Getting out of the Apple ecosystem

danielanthony

danielanthony

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I need a dual sim phone as I'm tired of carrying around separate phones for personal and business use. I am looking to get the OnePlus 6 next week.

I currently have an iPhone X and 8 Plus, my wife also has an iPhone as well as the majority of my immediate family.

I'm looking for better alternatives to what is being offered by Apple in several areas, I hope some people here can help me based on their experience.

iMessenger -> Whatsapp
iTunes -> Spotify
FaceTime -> Duo? (I hate Skype)
Photos -> I need help here, what would be the best photo sharing app? I usually create albums for my iPhone owning family to share.
Find My Friends -> My wife uses this app to see where I am when traveling (and vice versa), is there any equivalent for Android to iPhone - I might be driving so can't send my location via WhatsApp.
Apple Wallet -> Is there a built-in equivalent to this? I usually have my loyalty cards and boarding cards easily accessible from here.

Thanks!
 

danielanthony

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Woden said:
WhatsApp has video chat, so no need for duo really. And the stock google photos app is pretty good.
Click to expand...

Yes, that's true, it's just that I always find the VOIP part of Whatsapp to be less reliable/quality than FaceTime. Is this what you use? I'll give it another shot though.

Matteysan said:
Photos = Google Photos

Location = you can track using google maps, https://support.google.com/maps/answer/7326816?co=GENIE.Platform=Android&hl=en

Apple Wallet = Google Pay
Click to expand...

I didn't know Google Maps could now do this, thanks.

I just Googled Google Pay, it does the same as Apple Wallet, excellent :D
 

Coxyis

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Begbie said:
But not like the apple version, right? You have to send share it, and it only lasts so long. IIRC.

Just noticed you can do up to 72 hours! I thought this was like a 10 minute thing. Sweet.
Click to expand...

If you're asking about the google maps location sharing, I have it set up to share indefinitely with a couple of people and has been like that for the last year or so.
 

Begbie

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Coxyis said:
If you're asking about the google maps location sharing, I have it set up to share indefinitely with a couple of people and has been like that for the last year or so.
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That's pretty awesome. Very handy, used it a few times but never knew you could do it indefinitely.
 

Em3bbs

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The only thing in your list you'll probably be disappointed about is that you won't be able to put boarding cards in your wallet. I travel fairly regularly though and I just use the airline apps.
 

Simps

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Me and my partner share our location indefinitely with each other on google maps. It's very good. We find Whatsapp Live location to be better but you can only share that for 8 hours at a time. Plus you can open the location on google maps as well which is nice.
 

Em3bbs

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Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I find it a bit creepy/insecure to need to know exactly where my partner is at all times! Very Black Mirror-esque.
 
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strumpusplunket

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I like Life360 for location sharing. It allows you to set up alerts as well for when someone arrives at or leaves a specific place, when they're driving, etc. We use it for our eldest who now walks home from school, and it's nice to know when he's arrived back safely.
 

Simps

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Em3bbs said:
Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I find it a bit creepy/insecure to need to know exactly where my partner is at all times! Very Black Mirror-esque.
Click to expand...
We don't sit there watching each other constantly. It's there should we need it. Last year my misses broke down in birmingham, she was on the phone to me trying to tell me where she was when her battery died. The car charger also broke so she couldn't charge her phone. It was winter and late at night, in the end she was stranded for 6 hours before someone happened to come along and lend her his phone. Horrible situation.
If we had location enabled at the time I could have directed recovery to her as it logs your last location should your phone turn off.

Another app which you could use if you don't want constant location is Google Trusted Contacts. You can request a location when you need it. Has a lot of features.
 

Kainz

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Indeed, the tracking has its uses.

My phone, my dads and my wife's has Cerberus anti theft on it. Part of the feature set is that you can connect to, and track the device.
Last year my wife decided to go up north on the M1 without me to help (she's a noob) and there was an accident near Newport Pagnell, therefore diversions were in place. My wife ended up on some country roads and had no idea how to get to her destination as she wasn't too familiar with G.Maps on her own phone. I ended up guiding her from home thanks to Cerberus and web G.Maps.

Cerberus has helped me locate my old Note4 many times when I left it on the bus in the past :o

Regarding video chat I would actually install Duo, despite the fact that it should be built into Android. Whatsapp Video is ok but Duo works better when mobile data conditions are poor.
 

Pawnless Endgame

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Em3bbs said:
Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I find it a bit creepy/insecure to need to know exactly where my partner is at all times! Very Black Mirror-esque.
Click to expand...

Yeah it does come across as rather controlling i.e. the partner needing to know where you are at all times because she thinks that you're cheating. When it gets to this point, then trust is all gone imo

P.S. About Google Play - this is what used to be known as Android Pay. Just to avoid confusion. The changeover happened only 1-2 months ago.

Google Maps is great because you can write up you own reviews about places and add photos (bit like Trip Advisor), and you can look up what other people have written. Also, you can answer questions from other people about places, and to reciprocate, you can do the opposite (get answers from other people). It runs on a points-based system, like EXP in role playing games and you achieve level-ups. Google Maps is also a sat-nav for your car, but you can also resolve routes via buses running in your area.
 
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