---
title: "made by google '26, and why i can't leave apple"
url: "https://merterbil.com/posts/made-by-google-26-and-my-apple-lock-in/"
author: "Mert Erbil"
date: "2026-08-15"
video: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X95GYKp2yYg"
video_title: "made by google '26, pixel watch ile yeni sağlık tahminleri ve apple'dan android'e göç dramı"
video_language: "Turkish (English auto-dub available)"
topics: "tech"
license: "CC BY 4.0"
---

# made by google '26, and why i can't leave apple

By Mert Erbil · 2026-08-15 · based on the merbil.fm video "made by google '26, pixel watch ile yeni sağlık tahminleri ve apple'dan android'e göç dramı" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X95GYKp2yYg, in Turkish, with an English auto-dubbed audio track on YouTube)

A couple of days ago Google had its Made by Google event, and once again we got Pixel phones with better cameras, better battery life and better AI. Gemini integration got better too, which is the only thing I really expected anyway. It's the same bells and whistles we're used to from Apple events every year.

There were also random celebrities, since Google has started working with football clubs, so people like Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher showed up, which feels completely unrelated to a phone event.

Still, two things caught my eye. The first one is accessibility, since American Sign Language can now be turned into text, just like speech transcription. We use these devices every day without thinking about how much accessibility opens up for a lot of people, so I think this one matters.

The second one is that the Pixel Watch will show blood pressure trends and insulin resistance trends, which wearables have been expected to do for years. However, as far as I know insulin resistance is measured from blood, and blood pressure measurement has been basically the same for about 100 years.

So I looked into the details, and it's all AI-supported algorithms predicting trends from the vitals the watch already measures. To be honest, that felt a bit lame. Apple has been working on the same things for about ten years as far as I know, and nothing notable has come out there either.

I still think health features like this are important, because heart notifications have actually helped my family stop a couple of things before they got more dangerous. We'll just have to see how well it works.

Actually, I've had my eye on Pixel phones for a long time. Around 2013 I started using a MacBook and got the first iPad mini, while my phone was an LG Nexus 4, a pure Android with none of the Samsung bloatware I hate. I loved it so much I bought my dad a Nexus 5.

Then one morning its screen just died. After chasing LG and the service for a while, I asked a cousin or a friend coming from the US to bring me an iPhone 5S. That was about ten years ago, and I've been fully in the ecosystem ever since.

Now my personal email lives on iCloud, along with my photos, backups, passwords and browser history (I hate Chrome, so it's been Safari forever). Sure, all of it can be exported, but that takes time. My Apple Watch would become pointless, and using two phones means losing sync.

So switching phones has turned into a migration project. The Pixel 10a is relatively affordable and I'd love to keep one around just to see what's going on over there. Instead, it comes with a huge mental load (I know, first world problems).

Eventually, I realize I miss the freedom. It's not that Apple is terrible, I'm just curious and want to try something else for a year or two. My life is incredibly comfortable, but that comfort is also what's blocking me, and I'm too busy to pay the cost of changing. Maybe I'm overcomplicating it, I don't know.