Locked-In-O-Meter: iPhone Edition

I use several Apple devices. This is partly because I like them, and partly because I think they’re more worthy of my support than (for instance) Microsoft and Google.

However, Apple is doing their best to invalidate that second point. I’d also love to be able to support cool companies, like Framework and Fairphone.

So, I want to examine: How locked-in would I rate myself? Starting with the iPhone.

And I’m not just talking about being locked-in for nefarious reasons. I’m also talking about things I simply prefer about having an iPhone.

Hardware

I do like my current iPhone 13 Mini – and also my wife’s iPhone 15 Pro. However, from a hardware perspective, I would have zero issues moving to something else instead.

I’d either buy a Fairphone (the 5 has been out for a while, so interested in seeing what they do with the 6th version), or maybe a flip phone of some kind 🖇️. I think that’s the logical next step for a Mini Phone Person like myself.

Especially as long as my wife has access to a good camera, I’m not very picky about my phone hardware.

Accessories

The AirPods Pro 2 are perhaps my favourite Apple product ever. I like the sound, form factor, noise cancellation/modes, Find My features in the case, and the transfer between (Apple) devices. They’d probably still be decent buds with an Android phone – but I’d most likely be more happy getting something else. Probably less happy than I am with AirPods + iPhone today, though…

In our house, the Apple TV is the only TV interface. It’s not that I love it – but the competition is terrible. I just want to be able to pay for a nice box that gets out of the way, and isn’t stuffed with ads. I had hopes that Sonos could create something more premium than the Rokus of the world – so I was sad to hear about the cancellation…

I like that I can control the TV with my phone (and easily get the sound to the AirPods) – so losing that would be a bummer.

Software

In general, I don’t use a lot of Apple’s own software. As my app defaults show, I just find that I almost always prefer third-party options. However, there are a couple of things me and my wife use together. And I want to try my best to not have my choices affect her more negatively than necessary…

We have a shared iCloud Photo Library, which works well. Something like Google Photos would probably work OK – but Apple bars it from integrating nicely with iPhones. And going into bed with Google, instead of Apple, is a step backwards in terms of ethics. So I would have to find something else, that would still be pleasant to use for my wife.

We also use Reminders.app a bit, and Apple Notes, for some shared stuff. But I think finding decent cross-platform alternatives here would be easier than with the photo library.

I use Shortcuts a bit, which would also be something I’d miss.

Telegram negates some ecosystem lock-in

I know that Telegram is a controversial recommendation…

• I don’t like the company/people/values behind it.
  • But at least it’s a different (and not American) company than the other companies I don’t like — and that are much more dominant.
• It doesn’t have the highest grade of security. (Chats are mostly not end-to-end encrypted, and “only” encrypted on the server.)
  • This is vital to know — but it’s not an issue for me. (I care more about not having tracking and ads.)
  • I’d also argue that the security is about on-par with iMessage:
    • As long as only one chat participant has regular iCloud backups turned on, iMessage is also “only” encrypted on the server.
    • And as a user, you can’t really tell!

However, in the context of the Apple ecosystem it provides cross-platform replacements for (and improves!) at least three parts:

1. iMessage
   • As I’ve written about previously, it’s just a really good chat app.
   • I especially like the powerful group chat features.
   • It also provides a great, and cross-platform, place to share photos.
2. FaceTime
   • Both voice and video chats work great (and are always end-to-end encrypted).
3. AirDrop
   • I’ve always found AirDrop to be very unreliable — and I hate waiting and hoping the correct device shows up.
   • With Telegram, you can quickly send files up to 2 GB (and 4 GB with Premium).
   • You can both send to others and yourself (with Saved Messages).
   • And the cloud sync makes it so it doesn’t take up space on your device.

In other words, some common things keeping people in the Apple ecosystem don’t really apply to me.

However, third-party exclusives are my biggest “problem”…

Even though I’m not a developer, I get genuinely pissed when I see how Apple are treating, and talking about, third-party developers. In Apple’s reality, they (and their platforms) are providing all the value and business in that relationship – so they’re entitled to extract as much out of third-party developers as they can.

For some reason, they don’t see the way third-party developers provide value the other way, making their platforms more valuable.

One thing is with large (but small, compared to Apple) companies, like Spotify – that don’t have in-app-purchases for their subscription on iOS. In Apple’s view, this is unfair, as Spotify gets access to Apple’s platform without paying anything. But you can also look at it from a different perspective: I’m a subscriber to Tidal, Netflix, and YouTube – and the companies behind these cross-platform services make the iPhone a viable phone for me, by maintaining apps for the platform. And Apple doesn’t even pay them anything! It’s almost like it’s a mutually beneficial relationship…

But I’m even more annoyed when it comes to the way Apple treats (especially smaller) developers of platform exclusive apps…

A culture of paying for apps

If one were to compare the free apps available for macOS/iOS and Windows/Linux/Android, I’m sure the quality wouldn’t be that far apart. However, I just love that if I want to pay a bit for some nicer software, that’s available to me on Apple platforms. The culture of people being willing to pay for software is so important, and has made it possible for more people, especially indies, to make a living making (also small) apps.

Let’s compare it to pizza restaurants: You can get fast-food pizza on all platforms – no problem. However, if you want to pay a bit more for some great Neapolitan pizza, that simply isn’t available on Windows/Linux/Android. If that’s not something you would like to prioritise, that’s perfectly fine, of course. Then it not being an option isn’t a concern for you. But it is to me.

I mentioned many more in this blog post, but I’m talking about apps like NotePlan, Paper, Lire, Overcast, Raycast 🖇️, CleanShot X, BetterTouchTool, KeyboardMaestro, Callsheet, Ulysses, Bike, BusyCal, and Mona. Here’s something I want Tim Cook to really understand: I’m buying Apple devices because of the people behind apps like this. I don’t buy these apps because I have Apple devices.¹

I also like Setapp 🖇️, and that I can pay ~€12/month and truly improve the experience of using my devices.²

John Gruber also touched on this today, in the blog post Developers as Suppliers:

Apple should view developers as a precious resource to be cultivated, encouraged, and protected — not as a profit center to be squeezed. The only benefit from developers to Apple that Apple should be concerned with are the first-class apps those developers are creating to enrich and broaden Apple’s platforms.

To sum it up, these are the things pointing towards my next phone also being an iPhone:

Let’s say I wanted to buy a Fairphone 6 in the future. Here’s a list of things that would need to be solved or lived with (or just questions I have). 👇🏻

(BTW, the reason I’m focusing on replacing my iPhone, and not my Mac, in this post, is that the latter would be much more painful. I intend to write about that later, though!)

1. I’d probably want a new pair of earbuds at some point – and the experience would likely be worse than with the AirPods Pro 2s.
   • Maybe something from Fairphone or Sony? Perhaps paired with the Sonos headphones?
2. I think I’d lose the ability to control our Apple TV.
3. In general, the value of my Setapp subscription will be lowered, as I can’t get phone apps (and some Mac apps will become less valuable without access to their mobile companion).
4. I’d have to find a new way for my wife and me to share photos.
   • Could NextCloud work?
5. I’d also have to find a place for us to share notes and tasks.
6. I’d also need a new place for my own notes and tasks. These are now in NotePlan – and I’m excited about the beta with Teamspaces, as I have hope I can give my wife NotePlan, and use that to replace Notes.app and Reminders.app. I also do most of my writing in Paper (also on the iPhone).
   • Obsidian is an option, which I do use for some other things. But it’s just so much less nice. 😩
7. I assume I would be able to find an enjoyable calendar app?
   • One of the Setapp apps I like is BusyCal – so I guess I’d have to look at Android alternatives. As I have backend sync elsewhere, I don’t have to use the same app for mobile and desktop, though.
8. Currently, I actually don’t have a Mastodon app on my phone, as detailed in this post. But I really like Mona, so I would have to look at the Android alternatives and hope.
9. I spend a lot of time listening to podcasts, and would have to find a replacement for Overcast.
   • Hopefully, something like Pocket Casts could be OK. It’s much more expensive, though…
10. I read RSS feeds in Lire and Ebooks is Yomu – and I would have to examine alternatives for these as well.
11. I have my bookmarks in Anybox currently, as I like it better than Raindrop, which I used previously. But the latter is cross-platform, and using it would be fine.
12. I really like the video player Infuse, as a way to watch stuff from my Jellyfin library. I know that there are options for Android – but they’re probably not as nice… And I’d likely lose sync with my other devices.
13. The last thing is very niche, but also something that I value highly at the moment, and is likely impossible to replace with something equally good: Mango Baby Tracker
    • It does one job, and does it very well – while leveraging many iPhone features, like Live Activities, Shortcuts, etc. We use it to track nursing, sleep, medication, etc., of young Alfred. I can start a timer on my phone, and it appears instantly on my wife’s iPhone…

If I were to rate my locked-in-ness from 1 (easy/preferable to move) to 10 (impossible to move), I’d perhaps give myself a 6.

I think the most problematic/annoying things would be iCloud Photo Library, tasks and notes (both shared and personal), baby tracker, and generally being able to use apps I find to be nice.

And I can literally think of zero reasons why I’d prefer an Android (/eOS) phone, except the flip form factor or wanting to support Fairphone.

• If you’re an Apple user, how locked-in do you feel? What keeps you there? (Both positive and negative things.)
• Do you have advice for solutions to my “problems”?
• Are there any other things that should pull me towards Android?