Apple

Moving from iPhone (iOS) to Android (Samsung S8)

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Samsung galaxy s8 2643381 1280 Moving from iPhone iOS to Android Samsung S8

Like many, I have been a happy iPhone user for many years now. My first was an iPhone 4. I have had several since then, up until the 6S, I have even had 3 iPads. I will be honest and say that I really have always liked iOS and the iPhones. To an extent, I still do.

However, the release of the iPhone X and iPhone 8 made me see a few cracks I had been ignoring with the iPhone. It showed me some issues with Apple’s business model as well. I was reminded that, just like all other major corporates, they just want my money no matter what it takes.

As my contract came to an end, it was my 2-yearly job to look at potential options to upgrade. Normally it was a no-brainer, I’ll have the new iPhone please my good salesperson. However, this year it was different. The iPhone X, hailed as the all-conquering hero, was just far too expensive for the features it was boasting, and the iPhone 8 was just more of the same and automatically made obsolete by the iPhone X the second it came out!

I began to look at the other side of the fence, to see if the fields of Android were greener. I had considered it before but used the same excuse each time “I have invested too much into the Apple Eco System to move to Android”, or “Yeah, but all my music is in iTunes.” This time though, I decided to dig further and see if it really was as hard as all that to move. It turns out, yes and no…

Considerations for the Move

The first thing to check was if there was a way to move my music from iTunes to Android in some way and it turns out there is, and it is really easy! Enter Google Play and the music manager software for your PC (or Mac). With this software installed, your music is automatically uploaded to the Google cloud, up to 100,000 songs for free! Any music already in their library is added automatically, anything else is physically uploaded from your machine. Depending on the size of your library, this may take a while but is very simple.

With music dealt with, I turned to my photos. Again, there is an app for that! Google Photos allows you to upload all the images on your phone to the Google cloud. This time, if you are happy to have your images resized to 16 Megapixels and your videos to 1080p, you can have unlimited storage for free! If you want higher resolution, you get 15GB for free still. Install the app and it will upload your images for you, simple!

Next was my apps. This is a sticking point that you will probably have to swallow. I had a few that I had purchased on the iPhone which I would have to buy again on Android. Annoying, but not the end o the world. Almost every app on my iPhone was available on the Android store and those that were not had a good alternative. I use Microsoft Note for most of my note-taking, which is there. Google Keep is a great alternative to iOS notes and there are plenty of other options.

Now for one snag, I was going to hit – moving notes I had on my iPhone notes app. As it happens, Samsung has thought of this. If you have all your notes synchronised to iCloud, they have an app called Smart Switch that will copy them into Samsung Notes for you. It is not ideal, but it does work. This is only available on Samsung phones, however, there are other paid options on the Android store.

Contacts were my next concern. There were a few options to move these. I already had mine synchronised to my Google account on the iPhone, so this was very simple. However, it can be done in a few other ways. You can use the Smart Switch app of you are on Samsung, or you can download them from iCloud and import them into your Android phone. It is all very simple actually!

Once I was sure it was the right move, I went and got a Samsung S8. It took me about a day to get everything sorted and to discover a few extra things I needed to manage. Save data for games being one. Thankfully most games I play synchronise with Facebook!

So, is the grass greener on the Android side of the fence. Well, mostly.

Pros

You can make the device look exactly how you want. Don’t like the launcher – change it (I recommend Nova Launcher or Google Now). Don’t like the icons, change them. Don’t like way notifications work, change them. The flexibility of the OS is remarkable!

More choice on the actual design of the phone. I’m not going to lie, the S8 is a stunning phone, far nicer than any iPhone I have used. It is snappy, and it is sexy. But, there are literally hundreds of options out there to suit any budget.

Cost of ownership. As I have alluded to, Android phones come in many forms and suit many budgets, as do the contracts. My contract is significantly lower owning an S8 than it would have been owning an iPhone 8 or X

Google assistant has some cool features

Cons

Bloatware. Many phones come filled with bloatware and custom apps, something Samsung is very bad at (and Acer), but being Android, this is all very easy to remove.

Some apps are missing, I especially miss Apple’s Garage Band! I’m yet to find a good alternative. No Tweebot twitter app either, which I really miss!

Whilst there are amazing apps, there is less control on the Play Store, so there are a lot of crappy ones made to con you. You must be vigilant!

Google assistant is not as good as Siri when it comes to managing music!

Putting a myth to bed

Now, this is the big one, battery life. Legend has long told of the battery life of a Samsung or any other Android phone. Owners tell tales of 2 or 3 days of battery life with better low power management.

The truth is a little more complicated than that though.

Does my Samsung S8 last longer than my iPhone? Not really! I am a heavy user of the phone and I get the same life out if the Samsung as I did my iPhone, possibly an hour or so longer. However, if I wanted to make the battery last longer in a squeeze, the battery management is a lot better allowing you to run on a stripped-down OS in an emergency for hours and hours longer than before. Also, for an average user, I would imagine the battery really could give you 2 days. But don’t let the legends sway you too much!

Conclusion

All in all, I am very happy with my choice to move. It frees me of something that felt like a shackle, Apple technology. Sure, Samsung is still a massive company, but it is still easier for me to now move around the Android universe and change as I feel necessary.

Android, once set up, is a joy to use. Yes, it takes a bit longer to get going, but once you are going it is lovely! You notice all sorts of little things that Apple would claim were unique to them, yet actually started on Android and is more often than not better on Android.

Some Recommendations

  • Get Nova Launcher
  • Get Swift Keyboard
  • Get Fenix 2 Twitter app (thanks @Burdy75)
  • Spend time setting up your notifications
  • Get Greenify battery booster
  • Enjoy!

I had to leave you with this from Romesh Ranganathan all about Android users!!

Forget loyalty, how about liking?

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Over the last few months I have seen more and more people in gamification changing their messaging. Rather than speaking about gamification, they have started to speak about loyalty.

It makes sense, with gamification you are trying to guide people and engage them with your products, services or whatever – it does seem to follow that you would be aiming for their loyalty as well. However, I see an issue here and it may just be a definition thing, but it still got me thinking.

I have spoken about loyalty a few times and it always comes across to me that it can be looked at as:

“Making decisions with your heart rather than your head”

Let me explain this first, then move to my point.

Truly loyal customers will choose your product over other despite value or convenience. Take Apple. They have been selling phones to people that are of lower specifications than other brands and at far higher costs. Logically, this makes no sense. However, when you buy an Apple product you are buying with your heart. You want to be part of the community that owns them, you want to own the pretty shiny thing. The fact that in almost every way it is inferior to anything comparable on the market makes no difference. I know all of this and still have one – and will have the iPhone 6 when it comes out. I am loyal to iPhone (if not Apple).

There are a few other things at play. I am loyal to the ecosystem and the simplicity – but this is now more about being bought into the ecosystem and the perceived cost and time of moving to a better Android phone is too much to deal with!

Here comes the point. YOU ARE NOT APPLE.

You can’t sell an inferior product at twice the price and have people thank you for it.

You can’t even sell a better product at the same price and guarantee return sales.

With this in mind, how about we forget loyal customers and think about customers who like you instead. This is a much easier and less expensive goal to aim for initially.

Getting people to like you

  • Be honest
  • Speak to your customers like they are at least your equals
  • Don’t try to trick them into buying your products
  • Use things like gamification in interesting ways, not just as a boring “Loyalty” scheme (Hint, bribing people to come back is NOT the same as loyalty!)
  • Give good value, without cutting your own throats
  • Stop trying to be Apple (or Google or any other huge brand that has millions to spend on this kind of thing)
  • Be your self and be true to your vision.

If you can do all of this, you will at the very least not generate dislike. You might get people to like you and your product and eventually this may lead to true loyalty!

2 major lessons Apple has just taught us about loyalty

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Another 6 months – another set of Apple tech announcements and pending products. Bigger phones, better software and a Watch (which I will probably speak about soon enough around what this could mean to personal gamification!).

They also gave every iTunes user a gift.

How awesome is that! Well, as it turns out not very. Apple pushed the new U2 album into everyone’s iTunes account forgetting a couple of really important things about people.

  1. They like to have a choice.
  2. They like to have things that are relevant to them.

As nice as they thought they were being, they were actually breaking the trust of their customers – pushing content on them without asking if it was ok first.

Just because it is free, does not mean it has relevance to everyone.  Say 30% of iTunes users are U2 fans. They probably leapt for joy, a free gift that was relevant to them. That leaves 70% who don’t like U2 – what free and relevant gift do they get?

What made them think that every iTunes customer on earth would want a U2 album? Music is a really personal and private thing. It carries with it huge emotion. Apple has always been really good at understanding this type of thing. Steve Jobs won hearts rather than minds when he dropped the iPhone on the world.

The backlash has been so sudden and unexpected by Apple, they have had to release a tool to remove the U2 album from your account!

The lessons around loyalty here are simple. If you want to give things to people make sure that it is their choice if they accept it and that it is relevant to them. That may mean offering more than one thing. You will never please everyone, but at least leave them slightly disappointed that they could not make the most of the free gift, rather than actively angry at what has happened! You can’t take their loyalty for granted, they are only loyal as long as you provide them what they want!

As a gamifier, you have to consider Autonomy in every system you create and you have to remember, not everyone likes what you like!

Gamification and Habits

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I will state now, I am not claiming to be an expert on habits, however – I wanted to share some thoughts on how gamification can help with habit building.

There are several habit or behaviour models out there. My two favourites are Nir Eyal’s Hook model and BJ Fogg’s Behaviour Model.

For the sake of this blog, I am concentrating on the Fogg model, I personally have a better understanding of this one. I am reading Nir’s book at the moment so expect me to expand on this concept soon!

Fogg states that there are three things that need to fall in to perfect alignment for behaviours and habits to change; Ability, Motivation and Triggers.

BJ Fogg’s Behaviour Model (c) BJ Fogg 2007

As you can see from the graph, things that are hard to do need greater levels motivation to do them, whilst things that we are not motivated to do in some way need to be easier to do. Either way, you need triggers at the right time to actually do them in the first place.

Let’s take an example of time sheeting system. Very often these are complicated and very user un-friendly. Whilst you may be motivated from  the point of view of “I have to fill this in or I wont get paid” (loss aversion and fear), really it holds no interest for you. The fact that it is also hard to do makes it doubly troublesome for people. Usually a few days before your time-sheet is due, you may get some reminder about filling it in, but the likelihood is that this comes at a point when you are busy and gets ignored.

So on Fogg’s chart we are in a problematic area because motivation is pretty low and the complexity means that ability is also low. Add the fact the triggers are pretty weak and you can see why so many companies struggle to get people to get time sheets and expenses done in a timely fashion, it is not habitual for many employees – it is a pain in the back side!

Gamification can help with each of these three factors in different ways.

Education

If people are educated to understand what the benefits are of getting time sheets in on time are, beyond htat of not being paid, then this could help. Give users a sense of purpose by explaining the costs to the company and the people. Explain how much money could be saved if people did this without constant chasing and most importantly how this saving could be fed back to them in the long run. This may go towards increasing motivation.

Also, educate them in the most efficient way of using the system. With luck, the system will be straightforward enough to not need this, but if it isn’t then you need to help people as much as possible. This will go towards increasin peoples ability and making it easier in the future.

System Design

Google vs Apple vs You

As I eluded to in the previous paragraph, make the system easier to use. There is a joke meme that went around ages ago about how your enterprise system compares to Apple and Google ideals. Many people said that it was unfair to compare them to enterprise products as more information needed to be collected.

The truth of the matter is, your employees don’t care about that in the slightest – that is your problem. They have been raised on products that are becoming simpler and simpler to use in the consumer market, whilst it often seems that enterprise and internal products are getting more and more complex to use.

Whilst you may not be able to get your expenses app to only need one text box – you can certainly make it simpler and easy to use. Make sure it is mobile, give people the ability to enter information and scan direct from their mobile. Make the app web based and accessible. Don’t just show hundreds of drop downs, try to give the ability to users to personalise their view so that it only contains their most common tasks.

All of this will reduce the friction users come up against when they use the system and thus increase their ability to use it.

Triggers.

Fogg’s model of Behaviour change revolves around the use of triggers. You may be motivated as hell to do something and it may be the simplest thing in the world to do – but until it has become habitual – you will need to be triggered at a good time to do it. Sending an email at an appropriate time of day may do it. Don’t send it at lunch time – no one will read it and if they do, they will be eating their lunch so wont act on it. Don’t send it first thing as they will be busy with their morning routine. Don’t send it after hours as it will get ignored. Send it during the day, at a time when the morning rush is over and they are settling into day to day work. The exact time comes down to personal culture. Maybe there is a common time for coffee breaks, time the email to come out just after that.

The other thing is, send more than one, that way it has more chance of being seen. If your system is mobile friendly – send a text. Whatever you do – do not send a text or any kind of mobile notification if your system can not be accessed easily from a mobile device!

Finally (and at times optional) Feedback

Thank people for getting things done when you wanted them done. Positive re-enforcement is much stronger than negative. So thank them and let them know that their effort has been appreciated. Personally I much prefer speed notifications on roads that thank me for sticking to the speed limit rather than only telling me off for going too fast.

Gamification can be used in so many ways to improve motivation, reduce complexity of tasks and prompt or remind people. And not one mention of using Points, Badges or Leaderboards! (though they can have their place here as well!!)

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