A Long Time Microsoft User Tries Android: Guess What? It’s Great!

[Laura Knotek]

Hi Laura. Regarding the camera upload, can I set this to upload to my existing OneDrive? I don't see it specified in the screenshot where they upload to.

Also, regarding Bing...do I have to go in to the Bing app to do my searches or is there some easier way similar to how it's built in to the search button on WP?

One other thing; are you familiar with any sub $100 Android phones that aren't complete junk that I could purchase to give Android a shot before going all in with a higher end phone? I'm on AT&T.

Thanks again!

Photos are uploaded into the camera roll folder, so any pictures taken with any device will be in that folder.

 

[libra89]

I'm a 5-year WP user and also heavily invested in MS services, so I have a couple questions that I didn't see answered here.
4. Can I still use my 2 Outlook accounts exclusively for contacts and calendars? I have no desire to use Gmail.
5. Can Cortana be used no matter what app or menu you're in, similar to holding the search button on WP?

Thanks for any insight

Since Laura answered the other questions so well, I can answer the other two.

4. You can do that. Paul Thurrott has a great article on how to do this: Android for the Windows Guy: Use your Microsoft Accounts

Just follow the directions and you'll be fine.

5. In my experience, this varies on the phone. On some phones, it's possible. On others, it's not. I know, that's not very helpful, but that has been my experience. On the Nexus 5x, I couldn't do that. Same for the Nextbit Robin. However, on the Sony Xperia Z3, I was able to. You can replace "Google Now" (which is launched by holding the home button) with Cortana. After you log into Cortana, close the app (not required). After you hold the home button, there will be a popup that says "Use Google Now or Cortana" with the options of "Just Once or Always". Choose Cortana and then tap Always. You're all set!

If you can find a good deal for the Nexus 5x, I recommend that as a good entry point. That or a slightly older flagship.

 

[J Dubbs]

I'm coming off a windows phone. I tried it begrudgingly because my wife found a great sale on some lower end windows phones. For the record I can't stand microsoft because of their monopoly in the pc os arena, and the way they treat/squeeze their customers with questionable business tactics because of it.

I've been building and maintaining windows pc's for years now......and even tho I can't stand them I'm quite proficient working with windows. I've recently begun phasing microsoft out of our lives since the windows 10 fiasco......bringing linux and chromebooks into our home for our pc and laptop needs.

My first experience with our windows phones was typical microsoft.....glitchy, buggy, nonsensical menu systems with settings hidden everywhere, nothing I hadn't expected. My first phone was defective, and my wife turned her narrator for the blind on the night before an important business trip and blacked out her screen completely, all it would say was phrases we couldn't make heads or tails of. Restarting and pulling the battery didn't do squat. After spending 1 1/2 hours on the phone with AT&T tech support since microsoft charges by the hour to support their products over the phone, we finally figured out the button sequence to shut the darn narrator down. That was my opening experience with windows phones.

Surprisingly after about a year and a half with the phones me and my wife both grew to really like them.....especially Cortana. We're not big app users at all so the app gap wasn't an issue for the most part. After microsoft rolled out windows 10 mobile and destroyed a pretty good 8.1 experience, coming back to android was an eye opener, and not in the best way. The android system has gotten much more complex and buggy, just like the windows systems. My Moto X Pure Edition has been exactly like the windows phones, it updated out of the box from lollipop to Marshmallow, and has been giving me nothing but major problems. In fact at the moment it won't even receive incoming calls or texts.
I'm going to do a factory reset and hope that fixes the issues

I've actually considered going back to a windows phone because so far android can't offer me the full Cortana experience which I relied extremely heavily on.....although I noticed they now offer a reduced version of Cortana for andriod which I may try

Overall it seems that now all the phone os makers are on a pretty level playing field, although I would probably give the edge to windows for Cortana and Iphone for Siri right now.

I'm going to stick with android for awhile longer to see if I can get my phone to work properly, but I will have no qualms switching back to windows or going with an iphone if the need arises

 

[Laura Knotek]

I'm coming off a windows phone. I tried it begrudgingly because my wife found a great sale on some lower end windows phones. For the record I can't stand microsoft because of their monopoly in the pc os arena, and the way they treat/squeeze their customers with questionable business tactics because of it.

I've been building and maintaining windows pc's for years now......and even tho I can't stand them I'm quite proficient working with windows. I've recently begun phasing microsoft out of our lives since the windows 10 fiasco......bringing linux and chromebooks into our home for our pc and laptop needs.

My first experience with our windows phones was typical microsoft.....glitchy, buggy, nonsensical menu systems with settings hidden everywhere, nothing I hadn't expected. My first phone was defective, and my wife turned her narrator for the blind on the night before an important business trip and blacked out her screen completely, all it would say was phrases we couldn't make heads or tails of. Restarting and pulling the battery didn't do squat. After spending 1 1/2 hours on the phone with AT&T tech support since microsoft charges by the hour to support their products over the phone, we finally figured out the button sequence to shut the darn narrator down. That was my opening experience with windows phones.

Surprisingly after about a year and a half with the phones me and my wife both grew to really like them.....especially Cortana. We're not big app users at all so the app gap wasn't an issue for the most part. After microsoft rolled out windows 10 mobile and destroyed a pretty good 8.1 experience, coming back to android was an eye opener, and not in the best way. The android system has gotten much more complex and buggy, just like the windows systems. My Moto X Pure Edition has been exactly like the windows phones, it updated out of the box from lollipop to Marshmallow, and has been giving me nothing but major problems. In fact at the moment it won't even receive incoming calls or texts.
I'm going to do a factory reset and hope that fixes the issues

I've actually considered going back to a windows phone because so far android can't offer me the full Cortana experience which I relied extremely heavily on.....although I noticed they now offer a reduced version of Cortana for andriod which I may try

Overall it seems that now all the phone os makers are on a pretty level playing field, although I would probably give the edge to windows for Cortana and Iphone for Siri right now.

I'm going to stick with android for awhile longer to see if I can get my phone to work properly, but I will have no qualms switching back to windows or going with an iphone if the need arises

I rarely used Cortana when I used Windows Phone. When I did, it was typing not talking. I'm someone who doesn't even like talking on a phone, so I'm not going to talk to my phone.

I've found that Google Now on Android is much more useful than Cortana was on Windows Phone. Similarly, I use typing, not talking, to use Google Now. The useful stuff is that Google Now will alert me to traffic jams on highways, which Cortana never did. Google Now will also tell me where I parked my car.

 

[Funky Cricket]

Just got an S7 about 20 minutes ago. When I get home from work I will be working on getting everything moved over and set up. I'll stick with TouchWiz launcher for now. I'll keep people updated as I make the transition.

 

[Funky Cricket]

Going good, one drive is working well, haven't set to auto save yet. Touchwiz is not showing a notification number on the icon. Outlook web app is really good for outlook.com email. Looking good so far. screen is ridiculously good.

 

[Grabber5.0]

I should have re-read this thread yesterday when I was trying to add my Outlook.com account to contacts on my new Nexus 5X.. I had answered my own question months ago and forgot since then. It may be the newer Android version, or changes to the contacts app, but I had a heck of a time figuring out how to add it again! I'm revisiting it because I wanted to drive a Pre for a few days, and gmail contact sync doesn't work on webOS 1.x anymore.. Considering finally moving them to my hotmail account. For now I just imported them using a single vcf file..

-- Sent from my Palm Pre using Forums

 

[Funky Cricket]

I hate to say it. I should have made the switch a long time ago. Everything works so well. MS apps are all way better. It was an easy transition

 

[anon(50597)]

I hate to say it. I should have made the switch a long time ago. Everything works so well. MS apps are all way better. It was an easy transition

Glad things are working out for you. If you have any questions, this is the place to be.

 

[Funky Cricket]

Thanks. I've been coming here since the palm central days of yore. Always been a helpful place.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Thanks. I've been coming here since the palm central days of yore. Always been a helpful place.

I'm glad you like the sites.

Please feel free to ask any questions you might have.

 

[sprtfan]

I hate to say it. I should have made the switch a long time ago. Everything works so well. MS apps are all way better. It was an easy transition

Have you had any problems with the calendar? I want to stick with Outlook.com for calendar but I can't get it to work anywhere other than the Outlook app. I want to get a widget that can display some info with out having to go into the outlook app then to calendar. The phone I'm using to test things out on is running an older version of android. Could that be the problem? The Sunrise app was working for me but Microsoft dropped support for it.

 

[Funky Cricket]

Have you had any problems with the calendar? I want to stick with Outlook.com for calendar but I can't get it to work anywhere other than the Outlook app. I want to get a widget that can display some info with out having to go into the outlook app then to calendar. The phone I'm using to test things out on is running an older version of android. Could that be the problem? The Sunrise app was working for me but Microsoft dropped support for it.

I use exchange almost exclusively, so I use touchdown for my calendar. I don't use the native calendar integration at all.