We asked, you told us: These two things would make you leave Android

It would be tough to imagine the modern smartphone world without Android. Google’s operating system powers phones from almost every company beyond Apple. There’s little indication that Android’s growth and popularity will be dented in the coming years.

But what would it take for you to leave Android? It’s a question we posed our readers in a recent poll. Below are the results.

What would it take for you to leave Android?

Results

This was a wildly popular poll gaining just short of 24,000 votes since it went live on August 24. Despite the flurry of responses, two choices really grabbed our readers’ attention. “Google locking it down like iOS” and “a better alternative OS emerges” were the two most popular options, with 27.7% and 24.6% of the vote, respectively. Interestingly, more readers care about Android turning into iOS than updates becoming a premium feature. The latter choice only garnered 18.9% of the vote.

See also: Android 12 features — Everything confirmed so far

The remaining three choices received a smattering of support. Leading the charge is “lack of innovation,” with 9.3% of the vote, followed by “major OEMs abandoning it” with 7.2%. Surprisingly, readers wouldn’t ditch Android even if Google sold it, with only 6.6% of respondents going with this option.

Overall, it seems unlikely that readers would have to make this choice, at least not anytime soon. There’s little indication that Google plans to lockdown Android. A slew of alternatives have also come and go, too, with none really rising to Android’s level of popularity or functionality.

Notably, at least 5.7% of our readers provided their own reasons. You can find some of them below.

Your comments

• dooms_day: If iOS gives the same kind of freedom that Android gives such as an easy plug, drag and drop of files onto the phone rather than having to go through apps like iTunes, I’d consider leaving Android. One other thing is if apple eliminates its walled garden so their devices play better with third-party hardware.
• ItsWynn: The day Google stops making Pixels is the day I’m buying an iPhone.
• Virre: I would only leave android for a great open source alternative.
• Keith: Mine is simple. The SD Card. I have a note 9 and still use an SD card, whether if be archaic, but I do. Plus I can download music and videos without having to go through all the hoops of iTunes.
• Lcd1701: It would take a cataclysmic event such as Google going under before I ever considered going away from Android – and that would be like Microsoft going belly up. It’s not going to happen. I don’t want a forced UI that’s not customization-friendly. I’m not a power user, but I’m not an unenlightened sheep either.
• Rauvin: I would probably only jump ship for a more privacy focussed OS. One with a decent update program that all OEMs must respect, along with the OS respecting my data, but still gives much of the customisation & feature set of Android. Simply having a great new OS might not be enough.
• disqus_jdDrXoKt8V: I’d prefer whichever platform protects my privacy better and gives me more control over it. Up until recently it looked like iOS was doing better than Android with protecting users from advertising, marketers and just generally not selling user info. But now Apple has stepped in it with violating the end-to-end encryption integrity of their messaging. No good choices!
• Derek Jennings: I’m already probably leaving it because I’m fed up with Google just not caring. Wear v2 barely works, they killed Play Music for YouTube Music which is garbage and isn’t even supported by google assistant, and other stuff like that continuously shows how little they care about their core customers.
• Blaize19: If webOS came back.
• Zagreus: For me the OS isn’t the be all and end all. “Android” for me is the stock OS with all of the other OS variants being similar but distinct, having their own frustrations and features. I’d leave any version of android for hardware features, a combination of small enough to really use one-handed, 3.5mm jack, wireless charging and a decent enough SoC. Best I’ve seen is 3 out of 4 (iPhone 12 mini, Pixel 4a, etc) I’d even consider the Xperia 1 III if it wasn’t so eye wateringly expensive.
• Brian: Bring back Windows Phone. Yes, seriously.
• rouxenator: I stuck with Symbian to the very end. Might as well do the same with Android.

That’s it for this poll. Thanks for all your votes and comments. What would make you leave Android? Do you agree with the poll results? If you have any additional thoughts, be sure to drop them down below.