I am switching to Android from Windows phone can any answer some questions for me?

[imabtech]

Switching to android from windows phone, can I .....

To all you android fans out there:

I am looking at making the switch from windows phone to android as there are 2 very specific apps I 'need' which are not yet available for Windows Phone.

However there are some features o of windows phone which I don't know if they are available with android, WITHOUT rooting:


1) Glance screen (when phone is off, it gives me time, date, status information for emails, sms etc) this is not the lock screen, I mean when the phone is off.

2) a keyboard with multiple autocorrect suggestions. (the only keyboards I have seen for android only ever have three suggestions)

3) cortana style speech commands (can i set reminders, create text messages, with google now)?

4) can i open word, excel, PowerPoint files

5) set different tones, alerts etc for different notifications (ie sms, email, whatsapp etc)

6) switch off background apps individually

can I do all of this with Android?

Finally, recommendations for an android phone of 4.7" or bigger with a very good camera and decent battery life.

 

[wizzrah]

Re: Switching to android from windows phone, can I .....

To all you android fans out there:

I am looking at making the switch from windows phone to android as there are 2 very specific apps I 'need' which are not yet available for Windows Phone.

However there are some features o of windows phone which I don't know if they are available with android, WITHOUT rooting:


1) Glance screen (when phone is off, it gives me time, date, status information for emails, sms etc) this is not the lock screen, I mean when the phone is off.

2) a keyboard with multiple autocorrect suggestions. (the only keyboards I have seen for android only ever have three suggestions)

3) cortana style speech commands (can i set reminders, create text messages, with google now)?

4) can i open word, excel, PowerPoint files

5) set different tones, alerts etc for different notifications (ie sms, email, whatsapp etc)

6) switch off background apps individually

can I do all of this with Android?

Finally, recommendations for an android phone of 4.7" or bigger with a very good camera and decent battery life.

Hello! Welcome to Android Central!

1. Some phones can do this. For example, the Motorola X has a feature called active display, which does exactly what you want with the screen off. Here it is for reference.

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...features-3-active-display.html&token=PK2xijfV

There are also apps that can do this for you. See here:
https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...greatbytes.activenotifications&token=zvdZBOTo

2. I'll try a bunch of keyboards and see if any fit what you want. Right now, I'm using SwiftKey. Even though it has only 3 predictions at a time, it does a pretty darn good job at guessing what you're going to type next.

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...ails?id=com.touchtype.swiftkey&token=uyH_jGee

3. Here is the Google Now page:

http://www.google.com/landing/now/

To answer your question about texts, yes. You can say "Send a text to *name*" and it should prompt you to say your message.

4. Yes, there are various office apps that can do this. Google has their own office like suite of apps for PowerPoint, Word, and more. Android even has Microsoft Office if that is what you want.

5. Yes.

6. Yes.

I would look into the HTC One M8 or the Samsung Galaxy S5. Personally, I think you should go to a carrier's store and try different phones out to see which one you like.

If you have anymore questions, don't hesitate to ask as I'm here to help!

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: Switching to android from windows phone, can I .....

Welcome to Android Central!

1) Glance screen (when phone is off, it gives me time, date, status information for emails, sms etc) this is not the lock screen, I mean when the phone is off.

The Active Display of the Moto X is the closest you'll get: Motorola. This feature can be mimicked on other devices, but it tends to use more batteries on those phones, because the Moto X is optimized for the feature.

2) a keyboard with multiple autocorrect suggestions. (the only keyboards I have seen for android only ever have three suggestions)

On the Google Keyboard, when you see only 3 suggestions, you can actually long-press the middle one to bring up a longer list of other suggestions.

3) cortana style speech commands (can i set reminders, create text messages, with google now)?

Absolutely! https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2940021?hl=en

4) can i open word, excel, PowerPoint files

Yes. Google Drive apps (Docs, Sheets, Slides) can open and edit Office files. There are also many 3rd party office suites that are compatible.

5) set different tones, alerts etc for different notifications (ie sms, email, whatsapp etc)

Yes.

6) switch off background apps individually

With stock Android, this can only be done with system apps or preinstalled bloatware apps, but not with apps you install. But there are apps like Greenify that allow you to freeze any selected apps.

Have I convinced you yet?

As for phone recommendations, you're going to get lots of different recommendations, and it's hard to go wrong with the flagship phones from the various manufacturers. Good choices include the Samsung Galaxy S5 or Note 4, HTC One M8, LG G3, or Moto X. Good luck, and have fun!

 

[imabtech]

Re: Switching to android from windows phone, can I .....

So I bought myself an S5 and find there are still a few things that I can't (work out how to) do on android...

1) When I have a Bluetooth headset, with windows phone, it reads text messages to me as they arrive. That doesn't seem to happen with google now.

2) With windows phone, a long press on the Bluetooth headset starts cortana, it seems with google now, I need to start it from the phone itself?

3) I can't seem to find a calendar app that allows me to view (edit, add etc) to more than one exchange calendar through delegate access.

4) Probably a question for a different forum, but the camera on the S5 seems to suffer tremendously from camera shake. Would a different camera app help?

Thanks

 

[belodion]

Re: Switching to android from windows phone, can I .....

Someone may know the answers to your queries right here, but you'd do well to join the Samsung Galaxy S5 forum where you'll be among other owners of that device.

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