{"id":53923,"date":"2025-07-10T10:56:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T10:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/53923\/"},"modified":"2025-07-10T10:56:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T10:56:12","slug":"i-replaced-every-major-app-on-my-iphone-with-a-google-app-and-i-dont-regret-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/53923\/","title":{"rendered":"I Replaced Every Major App on My iPhone With a Google App and I Don\u2019t Regret It"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Though I love Apple&#8217;s devices, I find the company&#8217;s apps to be hit or miss. When some of the big apps on my iPhone weren&#8217;t meeting my needs, I switched them to Google tools instead, and the results were spectacular.<\/p>\n<p>                        Which Apps Did I Replace on My iPhone?<\/p>\n<p>I replaced most of the major Apple tools with equivalent Google apps; the biggest one was switching out Apple Notes for Google Keep. In addition, I changed Safari for Google Chrome; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.makeuseof.com\/apple-safari-reasons-not-to-use\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Safari needs to fixed a lot of issues<\/a>, so this was an easy choice.<\/p>\n<p>Other apps I replaced were:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n                                        Google Photos instead of the iOS Photos app\n                        <\/li>\n<li>\n                                        Gmail instead of Apple Mail\n                        <\/li>\n<li>\n                                        Google Tasks instead of Reminders\n                        <\/li>\n<li>\n                                        Google Maps instead of Apple Maps\n                        <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The only standout app I didn&#8217;t replace was Messages, as I rarely use it (and you can&#8217;t truly replace it with another SMS\/RCS app on iPhone anyway). Most of the time, I message people via WhatsApp, regardless of whether they have an iPhone. Replacing my Apple apps with Google ones provided numerous benefits, which is why I don&#8217;t regret switching.<\/p>\n<p>                        A Better In-App Experience<\/p>\n<p>By far the biggest advantage of switching to Google apps was that I had a much better time actually using the apps. For the most part, I prefer the UX in tools like Google Tasks compared to their Apple counterparts.<\/p>\n<p>                    <img width=\"1290\" height=\"2796\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"My Gmail Accounts\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/img_0118-1.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/img_0118-1.png\" style=\"display:block;height:auto;max-width:100%;\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                    <img width=\"1290\" height=\"2796\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"My Gmail Inbox\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/img_0117-1.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/img_0117-1.png\" style=\"display:block;height:auto;max-width:100%;\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The biggest example of this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.makeuseof.com\/tag\/apple-maps-google-maps-switch\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">is Apple Maps vs. Google Maps<\/a>. For me, Google Maps is infinitely easier to use and more accurate in its directions. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.makeuseof.com\/google-maps-extra-features\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">I&#8217;d be lost without Google Maps<\/a>, so the app has become indispensable on my phone.<\/p>\n<p>Gmail is another example. Despite significant improvements since 2022, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.makeuseof.com\/apple-mail-reasons-to-not-use\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">I still won&#8217;t use Apple Mail<\/a>. One of many reasons why is that I experience more glitches with the tool, especially on my iPhone, compared to Gmail.<\/p>\n<p>Though I think Apple is much better than Google at creating devices and the OSes they run, Apple still\u2014in my opinion\u2014lags in app design.<\/p>\n<p>                        Easy Use Across All My Devices<\/p>\n<p>While I&#8217;m largely in the Apple ecosystem, Google apps offer a better cross-device experience. For example, I sometimes work from library computers when I don&#8217;t want to carry my laptop with me. These often run on Windows, making it impossible to access many Apple tools from the device (at least their fully-featured versions).<\/p>\n<p>With Google apps, I can easily access most tools across all platforms. I just need to go to the web version and sign in with my Google account; this is the case for Gmail and Google Photos. For others, such as with Google Maps, I can use these tools without even signing in.<\/p>\n<p>                    <img width=\"2880\" height=\"1400\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"AI Editing Tools Available in Google Photos\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/google-photos-ai-editing-tools.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/google-photos-ai-editing-tools.jpg\" style=\"display:block;height:auto;max-width:100%;\"\/><\/p>\n<p>While I can use Apple Maps without signing in as well, the web version is in beta at the time of writing. Moreover, it&#8217;s not on the same level of sophistication as Google Maps. If I ever chose to leave the Apple ecosystem, it&#8217;s nice to know I wouldn&#8217;t have to restart my apps from scratch.<\/p>\n<p>                        More Features<\/p>\n<p>Many of Apple&#8217;s apps do the basics well enough, but they often seem like they&#8217;re a work in progress. To a point, this is fine, as you have to build slowly over time. But many tools feel less complete than their Google equivalents. After replacing my major iPhone apps with Google ones, I saw this with full clarity.<\/p>\n<p>Apple Mail is a good example. While it technically has a segmentation feature, it&#8217;s not as good as Gmail&#8217;s. Apple Reminders is another one: in Google Tasks, I can mark important tasks as <strong>Starred<\/strong>. I don&#8217;t have this option in Reminders.<\/p>\n<p>                    <img width=\"2878\" height=\"1274\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Starred Tasks in the Google Tasks App\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/screenshot-2025-07-08-at-14-09-17.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/screenshot-2025-07-08-at-14-09-17.png\" style=\"display:block;height:auto;max-width:100%;\"\/><\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t think more features are automatically a benefit, as they can sometimes be gimmicky. However, for many of the Google apps I use, this is not the case\u2014the added features are welcome.<\/p>\n<p>                        Google Drive Integration<\/p>\n<p>Google Drive is my favorite cloud tool; I love it so much that I have separate accounts for work and home to keep everything better organized. I use the software to store articles I write, photos I take, and various other documents I imagine will be useful at some point.<\/p>\n<p>                    <img width=\"2560\" height=\"1440\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Google Drive open in Zen browser\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/google-drive-featured.JPG\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/google-drive-featured.JPG\" style=\"display:block;height:auto;max-width:100%;\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                                        Yadullah Abidi \/ MakeUseOf<\/p>\n<p>All the Google apps I use integrate well with Google Drive, meaning I can easily access them whenever I need. I also find Google Drive&#8217;s organization and interface much cleaner than iCloud, and thanks to this, I feel less overwhelmed when using the app.<\/p>\n<p>                        I Saved on iCloud Storage<\/p>\n<p>When I primarily used Apple tools, I used significant iCloud storage and needed to upgrade\u2014Apple Photos was the biggest culprit. After switching to Google apps, I was able to downgrade to the lowest paid iCloud plan. <\/p>\n<p>My content was available in Google Drive instead, which has a higher free storage allowance than iCloud. Because of this, it was easier to audit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.makeuseof.com\/icloud-settings-using-storage\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">iCloud settings that were eating up my storage<\/a> and only pay for what I needed.<\/p>\n<p>                        Are There Any Apps I Wouldn&#8217;t Replace?<\/p>\n<p>While I prefer Google apps in most cases, I still think a few of Apple&#8217;s are better. For example, FaceTime is the best video calling app for me. I couldn&#8217;t get on board with Google Meet, and it&#8217;s hard to convince others to use it since most of my friends and family largely use it for work.<\/p>\n<p>I also wouldn&#8217;t fully replace the Messages app. Google Chat doesn&#8217;t serve the same purpose, in my opinion. Having tried Google Calendar, I also still prefer Apple Calendar on my iPhone, even though both apps are great. I like Google Calendar on my computer more than its Apple counterpart, so it can also depend on the device.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Though I love Apple&#8217;s devices, I find the company&#8217;s apps to be hit or miss. When some of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":53924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[611,158,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-53923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-mobile","9":"tag-technology","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114828580142035914","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}