Migrating from Windows Mobile ecosystem: help and how-to requested

[anon(5376293)]

Hello, Android. It's been a long time.

Well, I think I'm finally throwing in the towel on the Windows Mobile platform. Don't get me wrong; I love the Microsoft stack, from top to bottom. You might even call me an evangelist. I use Outlook.com for email calendar and contacts, I use OneDrive and Visual Studio and Office365 and Xbox Live and Azure for webhosting. I've loved the ride and the cripsness of Windows 10 Mobile, but it's simply lost too many apps, and there doesn't appear to be a viable next-gen option on the horizon anyway.

So, in the spirit of a smooth transition, I though I would ask for help migrating to an Android phone. In particular, I'd like to keep as many Microsoft services as I can, and I would like to move as much data as I can. I would absolutely love it if you friendly folks could provide some advice on the following topics and questions:

1. Out of the box, will android phones successfully sync with Outlook.com email, calendar and contacts? They use Exchange for the underlying protocol, so I would assume so... but would love confirmation. Ideally, I'd prefer to just sign into my Microsoft account and avoid adding a Google account altogether, but I realize I need to at least access app purchases.
2. I adore Cortana on Windows Mobile; how is the experience using Cortana on Android, these days? Is it a full replacement for Google Now/Assistant?
3. Is it possible to transfer over my text message history from Windows Mobile to Android?
4. How tightly do Microsoft apps integrate in the Android platform, such as OneDrive (for picture uploads and document retrieval) and Office?
5. What is the de-facto app for reading Feedly feeds?
6. What is the best app for adding, managing and listening to 'offline' audiobooks?
7. For anyone else who has made the migration recently; what 'gotchas' should I be aware of? What is still lacking, and what will be improved?
8. It's been a while since I used an Android system; do app settings sync to the cloud like WM10, or not?

 

[SpookDroid]

Hi there! Jumping into another OS is never easy, but we're here to help!

1) Yup. Use it all the time for work e-mail. Calendar, notes, tasks, e-mail. It's all there.
2) Cortana is pretty close to what it is on Windows, except it can't do 'deep' OS stuff. For that, Google Now is better. But if you stick to the basics, Cortana should do just fine.
3) Yup. You can use 3rd party apps to back them up and transfer, or if you go for a Samsung device, you can use SmartSwtich and it'll do the heavy lifting for you.
4) Just as any other 3rd party: Share button and it's in. I believe OneDrive and Office are getting tighter integration into the OS, but as I personally don't use those, I can't attest to more other than being able to move information from app to app via the Share button.
5) No idea on that one. I use Flipboard for my feeds, but no idea if it's good (let alone the 'de facto' for Feedly).
6) I use my audio books (all three of them!) in the default music player, mostly because I don't do audio books that much. But any app like Audible will do fine...with books purchased from there I can't see how this would be any different in Windows.
7) If you're used to the tiles (I personally hate them), you'll have to scour 3rd party apps to get that look and almost all of the functionality, but you'll still feel like 'something's missing'. But give widgets and Android in general a chance and you'll get used to it, and like it I'm sure
8) Yup, unless you disable it. It's all tied up to your Google Account (or manufacturer-specific one if supported, like Samsung accounts). When you switch devices, your account will prompt you to install all apps you had in your previous device as well, so you can have the same settings, layouts, and installed apps into your new phone. Same goes for Contacts, Pictures, events, etc. as long as you allow the account to sync them.

 

[jlangner]

Similar question as well. Moving back to android from windows and going to the Pixel XL. My biggest question is on the calendar. I use outlook calendar and like the ability to make reminder on phone and have it show up on outlook calendar. I know I could use outlook on pixel and manually do that way and it will show, but if I use Google Assistant I am assuming it would make task/reminders on google calendar. What is best way to handle this. I am assuming no auto syncs between 2 calendars any more?

 

[Laura Knotek]

5. Feedly has an official Android app that works great.