Google Pixel vs iPhone Unique Features — 2024/2025

These are always the two phones I’m considering — the latest Apple iPhone or the latest Google Pixel phone. There are many good Android phones, but if I’m going Android, I prefer the Google ones for easier customer support. I’ve updated this in 2024 for the iPhone 16 series (using the latest information available pre-release) and the Google Pixel 9 series.

Right now I have an iPhone 13 Pro Max, a recent and reluctant upgrade from my Google Pixel 5, which was still serving me well as it had for years (only did it because I’m developing an iOS-only app).

The latest phones are always similar in many ways. They have great screens and are quick. But there are a bunch of features that are unique to each, and I think it’s worth keeping an updated list to help me choose — sometimes I forget something that I later remember is important to me.

Here’s the updated list comparing the Google Pixel 9 Pro and the Apple iPhone 16 Pro, the highest end of each version, looking at what’s unique in each model — as well as what’s similar.

Features unique to the Google Pixel 9 / Pro

• No cutout in the display. Pixels have had just a little dot for years. I really don’t like the Apple phone cutout, even the “Dynamic Island”.
• Astrophotography from the phone. I don’t take photos of stars often, but this is a nice feature. You can expose photos for up to 5 minutes! (The iPhone typically maxes out at 15 or 30 seconds, depending on how stable your tripod is.)
• Optical fingerprint sensor. Useful backup for when something means the face unlock isn’t available.
• Google ecosystem integration. If you’re a Gmail, Chrome, and Google Calendar user, like I am, then you’ll appreciate how you never get unwanted apps like Apple Mail, Apple Maps etc. opening on a Google Pixel.
• Google Photos’ “Magic Eraser” lets you cut out unwanted background things easily. (It’s a paid feature on iPhone.)
• Can use any browser (and it’s not just skinned Safari) — I use Brave and Chrome
• Easy to use “Find my phone” — just Google “Where is my phone?”. Magical experience, very easy to use.
• An enhanced AI-supported assistant that can even wait on hold for you, can summarise webpages while ignoring ads, can do generative AI tasks, and more.
• I can record videos with sound from Bluetooth headphones. Oddly, you can’t do this with an iPhone, even when using AirPods.
• Can block ads using VPNs (but not without it).
• Better other-language dictation (voice-to-text), including in Chinese, Persian, and Arabic, which I use regularly. On the iPhone I often open up Google Translate to use this feature.
• The “Hold for me” (a.k.a. auto hold) feature that’s exclusive to Pixel. Google Assistant waits on hold for you. (Thanks to the reader who reminded me of this one.)
• Google Home Compatibility — They have similar features, but more devices are compatible with Google Home than with Apple HomeKit.
• More other-language keyboards. GBoard on iPhone is more limited.
• File management — I can find files I’ve downloaded and do things with them. I can access them easily via USB from any computer.
• Easier access to the camera via double tap of the power button. It’s not “hard” on the iPhone, mind you.
• Side-loadable apps — Sometimes I have to install a custom app or one not available in my country — you can do this with Android by downloading a pkg file.
• Better notification tray — you can do a lot more from it. For example, while using the phone to do something else, I can swipe down to see the tray and pause music or see what the next step in navigation is (e.g. how many stops are remaining).
• Seven years of updates — Which means the Pixel 9 will be supported until 2031.
• Easy custom ringtones. You can set an mp3 on the device or even a song from a music app as a ringtone. You have to employ workarounds on an iPhone (this is how I do it).
• Better keyboard – This is subjective but I prefer Google’s keyboard. Its corrections are more intelligent. Its language support is better. I can access frequent punctuation more often (commas, for example). As a small example, when I wrote the above sentences on an iPhone, it first wrote “Googles”, and then when I corrected it to “Google’s”, it changed that to “Google’S”.
• Cheaper! Equivalent iPhones are usually ~30-50% more expensive. This has been the case for ages.

Features unique to Apple iPhone 16/Pro

This is based on what we know about the iPhone 16 from announcements and beta versions of the OS.

• Adblock in Safari, the core browser. I don’t really like Safari, but it runs fast on iPhones, so it’s nice to be able to block ads in it. To block ads on Android I need to use a third-party non-core browser.
• Facetime and Messages. I don’t like SMS being the default, and I really do enjoy the experience of Facetime and Messages (though I personally use Signal and WhatsApp more — it’s much more common with my overseas friends, and businesses in Europe, Asia, and Africa often use Whatsapp). Most of my family members have iPhones. I actually had an older iPhone to keep using this with them when they’d accidentally send me a message. Secure RCS messaging will partially fix this, as it becomes the standard.
• Better battery life. Apple iPhones have lasted longer than their Google counterparts for a while. However, you generally have to recharge both at the end of the day.
• Many more accessories are available for iPhones — screen protectors, cases, etc. Whether online or in stores, 70% of the offerings are for Apple phones, and 30% are “other”, of which Google phones are a fraction.
• Apple AirPods / AirPods Pro work better. You get 3D sound and they seem to remain connected more reliably. I also like how it auto-transitions between my computer (an Apple one) and the iPhone.
• Airdrop. It has been out for ages, and there’s no equivalent on Android that makes it quite as easy as on the iPhone.
• Handoff. The copy-paste between Mac OS and iOS is kind of magic.
• Continuity camera/microphone. Sharing the microphone and video (continuity) between the phone and desktop computer is neat, but a major caveat is that it sometimes stops working and is weirdly hard to fix.
• Easier to access customer support — if you have an Apple Store nearby, and they’re all over the world in major cities. The Google Pixel return process (mine had a fault) was a bit annoying, as I didn’t have the option of going to a store.
• Video out via USB-C: The iPhone has been able to do video out for a while. The Pixel needs you to have a separate device, a Chromecast, or a display that supports it (many TVs do).
• HomeKey— Apple’s HomeKit has a pretty unique feature where you can swipe your phone as a key. It doesn’t rely on wifi. Android has no equivalent to this.
• OpenAI integration (coming soon, iPhone 16) — Apple has a partnership with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, which will focus on integrating ChatGPT within the Apple ecosystem. Most people prefer ChatGPT to Google’s features, so this is a nice addition.
• Apple Maps. This is a surprising one, as it used to be terrible. But Apple Maps is much better for freeway navigation than Google Maps in my city (in Australia). It tells me the specific lane to be in and gives me lots of advanced warning. I frequently miss exits with Google Maps. Apple Maps is at least worth checking out wherever you live — don’t write it off.

Features that are similar between the two (or less important to me)

• AI features — Google has Gemini Advanced (Pixel 9 onward) for asking questions, performing photo editing, and creating images. The iPhone 16 will have Apple Intelligence for questions to Siri, text and image generation, image editing, and more. You can get Apple Intelligence in beta (not all features are available), and need an iPhone 15 Pro at least.
• Photography is excellent on both phones. Sometimes photos from one look better than the other in various situations… but whatever, it’s splitting hairs.
• They both have all the apps. Apple had an advantage years ago, but these days, all the important ones are available on both platforms. Android has a free version of Anki, and iOS has some other ones I’ve forgotten about. But bear in mind that small developers frequently release Apple versions first.
• Both have high-quality watches. The Apple Watch has been around longer, but the Pixel Watch 2 looks like a good alternative. And I prefer its look.
• Both Apple HomeKit and Google Home have a lot of overlapping features.
• Both the latest Pixel and iPhone phones have OLED displays with always-on display. (Android phones have had this for longer… around a decade longer. My iPhone 13 doesn’t have it!)
• Both have USB-C as of the iPhone 15 generation, to the chagrin of some iPhone owners who now have to upgrade charging cables…
• Both have a “nearby share” feature — though the iOS one is more useful to me as it means you can share to a laptop (rather than just to other Android phones)
• Siri and Google Assistant are both similarly useful/annoying. I find myself using Siri more, but I also hate how it says “Mmm hmm?” (Rude, in old-school English/Australian culture, and I’m old!)
• Privacy — Apple makes a lot of noise about privacy, but Google is good at it too. They’ve both had black marks on their records.
• Visual design — at this point, all phones look essentially the same. Some prefer one, some prefer the other.
• Wireless charging — They all have it these days.
• Swiping interface — it seems very similar between the phones.
• Video broadcasting: The iPhone does it via AirPlay, and Android phones do it via the “Cast” feature. TVs seem to support both these days without needing extra devices.

What’s Changing?

The thing that’s changing most quickly in 2024 is AI integration — Google with its Gemini Advanced-powered features, and Apple with “Apple Intelligence” (currently OpenAI / ChatGPT)-powered features.

These will be important to some people and not to others. They’re also going to change very quickly. I’ll keep an eye on them, but your personal experience using AI is going to be important.

Other considerations/notes

I have always switched between Google and Apple phones. Usually because of cost, but sometimes because of some feature — like a few years ago, Pixel was the only to support Google Fi (now, many do, and also I don’t really use it much).

In the past, I’ve owned models including the iPhone 3G, the Google Nexus (what the Pixel used to be called), an iPhone 4, an iPhone 5, Google Pixel 3, an iPhone 7S, Google Pixel 5 (one of my favourites!), and now an iPhone 13 Pro Max.

(Why did I like the Pixel 5? It had a great form factor, all the features I could need, and it was the last phone to have unlimited photo upload to Google Photos. I only bailed because I am now developing an iOS app and I have to be familiar with the ecosystem.)

In the past, Google Pixel phones offered unlimited storage in Google Photos (when stored in high resolution, but not original quality). This ended with the Pixel 5, sadly. So it’s no longer an advantage.

Another thing to consider is the pain of switching phones. On both phones, it takes a few hours. Yes, you can just copy over every app — but I have to log in again with two-factor authentication on both. Then there are a few apps that are “security keys” for the websites — switching those over is always tricky. And I seem to always mess up Signal and WhatsApp.

Anyway, hopefully the above is useful. Let me know if so (or if there are any gaps).