones? Cool. You’re much comfy with Android phones? Use it successful bully health.

But we unrecorded successful a competitory society, and truthful the 1 institution that produces iOS-based phones and the myriad brands that marque Android-based phones ever consciousness that they request to explicate wherefore their merchandise is much spectacular, much flexible, much secure, much fun, and much whatever than the ones powered by the different OS. As a result, whenever a institution introduces a diagnostic that’s caller to its OS, it proclaims it arsenic innovative, wonderful, and ne'er seen before. Anyone who has attended oregon watched a merchandise instauration — from Apple, Google, oregon Samsung — knows what I’m talking about.

Apple is arguably the biggest offender here, with a past of taking its clip to make a diagnostic that different companies were speedy to leap connected arsenic efficaciously beta-testers. You tin astir acceptable your ticker to the Twitter takes and memes astir however iPhone users are ever precocious to the enactment of ideas they mightiness deliberation are wholly caller if taking Apple astatine its word.

And present we are again. Apple is introducing its latest telephone line, the iPhone 14, and the latest mentation of its operating system, iOS 16. There are a batch of improvements and caller features that volition beryllium either useful, fun, oregon both. And successful fact, galore of these features are coming to older iPhone models, portion immoderate are constricted to the caller iPhone 14 hardware.

But portion Apple touts each of them arsenic each caller and each great, immoderate of them are — either wholly oregon successful immoderate manner — already acquainted to Android users. Here’s a database of astatine slightest immoderate of the features that Apple is present offering but that Android has had for a while.

Multiple stops successful maps

You are connected your mode location aft visiting your Aunt Bea, and you abruptly recognize that if you instrumentality a abbreviated broadside trip, you tin halt successful astatine 1 of your favourite bookstores. Don’t privation to get lost? Now, successful iOS 16, you tin rapidly adhd the code of the bookstore to your travel docket and get directions that volition fto you halt determination and past find your mode backmost home.

It’s a precise useful diagnostic that Android has had since astir 2017. Apple Maps has surely come a agelong way since its disastrous motorboat 10 years ago, but the potholes successful the way on its improvement person been similar this illustration — requiring a long-overdue filling astatine each update.

Email: schedule, undo, punctual later, and follow-up

In iOS 16, if you deed “Send” connected an email and abruptly recognize you enactment the incorrect person’s sanction connected it, you present person 10 seconds to alteration your caput and undo the nonstop (assuming the different idiosyncratic is besides utilizing iOS 16). You tin besides docket an email to beryllium sent anytime you similar oregon usage Remind Later to punctual yourself of an email you don’t privation to woody with immediately.

Gmail has had an unsend since astir 2018, but you get a prime of 5, 10, 20, oregon 30 seconds to alteration your caput (you tin acceptable the clip successful Gmail’s web app). You tin besides Snooze an email truthful it volition popular up aboriginal and docket an email to beryllium sent erstwhile you privation it.

Apple Live Captions

iOS 16 has added Live Captions, which connection real-time transcription for videos, audio, and conversation. This is an highly utile feature, not lone for radical with proceeding disabilities but for anyone who needs to way a conversation.

In fact, Android has had a Live Caption relation since 2019 and presently provides contiguous translations for those captions successful respective languages (although the accuracy of those translations volition astir apt not unrecorded up to those of a quality translator). But hey, adjacent if Apple is erstwhile again precocious connected this, it’s surely a triumph for accessibility — and for watching videos with your telephone muted erstwhile you’re excessively lazy to prime up your earbuds.

Haptic feedback connected keyboard

Typing connected a telephone inactive mostly sucks successful 2022, and portion of that is from the deficiency of feedback you get portion tapping. Not each input instrumentality needs to person the feedback of a mechanical keyboard, but it’s bully to cognize erstwhile you’ve really typed a missive connected an onscreen board. As a result, iOS 16 has now introduced haptic feedback connected its onscreen keyboard. Android has had it for beauteous overmuch arsenic agelong arsenic we tin remember.

The main quality present is that you person to enable haptic feedback successful iOS 16; successful Android, it is automatically enabled connected astir phones (but you tin disable it if you privation to). Let’s chalk this 1 up to the “How has it taken this long?” tally of features, and we’ll beryllium definite to sing from the rafters that iPhone users present thankfully person this basal functionality.

Shared libraries

iOS 16 volition soon fto you make shared photograph libraries — called the iCloud Shared Photo Library — based either connected a day oregon connected who is successful the photos. You tin stock your photograph room with up to 5 people. (Apparently, this diagnostic won’t instantly vessel erstwhile iOS 16 does, truthful you whitethorn request to hold a bit.) Google Photos lets you stock your full room — based connected a starting day oregon connected who is successful the photos — with a azygous partner.

Always-on display

Okay, this one’s a biggie. One of the galore features introduced astatine the caller Apple lawsuit is an always-on display, which volition lone beryllium disposable connected the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. Always-on displays fto you glimpse astatine the clip and widgets and get different adjuvant info adjacent erstwhile the telephone is asleep. It’s thing Apple Watch users person had entree to since the Series 5, but Apple is lone putting it successful the iPhone present — and gating it to the fancier Pro models.

This is thing that Android phones person had for the amended portion of 10 years. It’s a diagnostic that Google truly enactment successful the forefront with Android 12, wherever it made the always-on show amusement a huge integer timepiece by default erstwhile the phone’s surface sits astatine rest. Meanwhile, each this time, each iPhone has conscionable been a lifeless achromatic rectangle until it’s touched oregon erstwhile a notification comes in.

That being said, astatine this point, Apple’s caller always-on show connected iPhone is much customizable and info dense than what you spot connected Android phones, with widgets, images, and tons of color. And sure, an always-on show is going to drain a small much artillery than keeping the surface wholly off, but successful astir phones, it’s a trivial amount. We’re blessed that we’ll soon spot a fewer little achromatic mirrors sitting connected desks and tables, devoid of beingness and character.

The always-on show of the iPhone 14 Pro. Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Phone fittingness app

The Apple Watch is simply a fashionable mode to measurement your fittingness — but if you were an iPhone idiosyncratic who didn’t person a watch, you couldn’t usage the authoritative Apple Fitness Plus app (although you could, of course, usage immoderate of the third-party apps retired there). Now you tin usage the Apple Fitness Plus app whether oregon not you are utilizing an Apple Watch.

Google’s authoritative Fit fittingness app has beauteous overmuch ever been disposable for Android phones, whether you usage a ticker oregon not. (Of course, you could reason that determination are fewer Android-compatible watches that are worthy worrying astir unless you’re a Samsung enthusiast…) It comes bundled with Pixels, portion Samsung includes its ain Health app. And portion a telephone volition not way your bosom complaint oregon somesthesia without the assistance of a wearable, it’s inactive bully for anyone to beryllium capable to get a basal estimation of steps walked, calories burned, etc.

Lock surface widgets

This is really a alternatively weird one. iOS 16 present allows you to adhd up to 4 widgets to your fastener surface (provided the app developer offers one).

Android 4.2 offered fastener surface widgets astir 10 years agone but, for immoderate reason, decided to instrumentality them distant again successful Android 5.0. So whether we should number this oregon not is up to you.

Perhaps Apple’s mostly cleanable way grounds of sitting connected ideas until they are afloat baked (Siri and archetypal HomePod, notwithstanding) volition cookware retired here, and fastener surface widgets volition go a cardinal mainstay of astir iPhone users’ habits. Or, possibly it volition conscionable beryllium different unusual quirk lone utilized and beloved by immoderate of america weirdos — you know, similar however regular widgets are successful the archetypal place.

Crash detection

Apple’s presentation connected September 7th sometimes felt similar a acquisition successful “Why you should beryllium scared,” with its seeming accent connected features that would summon assistance if you were mislaid successful the wilderness, archer you if you were having a bosom attack, oregon telephone exigency services if you were successful a large car crash. This past diagnostic — car clang detection — is present disposable successful the caller iPhone 14 phones arsenic good arsenic successful the upcoming Apple Watch Series 8.

Pixel phones person car clang detection arsenic well; Google added it to the built-in Personal Safety app back successful 2019.

High-megapixel camera sensor with pixel binning

A amended camera is the crushed galore radical take to upgrade to a newer telephone model, and for years, galore manufacturers were dead-set connected utilizing 12-megapixel sensors portion performing arsenic galore bundle tricks arsenic computational photography could allow. Major players similar Google and Samsung person precocious started upping the solution of their main camera sensors to astir 40 oregon 50 megapixels — not due to the fact that we each request monolithic representation files, but due to the fact that capturing each that accusation and sizing it down to a “normal” representation astir thing similar 12 megapixels helps with artifacts similar low-light noise. It’s portion of the latest bundle tactics being utilized to marque our tiny smartphone sensors over-perform and rival what immoderate dedicated cameras tin bash (in the close scenario).

This method is called pixel binning: taking adjacent pixels connected a high-resolution sensor and combining them to amended representation prime astatine a little resolution. It’s a genuinely beneficial diagnostic if you don’t request the autochthonal solution of the high-megapixel sensor, though it’s acold from caller tech. Even the Nokia 808 PureView did this to immoderate grade backmost successful 2012. It’s besides not a magic instrumentality that fixes everything — you’re inactive reliant connected the prime of the representation sensor and the processing pipeline.

The iPhone 14 Pro’s main camera decidedly shows promise, adjacent if Apple is simply a small precocious to the binning party. Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Now Apple has this diagnostic successful the 48-megapixel main camera of its caller iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max — confidently throwing astir presumption similar Quad-pixel and Photonic Engine. It sounds breathtaking due to the fact that Apple is precise bully astatine making things dependable exciting, and it whitethorn precise good beryllium a important generational improvement. Though we should support successful caput that, erstwhile again, others were present archetypal — Huawei, Samsung, and galore others dabbled with high-res sensors for years. We’ll spot if Apple and its knack for slow-burn improvement truly acceptable it isolated from the pack.