Federico Viticci, writing for MacStories:
Today’s Google app updates highlight a major problem I’ve had with Google’s iOS software in the past year. One of the long-held beliefs in the tech industry is that Google excels at web services, while Apple makes superior native apps. In recent years, though, many have also noted that Google was getting better at making apps faster than Apple was improving at web services. Some have said that Google had built a great ecosystem of iOS apps, even.
Today, Google’s iOS apps are no longer great. They’re mostly okay, and they’re often disappointing in many ways – one of which is the unwillingness to recognize that adopting new iOS technologies is an essential step for building solid iOS experiences. The services are still amazing; the apps are too often a downright disappointment.
I’ve never felt positive about Google’s iOS apps. I use Google apps extensively on my Mac. Google’s gmail service has been rock solid for me, Google docs, Google Maps, too. But once I move over to iOS, things change.
Have you ever used a Windows app that someone ported to the Mac? An app that does what it is supposed to do, but feels like whoever designed it didn’t really understand how a Mac app is supposed to work?
That’s how Google’s iOS apps feel to me. As if they were written in Java to run under Android, then force ported to iOS. The iOS apps are missing the thoughtful details, that last 5% that takes an app from solid to magical.
It should hardly be surprising that the maker of Android has, at best, mixed motivations towards making a great suite of iOS apps. Bit surprised not to see that angle elaborated in the story.
He complains about lack of background play on Youtube. However, it does exist, it’s just part of the premium Red service.
A while back the iOS team at google did care about making the best iOSy app possible. I’ll have to go find some references, but at some point they were redirected to follow the Google guidelines for apps. That is when things started getting weird with the google iOS apps. They now bring android conventions to the iOS platform.
That is, it’s totally intentional that their apps do not fit in well on iOS.
Google’s Gmail is a convenience, but it doesn’t play entirely well with mail clients that expect a proper IMAP service.
On a related note, Nest hasn’t really seen many big software updates since Google. No native geo-fencing rules and not even a hint of an Apple Watch App. There are some useless apps for the watch, or just bad implementations given the hardware, but a Nest app for the watch would seem like a no brainer.
I think Google was even quoted at one time as saying that their apps should fit in well on whatever platform they are on, adopting the platform specific conventions and design patterns. Then “Material” design was born, and they ditched that philosophy entirely. Right down to using the Android glyphs over iOS glyphs.
Just compare the scrolling performance between Maps and Google Maps. Maps obviously uses native UIKit scrolling, buttery smooth 60fps with great physics and “feel.” Google Maps is choppy, poor physics, doesn’t feel good. All these years they’ve tried to copy iOS’ scrolling physics, and they still can’t get it right. Whereas a single indie developer (Loren Brichter) was able to rewrite UIKit himself and get similar physics in Letterpress. Granted, he’s ex-Apple, but still. Tiny details like that matter to me. I do use both apps, but I simply enjoy using Maps more than Googles. Has nothing to do with the backend service, simply from an application perspective.
I don’t think Google’s YouTube app has ever been good. I’d be willing to accept some of the other apps might have tried, but I never tried them (at least in that era). 🙂
Not surprised that Google’s iOS apps look and feel “wrong.”
Their designers have been exposed to Android too long.
They’ve lost any sense of good taste.