The person you replied to asked a question for specific details on what alternative to Apple products are being used. I think tis telling that each reply fails to answer.
Yes, actually. I recognize that its a burden but thats part of the point I'm getting at - it is easy to tell people to switch, it is hard to give them good solid advice on how to go about doing so. And it isn't just you, its a trend I've noticed around these topics. People want others to make the jump but they don't want to hold anyone's hand while they do it.
I'm more curious about replacements for iPhone. I'm already past replacing my 2016 macbook for a surfacebook.
iMessage, Apple Wallet (google pay doesn't do airline passes?), airplay, airpods, homepod (for multi room audio, sonos sucks imo and is just another jailed environment).
For the iPhone itself you don't really get good competition aside from what Samsum and Xiamo offer for that price range. Though I've heard great things about the Asus Zenfone 8 as an all rounded and OnePlus as more of a "budget flagship"
iMessage: lol good luck if you can get people to switch to signal or something that would be ideal but most people just don't care in my opinion. Discord, telegram (depending on how much privacy means to you) can also be suitable alternatives. Though nothing really replaces iMessage's "sms if ded" functionality afaik.
Apple Wallet: Oof you've got me there, nothing really competes with it and yeah, a couple of my friends have complained about no passes on GPay as well, sucks.
AirPlay/Airdrop: Surprising this concept has only really been actualized in the apple ecosystem. There are 3rd party alternatives like netcat clients and qrcp and whatnot but nothing as noob friendly that I can think of unfortunately. I've literally never seen any other company implement something like AirPlay so I'll have to leave you hanging there. But a search for "airplay" on github does show some interesting projects if that rings your bell.
AirPods: UGH, you hit all the hard spots. God I love the way they connect without having to worry about going to bluetooth settings though I'm pretty sure that samsung implements something similar with their buds and phones. I guess this one's just which companys' implementation do you want. In terms of how good the headphones actually are, litearlly any $20 chi-fi IEM will objectively outperform the AirPods lol they aren't known for good sound (airprods pro rock though).
HomePod: Never used this but Home Assistant[1] setups are trending right now, give them a look.
