Thanks to the nature of my job, I’ve bounced between Apple and Android phones for years.
For a while, I was walking around with both, and for the most part, either side of the fence was just fine. It was more a matter of preference than clear superiority.
For a brief while, in the shuffle, I daily-drove an iPhone exclusively. This was also just fine.
I prefer Android, but there was nothing in particular holding me back on iOS. Except, the lack of any form of split view or split screen function ground my gears on a daily basis.
I’m tired of pretending this isn’t why you’d switch to Android
It’s definitely the last straw
Android’s had the splits since Nougat
Yes, as far back as Android 7!
While older Android phones offered you the ability to run two apps side-by-side as far back as Android 2.2, a native split-screen function only arrived in 2016 (as reported by the BBC).
This happened at a time when smartphones had smaller, lower-resolution screens and were far less powerful. Yet it was instantly, genuinely useful.
This has turned into a prescient move on the part of Google. It means that Android was ready for high-resolution, multiscreen, and now folding screen devices the minute they arrived.
Some Android devices have processing power to put laptops to shame, so it would be a travesty to limit that processing power to only a single on-screen app at once.
Split View revolutionized the iPad
Why won’t Apple learn from itself?
Ironically, iOS did get the Split View feature before Android. The 1st-generation iPad Pro got this feature in 2015, and soon other iPads followed suit. Remember, this is years before the name changed to iPadOS.
Allowing two apps to run side-by-side turned the iPad into a laptop-killer. Most people could get their work done by running a word processor next to a web browser, so this one small change transformed what the blown-up iPhone could be.
So why not the iPhone? There has been some speculation over the years. Some say iPhone screens are too small and Apple wouldn’t consider it a good user experience.
It is true that iPhones have, historically, come with quite small screens and a focus on one-handed use. So optimizing for a single-screen experience makes sense.
At least, it did. The era of the small-screen iPhone is long over. Apple’s ill-fated attempt at an iPhone Mini ended in disaster, and the iPhone “Plus” and “Pro Max” models remain ever-popular.
Why I can’t live without my split-screen Android
No, it’s not brainrot
While it’s true that modern Android phones are powerful enough for desktop-class multitasking, that’s not what I’m doing on my phone screen.
Yes, we have Desktop Mode in Android 16 and Samsung’s Dex has been around for many years, but no one is doing that big-screen work on anything smaller than a big folding phone that becomes a tablet.
I have lots of common uses for the split screen feature on my Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. In the mornings, I like to watch the news on YouTube while I catch up on social media.
I often split the screen between a web browser and my notes app too. Browser and YouTube, or really browser and virtually any other app, is a winning combination because I like to look things up as I encounter them.
There are plenty of situations where I need to have two apps open side-by-side, and since I don’t have to task-switch to copy data from one to the other, it is a big usability win.
7.5/10
- SoC
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Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy
Could a folding iPhone force Apple to catch up?
If it’s really real, that is
There’s a persistent rumor of a foldable iPhone that seems more credible with each passing day, but if that phone does arrive, then surely multi-app functionality has to come with it?
When even the iPad Mini offers the full multitasking experience and has a screen similar in size to a big Android foldable, it’s hard to imagine the folks at Apple sticking to that one-track, one-app mindset.
But, even if it does happen, it might not mean that standard iPhones will ever get it. We know that Apple adopts Android features many years after they debut on Android in some cases, but it’s probably also true that iPhone users aren’t clamoring for this feature.
Then again, if you’ve never had the option to run two apps at the same time on your extremely powerful mobile device, this is perhaps just a case of ignorance being bliss.
For me, even if iPhones eventually catch up on this front, I’m unlikely to be tempted back.
