You’ve probably already chosen a side, but is it the right one? Here’s how Apple and Google’s mobile operating systems stack up on 14 key features.
Phone Choices
Your phone choice is similar to the PC options available between the macOS and Windows operating systems. Like the Mac, Apple’s ecosystem has just one hardware vendor, albeit a top-tier one. Like Windows, Android isn’t limited to the parent company’s products; you can purchase a handset from one of many phone manufacturers. As a result, you’ll find a profusion of Android phones with a wide range of prices and performance levels.
You can get a respectable, low-cost Android phone, like the Samsung Galaxy A16 5G, for under $200. Compare that with the cheapest iPhone, the iPhone 16e, which costs $599. On the other end of the spectrum, some configurations of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 (a key example of the variety available with the Android platform) sell for more than $2,000. The most expensive Apple handset, the iPhone 17 Pro Max with 2TB of storage, costs $1,999.
One final Android-exclusive hardware feature might sway your decision to adopt a phone and OS: You can add storage to select Android phones via a microSD card. With iPhones, you’re stuck with the default storage.
Winner: AndroidInterface and Customization
Android is a customization-friendly operating system. You can create a comfortable smartphone environment, provided you’re willing to navigate through many menus to access a desired setting. However, it also has more options than you’ll find with an iPhone. For example, Google’s Material You radically updates Google’s OS with overhauled color and syncing options, giving your wallpapers and backgrounds a satisfyingly unified look and feel. And thanks to its generative AI, Android lets you create Cinematic Wallpapers that make your home and lock screens pop with impressive holographic effects. Don’t like the default icons and look? Apply a custom theme with a single click using third-party launchers. Overall, Android’s personalization freedom is extremely refreshing.
Apple has significantly enhanced its customization capabilities with iOS 26. What was once an elegant, albeit limited interface, has evolved into a highly customizable menu with a sleek, new Liquid Glass design language, free icon and widget placement options, and color-tinting elements that rival those seen on Android. It also introduces Spatial Scenes, an AI-powered feature that transforms your mundane photos into dynamic, 3D wallpapers similar to Android’s Cinematic Wallpaper. Combined with the impressive, multi-layered backgrounds and color schemes and large, well-designed, dynamic widget improvements, there’s an iPhone interface that you can truly make your own.
Thanks to these improvements, Android and iOS are now quite similar, although their design philosophies remain distinct. If you want control over every aspect of your phone’s appearance and functionality, Android’s open ecosystem is hard to beat. With numerous launchers and icon packs available, you can create a deeply personalized device. If you prefer a cohesive, high-quality aesthetic that seamlessly incorporates your personal photos, iOS 26’s Liquid Glass and Spatial Scenes are superb. The platform delivers powerful and elegant personalization without sacrificing its signature user experience. In short, you can’t go wrong with either.
Winner: TieNew Technology Support
New wireless technology standards emerge regularly, and Google has been eager to adopt them in recent years. Android was the first mobile OS with 5G network support. It also beat Apple to the punch with support for wireless charging, 4G LTE, and touchless voice commands. Apple tends to wait until the new technology is proven.
Since Android is open source, third parties can add functionality, such as support for styluses and foldable phones with folding inner screens and additional outer screens. But support for unique handsets can be hit-or-miss: For example, in 2021, Microsoft introduced the dual-screen Surface Duo 2, only to end support for it three years later. These technologies haven’t always been game-changing, but Android is often an early adopter.
Artificial intelligence is another technology that Android and iOS have adopted and integrated into their systems. Google Gemini leverages the AI’s powerful knowledge base to answer your questions, launch apps, translate words and phrases, and even generate content. With iOS 26, Apple has improved Apple Intelligence, providing significantly enhanced generative tools throughout the entire OS. iOS 26 introduces robust, integrated Live Translation in messages, FaceTime, and Phone, as well as a call screening feature that provides real-time transcripts. This narrows a major functional gap with Android. Clean Up, which works similarly to Android’s Magic Eraser, lets you remove unwanted elements from photos by identifying foreground and background features within an image.
Apple is steadily closing the technology gap, but Android remains a step ahead due to its more experimental and versatile generative AI tools.
Winner: AndroidDefault Apps
Apple and Google have many stock apps that live on your phone from the moment you first power it up. You’ll find software for email, web browsing, photo viewing and editing, audio playback and recording, video playback, and document and spreadsheet editing. Both OSes include apps you cannot uninstall, but they also let you replace stock apps with third-party options. One oversight on the Android side is the lack of a task or to-do app—iOS’s Reminders app is a sleek and efficient way to stay on top of things. Google receives partial credit because you can set tasks with Google Calendar, and it provides the Keep app as an extra download during the phone setup process. It does a good job with to-do lists.
Messaging apps are worth highlighting since communication is a top smartphone activity. Apple edges ahead of Android here with its robust Messages app, which includes Animoji, Memoji, payments, games, and the Messages app store. It has Stickers, an impressively addictive function that lets you transform a photo’s subject into a sticker that you slap into any Note or Message. In a nice touch, you can quickly turn a messaging session into a call or video chat with FaceTime, and you can also send and receive messages from your Mac.
However, Android is not far behind iOS. Android Messages utilizes Rich Communication Services (RCS), which has multimedia messaging and enhanced privacy features, including end-to-end encryption for one-on-one conversations. Using Messages in any web browser is a brilliant feature, as it lets you easily chat with others while on the desktop (perfect for chatting with friends while at work). Both Android and iOS incorporate live translation in their respective message apps.
Another important stock app for any mobile OS is GPS navigation. Google has long been acknowledged as the number-one map service, but Apple has significantly cut into that lead in recent years with Apple Maps’ numerous new features, including multi-stop routing and cycling navigation. Google remains more thorough and up-to-date with local information, providing full Street View coverage. It has biking, driving, public transportation, and walking directions.
Both have excellent health monitoring, news, and podcast apps, but the iPhone is better for video editing with iMovie and music creation with GarageBand.
Apple features its own Translate app to compete with the market-dominating Google Translate. The search giant’s app supports far more languages than Apple’s, along with tools for finding text in photos—particularly important for languages with an alphabet you’re unfamiliar with.
Likewise, Apple enhanced its Visual Lookup technology to identify anything on your iPhone screen, similar to the Circle to Search function on Android devices.
