[Closed] Windows Phone & Google

Yes.

The Windows Phone calendar app is the best one I've used for working well with other services.

Apart from lack of apps, they are great - I wanted another when it came to upgrade time, but EE didn't have any.

Main thing is there are virtually no Google apps (I think there's *the* Google app which is just a search app, and that's it). Unlikely there ever will be any official ones given they are the competition.

But you can still live without them.

Google account stuff like mail, contacts and calendar are supported by the stock Windows apps for these, so no problem there.

Only real lack is Google Maps. However there is the Windows Maps app which is not bad and Here maps. They do offline maps also, way before Google who have only just started offering it properly.

Win Phone stuff works best syncing with a MS account. Outlook mail, calendar & contacts. OneNote syncing is very useful. Browser favourites are synced with IE. Not Edge yet, but I guess that comes with Win Phone 10.

Big thing for me was low price but decent performance and yet incredibly good battery life compared to my old Samsung. Though I've got a Lumia 640 and that's basically a Nokia in terms of hardware in all but name, so it's no wonder the battery life is excellent.

Oh and cracking cameras on Lumias 🙂

Cheers, she won't be using maps or anything so no problems there.

If they're used to using an Android, I reckon best sticking with that.

It's dead easy to move stuff across and you can get a really decent phone for £100ish. A Motorola Moto E is around £90.

google drive wont work, but they do play with gmail & calendar... sort of. If your google calendar includes 'links' to other google calendars, these wont show.

who's currently using an old Android phone

used primarily just as a phone

will be OK just as a phone, but going from Android to Windows Phone is like going back in time IME. Android is far more refined.

Windows & Nokia Here maps are OK for roads but they are woefully lacking on their database of 'stuff' and my Here Maps has some bizarre routings, taking you miles and miles in the wrong direction (like if the quick way is 5 miles, it'll take you on a 50 mile detour even though all routing options are correct).

I hate Windows phone... I played with Win10 preview for a day not so long ago. There's a lot of work still to be done, buggy as hell!

will be OK just as a phone, but going from Android to Windows Phone is like going back in time IME. Android is far more refined.

This is pretty much how I thought but my Dad (buying for my Mom) seems intent on buying Nokia. He loves his old Nokia but doesn't seem to appreciate things have moved on a fair bit!

I'd much rather stick with Android but so long as it'll do the contact sync and email then I'll let him decide which one to go for.

Cheers.

Nokia now is not Nokia back then. In fact it's Microsoft 😉

Contacts and mail *should* work OK.

cp - Member
Nokia now is not Nokia back then. In fact it's Microsoft

In name, and yes in terms of Windows Phone. The hardware team were all the guys from Nokia though. Until they outsourced it all, but still Lumia phones are very much Nokia's design.

Even the build numbers and product codes are still the same.

There are a fair amount of apps with Microsoft's name on it that are Nokia's apps, plus all the ones still with Nokia's name on it.

will be OK just as a phone, but going from Android to Windows Phone is like going back in time IME. Android is far more refined.

I wouldn't call it refined. A mess more like. Stock Android is bland and dated. Then manufacturers slap their own bloat on it to funk it up. The apps are 80% garbage, adware, malware and games that are "free" but actually involve spending a fair bit of money to be playable. Nothing is consistent with so much device fragmentation. It's a nightmare to develop for having to cater for so many variations, inconsistencies and under powered devices.

Win Phone isn't the prettiest thing, but you know what you're getting with any phone you pick up.

I find Android a pain coming from Windows phone. Too many different ways of doing things, too many companies vying for your patronage. For me, the Windows stock stuff was simpler, friendlier and better than all of it.

For instance, going through alternative keyboards on the app store to find one that doesn't piss me off.

Or trawling calendar apps to find one that will sync specific calendars from other accounts, rather than all of them. Ballache.

Win Phone isn't the prettiest thing,

Actually I think it is prettier. I loved the UI aesthetic.

My perception as a once Android user now on iOS:

iOS - Apple vet everything before it gets on the App Store
Android - Free for all
Windows - Nobody writes much for it (relatively speaking)

Fair assessment?

I find Android a pain coming from Windows phone.

To be fair, you may as well say "I find something new a pain coming from something I'm used to." If you'd gone from Android to WP you'd probably be saying the same thing.

Too many different ways of doing things

Choice is good, n'est-ce pas?

For instance, going through alternative keyboards on the app store to find one that doesn't piss me off.

I've got a Windows Phone on my desk at work currently, they're rolling them out to replace the Blackberry estate. Amusingly, I'm pretty sure that the stock keyboard is a debranded version of Swype, which is what I've used on Android for years. (If it's not Swype, MS are going to have a lawsuit on their hands.)

Fair assessment yes. I'd also say with apps, it's iOS that's the only money maker if you can get the app approved. Hardly anyone wants to pay for an Android app, even if it's only 99p (or less).

Windows, the problem there is that few companies want to invest the time, but the crazy thing is it's actually the easiest and nicest development platform. Android development is horrible, especially native apps, even with the shift to Android Studio from god awful Eclipse. Although HTML/JS apps are much easier, and they're generally cross platform too.

Windows now has decent cross platform development and can run on iOS and Android. Microsoft are also actively pushing tools to convert an Android app to Win Phone with very little effort.

While there are millions of users, compared to Android and iOS stats it's not enough for a CEO to fund the cost. Without that, then the numbers won't rise enough.

My first impressions of WP:

The first bugbear I've hit is that you pretty much have to have a Microsoft ID in order to do anything, otherwise you get prompted to sign in every other time you click on something. That's fine in and of itself, I have an MS ID (actually I have two), but as soon as you sign in it starts importing all your contacts, setting up Outlook and so forth. Unforgivably there's no way to stop this syncing other than hackery (setting Hotmail's server address to localhost and so on), and whilst it might be desirable on a personal phone I've now got a work phonebook full of contacts including everyone I've ever spoken to on MSN Messenger in the last fifteen years.

You can hide these by deselecting them in the People app, but there's no way I can see of just not having them there. I've yet to see whether I can remove my Hotmail email from Outlook without unbundling the whole ID at a system level, but I don't particularly want my personal email on a work phone either. At this rate I'm going to be creating a third MS login.

I really, really don't like the home screen full of animated tat whizzing about all over the place. It's fussy and headache-inducing. Fortunately you can remove most (but seemingly not all) of this. And being left-handed the transition animations feel wrong, pages scooting away under my hand.

Also,

Is it possible to change the font size, or the layout of the email app to show more info? I'm not actually blind.

Really not liking the absolute lack of control over anything.

Is it possible to change the font size, or the layout of the email app to show more info? I'm not actually blind.

no, it's crap!

they're rolling them out to replace the Blackberry estate

same here about 9 months ago, we have about 30 users. Most want the Blackberries back, which is really saying something

Choice is good, n'est-ce pas?

Not always. Too much choice is a recognised problem, because making a choice demands effort.

I've now got a work phonebook full of contacts including everyone I've ever spoken to on MSN Messenger in the last fifteen years.

You can hide these by deselecting them in the People app, but there's no way I can see of just not having them there

I think you can hide contacts from different sources - I did this for Facebook contacts and MSN - I only had Google contacts in my phone book. You can also have groups of people, so you can add all your work contacts to a work group and pin that to the start page, un-pinning everyone else.

Too much choice is no problem at all, I'll just ask on here for the opinions of people who have already chosen. (-:

Cougar - Moderator
The first bugbear I've hit is that you pretty much have to have a Microsoft ID in order to do anything,

That's the ecosystem you're buying into basically. With the major brand Android phones it's all tied into Google and need a Google account to make the most of it.

I used to have a lot of things in my Google account and some in my MS account, but I prefer it now I've moved everything to MS. Especially as all my other devices are Windows. Everything syncs up nicely. It also plays nicely with Exchange whereas numerous Android mail apps I've tried have struggled, especially when it comes to contacts and calendars.

Would say for calendars, while the Win Phone calendar is functionally fine, it's a hideous design. Neon text on black background and just ugly. There are third party apps but not looked into them.

I'm hoping Win Phone 10 will bring some decent improvements. It also opens up a lot more cross platform development opportunities.

The thing that was really getting to me with Android though was battery and data hogging apps. Especially Google's own apps! Each update they'd consume a lot more. I think because they target the latest massive phones with huge batteries and just assume that's what everyone is using.

Interesting thing is I'm running roughly the same kind of apps with same background tasks going on and my browsing, upload & download usage is same if not higher, and yet my data usage is half of what it was on Android. I can even run Facebook on Win Phone without fear of data death. On Android it used to consume so much data I had to get rid of it.

I don't think you do need a Microsoft account, if you go to settings/email and accounts you can add one or many different types of account - Microsoft, Google, iCloud etc.

In the people hub/app you can then add some or all of those accounts. You will only see updates from the accounts you have selected.

I prefer it now I've moved everything to MS.

I've been using Outlook for Android for my calendar stuff.

Neon text on black background

You can change that via the system theme, surely?

With the major brand Android phones it's all tied into Google and need a Google account to make the most of it.

Oh, sure, but I don't remember getting "you can't do that" at every turn on Android. May be rose-tinted glasses though, it's a long time since I had an Android phone not tied to a Google account.

molgrips - Member
I've been using Outlook for Android for my calendar stuff.

I was having a lot of hassles with the Outlook app (the newer one). The calendars wouldn't always sync, though main problem was with mail where it tries to bundle all your mail together but hide stuff it thinks you probably aren't interested in (I think Google does something similar), and then I found it wasn't working well at all with IMAP mailboxes. Fair enough it's Outlook, but it was billing itself as a general replacement for the Mail app. I got fed up of the others, even the well regarded K9. They all seemed to have quirks that made them just stop syncing mail or irritating to use.

iOS - Apple vet everything before it gets on the App Store
Android - Free for all
Windows - Nobody writes much for it (relatively speaking)

That's probably about the size of it. However, my dad and brother are firmly wedded to Windows Phone and it runs quickly on relatively modest hardware. The app issues may or may not be aided by tools MS has developed to allow easy porting of iOS apps. Gmail seems to work fine in the native mail app.

There's also been loads in the tech press recently about Android's (lack of) security and difficulty in getting patches out because of disputes between Google, handset manufacturers and networks about who is responsible for this, unlike iOS (where Apple pushes them out when needed) and W10P (where MS appear to be adopting the Apple model).