Well, I received my new iPhone 8 256GB last night to replace my Nexus 6P that has had battery issues for quite a while. After 9-yrs with Android (and never owning an iPhone, only an iPod Touch 1), I will say Apple has come a long way. The phone feels very polished and iOS is smoother than before. **Why did I switch**? –  I made the switch from Android to iOS because my Nexus 6P died, but more importantly, it died at 2.5-yrs. I realized that since 2009/2010, I’ve gone through 4 phones and needed to buy a 5th, while my wife is still only on her second iPhone (a 6S) which is still fully supported. Since phones are no longer subsidized by carriers, paying $750 every 2-yrs is unrealistic, so I want the phone to last as long as possible. See my other post where you all helped me decide on the 256GB version: [Switching from Android – Need Advice on iPhone Model](https://www.reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/8prtzl/switching_from_android_need_advice_on_iphone_model/)

**Build Quality** – First, the phone feels so much better than the old metal-backed ipod touch days that I’m most familiar with. I was quite sad to place the phone in the OtterBox last night because it felt and looked amazing, but I’d rather protect it than have it damaged by a drop or two. Or my toddler. Turns out, I had to take it out of the OtterBox not even 10-seconds after turning it on when I realized I forgot to put the SIM card in. Sigh. 

**Fingerprint** – AppleID (fingerprint) seems to take a lot longer to register than on Andriod. I am mostly talking about downloading apps in the AppStore. This may be the animation as the fingerprint icon is filled in with red. But it appears to be a good 2-3 seconds before it says Done and the download begins. Unlocking the phone is surprisingly fast, and I’ve already gotten used to using my thumb to unlock the phone than my index finger (which on the Nexus 6P was on the back of the phone and I loved the position). 

**Delete Emails** – It also took a LONG time to figure out how to delete items in Mailbox/Inbox. Why was it not setup by default to allow me to delete things? All I could do was archive emails and there was no obvious way how to fix this. Finally, after about 15-min of googling, I figured it out. But come on, that setting shouldn’t be buried in the account settings, it should be in the app settings and WAY more accessible to find.

**Notifications** – I now COMPLETELY understand people’s complaints about the notifications. I have a 3-yo and a 6-mo (kids), so I have my phone set to silent (using Do Not Disturb set to Always) from 7pm (when they go to bed) to 5am (when I wake up). When I first started using it, the iPhone would still ring/ding/make-noise when I got a notification and was using the phone, so I set it to always silence. Now, I don’t get any pop-up notifications when I receive a text. **Is there a way to still have that banner pop-up notification while the Do Not Disturb mode is set to Always silent?** Otherwise, is there a way around this to disable vibrations/noise every night without having to do it manually? Sometimes I read at night. Sometimes I’m holding my 6-mo to help her sleep (e.g. when she’s got a cold, or teething). I want my phone to automatically be silenced every night while still receiving the bann**ers. How can this be achi**eved? I don’t want to manually have to flip the switch on the side every night since the phone is in an OtterBox, it’s just an extra step that I may not remember at 2am when I have to run in to hold my 6-mo. 

**Passwords** – A LOT of password prompts do not allow you to paste anything into the text box. This is quite frustrating. I use LastPass, which there also is not an option to input directly from that. All of my passwords (and I mean ALL) are at least 16-20 digits long. Imagine my frustration with having to enter my AppleID password repeatedly upon initial setup. I hope there is support for this in the future, otherwise it will encourage me to abandon using actually secure passwords in favor of easier-to-type/remember passwords.  It appears this is going to be address in iOS 12 with the Password Manager API, and I hope LastPass quickly integrates it. 

**Phone Backups** – I see how easy it is to backup the phone and whatever else to iCloud. However, is there a similar interface to backup the entire phone’s contents to Dropbox or Google Drive? Everything I’m seeing online indicates you have to back it up to a computer, and then copy the backup to Dropbox or Google Drive. That’s not really convenient. I’m not just talking about backing up photos, backing those up to Dropbox is very easy. If not, I’ll have to be rather judicious with how I back things up to the iCloud so I don’t exceed the 5GB limit. 

**App Store** – My gosh, do you all really pay $5-$10 for a lot of these apps? I see recommendations for apps to use, so I look them up in the AppStore and am shocked to see a majority of them are $10. This is going to take a lot of getting used to; very few of the truly useful apps on Android are strictly paid only; most Android apps offer a free version with fewer features but are still extremely useful. Yes, I realize people don’t develop games free, but using apps on Android is not pirating them. Guess I’ll really have to analyze apps a lot more closely to decide if I’ll really use them before paying to use them.

**Apple Customer Support** – Now, my experience with Apple Customer Support on the other hand, has been pathetic. I tried setting up iCloud on my iPhone, and it prompted me to answer security questions. Okay, but I didn’t set those up with my new phone, so it must have been from when I purchased my iPod Touch 1 new, you know, back in 2007. These seem like simple questions from my childhood (make of first car, name of best friend in high school – easy!) so I proceed to answer them. Wrong. Okay, get on my computer and attempt to login to my Apple account to find a way to reset them, but it won’t let me in. I’m prompted to answer these security questions again, one of the questions changed but it still fails. I try one more time before I am presented with the option to Reset Security Questions. “There is not enough information to prove your identity”. 

Ok, that’s ridiculous. I proceed to call Apple Support. After nearly 35-min on the phone, escalating it to a Senior Adviser, they tell me my entire account is locked out for 8-hrs. Fine, I’ll call back in the morning. I called them back this morning after 12-hours and spent another 30-min on the phone, only to be told my account has been locked for 24-hrs and there’s no way they can reset it. Why was I told last night it was locked out for 8-hrs then? There was no prompt to reset my security questions until I entered them incorrectly 3 times. They then attempted to use my credit card expiration date to unlock the account, but it said it was incorrect even though I literally just added the credit card to my Apple account TO BUY THIS PHONE! There was nothing else they could use, which is absurd. I literally just purchased an iPhone from them, and yet they can’t use my billing/shipping address, my birthday, or anything else that’s probably on my account to verify my identity. So now I’m stuck waiting until tonight to give them a call back to hopefully unlock my AppleID account. I’ve asked them to submit feedback on my behalf and plan to submit it manually myself as well. 

Called back this evening and they were finally able to access my account. Using what you ask? The same exact answers to the security questions as I was using but was told by the system were incorrect. 

**Conclusion** – I’ve got a lot to learn about how iOS operates, lots of tips/tricks to learn how to use this phone properly, and apparently a lot of Android customization to let go of. But I’m trying to adopt iOS in its entirety instead of using Google everything. My biggest complaint right now is the notification banners on Do Not Disturb and LastPass. But the latter should be address in iOS 12, so I think I can wait.

Thanks for reading this far, kudos to you! If you’ve got any advice for an iPhone noob, let me know!

View Reddit by PapaUrsidae – View Source