I fully realize OP isn’t trying to start a phone war, but there seems to be a few misconceptions in his original post, like hinting on something that do not exist in Android Auto when in fact AA has many of those features built in, that make me cringe a little. I just feel it would be nice if some of the factual info can be corrected…
I have to respectfully disagree with many of the points you mentioned, and I believe it really boils down to the different android phone models that can provide a very different user experience.
I have been using my Xiaomi Mi 11 for a maybe 18 months now, and going through some of your points but from this phone’s perspective:
iOS has smooth animations for everything, is quicker for searching and finding apps, and just plain looks better to me - the Miui interface is renowned / notorious for being a copycat of the iOS interface, so I actually see no big difference from the iOS interface. But Android being Android, it is highly customizable, and with my phone rooted, I actually have the iOS’s own San Francisco system font installed (I hated Android’s default roboto font), and have customized the main page to have two news update widgets just the way I wanted it. My background is an animated waterfall that to me looks stunning (created from my own video shot during a hiking trip). I know it is subjective, but honestly I see it the other way around. Android, with the right phone model and when setup right, can have butter smooth animations for everything, is just as quick if not quicker for searching and finding apps (I literally have the apps organized in their respective folders, never difficult to find), and it just plain looks better to me especially with the animated background of my own choice.
some stutter in animations and slow app indexing through their search bar - … yeah it probably has something to do with your old phone. No problem whatsoever over here. 120Mhz refresh rate. Butter smooth all day long.
iMESSAGE AND FACETIME - can’t comment here. Facetime especially can be a headache if everyone else is using an iPhone.
Voice Assistant - haven’t tried Siri for years. But I have been using Google Assistant both in Android Auto and (to a lesser extent) on the phone itself. No complaints there. I have a Google Nest Audio device too and thought it integrates well with my phone and my smart home (turning lights on/off, activating the home alarm system, interfacing with Home Assistant, etc)
CarPlay is quite a bit ahead here as well - hmm this is where I am really quite confused. My wireless Android Auto works extremely well with my vehicle. It starts up as soon as I enter my car in like less than one second with a totally seamless process (as in I do not need to do anything at all). With the coolwalk version of AA (released for more than 6 months already I believe), it actually has everything you mentioned that are available on Carplay: No warning message, time IS near the driver, app bar IS on the right where I sit (we have steering wheels on the right side). My AA IS smooth and is already wireless without any need for any dongle. And since my phone is rooted, I can even tweak my AA to play videos which is nice when your car is parked and you are waiting for someone for instance. Here is a snapshot:
On my Firefox Android I have “installed” Lemmy (specifically lemm.ee) as a web app. When I quit this app everytime Firefox crashes. Anyone else have the same issue?
If such a big group can kill themselves together, I have a feeling they can communicate… Probably a group decision
Mine is a Xiaomi phone, so probably not just pixel exclusive…
Great news if this can be developed into a universal covid vaccine with no side effects that everyone can take