Apple overtakes Android in customization as fanboys conjure up decade-old failed concepts

You see, Google had native lock screen widgets… in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean! We’ll forgive you if you can’t remember that time (we barely remember), but that was exactly 10 years ago with devices like the Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 all the rage at that time.

A quick attempt to use lock screen widgets takes you to one of two places. If you’re one of the few who know about Samsung’s advanced user tools, you’ll probably download the Samsung-designed Good Lock app that unlocks all kinds of powerful moves. For most other phones, you’ll end up in the Google Play Store. This is exactly where I looked for a “lock screen widget” app for the Pixel 5a which I have as a backup phone. The Play Store gave me dozens of results, but most of the apps looked old and had a relatively small audience. I tried using the most popular, KLCK, short for Kustom Lock screen probably, an app with over 100,000 downloads. 100K+ wasn’t a reassuring number, and it’s certainly not the massive adoption you’d expect to see on an app that Apple claimed “has stolen” of Android, but I tried.

Trying to use KLCK was an exercise in frustration. The app itself is free, but if you want some sort of usable presets, you have to buy them separately (they cost $1-$2 each), and users may also need the Pro Key app for $6 $. But even a quick glance at the app on the Play Store and you notice that the screenshots showing off its features look like they were captured on a device running… Android 7?! I may not have the exact right version, but it’s at this point and yes, it’s a terribly outdated version of Android. The widgets also seemed outdated.

Here is a review of the Circles widget for the Kustom app on the Google Play Store: “I will never understand how to use KWGT, KLWP apps even after watching the super confusing how-to videos on YouTube.”

And here is the first review of KWGT Kustom Widget Maker app on Google Play Store which has more than 5 million downloads: “I’ve been using this app for about a year now. If I could give it negative stars, I would. The app is complete trash. Yes, it’s customizable, but the app is incredibly clunky at best.

In one of the responses to customer complaints, the app developer states: “I say [about the issues]. And I’m working on a new UI that will slowly improve that. It will take time because the team is microscopic.

To claim that Apple stole THAT from Android isn’t just absurd, it’s laughable.

That’s as valid a comparison as saying that the original iPhone copied the… LG Prada! Yes, some people have said that in the past! In retrospect, the only real similarity is that they have a screen and a rectangular shape, but that’s about it… and we can only laugh at such a comparison, it sounds really crazy. Yet some people still run with titles such as “LG once took the iPhone out of the iPhone”…

The moral of the story: you have to demand better from everyone!

So going back to my starting point, we have something similar happening now with iOS 16 and its new lock screen widgets. Yes, technically you had something very similar earlier on Android, but it was never as powerful, nor as intuitive as you have now on iOS. Not to mention that Android has never had such powerful features as the ability to switch between lock screens with just a few swipes and to tie each of those custom lock screens to a particular Focus mode.

It’s this unprecedented level of customization that Apple natively delivers in a hugely accessible format that anyone can use versus an obscure app on Android that uses 6-year-old design concepts and is managed by one or a few passionate developers. here, it’s not just about being blind defenders of an ecosystem and defending it no matter what. That’s what fanboys do. Instead, in this case, let’s not be afraid to hold Google accountable!