Smartphones have been in the market for a while now.After some comings and goings of different players, Android and iOS were established as the main contenders and now represent almost 99% of the global market share.Because of that, virtually any new app idea will focus on these two platforms.In this article I’ll be talking about the main differences and similarities that every designer should consider when designing UX and UI for iOS and Android.You can be starting from scratch or already have a published app that needs to be adapted for the other platform.For both cases, I’ll be constantly linking the platform guidelines, as they are the main source of reference when designing a new interface.An app icon is probably the first thing the user will see and where the brand will be more visible.iOS guidelines define a few rules for its icons: they usually follow a flat style and skeuomorphism – the act of representing or imitating  real-world elements – stopped being  recommended since iOS7.

You should also take into account that all iOS icons have the same shape – a square with rounded corners – and they can’t have transparent background.In the end this square shape is the canvas you’ll be working to create an icon.Android, in the same way, proposes the material guidelines for icons, that between other recommendations, suggest a range of colors and the use of paper shadows.g pro vaporizer forumThese are, of course, just recommendations, and most apps don’t follow these guidelines strictly.g pro vaporizer directionsThe main difference from iOS is that Android icons are allowed to have transparent background, so you can basically work with any shape that fits the icon area.atmos pen vaporizer review

Referring to the basic elements of a mobile interface sometimes can be confusing.Android and iOS name similar items differently and give the same name to different items.It’s always good to know how each bar is called on each platform, it makes a conversation between designers and developers much clearer.These bars should have consistent styles across the app and follow the platform sizes for a native look and feel.ios store videoFor iOS you’ll find these definitions following this link, while for android they are here.iqos inmedioEven though it’s not common to use a column grid like in the web, sizes, paddings and spaces should be consistent across each platform.ios store json dataMaterial Design defines a specific grid: 8dp grid for general purposes and a 4dp spacing for icons and types alignment.

Meanwhile iOS is not specific about grid, but apps usually use multiples of 4pt and 5pt for sizes and spacings.Besides styles, navigation is where huge differences will come up.Some components can be exclusive or more common in one platform and this may change the main navigation structure of an app.iOS uses the tab bar as a main navigation component, while Android can use tabs or a drawer menu.The use of a bottom navigation bar on Android is not very common, but it is part of the Material guidelines, and some apps like Foursquare and Instagram use it.It’s up to you to decide – and test – if your users are ready to use this component.The main actions of a screen, like adding a new item, will usually use a floating button on Android.On iOS they are usually positioned on the right side of the navigation bar.Another big difference is that Android has the navigation bar, a set of three physical or virtual buttons (back, home and overview), depending on the device.iOS has only the physical home button.

This means that Android users can go back anytime, not depending on a back button inside the app.The built in back button will always send the user back in history, even outside the app.On the other hand, iOS users will always need the back button on the interface, otherwise they can get stuck in a screen.Both Android Material and iOS have default fonts that are encouraged to be used.Android uses Roboto as the default typeface and Noto for languages that are not covered by Roboto.Both can be downloaded from Google Fonts.iOS uses San Francisco as the default font.There are two variants of the font, according to the guidelines, SF UI Text is used for text 19 points or smaller, and SF UI Display for text 20 points or larger.San Francisco font can be download from Apple’s website by members of the Apple Developer Program.Once the design is done and is ready to be implemented, you’ll need to export the assets, and you’ll also find a few differences  between Android and iOS.If you use Sketch to build interfaces, there are good tips in my previous article.

Android devices are manufactured by many different companies, because of that, you’ll find a lot of different screen sizes and densities.Basically Android will require 1x, 1.5x, 2x, 3x and 4x as you can see in the table below.Meanwhile, on iOS it’s much simpler to work with screen densities: for modern devices, 2x and 3x resolutions will do the job.So, we’ve talked about the main differences and similarities between the platforms.I’ve gathered a few screenshots of famous apps on each platform so you can compare them.This is just a starting point, there are other several differences, either visually, in components or in interactions that should also be taken into account.Using apps in both platforms and paying attention to these details will also help to understand how similar tasks can be handled differently on each platform.Hope you enjoyed it, feel free to leave your thoughts about it.During the four years I have been doing Android development, on projects both big and small, there’s been one common problem: design.

Even on teams which have dedicated UX/UI designers, or on teams where iOS drives the Android design, I find myself making the same case over and over: advocating to do Android the right way.It’s important to make an app look, feel, and function natively on Android.More times than not, when I relay this issue to project leads, I am met with the same response: “It doesn’t matter, no big deal.” I am here to tell you it does matter — and I want to walk you through some examples why.Navigation on iOS is done in the app using UI buttons, whereas navigation on Android is done with both UI controls and the hardware buttons on the device.Many times the app must be aware of the user hitting the back button on Android.Pressing the back button normally takes the user back to the previous page.However, in abnormal situations there must be a discussion of the UI and app flow.For example, if the app has several on-boarding screens, and upon completion of the on-boarding, the user does not need or want to go back to the start of on-boarding, a discussion is in order to determine what happens if an Android user hits the back button in this situation.

Where should the app take the user?This is not an issue iOS users face — so it is a new design challenge for Android navigational flows.In order to navigate back in an iOS app, the user normally looks for a back arrow to hit, or can use an edge swipe.That’s where pressing the soft/hardware back button serves the same purpose as the software back buttons do in iOS.Some app designs call for an “X” button to leave a page or modal.While this is visually appealing, and even necessary for iOS, this button simply should not be on the Android UI.Android users naturally and intuitively hit the hardware back button to exit a dialog without buttons, so there is no need to introduce an “X” or close button in the design.Examples of an X button to exit a page from some well known social Android apps (Twitter and Instagram) which are not needed.Slack gets it right by modifying the design to stay true to the platform.iOS (left) vs Android (right) It is very important for designers, developers, and product owners to consider that iOS and Android have different native standards when it comes to navigation patterns and screen transitions, and to be aware of the most current information available on these things.

Google’s Material Design documentation does a fantastic job of detailing screen transition use, and applying proper navigation patterns to your app.Android users are accustomed to certain navigation and UI patterns.Most apps adhere and keep the user’s experience consistent with Android’s UI patterns.iOS navigation often uses the bottom tab bar for navigating throughout the app.For Android users this is inconsistent with the standard design language and may frustrate users at first glance.It is better not to utilize the bottom tab bar options and present the navigation options under the hamburger icon which is standard on Android.A great example is how Yelp did this for both to its mobile apps.(Starting in Android N, Google is introducing bottom navigation.However there is no release date on when it will be available to the public.)Yelp iOS with bottom nav options (left) , Android with nav option under the hamburger icon (right).If Android is a serious platform for your company, you need to hire designers who are familiar with iPhone and Android designs languages.

Platform differences are not only the way things look, but also differences in the structure and flow of the app.Designers need to spend some time getting familiar with the Android platform through hands on experience with Android devices.Often times, designers expect each element to look the same across platforms, and this requires additional development effort to achieve the same default design as iOS.The more complicated use cases are default controls such as radio buttons, checkboxes, toggles, etc which require a custom view implementation in order to achieve the right “iOS” look.An example would be date pickers.Android users typically are not familiar with slot machine reel style date selections.Custom views can get complex which increases work load, complexity, and alienates your app design on Android — all with a negative benefit for Android users.iOS animation frameworks seem like the platform was built with animation in mind.In contrast, Android animation frameworks seem to be built as an afterthought.

Android’s animation framework is not nearly as robust as iOS.A very similar comparison would be iOS AV Foundation, which is leaps and bounds to Android’s camera and bitmap apis.If animation is required in the design, the UX designer needs to sit down with the developer to see what is achievable in the timeframe of the project.One of my previous projects had a complex profile page which included your profile pic and other information.The page required a sticky header on a list view along squishing/scaling/fading your profile pic (see gif for visual).The animation could be done at a somewhat high level using the built-in iOS framework.Android requires a deeper or lower level approach by extending/customize core view components provided.Not sure how long it took my iOS counterpart, but I am positive it took me much longer to implement this effect on Android.I enjoyed the challenge and everything turned out, however it wasn’t as simple and quick as the iOS development side.iOS uses share sheet which allows the developer to customize the share sheet menu to a degree.

Often times, designers will want this share experience to port exactly over to the Android app as much as possible.Android handles the share experience by calling out to any app that can share the content type.It would be unnecessary to spend time creating unique share experience for your Android users.Custom experiences have their place in the world, however, the standards are almost always the way to go.Sticking with the standards creates time savings for the product team, by not having to toil over a custom share experience, and for your app users not having to spend extra time learning your unique share experience.The message is not that Android development is harder — Android is simply different in design and development when compared to iOS, and needs to be considered as such from the beginning.I encourage product owners and designers to lean on experienced Android developers for recommendations which will help avoid needless development cycles during the project.Project managers and stakeholders must take into consideration timelines for Android production may or may not match the iOS timelines feature-for-feature when things are done correctly.