First Android phone - help

[AC Question]

Hi. In my life I managed many smartphone OS. I had a variaety of Symbian devices, a Blackberry, an iphone, a HP Pre, and finally 2 WP devices. IRecently I got a Nexus 5 device and it's beautiful but honestly its insanely complicated. Im not a power user, i just want it to do simple tasks and possibly to do them efficently. After reading a little in this forum I have seen that beside the stock OS there is many customized versions. So my first question would be, should I try to master the stock OS or try to find a Version hat suits my needs?

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! The Nexus 5 has the "vanilla" Android interface, without a lot of extra bells and whistles, so I'd stick with it for now. Take a look at this guide--hopefully, it'll be helpful! http://forums.androidcentral.com/general-help-how/399060-guide-getting-started-android-2014-a.html

 

[glw83]

Hi thx for the welcome I intensly read your guide and it helped me with some issues. Still lots of questions remain. Lets start with the core functions, Phone and Messaging: The Phone App is completely misfunctional: it puts me pictures of my recent calls on the homescreen of the app, and I really don't want to see the face of my boss before i call my mother, or the face of my mother before I call my GF. Also the "all contacts" function instead of being in a tab is in a small grey box on the top right of the screen. But the biggest probem is Lag: sometimes the contacts appear, sometimes they appear after some time, sometimes not at all, sometimes they appear 3 times, sometimes they don't appear first but after I press the back or home button... long story short: its nearly unusable. A google research told me that this seems to be a known, yet unfixed issue. The default messaging app "hangover" is not that terrible, but no one I know uses that service and it seems kind of unecessary, and I like simple functional things.

Now the nice thing about android is that I can customize this Apps: I can get different Dialer and SMS apps in the market. My question would be: if I install such apps do I make my system more instable or using more battery? Or is there any other reason not to experiment with such apps? (sorry for such noobish questions, but Im new to this and little overwhelmed by seamingless infinite opportunities in this android ecosystem and little surprised about how certain things are implemented)

 

[B. Diddy]

The main Dialer screen defaults to your Speed Dial and your most recent calls, because that's what many people would be most interested in. If you'd rather see your entire contact list first, go to the People app instead, since it's very easy to select a contact and call them from that app.

You don't even have to go to the People app. Just tap the Google Search bar, and start typing in a name. As long as you have Google Search set to search your People app (along with the web), it should bring up the contact you're looking for quickly. Select that contact, and choose to make a call.

Not sure what to tell you about the contact lag--I actually experience none on mine. Lag issues can sometimes be resolved by booting into Recovery Mode and wiping the system cache partition (which doesn't erase any personal data). Be aware that this process can take upwards of 10 minutes on a Nexus 5: http://forums.androidcentral.com/nexus-5-rooting-roms-hacks/352008-guide-nexus-5-recovery.html

I actually like Hangouts a lot. It's how the Ambassadors communicate with each other. It's essentially Instant Messaging that can be done anywhere you have access to Google. But you can also integrate your SMS into it.

The customization of Android is one of its greatest strengths. Most apps that have been downloaded a lot and have good reviews won't make your phone unstable or eat up too much battery, so give them a try. You can always uninstall them. Read the reviews before installing to make sure there aren't common issues that people complain about.

Don't worry--any new system has a learning curve. It'll become second nature soon enough.

 

[Javier P]

For your most called contacts you can create a shortcut on your home screens. I made a folder with a dozen of them and put it on my dock. The icon for each one will be their photo on your contacts app.

Ask if you need help to do that.

 

[B. Diddy]

For your most called contacts you can create a shortcut on your home screens. I made a folder with a dozen of them and put it on my dock. The icon for each one will be their photo on your contacts app.

Ask if you need help to do that.

This is a good idea, and is what I do as well. I like the Direct Dial shortcut, because it's a one touch call. I think the "Contact" widget requires more than one touch, because when you tap it, you're asked how you want to contact that person (i.e., which phone #, texting, email).

 

[mrsmumbles]

You can also say "OK Google", " Call [my mother]", which is what I'm doing a lot lately. Then you don't have to go into either the dialer, Contacts, or People if you don't want to.

 

[Javier P]

I think the "Contact" widget requires more than one touch, because when you tap it, you're asked how you want to contact that person (i.e., which phone #, texting, email).

Yep. In my case it's very helpful. Most of the time I use a different app than phone to communicate with these contacts: whatsapp, Viber, Skype, SMS, mail ... I prefer this way than going to the app and find the contact there.

For a phone call the favourites and search in the stock app work fine for me.