In Praise of iPhone Navigation (Premium)

Every time I switch between an iPhone and a Pixel, I’m confronted by the things that each gets right and wrong. The mix shifts over time, of course, as Apple and Google add new features and capabilities to their respective smartphone platforms. And each seems to retain some key advantages over time, like the Pixel’s customization capabilities and notifications system or the iPhone’s consistent and elegant design and superior app ecosystem.

But as I move forward to my coming iPhone 15 Pro Max review, I’m continually reminded of a few subtle but important advantages that the iPhone retains over Android. And I felt these were worth discussing separately because they’re not unique to the latest iPhones and are great examples of Apple really paying attention to details in ways that Google does not. And while I generally prefer the openness of Android in general and the pervasive helpfulness of Pixel in particular, these are features I really miss when moving back to Google’s smartphones.

The first is a basic but intelligent navigation behavior. It doesn’t have a name, I assume, and it’s one of those things I suspect most iPhone users don’t even notice. But I bet they would notice it if it disappeared.

This behavior occurs in at least three separate iPhone UIs—the home screen, the App Library, and the App Library’s all aps list—and maybe more, but those are where I notice it the most. So I will provide an example in all three places that explains this behavior.

I have a few folders on my home screen that are common between iPhone and Pixel (though I experiment with them sometimes); these folders contain groups of related apps and have names like Chat (for messaging apps), Read (for reading apps), and Listen (for music, podcast, and audiobook apps).

On both platforms, when I tap on a folder, it opens an in-place view that shows all of its app icons.

And when I tap on an app icon, that app opens. All basic and obvious, yes. But what happens next varies by platform. On the iPhone, if I swipe up to go back to home, that folder is still open. And this is very useful. Maybe I tapped the wrong app icon, which I do sometimes because I’m fumble-fingered. Maybe I just finished with that app and I want to move on to something else; if I opened the Read folder, for example, it’s possible I will want to read more but in a different app.

This is the behavior: The iPhone remembers where you were when you went into an app. And if you opened that app from a folder, that folder is still open when you navigate back.

That’s not what happens on Pixel. On Pixel, when you open a folder, open an app inside that folder, and then navigate back to home, I return to the home screen … but the Read folder is closed. And I have to take the extra step of visually locating that folder and opening it again. Which I notice a lot because I often use a series of apps in turn from the same folder. It’s the type of minor annoyance that builds over time. It seems obvious that what Apple is doing isn’t just better, it’s the correct behavior.

And as noted, this happens elsewhere. If you open the App Library on an iPhone and then launch an app from there, whether it’s directly accessible or in a folder, and then go back to home (by swiping up from the bottom of the display), you go back to exactly where you started (App Library scrolled to the correct location if needed or that App Library folder).

This is consistent, logical, and wonderful.

The Pixel doesn’t have an App Library interface, but it does have an all apps screen. And here, same thing: On iPhone, you can scroll all the way down to the very bottom of the list of apps, tap one to open it, and when you navigate home, you are returned to the exact place in the all apps list you started from. Perfect.

Pixel does not do this. If you scroll all the way down to the very bottom of the list of apps, tap one to open it, and then navigate home, you’re not even brought back to the all apps list again, let alone the correct location. You’re dumped back on the home screen. So you have to open all apps again and scroll all the way back to where you were. Which I do a lot because I will sometimes fumble-finger and launch YouTube Music instead of YouTube (or vice versa) and that is a huge pain on Pixel.

Someone out there is surely thinking that what the Pixel is doing is both correct and desired. That the gesture I’m using is literally called Home and that it should return you to home as advertised. But Pixel also has a gesture called Back and that will not return you to a home screen folder when used. Interestingly, it does return you to the all app screen, and to the right place in the list. So Google understands the benefit of this behavior. It just doesn’t use it everywhere.

And that is the difference between thoughtful design and some pedantic adherence to a gesture that could be named anything and do anything. Heck, Apple doesn’t even mention “back” in its documentation for iOS system gestures. It just works.

I very much prefer the benefits of Apple’s approach here. And I think most Pixel users would too if they could just experience this.