I really want to buy Google's new Pixel 3 smartphone - but there are 4 things that are keeping me hooked on the iPhone

If you ask any iPhone user what's keeping them on iPhone, a lot of them will tell you that it's iMessage.

What makes iMessage so special for me is two-fold. For one, I love that it works even when I'm out of the country. I don't travel internationally often, but having the option to message, uninterrupted, with friends and family — the majority of whom are iPhone users — is a huge perk. I don't need to download a second app or force all of my friends to switch over to Facebook Messenger while I'm in Canada or Europe.

The other reason I love iMessage is because of how it seamlessly integrates with my other devices, like my laptop and iPad. I can get my messages on my laptop at work, or enable them on my iPad at home. This can be overkill sometimes, no doubt, but it's a great backup in case anything happens to your iPhone (trust me, I know this from experience).

It's worth noting that Google created something called "Messages for web," which lets you send and receive text messages from any web browser. It's not quite the same as what Apple has, but it's a start.

The incredible thing, the thing that no other company has really mastered yet, is how well Apple products work together.

I don't even own that many Apple products, but I test and use a lot of them, and it's easy to be seduced by how seamlessly everything works. Setting up a new iPhone using your old iPhone only takes a minute, connecting AirPods or a HomePod to your iOS device is quick and easy, and Apple Watch and the iPhone work together beautifully. I don't want to be impressed by it, but I am.

That same smooth, seamless transition between products doesn't work quite as well when it comes to other hardware companies. While Google's software works beautifully across every app, its hardware products don't always work perfectly together. I have four Google Home devices in my house, and it can be a struggle to get them to work together as a family.

When you've been using any phone for long enough, switching to a totally new interface is going to be a challenge. As an iPhone user, I don't quite feel comfortable or natural using an Android device, even one as straightforward as the Pixel 3.

I've been using the Pixel 3 for a few weeks now, and I still can't get used to the app switcher or the way you pull up the app drawer. Plus, I always struggle with the fact that you can't swipe in and out of pages the way you can on an iPhone — for example, when I'm looking at an Instagram photo, I have to physically press the back button to get back to the person's account, rather than just swiping out of the image.

This is a really small problem to have, I know, and it's certainly one I could get over with time. But if it's such a challenge to get used to — and I switch between Android and iOS fairly often as part of my job — it makes me wonder if iOS really is just more natural and more intuitive to use.

So until I can get over these hurdles, however minor, I won't be switching to the Pixel 3 — but it's such an incredible phone, I'm open to being convinced otherwise.