6 things I regularly do on my Pixel that are unimaginable on an iPhone

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Even though I like to think of myself as a platform-agnostic writer, I end up spending a large portion of my tech life with Apple devices. The Mac is my preferred work OS (although I still use Windows), and my SIM card is primarily in my iPhone, though I use my Google Pixel 9a daily, with multi-device WhatsApp sync, messaging apps, and more.

I adore my Pixel 9a . It’s light, it’s small, it goes with me everywhere with ease, and the stock Android experience hasn’t let me down once. Every time I pick up my Pixel, I catch myself doing wonderfully ordinary things that my iPhone just won’t do (or won’t do as well).

And it’s not some complex five-step power-user automations either (though that’s certainly possible). Like with life, it’s about the little things. And those little things add up to a delightful experience that feels unthinkable the moment I pick up my iPhone.

While the iPad now supports complex window multitasking, the iPhone still does not. You flat-out cannot run two apps side by side. On my Pixel, that just takes a couple of taps. Using 50-50 split multitasking on my little Pixel 9a is often a laughable experience, but I still appreciate having the ability to do so.

I really got into the Pixel multitasking experience after Android 16 added the 90:10 split . I’m a huge fan of pinning a second app to the bottom of the screen when I’m doing something else. This is usually a browser, or an AI app like Gemini/Claude. I also like using a 60:40 or 70:30 split, where I can keep a note or PDF open for reference. None of this is possible on my iPhone, but my Pixel handles it like it’s nothing.

Android 17 introduced App Bubbles . Press and hold on an app icon, tap the Bubbles icon, and the app turns into a floating bubble. I can then drag the floating icon to any corner of the screen, and it stays there. Tapping the icon opens the full app in a floating window. This concept is not new; I remember using the Chat Heads feature in Facebook (and then in other messaging apps) way back in 2013.

Here, it’s no longer restricted to messaging apps, and the native integration is smooth and fast. I can have up to 5 bubbles going at a time, but I usually use two or three. I might keep Claude, the Maps, and the Notes app docked there, and switch between them as I please. The best use case for these still remains messaging apps. I can dock WhatsApp, Telegram, and Messages up there and switch between them without losing the flow of what I was already doing on my Pixel.