Switching to Android after 9 years on windows phone. What should I expect? Tips?

[Landsharkk]

Hello!

Recently upgraded from Lumia 920 to the new Lumia 950 running windows 10 mobile and have been very disappointed. My Wife and I have been windows phone users since around 2005 and are deciding to make the switch, mainly due to the buggy mess that the Lumia 950 and Windows 10 Mobile has been.

Anyway, we are going with the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus. We don't have one right now, hoping to pick our first one up tomorrow and if all goes well we will get the 2nd on early next week.

What should we expect in terms of features, performance, and usability on the new platform? Is there anything we are gaining or giving up?

Any tips for a new Android user?

Also, will our hotmail/live account contacts sync on the Android phone? Does that include our calendars?

Thank you.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Hi and welcome to AndroidCentral.

What you should expect is that the Microsoft apps (Office, Skype, OneDrive, OneNote) will work better.

Yes, you will be able to sync your contacts and calendars.

I am a former Windows Mobile user, and I switched to Android back in March 2015.

Please check out my thread here: http://forums.androidcentral.com/phone-wars/508231-long-time-microsoft-user-tries-android-guess-what-ita-s-great.html

 

[Dave Bareham]

Hi, I after often considered moving from Android to Windows or IOS but I have quite a few bought apps that are important to me so I have stuck with Android.

I think one of the things I would expect is a bit of frustration - this would be the same if you were moving from any platform to a new platform. For example we bought my son a Windows phone (which he loves) but sometimes it takes me a bit of time to work out how to do equivalent tasks but that's to be understood.

I love my Edge+ and don't regret getting it for one moment.

Let us know what you decide in the end!

 

[Landsharkk]

Thank you both for your replies!

The other question is can our files, pictures, video, etc auto-sync to OneDrive on the android phone? A lot of what we like with Windows is the seamless sync'ing of files, including favorites in our mobile browser (in this case Edge browser), etc.

My Wife is the one who needs the most convincing, so she's been watching a ton of videos. I'm leery about giving up the usability of the Windows Phone, but part of that is my (and our) ignorance about the android OS. It seems like a lot of the built in functionality in windows phone requires an app to do the same in Android. Not a deal breaker, but just something we are mulling over in our minds and would have to get use to.

Anyway, I appreciate any and all discussion. After a botched attempt at exchanging her Lumia 950 for the Edge Plus last night (AT&T messed up the exchange pretty bad and we had to come home with her old phone), we'll make the decision on hers this morning and I'll head into the store in a few hours to make the final exchange.

Committing to a new phone OS and hardware for 2+ years (AT&T) that we aren't use to is a hard decision considering how often we use our phones.


EDIT: While I've got the spotlight, how's Androids voice assist work? Is it comparable to Cortana?

 

[anon(92475)]

As was said, expect a small amount of frustration. You're moving to a new OS that handles things differently. And, every phone is different. To give an example, I absolutely hate TouchWiz (Samsung's launcher). Instead, I use Action Launcher 3. Some people use Google Now Launcher, Apex, GoLauncher, Nova, etc. I also use a different app for messaging.

Don't get me wrong, I love this phone. Though, the Edge screens really aren't that useful for me. Samsung really stepped it's game up this year.

I can easily make it through a day of light usage with 75+% of the battery left. On days of heavy usage, I might have to top off, but I've got a quick car charger and quick charger wall plug so it doesn't take long. On the average day though, I usually make it from 7am off the charger to 10pm or later.

Do keep in mind that it may take several days for the new to wear off and for you and the phone to settle into regular usage.

I love Google Now. It is getting better all the time. I can't really compare it to Cortana, because I only have that on my laptop and it's terrible. As a side note, just disable S Voice. It's not worth the time wasted to start it up.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[sakendrick]

this message finally showed up so I'm deleting so as to not be redundant.

 

[sakendrick]

testing response.. I wrote a huge response and it isn't showing up... is it under review?? Can't believe it's missing as I spent about 30 min writing. Hoping it shows up.

Bottom lines is I'm going through the same process and if unless you have some really good reason for needing to switch, I advise against it. If my other message shows up it will outline in detail things I think you'll miss. Now granted I'm only on day 3 and so I posted because I was hoping some fellow android users could tell me that I"m wrong and some of what I want to do is possible.

Windows Phones does a lot of things right with usability and the only down fall is lacking the app support - which hadn't bothered me for years as most apps are available but there were a few I wanted that weren't. I'm seriously thinking about switching back.

 

[sakendrick]

OK - here's an abbreviated re-write because I"m hoping to get feedback

Things that WP does better
1) lock screen notifications better on WP... at a glance I can see how many work emails, personal emails, facebook notifications or other customizable notifications. Can't see this on Android lock screen - only a couple tiles then you have to click and scroll around.

2) email account management - WP lets you have separate tiles for each email account. Each tile will show you how many new mails since you last checked. Google lumps them all together. You can filter by one account or another but the "new messages" number is a combined number or default account number and no way to see new messages. Worst than that, the number on the icon isn't new since last checked, it's all unread emails. So my number keeps going up and up and I never know if I've gotten new emails or not

3) browsing long lists - WP standard of organizing lists in to alpha, allowing you to browse easily clicking on alphabetical tiles is simple and easy. Prime example - music. I have 1000's of songs in my collection. When I browse by artist I click on the letter the artist starts with, get there quickly. Great UI when you use your phone for music while driving. Google play is one long list of artists that you have to scroll and scroll through. Alternative is search which requires you to type, or voice search, which I've found plays stuff from the google play online collection, often not what you want to hear.

4) toast notifications - WP are consistent, at the top of the screen, whether on lock screen or not. Click and you get to view the message or post etc. Haven't figured out Androids at all...

5) Battery life - more hw specfic but I"ve spent hours trying to find out how to optimize batter life. Have galaxy s6 128 GB. I'm using standard launcher for now. First attempt to optimize I might have got 6 hours before having to plugin. This morning after two minutes of browsing I lost 3% of life. I've done further optimization after combing through wads of settings. It's a bit better so far but not sure how much I've crippled the phone (or why I have to go through so much effort). This is supposed to be one of the best phones on the market.

6) Home customization, app navigation - WP is simple, does everything you need, very usable. Tiles display info, you can resize based on level of importance. Apps not on the start screen are in an easy to navigate list, using the alpha tiles just like music (and all WP lists). Android is basically an iOS copy. A bunch of icons you put on different cards you swipe to, none differentiated from other , other than icon design. Then there's a list of all apps which is again, just a list of icons on cards that you swipe, no way to easily navigate to apps that begin with S.. forced to use search. Customizing is cumbersome, often resulting in icons being bundled into groups when you didn't mean to. There's a giant search bar on the screen which does nothing but launch an app - why not just give an icon (or use the phone button like WP)

7) Browsing through open apps. WP let's you preview the full screen of open apps while you browse. Android stacks cards and you can't see information on them unless you select. There is a split screen feature which will help solve this, but haven't figured it out yet

8) Customizing the quick settings in the pull down... not sure how to do this in Android, but in WP I put those settings I toggled most in my quick swipe from top.

9) Swipe typing - waaaay more accurate in WP. Android is wrong most of the time and the suggestions aren't even close. Thumb typing on android might be a bit better.

10) Settings - confusing massive list buried in hierarchy of categories. Only way to find most stuff in settings is to first google online, then use Search in settings to find it. WP has a list of at most 20 settings groups which are easy to scroll through and find. (never understood though why WP settings weren't in alpha order with alpha tile navigation but it was short enough)

11) Facebook photo upload - can't believe this is the case but if you take a portrait photo, it uploads it sideways into facebook unless you catch it and rotate before upload. Such a common use case, can't believe you have to do this. If you accidentally upload it in this sideways fashion, you can't use the app to fix it. You have to go online.

that's what I remember I posted for now... will post more as I find. Note there's a great customization called Launcher 8 that makes it work just like a WP. Problem is it drains the battery so bad you can't use it reliably. If I get my other battery issues sorted

 

[chezm]

Expect to be pleasantly surprised and happy you made the move. I was using WP for 3 years from WP7 to WP 8.1 (which was running horribly on my 1020 at the time). I had enough with all the waiting, skeptical to come back to Android after my last device being the S3...i got a Nexus 5 and was shocked by how much Android had improved. Now Im using an S6 and love it, had it since launch and never regretted it...best device I've ever owned. WP has some neat features but the negatives outweigh positives too much for me. After watching WP10 get revealed and watching tons of reviews, I saw very little improvements from WP8.1 and still have no regret coming over.

As for the guy above, most of his complaints can be easily resolved by a different launcher or lockscreen apps, completely customizable experience. My toast notifications always come up, Swift keys keyboard is better than WP keyboard imo and settings are much easier to follow than WP. Of course that's all personal opinions, so I'd suggest getting your hands on a cheap android to test before making the full jump.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Landsharkk]

Thanks all for your opinions/replies.

We did make the jump for my Wife's phone, she's now using a Samsung S6 Edge Plus 64gb. Yep, nice learning curve, but so far she's doing well with customizing it to her liking after only a few hours with the phone. Clearly the customizing options are far superior with the Android, but then I expected as much.

At this point we are stuck with at least one android phone. If she doesn't like it, we'll swap sims and I'll use it and give her my Lumia 950. However, if she likes it enough, I've got until Tuesday of this week to exchange my Lumia 950 for the same android phone and join her. I'm trying to get as much hands on with the phone as well to see if it's the right decision for me as well.

I really like tinkering with settings and computer stuff, so I know I'll like that aspect of Android, the customization.

She was able to sync her hotmail account, contacts, and calendar with no issues. Currently we are learning about whether or not her photos can be automatically sync'd with her Onedrive account so that when she takes a picture it auto-uploads to OneDrive. Hopefully that's possible.

Facebook app on the Android is improved over the WP. I also liked one of the Reddit apps on Android better than the BaconIt app on WP. I'm trying to compare as much as I can.

Thanks again and please do keep posting your comments! We are super noobs when it comes to Android.

 

[Laura Knotek]

She was able to sync her hotmail account, contacts, and calendar with no issues. Currently we are learning about whether or not her photos can be automatically sync'd with her Onedrive account so that when she takes a picture it auto-uploads to OneDrive. Hopefully that's possible.

Yes, that is indeed possible with the OneDrive Android app. In fact it is better than the Windows Phone app, since OneDrive for Android allows one to upload photos at full resolution using mobile data. There is no need to wait for WiFi to upload photos at full resolution like with the OneDrive Windows Phone app.https://support.office.com/en-us/article/OneDrive-for-Android-FAQ-eee1d31c-792d-41d4-8132-f9621b39eb36

 

[Landsharkk]

Thanks Laura, we got the OneDrive app setup to our liking. Next thing on the list is to find a calendar that will show the next days events in a simple to read format/widget. Hoping to find something similar to how the calendar live tile was on windows phone.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Thanks Laura, we got the OneDrive app setup to our liking. Next thing on the list is to find a calendar that will show the next days events in a simple to read format/widget. Hoping to find something similar to how the calendar live tile was on windows phone.

You're welcome. I'm glad OneDrive is working for you.

Sorry but I can't help with calendars. I never had a lot of appointments and only used a small tile on Windows Phone. I just use the Google calendar for my appointments and don't use any calendar widgets. I see my appointments in Google Now and am able to set reminders using the standard Google calendar.

 

[ajay_1977]

Hello,

This is a very interesting thread for me since my Lumia has just crashed (motherboard issue) and I am going to move to Android.

I loved the Windows phone except for the app universe but also android phones just seem to have better hardware compared to similarly priced Windows phones. Hence the changeover to android.

Since you have recently moved to Android, I need help knowing how to move all my backed up Windows stuff from Onedrive (since my phone is now dead) to Android, especially messages??

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Ajay

 

[sakendrick]

The way to do what your asking about calendar is through a widget although I have not found the right one yet. The out of the box calendar has a widget but it seems to only support 4x4 and full month view which isn't very helpful. I have downloaded another that works a little more like the tile called business calendar, but it's not the greatest UI.

This is another area WP is better. One of my favorite features is being able to see Next Appointment on the lock screen so I know where I need to go next. Does anyone know if this is possible or do I need to find a custom lock screen as well?

I don't like adding all these custom apps because of all the battery issues I'm having. This morning I was fully charged and my battery life curve suggested I'd be done by 5pm.

Separate question. Is there a way to have notifications turn the lock screen on. Example... in windows phone if I get an email, it briefly turns my screen on so I can see the notification. With my phone currently, I hear a beep and I have no idea why.

 

[sakendrick]

BTW - I've started playing with Microsoft's Next Lock Screen app and this widget that looks a lot like the calendar (sorry, I can't post links yet but it's called Calendar Widget in Google Play)

 

[anon(9638631)]

I have been a Windows user in the mobile world since the days of my trusty Palm Treo circa 2003/2004 and my color flip phone that had Windows Mobile 5 installed on it. Then moved up to Windows Mobile 6 then eventually 6.5. Bought an HTC HD7s WP7 phone then a Samsung Focus S with 7.5. Moved from there to a Nokia Lumia 920 with 7.5 then to a Lumia 1520 with 8.1. Also played around with different builds of WP10 as well. Bought a Note 4 while I still had the 1520. The 1520 was then shut off and never touched again for almost a year until I traded it in for a Note 5. To each his own but me personally, I think the Windows Phone, while being "fresh and new" in the WP7 days has become nothing but a third rate abomination of a mobile OS and I wouldn't use it if you gave me a flagship WP and paid my bill for life. But, that's just me. Your mileage may vary.

And to add, don't believe ANY of the propaganda from the Windows Mobile faithful about the "app gap" being almost nonexistent. It is in full force.

To sum up my rant. Windows Phone = bad. Android = blows Windows Phone out of the water.

 

[DJCBS]

What should we expect in terms of features, performance, and usability on the new platform? Is there anything we are gaining or giving up?

Well, the only "major" things you'll be giving up by going with that specific Android phone is the dedicated camera button, full manual controls and microSD expansion. Apart from that, nothing.
As for the Samsung device, you can expect it to start to lag overtime and have a very aggressive RAM management BUT that's Samsung's fault, not actually Android (even though, to be fair, TouchWiz is a lot better than it was in previous generations).

Everything else will just be better. Microsoft apps and services will work better, if you don't like Samsung's launcher you can simply head to the Play Store and get a different one (including Nokia's Z Launcher), you'll get a better display, you'll get a far better looking phone, you'll get the best camera on an Android on automatic mode and second best camera overall on Android (because the LG G4 has a full set of manual controls that beats the S6 series) which won't make you miss the 950. You'll also get a proper app ecosystem with proper developer support, Google apps and depending on your region Samsung Pay.

Also, will our hotmail/live account contacts sync on the Android phone? Does that include our calendars?

Yes, although you may want to use the native calendar app or a third party because Microsoft ruined the Outlook app they had on Android.

While I've got the spotlight, how's Androids voice assist work? Is it comparable to Cortana?

It's better.

 

[anon(92475)]

Next thing on the list is to find a calendar that will show the next days events in a simple to read format/widget. Hoping to find something similar to how the calendar live tile was on windows phone.

I don't know how WP handles it, but Phil just recommended Pure Calendar Widget (Agenda). If the Editor-in-Chief of Android Central uses it, it's probably a good one. He makes mention of the fact that it's dated, but, it works for him. I can't speak, because I don't use a calendar at the moment.

Also, if you have an aversion to paying for apps, install Google Opinion Rewards. Every so often you get a survey with, usually, fewer than 5 questions. Answer them, and usually you'll get 10¢ to a $1 put in your Google Play account that will expire in a year. It can save a nice chunk of change over the long haul.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Landsharkk]

Thanks everyone for the replies, this thread has become super helpful! My Wife is at home with plans on using the android all day while I'm stuck at work.

I did find a calendar that might work the way we want, it's the "Microsoft Next Lock Screen", thanks to matthewmcquay for the suggestion. I don't think I can post links yet either.

So now she'll be using it all day today and most of tomorrow. If she still wants to keep it at that time then she will and I may consider getting one myself. But if she doesn't like it, she'll give it to me and I'll give her my Lumia 950.

New question for you all: Are there any running service in android that we can turn off? We found the list and it looks rather large. I'm assuming turning off things like OneDrive and Calendar will stop those apps from auto-sync'ing or displaying stuff. I was hoping there were some default services that didn't need to be running all the time to help save battery....or does turning these off not help save battery?