There aren’t a lot of things in the tech world that can be as polarizing asthe Android vs. iOS debate. Both sides have some committed fans who will fight tooth and nail to diss the other. In our experience, some ofthe best Android flagshipscan easily give Apple iPhones a run for their money on several fronts. And there is one eminent person who endorses that view and believes that Android is now better than iOS: the head of Instagram andThreads, Adam Mosseri.
In response to a Threads post by Marques Brownlee aka MKBHD inviting tech hot takes,Mosseri replied: “Android’s now better than iOS.” It was very much a hot take as it sparked a widespread debate on the internet, in places likeReddit communities, where people tend to hold very strong views on the subject.
While his transformed perception of Android as a platform was controversial for many, his brief Threads post didn’t specify or give any indication of what exactly changed his mind. Being responsible for two of the biggest social media apps, was he speaking from a developer’s point of view? Or was it the user-facing changes that Google’s been making to polish the Android experience that appealed to him as a user? It could very well be a result of arecent tussle between Mark Zuckerberg and Appleover the App Store’s moderation policies and app tracking limits that have severely impacted Meta’s ad-heavy business model.
As for the user experience on each platform,the current stable build of iOS 16has a lot going on for itself, but it is alsoinfamous for being riddled with bugsand breaking stuff, going against Apple’s “it just works” philosophy. And from what we have gathered about the upcoming iOS 17,Apple is further tightening its grip on the ecosystemwith features that lock the users in. On the other hand,Android 14beta releases have added a bunch of quality-of-life improvements, ranging from its new lock screen customizations and charging indicators to a predictive back gesture and drag and drop for text and photos.
Having said that, Instagram has long favored the iOS app over its Android counterpart — Instagram initially didn’t even have an Android app. And that doesn’t appear to have changed even with Threads despite Mosseri’s preference for Android. A massiveThreads update landed this week for iOSwith a ton of features people have been asking for, but there is still no word on its Android availability.
Hopefully, things will improve for Instagram’s and Threads’ Android apps in terms of feature parity with the iOS version following this statement from the man in charge himself. Because smartphone users deserve a feature-rich experience no matter the platform they have a preference for.
