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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1384448
10 Features Android ‘Borrowed’ from Apple’s iPhone and iOS By Sergio Velasquez People had two things to say when Apple announced widgets for iPhone last year. First, they said that it took the company way too long to add this feature; and second, that Apple copied it from Android. While it’s true that sometimes iOS copies different features from Android, Android does the exact same thing. Google and Android have continuously taken iOS features and added them to their software, including in the upcoming Android 12 update. If we were to talk about who stole from who, we’d be here all day. Instead, continue reading to browse ten features that Android “borrowed” from iOS in the last few years. 10. Gestures When Apple got rid of the Home button, many were leery about how they’d use their iPhone. Gestures were something that took many years for people to get used to, but once they did, they could never go back. Gestures became so easy to use, and Google and Samsung ended up adding them to Android. Now you could choose between having digital buttons or using small gestures on the screen that wasn’t quite as good as the iPhone’s gestures. Now you can find this feature in many Android phones, and it’s become better with each passing year, but it took Android quite a lot of time to compete with iOS in that department. 9. 3D Facial Recognition Facial recognition has been around for years now, and many Android phones have this feature and a fingerprint sensor for unlocking. However, you can probably guess which smartphone had 3D facial recognition first, right? With the introduction of the iPhone X, Apple also brought something new to the table: Face ID. Apple’s Face ID feature was so good that it took Android a couple more years to produce comparable software and hardware to compete with what Apple did in 2017. Although to be fair, most Android phones now have both face recognition and a fingerprint sensor. If only Apple could copy that. 8. Nearby Sharing Recently Google released a feature called Nearby Sharing, which allows Android devices to send and receive different types of files, like pictures or video, over either Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Sounds similar? Well, it’s because that’s basically what Apple’s AirDrop does. With AirDrop, you can quickly and easily share files with other Apple devices in a flash. Although Android’s Nearby Sharing can be used with more non-Apple devices, AirDrop works amazingly with any iOS or macOS device you have. 7. Emoji Keyboard Nowadays, it’s easier to use emojis than words, so it’s difficult to remember when they weren’t even on our phones. But those times did exist, and Apple first implemented these emoticons in Japan in 2008. Apple then introduced an official Emoji keyboard worldwide back in 2011. Emojis were so popular that Android had to add them, too, although it took them long enough. It wasn’t until two whole years later that Android saw its first official Emoji keyboard in 2013. 6. Built-in Screen Recording Believe it or not, stock Android didn’t have a built-in screen recording feature until Android 11 in 2020. This feature was first introduced in iOS 11 in 2017. And people mock Apple for taking too long to add widgets. Ha! Keep in mind that we’re talking about Google’s stock Android