Help my wife enjoy the phone

[spacekungfuman]

Yesterday my wife picked up the SIII after being an iPhone user for the last 2 years (iPhone 4). She loved her iPhone but liked the bigger screen, so she decided to try out the SIII and she absolutely hates it so far. I convinced her to give it a few days before returning it, and I'm hoping people here can help with her complaints:

1. She wants to see previews of her messages on the lock screen.

2. She wants an easy way to put the phone on silent or vibrate (she really misses the hard toggle on iOS).

3. She hates having multiple home screens. She wants to just have 1 or 2 with a grid of apps and nothing else.

4. She doesn't like the dot that shows where your finger was.

5. She doesn't like having g chat on the phone. Can it be deleted?

6. She finds the phone to generally be confusing with so many settings menus. Is there a way to have a single settings screen that covers everything like iPhone?

Basically, she wants an iPhone with a bigger screen and has no interest in extra features, but she doesn't want to install too many apps or 3rd party tweaks. She certainly will not go for a new shell or anything like that. That will make her return the phone, probably. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

 

[sr2012]

My 2 cents is a lot of what you mention can be done. It is overwhelming at first for any switcher.

But go through the forums or online if you can figure it out it will be a good experience.

For example don't go into settings just use a widget.

Sent from my HTC One X using Android Central Forums

 

[Almeuit]

1. She wants to see previews of her messages on the lock screen.

2. She wants an easy way to put the phone on silent or vibrate (she really misses the hard toggle on iOS).

3. She hates having multiple home screens. She wants to just have 1 or 2 with a grid of apps and nothing else.

4. She doesn't like the dot that shows where your finger was.

5. She doesn't like having g chat on the phone. Can it be deleted?

6. She finds the phone to generally be confusing with so many settings menus. Is there a way to have a single settings screen that covers everything like iPhone?

1. Not sure if there is an easy way with no third party apps to do this.

2. She can hit the lock/unlock button to bring up the lock screen and from that screen you can bring the notification bar down to tab the toggle for sound (it will change to vibrate)

3. You can delete all widgets and also the extra home screens. From one of the home screens simply do the zoom out gesture (such as if you were on a webpage) then you can delete the extra home screens.

4. I am not sure what you mean?

5. If she isn't signed in it shouldn't notifier her of anything. It's on my phone but I never see a pop up or anything. I think it requires root to remove but not sure.

6. Sorry no. Each app and area of the phone can have settings. She could maybe look for widgets so she could use the toggles for certain settings from the homescreen? But.. As you said she just wants a row of icons and nothing else on her home screens.


From the sound of it she just likes her iPhone. The iPhone 5 has a bigger screen (not as big but a little bigger than the old versions) and she can use what she is accustomed to. Android is a very nice OS but usually takes some personalizing and also usually will take some tweaks to get everything you want which usually means 3rd party apps. As you said she doesn't want to do any of this and she just wants it all simplified which.. An iPhone is great for.

I recommend the iPhone for many of my family members because they just wouldn't want to deal with any tweaking or anything like me.. They just want a smartphone that is very user friendly. So.. I'd recommend that in this case but that's just my 2 cents .

Sent from my Sprint S3 using AC forums

 

[prissysox]

Yesterday my wife picked up the SIII after being an iPhone user for the last 2 years (iPhone 4). She loved her iPhone but liked the bigger screen, so she decided to try out the SIII and she absolutely hates it so far. I convinced her to give it a few days before returning it, and I'm hoping people here can help with her complaints:

1. She wants to see previews of her messages on the lock screen.

2. She wants an easy way to put the phone on silent or vibrate (she really misses the hard toggle on iOS).

3. She hates having multiple home screens. She wants to just have 1 or 2 with a grid of apps and nothing else.

4. She doesn't like the dot that shows where your finger was.

5. She doesn't like having g chat on the phone. Can it be deleted?

6. She finds the phone to generally be confusing with so many settings menus. Is there a way to have a single settings screen that covers everything like iPhone?

Basically, she wants an iPhone with a bigger screen and has no interest in extra features, but she doesn't want to install too many apps or 3rd party tweaks. She certainly will not go for a new shell or anything like that. That will make her return the phone, probably. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

1. Pull down notification center and previews are there in 4.1 which hey phone should be able to update to.

2. There should be a quick toggle in motivation centre for Sammy devices.

3. She can do that. Zoom of like previous posts suggested and delete extra home screens. Then or her most used apps on the remaining three.

4. Idk about that one. You'll have to look more in the S3 threads.

5. Like previous poster said it never bus me as I haven't used it at all.

6. Settings will not be like I phone. Just not going to happen.

It honestly sound like she won't give the S3 a fair shake. People who switch sometimes kill me because they expect android to act like iphone. It's not an iphone and never will be. I prefer settings to be controllable in each app as I don't have to exit app and then go to settings.

Sent from my HTC One X+ using Android Central Forums

 

[worwig]

#1. Preview messages. Not likely to happen. You may be able to do it with a different launcher and a different messaging app, but from the other comments, I don't think you want to even think of trying that.

#2. Press and hold the power button. At least on my Verizon S3, a pop up menu then gives you the vibrate/silent options.

#3. Just don't use more then one home screen. Take the settings softkey in the lower left and delete the screens you don't want.

#4 Dot where her finger was? I don't have such a think, or don't understand.

#5. G Chat was probably installed by the carrier. Ignore it, it isn't hurting anything. I assume you went to the 'manage apps' setting at couldn't delete it. If so, it would require root and such. Just ignore it.

#6. Lots of settings. You have to break them down some way. It would be a horrible mess to pile them in one long list.

I recommend that she returns the phone ASAP. Get an iPhone 5.
To switch from one OS to another, you have to look forward to learning the differences. If you are expecting them to be the same, then stick to the OS that you know.

 

[GrooveRite]

Sorry but like the guys before me have stated....sounds like your wife misses the Apple ecosystem which Android is not.

 

[meyerweb#CB]

Really, I think you should just tell her to get an iPhone 5 and deal with the smaller screen. Android isn't iOS, and never will be, and it doesn't sound like she's remotely interested in learning something new. Most, if not all, of the points above can be addressed, but not without making an effort to learn how Android works, customizing the phone, and installing some apps. If she expects any other device to act just like an iPhone, she's never going to be happy. She might as well ask an Apple forum how to make her screen bigger as ask here how to make Android work like iOS. Neither is possible.

AC has a guide on the site for iPhone users transitioning to Android. It's worth reading. There's also a G3 setup guide here, which will answer many of your questions.

1. Not sure. Go SMS has popup settings, but not sure if it'll work on the lock screen. Someone else can probably provide a solution, but it will almost certainly involve installing an app or "tweak."

2. Slide down the notification shade from the top (this is basic Android functionality (which Apple copied), so I assume she knows how to do this, right?) and tap the sound icon. Can iOS really be any easier?

3. She doesn't have to use the extra home screens, does she? But yes, you can delete them. On any home screen, pinch in (standard 2-finger pinch, just like iPhone). This will show you a reduced view of all the home screens. You can drag any of them to the trash can at the bottom of the screen and "poof" they're gone.

4. ? I don't see anything like this on my S3.

5. I'm not sure I get this. Just because the app is on the phone she doesn't have to use it. Does she want to remove the icon from the home screen? You can remove any icon by tap and holding the icon, then dragging it to the trash can. You can remove the icon completely by disabling gchat in the application manager, in settings.

6. No. The strength of Android is in it's flexibility and ability to be customized. The strength of iOS is it's simplicity, which is a direct result of it's lack of flexibility and ability to be customized. There are probably some apps which will consolidate the most used settings into a simpler interface, but you already said she's not willing to install any 3rd party apps.

I guess I'm kind of surprised that people expect to change something as fundamental as an operating system and expect that there will be no learning curve. Would she expect to switch from Windows to Mac (or the reverse) and not have to learn something new? Or to buy a new car with a fancy audio system and not spend some time figuring out how it works? Tell her to either stop being lazy, or just put up with Apple's little screen.

 

[crester]

It really sounds like your wife should get another iPhone. There's no point in getting an Android phone and then trying to change it to be exactly like an iPhone.

 

[spacekungfuman]

Thanks for the responses. It isn't that she won't install apps. Its more that she won't want to change base parts of the phone, like replacing the messaging app with another one. She just isn't into customizing the phone. She wants it to be simple and work, and doesn't want to have basic things like the sms app be choices she has to make, if that makes sense. Every time she sees something (like one of the built in tutorials on gestures) her response is "I don't care about that. It isn't turned on, right?"

If someone could recommend an app that would do message previews on the lock screen though, that would be really helpful. I think that if I deleted all the widgets and extra home screens and she could just use messaging the way she wants then she'd be happy with it. She really just uses messaging (aim, sms, email, facebook, facebook messenger), the web browser and some light games and other random apps on her iphone, so it isn't like she is a very demanding user. She just wants to phone to be user friendly and simple. She has zero interest in customizing it, as long as it works.

 

[ansextra]

I agree with the above that she should go back to an iPhone since that's what she really likes and understands. Android offers lots of customizations and tweaking potential but not everyone wants that.

 

[Rodawg71]

Iphone 5 is best suited for the Mrs.

sent from a Galaxy SIII near you

 

[crester]

Thanks for the responses. It isn't that she won't install apps. Its more that she won't want to change base parts of the phone, like replacing the messaging app with another one. She just isn't into customizing the phone. She wants it to be simple and work, and doesn't want to have basic things like the sms app be choices she has to make, if that makes sense. Every time she sees something (like one of the built in tutorials on gestures) her response is "I don't care about that. It isn't turned on, right?"

If someone could recommend an app that would do message previews on the lock screen though, that would be really helpful. I think that if I deleted all the widgets and extra home screens and she could just use messaging the way she wants then she'd be happy with it. She really just uses messaging (aim, sms, email, facebook, facebook messenger), the web browser and some light games and other random apps on her iphone, so it isn't like she is a very demanding user. She just wants to phone to be user friendly and simple. She has zero interest in customizing it, as long as it works.

The solution to all of your wife's problems can be found here... Apple - iPhone 5 - The thinnest, lightest, fastest iPhone ever.

 

[spacekungfuman]

When she bought the SIII, what I said to her was "you will definitely be happy with the iphone 5, but you might be even happier with the SIII" If she returns it, that's fine (hell, I just got the iphone 5 yesterday, but i can't get android phones because they don't work with my work email) but I'd like her to give it a fair shake first, because I think she might really enjoy it with the big screen.

 

[GrooveRite]

When she bought the SIII, what I said to her was "you will definitely be happy with the iphone 5, but you might be even happier with the SIII" If she returns it, that's fine (hell, I just got the iphone 5 yesterday, but i can't get android phones because they don't work with my work email) but I'd like her to give it a fair shake first, because I think she might really enjoy it with the big screen.

From what you have stated so far about her, even if you found answers to her problems, she would still be unhappy or find something else that bothers her. You can't force someone to like something that they simply don't like.

 

[Ichi_Bear]

There's always a learning curve when switching to a different platform. My sister recently got an iPhone 5. She had a BlackBerry Bold before that and had a really hard time getting used to iOS. I have been using Android smartphones for about 2 years now and have seen it's development come a long way. I still keep an eye on iPhone and iOS development but keep coming back to Android because I love the way it can be customised. It sounds like the iPhone just works for your wife. She is comfortable with the OS. Android is great but it ain't iOS (iPhone Operating System). Fair play to you in trying to get her to try something new.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

[meyerweb#CB]

When she bought the SIII, what I said to her was "you will definitely be happy with the iphone 5, but you might be even happier with the SIII" If she returns it, that's fine (hell, I just got the iphone 5 yesterday, but i can't get android phones because they don't work with my work email) but I'd like her to give it a fair shake first, because I think she might really enjoy it with the big screen.

What work email won't work with Android? Unless your work has standardized on an Apple proprietary solution, I don't believe there's any email that can't be configured to work with Android.

 

[spacekungfuman]

What work email won't work with Android? Unless your work has standardized on an Apple proprietary solution, I don't believe there's any email that can't be configured to work with Android.

The only devices that are authorized to work with our exchange server are iOS devices and old windows mobile 5/6 devices. We have a blackberry server too. They've considered allowing Android access a few times, but each time they determine that it isn't secure enough.

 

[spacekungfuman]

I think executive assistant looks like a good option for the lock screen notifications. Anyone have experience with it?

http://forums.androidcentral.com/ge...arted-android-tips-tricks-10.html#post1347208

 

[worwig]

When she bought the SIII, what I said to her was "you will definitely be happy with the iphone 5, but you might be even happier with the SIII" If she returns it, that's fine (hell, I just got the iphone 5 yesterday, but i can't get android phones because they don't work with my work email) but I'd like her to give it a fair shake first, because I think she might really enjoy it with the big screen.

On the SMS on the lock screen. It will not be easy. You will need to download a new launcher and SMS app. GO launcher make be able to do this, but I haven't tried it. Yet another learning curve for her.

On the gesture tutorials. Each of those will appear one time, then after you mark them as 'not again', that one shouldn't appear again. Or you can go into the setting and look for them one by one and turn them off. Annoying, maybe, but how else do you train people on these unique features? (which she may find very convenient if she wanted to learn)

If your work administrators have blocked Android, then you need to stick with what they allow. If you are sticking with the iPhone, I again feel your wife has yet another reason to stay with iPhone. Why go through a learning curve for a new OS, when there is nothing that that new OS bring to the party. It will just continue to be frustrating. Just wait until she find the battery life generally less then the iPhone. It sounds like non-stop frustration that will turn to hate. I use the Android OS because it does things that iPhone doesn't. If I simply wanted the phone and messaging, and the OS didn't matter, I would stick with the one I was familiar with.

I assume you are still in the window of time to return it and get what she really needs. She should take advantage of that.

 

[bakeri666]

You could look at putting a different launcher on her phone for her, there are some that try to emulate ios, forgoing the app tray (menu) for showing all apps on the Home screen. Then hide the apps she isn't interested in.

The dot showing where her finger was is a new one on me. My guess would be is a developer option but the only thing similar I can think of puts a cross on the screen not a dot. If she had switched that on it can be switched off in settings> developer options.

The setting menu complaint confuses me. IOS uses tiers of menu too... Our does she mean settings for each app? She doesn't need to use them. Just set her phone up once and she won't need to touch settings.

All the important changes (silent, screen rotation, brightness, bluetooth power, wifi power etc) can Then be changed in the notification panel