Hi everyone, I've been using Android for 1 week now with a new HTC One M8 with 4.4.2 and I wanted to share my experience as well as gather some insight from many of you who have been on android for much longer than I have. I just switched over from Windows Phone and have been on that ecosystem since it's beginning. There are many things that have made me really enjoy android and some that have annoyed the crap out of me. I hope some of you might even have the answer to my grievances and can help me. Overall I've really enjoyed the experience and will be staying with Android until I decide if the next wave of WP is enough of a reason to switch. Now lets talk about the major things I've loved and hated.
One of the first things that I realized from the get go was how overwhelming the operating system was. After setting up I didn't know where to begin or where to access certain settings without having to look up things on forums to find the right settings. Honestly at one point I almost thought about giving up and returning to WP. For example it took me 4 hours to find out how to find out how to pin a widget. Even when I looked up this topic, most things were about the S5 and I wasn't sure if looking at that guide would help me as I know each OEM makes their own skin for Android.
Secondly, the email clients offered both in the store and baked in are well below what I've been used to on WP. One of my biggest complaints is that no client can handle aliases well. I currently have a main email for emailing friends and family, one for shopping accounts, and one for newsletters. I also have an account that is my university account that uses office 365 exchange. The latter 2 (not my school) are aliases off my outlook and the on board email client cannot send emails for those or provide me notifications for when emails are received by those accounts. Thus every time I want to check those I have to scroll through folders from the main app. This is a stark departure to WP where I could pin each alias as an icon on the grid and have notifications pop up on the grid relating to each account. I wish there was a way to pin an icon for each individual alias so that I can have quick access to each account. Right now my solution is to use the outlook app for my personal accounts/aliases and the exchange account on the preloaded client.
The last annoyance I have with android is the amount of space that is wasted on screen. The icons themselves are tiny and the gaps between them are huge. Same with the spacing of widgets. I wish there was a way to squeeze more icons on screen or for the icons to be larger and display more information about the application. I know there is probably a way to do this through rooting and non conventional means similar to being able to squeeze more icons on ios through jailbreaking. But I wish this was customizable without needing that.
Now that all the negatives are out, I wanna talk about some of the things I think google is years ahead of Microsoft in. The first is the Google Play Store/Music/Newstand, basically anything Play. I started a trial of Google Play Music Pass and I can say it blows Xbox Music out of the water. I am going to start paying for it as soon as my trial ends and my Xbox Music plan doesn't even run out till December. Although I haven't tried the other Google features like drive and mail yet because I feel like it'd be a hassle to move all my stuff over from outlook and I have 200GB for Onedrive.
Besides the main point of the services, the other points that draw me to android are pretty basic and don't require highlighting (more apps, better notifications, better multitasking, etc...) so I'll leave it at that.
Please let me know what you guys think and tell me if I'm wrong or that there is a fix to my problems. I'd love to know and love to get more insight on how to better use android!
One of the first things that I realized from the get go was how overwhelming the operating system was. After setting up I didn't know where to begin or where to access certain settings without having to look up things on forums to find the right settings. Honestly at one point I almost thought about giving up and returning to WP. For example it took me 4 hours to find out how to find out how to pin a widget. Even when I looked up this topic, most things were about the S5 and I wasn't sure if looking at that guide would help me as I know each OEM makes their own skin for Android.
Secondly, the email clients offered both in the store and baked in are well below what I've been used to on WP. One of my biggest complaints is that no client can handle aliases well. I currently have a main email for emailing friends and family, one for shopping accounts, and one for newsletters. I also have an account that is my university account that uses office 365 exchange. The latter 2 (not my school) are aliases off my outlook and the on board email client cannot send emails for those or provide me notifications for when emails are received by those accounts. Thus every time I want to check those I have to scroll through folders from the main app. This is a stark departure to WP where I could pin each alias as an icon on the grid and have notifications pop up on the grid relating to each account. I wish there was a way to pin an icon for each individual alias so that I can have quick access to each account. Right now my solution is to use the outlook app for my personal accounts/aliases and the exchange account on the preloaded client.
The last annoyance I have with android is the amount of space that is wasted on screen. The icons themselves are tiny and the gaps between them are huge. Same with the spacing of widgets. I wish there was a way to squeeze more icons on screen or for the icons to be larger and display more information about the application. I know there is probably a way to do this through rooting and non conventional means similar to being able to squeeze more icons on ios through jailbreaking. But I wish this was customizable without needing that.
Now that all the negatives are out, I wanna talk about some of the things I think google is years ahead of Microsoft in. The first is the Google Play Store/Music/Newstand, basically anything Play. I started a trial of Google Play Music Pass and I can say it blows Xbox Music out of the water. I am going to start paying for it as soon as my trial ends and my Xbox Music plan doesn't even run out till December. Although I haven't tried the other Google features like drive and mail yet because I feel like it'd be a hassle to move all my stuff over from outlook and I have 200GB for Onedrive.
Besides the main point of the services, the other points that draw me to android are pretty basic and don't require highlighting (more apps, better notifications, better multitasking, etc...) so I'll leave it at that.
Please let me know what you guys think and tell me if I'm wrong or that there is a fix to my problems. I'd love to know and love to get more insight on how to better use android!
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