Best of Both Worlds

I'm an Apple fanboy. My first Macintosh was the SE/30, and I've never looked back. However, lately, I've been looking for a phone that doesn't feel like a 5-pound albatross around my neck.

Through the magic of cell phone plan negotiation, I managed to get my hands on a "smart" flip phone at no extra charge. I was off to the races.

Rather than do a full switch, I decided to make it a project and see if I could enjoy the best of both worlds as seamlessly as possible.

So I put down my iPhone Max XS and picked up the Samsug flip.

Phone Calls

The first thing I needed was cross compatibility call wise. Using the digits app from T-Mobile calls and messages from the iPhone are automatically forwarded to the Samsung flip. So far it hasn't missed a Phone call or a voice mail. Text messages are a little bit wonky. But I'm finding very few of my friends use standard SMS. It's mostly WhatsApp or Signal. If you use Telegram we can't be friends.

Apple Watch

nother snag was the Apple Watch. I love my Apple Watch and wear an Ultra with a cellular plan. "Cellular watch" is a bit of a misnomer. The iPhone acts as a relay. You can leave your phone anywhere as long as it's powered on, and it will forward notifications and phone calls to the watch. But you can't use the watch as a standalone cellular device with the phone powered off. So, my iPhone sat charging at my desk. I also learned that the Watch app is not available on the iPad, so that pathway was closed off to me.

Apps

Next came apps. I found most of my must-have apps could be installed simultaneously on both phones. I could've also accessed most of these apps via the web but there was no need.

Apple Music - one instance running at a time unless you have the family plan.
Mastodon - plenty of third-party apps
What’s App - has a great system for multiple devices
Discord - Duel apps
X, or Twitter - sigh
Instagram - Duel apps
YouTube - Duel apps
Plex - Duel apps
Tailscale - Duel apps
Proton Suite - Duel apps with differnet features
Lyft - Duel apps

The only real snag I've hit in the apps department was Signal. Your account is tied to your phone number, and you can't have it installed on more than one device. A phone and a PC or a tablet, yes, but not two phones. I installed Signal on the flip and linked it with my account. That meant my iPhone could no longer get Signal messages, and I no longer received notifications on my watch when somebody reached out to me via Signal.

I used Tasker (an Android-based alternative to Apple's Shortcut app) to write a small automation that sends an SMS to my watch whenever I get a message from Signal. It doesn't tell me who it's from or give any preview text of the message. It's just a little heads-up that I should take a peek at the Signal app.

Photos, Email, Cloud Storage

Each ecosystem has its own walled garden apps. This was less of a problem for me because I use a NAS. The Synology family of apps is cross-platform along with the Proton environment. That took care of photos, email, and cloud storage. The only caveat here is that all the pictures show up in one place eventually. I did miss taking a picture with my phone and having it show up on my iPad or desktop almost instantaneously. There are plenty of cross-platform AirDrop like apps out there, but it's still a detour in my workflow.

There were still a few walled garden apps that couldn't be properly brought over. The main two being Apple Fitness and Things. Both are proprietary to the Apple ecosystem. The watch took care of the Apple Fitness problem quite handily (pun intended), and Things does have somewhat of a watch app, so I could hobble along. I could also put my AirPods in and play music through the watch when I go for walks with Apple Fitness. There were a couple of proprietary apps here and there that I wasn't married to that I could easily find cross-platform substitutions for.

Turns out I did hit a bit of a speed bump with Things. The iPhone seems to be the hub for syncing. Any changes I make on the desktop app does not reflect on the watch until the iPhone app is opened. Not the worst it could be but definitely an extra step.

Carplay/ Android Auto

Something I had an accounted for was CarPlay. Call it a personal preference but I prefer the Carplay to Android Auto. I've always liked Apple Maps better and my bad sense of direct direction is the stuff of legends.

Final thoughts

I walk around with the Apple Watch on my wrist and the foldable android phone in my pocket. So far only one person has noticed the juxtaposition. The android operating system has come a long way since I played with it last 10+ years ago. I can honestly say there was little to no difference between the phones. I felt the camera was better on the android phone and dictation is a lot better on the iPhone.

I also went into this knowing that I could just grab my iPhone if I was unhappy with the switch. If you're thinking about trying this don't put yourself in a position where there's no going back.

UPDATE: (One Month Later): with both platforms up and running I always seem to drift back to the iPhone. It just feels better in my hands and the UX is a little smoother. I'm going on a hiking trip in Colorado in a few days so I'll definitely need the smaller form factor. Report to follow