Comparison between: Android and iOS

Comparison between Android and iOS Operating System

Google's Android and Apple's iOS are most popular operating systems used primarily in mobile technology such as smartphones and tablets. You should be careful while choosing your smartphone or device and tablet systems, as switching from iOS to Android or vice versa will require you to buy apps again in the Google Play store or Apple App Store. Sometime, it hectic to switch between different operating system.

Android is now the world’s most commonly used smartphone platform and is used by many different phone manufacturers. iOS is only used on Apple devices, such as the iPhone. Android, which is Linux-based and partly open source, is more PC-like than iOS, in that its interface and basic features are generally more customizable from top to bottom. However, iOS' uniform design elements are sometimes seen as being more user-friendly.

Considering the market share of android vs iOS, there are more than 1.2 billion android users compared to the 215 million Apple users. That why some developers stick to only creating apps for Android. Other developers actually take the reverse routes and only create apps for iOS. However, with the support of different frameworks, it is possible to create a cross-platform applications and large community is moving towards developing application for both platforms. As it become easier to create applications for cross-platforms by written codes for one platform and integrate it for another platforms (work on the concept of DRY- 'Don't repeat yourself') as compare to 10 years back.

Fig. 1: Apple v./s Android

Below comparison chart helps you better understand the key difference and similarities between the two: Let dives into it.

Android v/s iOS
Developer	Google	Apple Inc.
Initial release	23 September 2008	29 July 2007
Latest stable release	Android 11	iOS 14.1 and iPad OS 14.1
Internet Browser	Google Chrome- it is the internet browser came pre-install with Android devices.	Safari- it is the internet browser came pre-install with iOS devices.
File transfer	Can transfer files such as photos, videos or documents using Universal serial bus (USB) port or through Bluetooth.	Cannot transfer files such as photos, videos or documents using Universal serial bus (USB) port or through Bluetooth. We have to install iTunes app in our PC.
Map Browsing	Google Maps: It came pre-installed with the android devices.	Apple Maps: it came pre-installed with the iOS devices. We can install google maps separately.
Virtual Assistant	Google Assistant (pre-installed)	Siri (pre-installed)
Language based on	It is written using C, C++, Java and other languages.	It is mainly written in C, C++, Objective-C, assembly language and Swift.
License	It has the preferred license of Apache 2.0 and GNU GPLv2.	It has the preferred license is Proprietary, APSL and GNU GPL.
Security	Android software updated patches are available time to time as soon as it detects some bugs.	Security threats are rare because iOS is locked and downloading apps out of the App Store is complicated.
Development Languages	Java and Kotlin are mainly used for Android application development.	Swift are mainly used for iOS application development.
Open Source	It has Kernel based on Linux, UI, and some standard apps	The iOS kernel is not open source but is based on the open-source Darwin OS.
Languages supported	Android Devices available in 100+ languages.	iOS Devices available in 40 languages.
Apps support	Android Devices does not block 3^rd party apps.	IOS based Devices have a feature of blocking 3^rd party app stores.
Available	Android is available in phones such as Nokia, Samsung, Micromax, lava, LG, Xiaomi, and many more.	iOS is available in Apple phones, iPad, Tablets and other apple devices.