I find it hard to believe anyone working for Google on Android actually uses an Android phone as their personal device
I suffered all of: phone reboots 50% of the time using the camera, assistant won't answer sometimes, phone calls lock up the phone, alarm clock randomly doesn't work, it just goes on and on
I had the original Android phone with Android 1.0 and had bought every 2nd or 3rd nexus/pixel phone
now even I've switched to iOS
(and in the process of switching my entire family too)
I have used a pixel 4a and pixel 6a for many years now and haven't had any of these issues. It sounds like potentially had defective hardware, and instead of getting it repaired you just lived with it.
This can definitely be the case. I had a phone that for a year would drop out frequently doing cellular data. I assumed my provider was throttling me. Upgraded my phone and the problem went away; likeliest culprit was the cell circuit in the phone was slightly damaged and running full data comms was causing it to reboot.
GrapheneOS is literally the only thing that's keeping me on android. It has been really realiable for me, way more reliable than Samsungs or Google Pixels Android ROM.
Though if GrapheneOS dies my next option will probably a linux phone, as I'll never get along with iOS.
Switching from iOS to Graphene was a really smooth experience for me, I can install any app I've needed so far, and I don't have to deal with 200 tracking and buggy default apps.
I wish they would keep security updates going longer than the current period though.
Same here; had a Pixel 5a with Google Fi. The 1 year old Pixel randomly died one day, totally bricked. Google phone support requires them calling you (after you request it online), and the browser-based “Fi phone” was unable to receive calls from Google phone support. No other callers had this issue. When I finally got in touch with them via my wife’s phone, they wanted me to drive 1.5 hours outside of SF for a phone diagnostic. I said no thanks and switched to iPhone with AT&T.
I'm always baffled when I hear someone having an experience like this.
I've been using Androids since 2010. Motorola Droid, Motorola Droid 4, Motorola Droid Turbo, Pixel 3, and now Pixel 6 Pro. I've never had anything like what you describe.
If you're having that many problems on multiple devices, it makes me question what the hell you do to your phones to make them do that.
I've been using Android since 2010 and don't remember having any stability issues for the last 6-8 years at least. Maybe it's a Pixel-thing? I've mostly owned Sony and Moto devices. They're often 1-2 versions behind on Android which could explain why they're more stable maybe.
(I like to customize my phones a lot (minimalist launcher, Termux software, Firefox with extensions) which I would hate to give up for iOS).
It's always a compromise. With Android you can get actually good typing experience in non-English languages, voice typing in non-English, proper desktop view in browsers and really good call quality or better PWM in some cases.
It depends on what is important for you. iOS is not a panacea either.
By they way, with Android, just use Samsung. Despite the duplicated apps it's just a better experience.
LineageOS followes the Android versions. There's a LineageOS 20 for Android X, but you can use LineageOS 19 if you want to stay on X-1. It usually takes a few months after Android release for LineageOS to catch up.
About 3/4 use Android, but very few have the courage to run recent builds.
It's been a frustration point up the ladder, because they feel the ~same as you: why are they the only ones filing bugs?
But it's not that. It's decayed internal culture. There's other stuff around the margins they could change*, but, the rot is deep and unlikely to be fixed.
Too focused on...non-business objectives...to be effective. Too crucial to risk reforming. And it's very unlikely they hear about it up the ladder. And that's before the morale decline of "even when you smile and nod and sing along with the antics, you can be let go at any point by a 2 AM email"
* tl;dr: make it dead simple to get a phone. Line managers were always a bit squirrely about expensing. It's a non-starter post late 2021, and there were never ever enough DVTs/EVTs for them to be meaningful. Establish "everyone is on Pixel next year's - 2", and have the VP send an org-wide email saying individuals can expense as needed.
It seems to me that the flagship device requires the beta. I had to enable beta QPRs to get features that are in the advertisements of the Pixel 8 Pro. Those features didn't exist out of the box, which was confusing.
I find it hard to believe anyone working for Google on Android actually uses an Android phone as their personal device
I suffered all of: phone reboots 50% of the time using the camera, assistant won't answer sometimes, phone calls lock up the phone, alarm clock randomly doesn't work, it just goes on and on
I had the original Android phone with Android 1.0 and had bought every 2nd or 3rd nexus/pixel phone
now even I've switched to iOS
(and in the process of switching my entire family too)