With flexibility comes responsibility

[TheMystic]

You must have heard "With power comes responsibility". But in the gadgets world, that becomes "With flexibility comes responsibility".

The reason Apple products are generally considered to be very secure and work reliably is primarily because of how locked their system is compared to other operating systems. While some of the restrictions can be extremely annoying, especially for those coming from other operating systems, it also has quite a few advantages. Once you learn to do things the way Apple wants you to do (i know this is very annoying), you'll soon find that the experience becomes much better and seamless, especially if you have other devices in their ecosystem.

With Android, the biggest strength (and also the biggest weakness) is the flexibility given to you as a user. You can customise to your heart's content and do a lot more with Android devices than Apple devices, but on the flip side, this also creates plenty of room to mess things up by changing things one doesn't understand. And this is where the problem begins.

Android allows you to install from external sources (something almost impossible with iOS). Google Play Store itself is full of poorly coded apps, most of which abuse the system with ads, notifications, background processes, etc. On top of that, a user can install apps from outside the Google Play Store, which carry the risk of installing malware, nagware, spyware...you name it.

Unless you know what you are doing, stay away from things you don't fully understand. Just because Android allows you to do a lot of things doesn't mean you should change things you don't understand.

Here are some basic tips:

1. As much as possible, stick with Google Play Store. If you must install external apps, install them only from reputed/ trusted sources. Even then, upload the apk towww.virustotal.com and check for any malware. As a rule of thumb, do not install even if one antivirus engine is flagging it. It could be a false positive, but better to be safe than sorry.

2. Go through every setting on your device and try to understand what it does, how it works. Make changes only if you fully understand the setting.

3. Pay particular attention to app permissions. This is extremely important. Some permissions are automatically granted, even when it is unnecessary. Here, the rule of thumb should be to deny all permissions, and allow only those that are absolutely necessary. Try and understand what the permission allows, why the app needs it, and how it can potentially abuse the permissions, if granted.

4.READ (AND UNDERSTAND) BEFORE YOU CLICK ON ANYTHING. If you don't understand, don't click.

I have given more details in my previous posts and I'll link them at the end of this post. Do read them at leisure if you are having problems with your smartphone. They may be helpful.

When Android provides so much flexibility, it is also transferring the responsibility of making use of the same to the user. If you cannot accept that responsibility, you shouldn't benefit from the flexibility either.

If you use an Android device with the same restrictions as on an iPhone, you will see that it is just as stable and secure, as an iPhone.

With flexibility comes responsibility!

ADDITIONAL READING

LINKS in the following post can be helpful:

https://r2.community.samsung.com/t5/Tech-Talk/Smartphone-Basics/td-p/11180153

[VedantKalore]

Go use iPhone!

[TheMystic]

Doing it already. Android can learn a few things from iOS for sure.

[VedantKalore]

Then leave Android world and let's us enjoy freedom

[TheMystic]

Nope. I'll enjoy the best of both worlds.

[VedantKalore]

Why! Stay in one world better

[TheMystic]

Choose whatever works for you.

I'm an explorer. Love having first hand experience and learning. No point in being a fanboy.

[VedantKalore]

Don't explore Android it has lots of bugs, loop holes experience will be laggy lol 😆
Apple is smooth because no customization

[TheMystic]

Why not? Remember flexibility with responsibility? I follow that completely.

[VedantKalore]

Don't take away the heavenly freedom of Android user! You are jealous for external app and Apple cant harder help