Some questions before switching to android

[chezburito]

hello everyone!
well my contract for my Iphone 5 is going to expire in a few months and I want to try Android as a change of pace, Because i hate waiting months on end for a jailbreak, but before I do I have two questions.
1. Is there any reason to get a 32GB Android device over the 16GB version of the same device if it has a micro SD card port? since SD cards are so cheap now a days it would be more cost effective to get a 32GB sd card.but, i know that you can't transfer over some apps to the SD card, therefore making the 32GB version worth the extra cash, but i also heard that you can transfer over all apps to SD card once you Root your phone. can anyone confirm/elaborate this for me?
2.Is there an imessage alternative for Android, in the sense that you can send text messages over wifi instead of using cellular signal, my house has horrible reception, making it extremely annoying to text people from my house, so this is a huge deal for me. and if there is can this "imessage alternative" send texts via wifi to both iOS and Android??
Thanks!

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! In regard to your first question, it's generally better to have more internal storage on your device. Some (but not all) devices allow you to move portions of an app to the external SD card, but you can never move the whole thing there. Rooting might allow you to move the entire app over, but I don't have direct experience with this. SD card support can sometimes be spotty, too (I'm looking at you, Samsung). I regard SD cards as most useful for storage of media like music files, photos, and videos--not as a place to install apps.

 

[monicakm]

1. For me, I wouldn't need a 32GB phone. I DID choose the 32GB Galaxy 10.1 2014 tablet tho and have a 64GB sd card in it. I have a 32GB card in my phone but only because I took it out of the tablet when I bought the 64, so, why not. Might come in handy with those huge video files when shooting in ultra HD.
I may be totally wrong on this but I thought I read that with this phone, you CAN put apps on the sd card. The problem/limitation does exist on my Samsung tablet tho. Hopefully someone can confirm this is accurate (or not). Is there a 32GB S5 yet?
2. No idea but I'll be anxious to see what others say. So you're saying that (possibly) my Galaxy Note 10.1 that is wifi only could send text messages with this imessage alternative?

 

[monicakm]

Sorry B Diddy. I had replace the battery of a beeping smoke detector. I didn't see your message till the page refreshed after I finished my post. I sure thought I just, like in the last day or two, read that the external SD issue was a non issue for this phone.

 

[B. Diddy]

Are you talking about your Note 10.1, or the S5? It's hard to keep track of issues like this--all I can really rely on is the frequency of complaints I see on this and other forums, and it has seemed for the past couple of years or so that SD card problems are a common complaint with various Samsung devices (more the Galaxy S series phones, rather than the tablets). I sure hope it's no longer an issue on the S5--it's probably too early to tell.

I think Samsung devices do allow you to move apps to the external SD, but it's only a portion of the app files--some of it has to remain in Internal Storage in order to function correctly.

 

[monicakm]

I'm talking about both. Tablet has the SD restrictions that came along with KK. I assumed the S5 did too but I THINK I read that the S5 doesn't suffer from this restriction. Could be wrong. I was wrong once in 1985 so I suppose it could happen again <g>

 

[B. Diddy]

Not sure if we're misunderstanding each other. I'm actually not referring to the KitKat external SD write restrictions that were recently introduced--I'm talking about corruption of files or the whole card that was a relatively common complaint on the S3 and S4.

Posted via Android Central App--please excuse the brevity and any typos!

 

[bclinger#IM]

Were you wrong in 2009?

Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk

 

[jschu22]

There are messaging apps that allow for wifi use but they do not send sms (text) to phone numbers. The other party would typically have to use the same app for you to communicate.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[chezburito]

how is the SD card support spotty?? is it in the sense that it doesn't recognize some sd cards, or that there is a lag, or corrupts files??
"some of it has to remain in Internal Storage in order to function correctly." and ohhh i thought that you could transfer the whole file! okay so in that case i think i will opt for a 32GB version of whatever phone i chose *crosses fingers that there will be a 32GB Samsung S5 in two months*

 

[chezburito]

thanks jschu22 so like GroupMe would be an example of this right. its kind of a bummer that there isnt a native wifi texting app, but i guess it isn't too inconvenient to get all my friends to download GroupMe or something similar to that
thanks for all the help you guys!

 

[monicakm]

Were you wrong in 2009?

Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk

I don't think so. Do you know something I forgot about? <g>

 

[monicakm]

Here is a Youtube vid that shows how to move some of your apps to the external SD card. This isn't what I "thought" I read but maybe someone will find it useful. Not everything can go on the SD card. A lot of it has to do with the developer of the app.

 

[Netherscourge]

hello everyone!
well my contract for my Iphone 5 is going to expire in a few months and I want to try Android as a change of pace, Because i hate waiting months on end for a jailbreak, but before I do I have two questions.
1. Is there any reason to get a 32GB Android device over the 16GB version of the same device if it has a micro SD card port? since SD cards are so cheap now a days it would be more cost effective to get a 32GB sd card.but, i know that you can't transfer over some apps to the SD card, therefore making the 32GB version worth the extra cash, but i also heard that you can transfer over all apps to SD card once you Root your phone. can anyone confirm/elaborate this for me?
2.Is there an imessage alternative for Android, in the sense that you can send text messages over wifi instead of using cellular signal, my house has horrible reception, making it extremely annoying to text people from my house, so this is a huge deal for me. and if there is can this "imessage alternative" send texts via wifi to both iOS and Android??
Thanks!

1. Not really. Pretty much all your media can go directly to the SDcards (Music, Movies, Pictures, Documents, etc...). Most apps will run right off the SD card too. Those that don't usually never use much data anyway. And most internal-memory-only apps allow you to select where to send the usable media files anyway.

2. Google Hangouts will combine SMS and MMS into a single chat interface, like iMessage does. I'm assuming that's what you mean? FYI - make sure you completely DISABLE iMessage before you decide to convert to Android. Otherwise, your iOS devices will continue to intercept your incoming MMS chat messages. It's very annoying. Apple is actually being sued over that issue right now.

 

[chezburito]

@monicakm thanks for the video! i definitely learned some things from it! it seems rather inefficent to move to SD card because after you do the app takes up around 50% more space just in different places. weird
@netherscourge thanks for your input! okay so all my music and movies will go to the sd card and apps to the phone, but since the S5 comes with so much bloatware, leaving the phone with only 8GB's it is not that much left to get apps! what a bummer :/
and for question two, not really, the reason i love imessage is that when you text other iphones, which everyone of my friends have, it sends the message through "data" (sorry i cant think of the correct word, like via the phones internet, not its cellular signal used for phone calls) and this causes the messages to send quickly when i am in my home's wifi in fact the texts send instantly. and this is a big deal for me because by my house i have horrible cellular signal which causes dropped calls and my messages to fail to send constantly so every time i send a text via cellular signal i have to send it around 5 times to finally go through, which is extremely irritating,
so what i mean is that, is there an iMessage alternative like a way to send text messages via wifi instead of cellular data to other phones. (hopefully to iOS phones as well, not just android phones)

 

[atishc]

What carrier are you on? On Sprint, you can integrate your phone number with Google Voice, which can send texts over WiFi with cellular signal off (in fact, you can even receive notifications of voicemails in Airplane mode with WiFi on). The problem is that Google Voice is not allowed to be your default messaging app in KitKat, and Google is almost certainly going to EOL it soon to merge with Hangouts, which will hopefully have that same functionality.

@monicakm thanks for the video! i definitely learned some things from it! it seems rather inefficent to move to SD card because after you do the app takes up around 50% more space just in different places. weird
@netherscourge thanks for your input! okay so all my music and movies will go to the sd card and apps to the phone, but since the S5 comes with so much bloatware, leaving the phone with only 8GB's it is not that much left to get apps! what a bummer :/
and for question two, not really, the reason i love imessage is that when you text other iphones, which everyone of my friends have, it sends the message through "data" (sorry i cant think of the correct word, like via the phones internet, not its cellular signal used for phone calls) and this causes the messages to send quickly when i am in my home's wifi in fact the texts send instantly. and this is a big deal for me because by my house i have horrible cellular signal which causes dropped calls and my messages to fail to send constantly so every time i send a text via cellular signal i have to send it around 5 times to finally go through, which is extremely irritating,
so what i mean is that, is there an iMessage alternative like a way to send text messages via wifi instead of cellular data to other phones. (hopefully to iOS phones as well, not just android phones)