> In fact the most swipes I need to access any of my five screens is 2, on iOS as above it's 4
That's the best-case scenario. Another scenario is that you don't have perfect memory and don't always recall where all 80 (5 screens of 16) of your apps live, so you go to the right looking for an app, and you don't find it, so you then have to go to the left, for a total of 6 swipes. I'd bet that this is a pretty common scenario for most people with enough apps to fill 5 screens.
All this discussion of swiping presupposes that it's reasonable to organize things iOS-style. I think that it isn't.
1) I organize my Android's 3 screens by function: (left) Scheduling/Tasks, Home, (right) Social stuff. On each screen are a relevant widget (or two) and related apps.
2) The Android app drawer is much more useful than iOS's app pages because the app drawer is arranged alphabetically, is continuous and is organized top-to-bottom. I use the drawer about 10% of the time and, when I do, I don't need to "recall where all 80 apps live" because I recall the alphabet.
... a total of 6 swipes. I'd bet that this is a
pretty common scenario for most people with enough
apps to fill 5 screens.
> 1) I organize my Android's 3 screens by function: (left) Scheduling/Tasks, Home, (right) Social stuff. On each screen are a relevant widget (or two) and related apps.
But then the question of 4 swipes vs 2 is kind of moot. You're not using 5 screens to store apps, so comparing your setup to iOS isn't apples to apples.
Personally, I setup my 3 screens (iOS) to have 1. Stuff I use a lot, 2. Stuff I use a little, 3. Stuff I barely use. This works well for me, and going to a left-center-right model wouldn't gain me anything (I expect that it would cost me instead).
> 2) The Android app drawer is much more useful than iOS's app pages because the app drawer is arranged alphabetically, is continuous and is organized top-to-bottom. I use the drawer about 10% of the time and, when I do, I don't need to "recall where all 80 apps live" because I recall the alphabet.
This is debatable. There's something to be said for not forcing alphabetical order. It comes down to personal preference, though.
If you don't want it in alphabetical order, put the apps on your home/launcher screens and organize them how you want. The app drawer is only a fallback for apps that aren't commonly used (therefore, they need to be in a logical order as you aren't likely to remember where they are)
IMO, the left swipe + a letter to search is easer than the app drawer when you actually have a lot of apps. Most common apps, fit on the home screen swipe to the right once for folders of lesser used apps or swipe left once to search for a half remembered app.
Android doesn't work like that, in a manner of speaking.
In popular launchers (including the 'stock' one) there's the "app drawer", accessible from all home screens. It's an alphabetical listing of all installed apps; it is ~5 icons wide and scrolls vertically.
Icons (shortcuts) or widgets added to home screens are merely user-created convenience shortcuts to get to apps.
This is analogous to desktop shortcuts vs navigating the start menu on Windows.
edit: commandar replied with a similar sentiment while I was writing this.
As I said to commandar, I don't really understand the argument in that case. If you don't actually use the left/right screens to store apps, then saying that it's a more efficient way to access apps is meaningless. On the iPhone, where screens 1-N are typically filled with apps, the left/right scrolling would be very unfriendly.
You can assign each home screen a task, and put apps for that task in each screen. You might usually use these apps together, so it gives a bit of a logical ordering. Then you can find apps you don't usually use in the list of every app.
My personal experience, and what I've noted of other Android users is that you generally don't fill your screens. Home screens tend to get filled up with your most commonly used apps - I have a page with a handful of social networking apps, one with news apps, etc. Everything else gets left in the app drawer, which is organized alphabetically and can be easily scrolled through or searched.
Then how is the question of screen swipes even relevant? If you're not using the left and right screens, then it's kind of a moot point. I'm not trying to be rude here. I seriously just don't see how the left and right screens can be considered a benefit if people don't use them.
It's relevant because we still do use the home screens, just not for every app. I'd say 90% of the functions I use my phone for are available on my home screen or one swipe away.
I still use the App Drawer (the alphabetical list of all installed apps) occasionally for the rare app I don't use frequently to merit a prime spot on my home screens.
I think you misunderstood me. I do use all 5 screens. I just don't completely fill every screen because there's no need for me to. I like organizing my apps on home screens into small, logical groups based on what I use most often. Apps I use on a day-to-day basis are never more than a couple of swipes away, and getting "lost" among 80 apps like you suggested isn't a problem because I have nowhere near 80 apps on my home screens.
If it's not something I use all the time, it can live in the app drawer rather than be in my way on a home screen.
Again, though, this isn't apples to apples with iOS. You're using several screens to store a few apps on each. But then you've got the app drawer full of apps. How many swipes do you have to go through to get through all of the apps in your app drawer? Is your worst-case actually better than an iPhone user who has all their apps on 5 screens instead of in the app drawer?
As for accessing things quickly, an iOS user can stick all their "social" apps in a folder on their main screen. The 5 screens can easily become a single screen, with 1 click to open any folder. Left and right swiping don't even mean anything here.
As I said, it's not Apples to Apples. Saying that iOS should have left/right screens because it works on Android doesn't make sense if the usage patterns are different.
Personally I only use one home screen on Android. I have my app draw available on a down swipe, and can scroll through the app draw (ie. not pages). I find it far eaiser to use the app draw even for things I use occasionally, as it is just a swipe and scroll away.
Some people don't use them. commandar for one, obviously. However, others make a lot of use of them. (Myself, cristoph and CoffeeDregs in this set of comments, for example). So for the people who don't use them, it's a moot point, but for people that do, it's a nice advantage.
(I think you may not have realised commandar's and cristoph's replies were not written by the one person)
I knew they were from different people. I think my point stands, though. If you do use 5 pages filled with apps, then the "swipe the wrong way" problem seems inevitable. And if you don't, then the comparison is kind of moot.
Certainly, offering the option to put apps on the left of "screen 1" is not a problem if that's what you prefer. I'd probably never use that if I were on Android, though. Of course, Apple already uses "screen 0", so the "swipe left" option is already taken by search.
That depends. I use 5 pages but each page has a clear purpose. From left to right:
Games, social, organisation (calendar + clock), Internet (bookmarks + search widget), media (music, videos, YouTube and so on). The only app I use on a regular basis that could fit on multiple screens is YouTube, and I can easily remember the position of one app. Swiping the wrong way does not cone into that.
Your point only applies if you fill the 5 pages with apps as they're installed, iPhone style.
You could easily create folders and fit all of those on Screen 1 on iOS. 1 click to open any folder.
As I've said a number of times, the usage patterns are too different. If you're using your screens as folders, then maybe you want the left-swipe functionality. If your screens contain every app you install, then that might not make so much sense.
I'm not saying Android is wrong to have left/right screens, merely that the behavior would generally be wrong for iOS.
That's the best-case scenario. Another scenario is that you don't have perfect memory and don't always recall where all 80 (5 screens of 16) of your apps live, so you go to the right looking for an app, and you don't find it, so you then have to go to the left, for a total of 6 swipes. I'd bet that this is a pretty common scenario for most people with enough apps to fill 5 screens.