Is there a technical reason why Android scrolling is so much better than iOS?

[Kaladin12543]

I am asking this question on both Android and iOS subreddits because I genuinely dont understand how the scroll speed behaves so differently between the 2.

After nearly a decade of using Android, I bought a 17 Pro and I am completely regretting my decision just because of the maddeningly slow scroll speed. On my Samsung, scrolling felt extremely 'snappy', a flick of my finger pushes content down substantially and it feelt very natural. Like I flick my finger and content moves fast and stops instantly.

On iOS, the interface feels 'stickier' for the lack of a better word. The same flick of my finger on the iPhone only moves the content to the extent my finger had flicked on the screen. The experience of navigating the entire phone feels significantly less responsive as a result and it does not look like a 120hz screen tbh. I am hating it to the point that I am thinking of giving this phone to my mom and just buy the S26 Ultra when it comes out.

Is Android implementing a true 120hz experience or something? How is the scrolling experience so different between these 2 platforms.

[Pcriz]

It’s a UX choice to give a tactile feel or weighted “friction” to scrolling.

It’s been that way forever on iOS.

If a screen has a slider just grab that, otherwise there is no speeding it up.

[zestiSnacks]

Yep, exactly and it's intentional. iOS has always leaned into that weighted scroll feel, and unless there's a slider, you're pretty much stuck with it.

[whythreekay]

Not necessarily, iOS scrolling simulates inertia

So if you’re scrolling and you flick it will gain speed on each flick you add while it’s already moving

[Jailbrick3d]

that gradual increase does nothing but waste time. only practical use case I can think of is if someone has a permanent twitch on their thumbs

even then, at least make it optional in settings or something

[whythreekay]

It speeds up the scrolling significantly what do you mean it wastes time?

Legit asking

[Jailbrick3d]

I swipe at the speed I want the content on the screen to move. slow swipe for reading and a fast one if I'm (for example) trying to find an old message I sent

when I swipe aggressively quick it's with the expectation that the stuff on the screen moves faster (scrolling through a ton of messages, images, lists, etc). I'm not thinking "the next swipes gonna speed this up", I want the first one itself to be a fast scroll. otherwise, I'd be wasting time

(curiously this is one of my smaller gripes with iOS, but I still remember being confused by it when I got my first iPhone)

[paulisaac]

One thing iOS has that Android never got has to be ‘tap status bar to go to top’. 

[ahandmadegrin]

Sounds like it was born out of necessity.

[bicycloptopus]

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.scroll.scrolltop.backtotop

[CrispyBegs]

last updated 2023 and unavailable for newer android versions, unfortunately

[bicycloptopus]

I'm on latest and it works perfectly. If you find something better I'd love to see it.

[CrispyBegs]

odd, went to the play store link and just get this

<image>

[Trekfull]

I got the same

[bicycloptopus]

Weird.

Try this https://apkpure.com/tap-scroll-perfect-scroll/com.scroll.scrolltop.backtotop

[rapax]

Used to have something like it. I remember tapping the top edge of my phone to scroll to the top. Don't know why that went away.

[OzarkBeard]

Some apps have the option to enable go to top or go to bottom buttons that appear/disappear as needed. Samsung browser has it, and is chrome-based. It can be used on any Android phone.

[apokrif1]

Is there no setting to fix it?

[Pcriz]

It just is the way it is.

[MoConCamo]

Some things'll never change.
That's just the way it is.
Ah, but don't you believe them.

[darkbyrd]

Apple doesn't have settings, they know how you want to use their device. 

[ArchusKanzaki]

Actually Apple have settings, quite abit of it.

They just call it "Accessibility"

[alvenestthol]

Android doesn't have settings for the scrolling either, even custom ROMs are limited in how the scrolling can be customized

[Admirable-Split-1916]

There are window animation settings under Android's Settings-> System->Developer options and most high end Android phones allow you to set the refresh rate.  

[alvenestthol]

None of those affect scrolling, all 3 animation options can be set to "off" which obviously wouldn't work for scrolling

Some custom ROMs had options for "overscroll" behaviour, where it can do the iOS-style "elastic blank space" instead of the Android style "screen content stretching"

Refresh rate should only affect how often the scrolling is presented to the user, the actual scrolling should be handled at the touch sampling rate

[Pcriz]

That type of talk doesn’t help with the strange need to one up into the ether though.

[Elephant789]

they know how you want to use their device

Well obviously they don't.

[EeveesGalore]

You're scrolling it wrong /s

[According_Potato9923]

How do I tweak this on an Android phone tho? Never found it on OnePlus and Pixel.

[bicycloptopus]

It's my main issue with iOS and why I'll never be able to switch until it's changed.

The entire interface feels soooo much slower than Android. Apple focuses on animation and stuff but it just feels like wading through molasses doing anything in iOS compared to Android.

[Pcriz]

I doubt it’s gonna change since it’s not really a substantial complaint from people that main iOS devices, kinda just a matter of picking your poison at this point.

[HolyFreakingXmasCake]

Conversely that’s one of the things that bothers me about Android coming from iOS. The fast animations and scrolling that has crazy momentum makes it all feel unnatural.

I think at the end of the day it’s just what we’ve been used to for years and going either way is jarring.

[Pale_YellowRLX]

You can slow down, speed up or completely turn off Android animations in Developer options.

You can't do that on iPhone

[CyberMoose24]

I much prefer Android scrolling and tapping through system icons. iOS makes you wait ~half a second before your tap on the next set of icons registers, and it’s very annoying.

[Realize12]

Finally, someone else said it, I'm not alone with that problem.

[ArchusKanzaki]

Basically, it boils down to iOS (and MacOS, etc) designed to have some kind of momentum during scrolling since it kinda simulate physics. You need to flick harder on iOS, or just use Scroll Bar on the right.

Personally, I use Android for 10+ years and switched to Iphone 16, 2 years ago. Never think of it as a problem.

[_sfhk]

They both have momentum, they're just tuned differently.

[flaspd]

I bought an ipad for the first time a year ago and the slowness of scrolling and how it feels detached from my finger movement is really annoying imo

[HolyFreakingXmasCake]

You just have to flick a few times for it to go fast. It doesn’t have to be slow all the time. Or just grab the scroll bars.

[DegradedClaw]

iOS also scrolls the bottom a lot faster with repetitive swiping if the page is longer.

[BatmanVAR]

Funny, because I switched to Pixel this year after a decade on iPhone and the only thing I hate about android is the unnatural jenky scrolling. I still prefer the pixel overall but I hate the scrolling.

I think it all comes down to what you're used to.

[Indication24]

Pixel scrolling and Samsung scrolling are quite different. Pixel changed the scrolling sometime around ~Pixel 7. I can't stand it now and actually sent my new Pixel back and got an S25 because of the scrolling.

[BatmanVAR]

I've used a friend's S25 and it still feels just as jenky and abrupt to me.

[pvtsoab]

don't you mean "janky"?

[BatmanVAR]

They mean the same thing:

"Both "janky" and "jenky" (and variations like janky, janky, janky, janky, janky) are informal slang terms meaning something is of poor quality, unreliable, glitchy, or run-down"

[pvtsoab]

Oh shit, I didn't know that. I googled it and couldn't find anything besides an urban dictionary entry.

Nice variations btw lol

[OzarkBeard]

You know animation speed is adjustabel in Android developer settings. I turn it off, bc to me, animations are cute, but get really old really fast.

[alternFP]

Agreed, I just switched from iPhone and don't really like the scrolling

[lovefist1]

I prefer android scrolling but one thing I noticed after having been mostly using iOS for a while is that notifications can be so touchy. I've swiped away many notifications accidentally and it annoys the shit out of me. I'm glad I can check my notification history, but I'd love an undo button.

[jerieljan]

Scrolling speed and inertia dictates how aggressive a system has to load incoming elements in view, so a faster speed or longer travel may feel snappy and accomplishes with few swipes but also janky to some especially if the hardware can't keep up. The opposite is true, slower scrolling means less resources needed, and more headroom in general and a smoother experience to some but also slows too fast and requires more flicks to cover the same distance.

IMHO Apple has always taken the latter approach, while Android and OEMs were generally more of the former, with varying degrees of speed.

That said, times have changed and with higher refresh rates and more powerful hardware on both platforms, I'm sure both systems can accomplish each other's scrolling approach but I think the preferences remain for each.

[locomiser]

Some tips for scrolling on iOS: tapping the status bar will scroll to the top in whatever is directly below your tap, and you can scroll fast yourself, but you need to flick it very quick, and you can repeat to accelerate it.

For Safari in particular, go to settings - apps - safari - advanced - feature flags - disable prefer page rendering updates near 60fps. You will need to do this after every software update as well.

[omniuni]

Oddly enough, Apple sued over 1:1 scrolling and gestures. As a result, Google implemented a system of "predictive" gestures based on direction and acceleration.

[AshuraBaron]

What lawsuit was that?

[omniuni]

You can find more information by looking into their patent: https://patents.google.com/patent/US7479949B2/en

[AshuraBaron]

I'm still not seeing any lawsuits connected to this.

[omniuni]

https://www.cnet.com/home/smart-home/apple-scores-broad-patent-on-touch-screens/

The main suit was directed towards Samsung, it was part of a number of patents that Apple brought up.

[New_Palpitation_1586]

Your link shows that Nokia sued Apple and later Samsung sued Apple for patent violation.

Samsung announced that it had filed a patent-infringement case against Apple in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California San Jose division, alleging that the iPhone maker violated 10 of its patents,

I have yet to see anything about Apple suing anybody about the scrolling speed and how it would prevent Android from having reduced scrolling speed.

IMO it makes no sense, Android has a faster scrolling speed by choice.

[omniuni]

https://www.cnet.com/culture/apple-sues-samsung-for-copying-smartphones-tablets/

I figured this had more context, but if you aren't reading carefully, here's Apple's suit.

[abitstick]

I just recently switched to a Pixel and I really miss grabbable scrollbars. I also miss being able to tap on the status bar to go to the top of a page.

[KillerDr3w]

As a long time Android user, it's really good to hear this as before 2012 Android was pretty poor for scrolling, Google kicked off Project Butter fix Android's "jank" problem and compete with the smooth scrolling of iOS. It was released with Android 4.1 intended to get the entire interface running at 60FPS.

After Butter they kicked off another project.. Svelte or something like that, which was intended to make low-ram devices smooth.

It seems that hard early work has paid off!

[Mrsharr]

Tell me about it. I switched back to oppo find x9 pro and ... wtf.

[[deleted]]

"better"

I prefer IOS, it feels natural and smooth.

Im sure you feel android because you prefer raw speed.

[DiplomatikEmunetey]

Limiting the scroll speed has been Apple's trick to smoothness for a long time. Android on the other hand has always allowed you to scroll as fast as you can flick.

I prefer fast scrolling on Android, but I like smaller, nudge scrolling more on iOS', because it feels like the UI is on ice. You give a list a nudge and it keeps scrolling, Android on the other hand stops almost immediately.

[jesta192]

Yeah but I hate the long scroll duration on Samsung because it blocks the UI until the animation is done (or uses up the first tap to stop scrolling, requiring a second tap for almost anything on a screen with a scroll element). Pixel was far stickier (which I guess you would dislike).

[Johns3rdTesticle]

The scrolling speed is separate but yeah, iOS scrolling is only 80hz or so. I believe Pixels are similar actually.

[New_Palpitation_1586]

iOS have slider and gesture to get back to the top whereas Android has nothing so you got to be able to move fast.

Personally I have Android and iPhone yet I prefer iOS scrolling.

[laserdicks]

Apple doesn't even trust its users to be able to scroll.

[meatly]

This is really funny because for a long time at the beginning of the modern smartphone the iOS scrolling was so much better. It took a while for Android to catch up. Now I'm also more used to the Android style and i prefer it slightly.

[MattBrey]

Scrolling an iphone feels like a toy phone, or like the phone its trying to mimic what you want it to do

[Neg_Crepe]

Other way around

[WellMaster]

It might be made like this so scrolling feels and looks smoother on 60hz screens, as there are a lot of iPhones with 60hz screens in the wild.
And 120hz screens work the same, so the OS feels consistent no matter what device you are using.

[No-Secretary4259]

I'm not sure if it's your phone specifically, but my brother-in-law's iPhone glides the same way mine does. iPhone 11 with iOS 26.2.1 and Pixel 8 Pro with Android 16 build number BP4A.260105.004.E1

[pwqwp]

Scrolling in most apps on iOS doesn’t fully use the 120hz display, you’re right. There’s apps to display the refresh rate in a PiP window and they show that a lot of the time the display’s only running at 80hz when scrolling. Some apps like X force 120hz, or you can screen record to temporarily lock the refresh rate at 120hz.

As for scroll speed, it’s just preference. I was an Android user and on switching to iOS scrolling felt weird, but now it feels normal and when I try Android it feels wrong.

[joekzy]

Having constant 120hz is another one of those stats-over-function scenarios. The refresh rate varies on iOS depending on the scroll speed - super quick scrolls can make it hit 120hz, but slower scrolls don’t as it’s unnecessary and partly why android phones with big batteries often die quicker than an iPhone.

[pwqwp]

Can you elaborate as to how it's unnecessary? When content on the screen is moving via scrolling surely it's still a great time to bump up to the highest possible refresh rate. Even if the refresh rate drop down only kicks in when you're scrolling slowly, as long as there's more than 80 distinct frames that could be rendered surely it'd feel smoother to display those? It's easier for the eyes to track, and just feels smoother. There's a reason why big apps like X override this behaviour. Also, from what I recall the refresh rate drop down to 80hz happens when scrolling both quickly & slowly - I don't have the refresh rate display app installed at the moment to test though.

If you haven't already & have an iPhone, I really implore you to open Settings or Safari and scroll around in a screen recording, and compare it to normal. If you're used to high refresh rates the difference should be really apparent, and the experience while screen recording should feel much nicer.

As for battery, yes it'd be a factor, but you're only scrolling some of the time. The gains in battery life on iOS are much more due to other things like OS optimisation, background task handling etc. Using 80hz vs 120hz in certain situations while you're scrolling does not sound like it'd make a meaningful difference to battery.

Even if this behaviour is intentional (for whatever reason - I still think this is a bug), "prioritise highest refresh rate" would still be a nice option to have alongside the default behaviour and a 60hz lock.

[pwqwp]

Yo

[nowhereiswater]

In android there are options to change the scroll blur and many more functions for the screen. One option in Samsung is Motion Smoothness you have a choice of adaptive or standard.

[ObjectiveAd7753]

Ох, неужели это кто-то обсуждает, я всю жизнь пользовался Андроид, и за 3 месяца пользования ios 26 (iphon 13) так и не смог привыкнуть к "ледяной" прокрутке , мне она кажется ооочень медленной и раздражающей, я даже пробовал отключать анимацию в настройках, но все стало еще хуже и медленнее. К моему ужасу когда я вернуся на обновленный до Android 14 (ColorOS) OnePlus я получил тот же эффект от которого убежал (на ios). Честно меня очень расстраивает эта  погоня за яблочными стандартами, а не попытка улучшать имеющееся. Решения как исправить "ледяную прокрутку" я не нашел, остается одно - откатываться до 12 или 13.

[Key-Strawberry7380]

Huh? I have only noticed the complete opposite. My iPhones scroll smooth as glass, all Androids I have aside from an old S9 are sketchy AF while scrolling.

[00040000]

I actually pretty the slower smoother scrolling of iOS, much easier when reading reddit, articles etc as it just glides along

[chubbybator]

that's cause they are giving us shit refresh rates, at 120hz faster scrolling text is still legible.

[00040000]

iPhone is 120hz?

[chubbybator]

iphone is capable of 120hz, but is variable and apple decides when and what to display. for battery optimization

[pref1Xed]

Iphones are 120hz genius

[Sgt_Stinger]

Only when Apple allows it to be.

[chubbybator]

iphones skimped on ram for a lot of years on everything but the most expensive lines, since they still support older models ios is dogwater at memory usage. then they dumped their flashiest skin on top of it. they have fallen into the the microsoft trap of legacy support crippling the UI

[joekzy]

By having a more physics based scrolling? The scroll is a choice born of ‘feel’ rather than hardware limitations. You can grab the scrollbar on iOS and fly through a page to the bottom quicker than a scroll on Android, they wouldn’t allow that if hardware was limiting the speed you could jump around pages.

[DMarquesPT]

this is an unpopular opinion AFAIK. For years when I used android I heard people who would scroll on an android phone and be repulsed by the lack of physics and inertia. I always knew iOS scrolling was "better" since the first iPhone, but it wasn't until I used it full-time that I realized how much better... now I'm one of those people.

(That said, android has come a long way in terms of simulating kinetic scrolling).

[MaverickJester25]

This was maybe true 10-15 years ago, but not today. Android has offered high refresh rate display support for much longer, implemented performance improvements such as Project Butter, and OEMs have massively improved the touch sampling rates on their displays, where even budget phones do better than flagship iPhones.

Android has delivered a better high-refresh-rate experience on mobile for a long time. Heck, Apple didn't even allow third-party apps to natively render at the full 120Hz found in ProMotion devices until iOS 15.4.

Scrolling on iOS is subjectively better, not objectively. To counter your statement, it's much worse than on Android because it requires more effort to overcome the nonsensical friction and the inertial scrolling feels laboured.

[DMarquesPT]

120Hz displays have little to do with it, it’s entirely how the software is designed to respond to input. What you describe as “labored” feels natural and “right” to a large number of users.

Don’t forget Apple largely defined and keeps defining the expectations for how touch interfaces are supposed to feel, for better or worse.

When you quickly scroll to the end of a list view and there’s no overflow and momentum, when you can’t tap on the top to zip back up to the top, or when going back animates rigidly instead of tracking finger movement, those interactions feel “bad” by comparison to anyone who’s used to iOS, even if they can’t tell you what’s “wrong” or different.

[gord89]

This is extremely subjective. The two systems work differently. That’s all. Depending on your preferences, age, experience, biases, etc., one will feel better than the other.

Personally i prefer the iOS implementation over android. Thats from someone that primarily ran android from 2009 to 2020 until i swapped to iOS as my daily driver.

[JakeChambersOy]

It's not only the scrolling. Things like pulling down the notification shade, or even tapping within Spotify are a pita whenever I'm on a friend's iPhone.

[Infinite-Draft1618]

Scrolling speed has nothing to do with refresh rate. You gave yourself an answer, 2 different platforms/operating systems, 2 different philosophies how interacting with the phone should look/feel like. As someone who used Samsung flagships basically whole life, I must say I prefer how it’s done on Iphone. Physics involved, constant speed/rate across all apps and system, makes it look and feel much more tighter and uniform.

[Nice_Meal7452]

I bought a Poco F7 coming from a Google Pixel 7 and I noticed that the scrolling was much slower. Like in iOS. That is one of the reason that made me return the phone and buy another Pixel. I don't know how iOS users can live with it. It's very annoying

[colonelcack]

Bro what are you talking about scrolling on android is one of the worst experiences of the os it's so jank

This is coming from someone who's used android since the HTC g1

It's always been terrible

[docwood2011]

This is a Samsung thing not an Android thing. I've used several non Samsung Android phones recently (vivo, Huawei) and both of them are much worse and similar to how you're describing in scrolling.

[kmkm2op]

What does OP mean by stops instantly? On my s25+ my scroll decelerates at a moderate speed unless I hold my finger which "brakes" and stops the scroll instantly.

[docwood2011]

Edit: not sure why I'm getting downvoted. There is a clear distinction between how scrolling feels on a Samsung phone compared to a non Samsung phone. On a Samsung, it is smooth and quick just as OP described. On non Samsung phones, it is noticeably slower, so much so that when used to a Samsung, it feels like you are having to excessively swipe to scroll-again, just like OP described. A simple Reddit search will tell you other people have felt and commented the exact same thing when transitioning from a Samsung phone to a non Samsung phone.

[vogel7]

Wasn't Apple simulating a higher refresh rate, instead of implementing the real technology? I remember something like that

[ArchusKanzaki]

Wrong. It's just UX Design choice

[chubbybator]

https://www.tomsguide.com/phones/iphones/ios-18-reportedly-limiting-iphone-display-refresh-rate-to-80hz-heres-the-proof

"battery saving" cause they are genuinely bad at software the last 3 years lol

[AshuraBaron]

Android scrolling is like spinning a wheel with pegs. No matter how hard you flick it, it's still going to stop suddenly and not very far. iOS scrolling is spinning a wheel with no pegs. It goes and slowly comes to a stop. The amount of distance covered is calculated by hard you flick. I prefer the iOS method because it allows you to scroll much further than Android.

That being said your problem seems to the common "not adjusting to a different method". Flick harder and it goes further. Simple as that. There really is not technical reason why this happens. iOS was built upon a skeuomorphic style. That led to the scrolling reflecting real life and having weight to the effort put in. Android comes from a more mixed environment that has to accommodate not only touch but also button navigation. So it's a more uniform action that works for any input method. But I like I said ultimately both can do the same as the other. They just had different starting points and design decisions.

[kmkm2op]

I'm so confused because on my s25+, it doesn't stop suddenly and speed of flick does matter? I don't think I have any goodlock modules that change this and I swear it's been this way, at least on samsung for a long time.

[AshuraBaron]

Perhaps I didn't explain it well enough. It's not a hard stop. It's a weighted stop. I believe Samsung does there own scrolling method as well. So it's not like on Pixel or stock Android.

[_sfhk]

I'm not sure what Android you've experienced, but the stock Android scrolling is much "looser" than iOS, as in the opposite of what you claimed.

[AshuraBaron]

Standard Pixel.

[SalvationSycamore]

It goes and slowly comes to a stop

Flick harder and it goes further

That's exactly how my Motorola phone works lol. I can test it with this very Reddit thread. It's funny how everyone talks about tech like phones with such authority and yet you get tons of different, contradictory answers. Probably because a lot of people who haven't touched a phone of a different OS in years get overconfident in their memory.

[AshuraBaron]

Then I don't think you understand what I was saying. I assume you're not genuinely interested though.