How do I make my expensive Note 8 do what my much cheaper Windows phone did right out of the box?

[KEN SCHUSTER]

Hi everyone, I really need some help. I need to know what combinations of apps and/or settings to use on my new, spiffy and expensive Galaxy Note 8 to make it do what my much cheaper Windows phone did right out of the box. I'm a contract IT tech so I'm in the car, under a desk, in a ceiling or using both hands. So I use a Bluetooth headset all day long. I play some music, take pictures and use navigation. I've got apps for all that.
I used to get my custom ringtones through the BT. When I got a text, I was asked if I wanted to hear it and after if I wanted to reply. In the car, when I get a call or text, the navigation mutes, I get the ringtone. When it ends, the navigation un-mutes.
I've lost track of all the apps I've tried. Read it to me will ask if I want to hear a text and read it, but no reply option. I get hundreds of work related texts a week and can't afford to miss any opportunities. I use a Plantronics Explorer 50 for BT. It's an older model that supports a2dp and has 11 hours of talk time. It has worked well with other phones.
I would appreciate any help in easing my buyer's remorse. Thanks.

 

[rasputin01]

Hi Ken,
I totally understand what you are asking. I still miss my 928 and my Icon for those reasons.
From what i have been able to figure out it was/is a Windows / Nokia thing only.
I am hoping since Nokia is back in to Cell phones that this ability is one of the patents they acquired.
I do love the S-Pen on the Note, but if Nokia releases a phone with the text to speech ability that my Icon had - and they offer for Verizon - i will be switching.

 

[anon(7901790)]

Actually it was a Windows thing; it was baked into the OS. All Windows Mobile devices (WP8 and newer) could do it. No other OS has or had that capability.

As far as I know there is not an app, combination of apps, or a setting that allows you to replicate that capability.

 

[hasasimo]

Windows Phone - particularly with the Nokia Lumia line - was a fantastic experience for a while. Plenty of firsts for the mobile industry.

 

[rasputin01]

Actually it was a Windows thing; it was baked into the OS. All Windows Mobile devices (WP8 and newer) could do it. No other OS has or had that capability.

As far as I know there is not an app, combination of apps, or a setting that allows you to replicate that capability.

I would pay dearly for that ability in the Note 8.

 

[anon(7901790)]

Windows Phone - particularly with the Nokia Lumia line - was a fantastic experience for a while. Plenty of firsts for the mobile industry.

I would pay dearly for that ability in the Note 8.

Yeah. I miss my 928 and Icon. Too bad Microsoft shot themselves in the foot when it came to apps. That's what really killed the platform. App developers and major companies didn't jump on Microsoft unified platform. People blamed it on lack of big name apps (like Snapchat), when in reality, it was the lack of certain apps like banking apps. Almost every bank and credit union, local and national has an Android or iOS app (my credit union does), but only a few developed apps for Windows Mobile. My credit union was not one of them.

Windows Mobile devices all had solid hardware and OS specs, but Microsoft couldn't make up the ground it had already lost to Palm and Blackberry in the early 2000's. Balmer put all of his eggs in the PC/Laptop OS market and missed the mobile market train.

 

[cajun456]

I am in IT also and did look for something like this long ago, but ended up getting a Samsung Gear S3 smart watch. Although, seeing your post interested me, so I searched and found an app in the Play Store called ReaditToMe. I have not tried it, but it looks like it may do what you are looking for. It has a two week trial for the paid features.

 

[j_hansen]

could you maybe set up some bixby commands for some of it, it's supposed to be a device assistant after all, I haven't used it much but seen a few cool things people have done with it.
maybe combined with an app like tasker or similar

 

[KEN SCHUSTER]

Everybody, I really appreciate all your responses, even though it's killing me. So basically, what I'm getting from you guys and other posts here, is that Android is a very basic operating system, that depends entirely on the apps that are created for it. So if I want 500 versions of a Snapchat like app, I'm in the right place. But if I want an operating system that is smart enough to turn off the external speaker on the phone when I turn on my BT headset, I'm out of luck. Hardware wise I love the phone. You can have two dozen apps open and phone moves right along. I also love the pen. I've been using tablets for use at work for years. I've gotten use to jotting notes, drawing sketches and capturing signatures on the tablet. A lot of that I can do on the phone now. That's kind of cool. I get the feeling that I'm only going to be able to get less than half the functionality of my Nokia 950xl.

I was happier than a clam when MS said they were going after the business market. That seemed to mean more emphasis on the grown up stuff and less on the apps for 12 year old girls. I blame the new boss at MS. He seems to have a very narrow focus and a short attention span. Hopefully he won't mess with the Surface Pro tablets. I'm on my second one and I thing it's great.

I'd like to ask one more question of you all. Has anyone seen a way to get custom ringtones to come through a BT. I have different ringtones for a lot of my contacts. Some calls I answer immediately, others I call back later and some I never answer. They come through the phone speaker, but not over the BT. That's a real headache for me. I also had an app called TrueCaller, that was great for filtering out known spam calls or people you didn't want to talk to. Unfortunately the Android version sucks and requires you acknowledge every spam call you get.

Alright, I'm getting tired of hearing myself whine. Thanks everyone.

 

[KEN SCHUSTER]

cajun456

I am using this app. It seems clunky and prone to glitches. It asks if I want to hear the text read, reads it and then (if you pay extra) allow you to reply. It doesn't seem to interact with my contacts at all. It says "you have a text from 18005551212". But instead using a known contact name. It reads the phone number as a numeric number. For example, it says call from 18 trillion 5 million five hundred fifty one thousand two hundred 12. Really annoying. If you reply, the speech to text isn't very accurate. I know that you can change the speech recognition engine in the Android settings. But I don't know if that gets me anything. And when I use it sometimes the nav audio then reverts to the phone speaker. Or I might answer a call by hitting the button my BT, but it transfers to the phone mic. I think that kind of stuff is the app butting up against the OS.

If you use BT a lot like I used to, you really got spoiled on a Windows phone. If a call came in, the BT would ask if I wanted it or not and you could just respond yes or no. If you're using the nav or playing music and you get a call, it mutes what you're doing and when you're done, un mutes it. At some point I had 2 apps talking at the same time over BT. Seriously, I could go an entire day without touching my phone. I didn't realize that I was spoiled, I thought all phones could do that kind of thing. To me it just seems like common sense.

But I appreciate you trying to dig up something for me. I'd offer to help you out with something, but it seems like I'm up a creek without a paddle and there is a hole in the boat.

 

[KEN SCHUSTER]

Thanks for feeling my pain. I knew I couldn't be the only one out here that seemed to be interested in common sense functions. Any thoughts on who we could ask write an app for this stuff?

 

[KEN SCHUSTER]

gernerttl

Your brutally honest assessment has me thinking of taking up drinking again. j/k. I don't think I'm crazy in what I'm looking for. With all the handsfree and anti-texting laws getting enacted, I would think these kind of features would be considered good safety features, and every OS would be jumping on them. Thanks for the input.

 

[KEN SCHUSTER]

I've got half a mind to sell the Note and buy 2 or 3 refurbished Lumia 1520s. That could hold me for years till somebody catches on and puts this stuff in the OS. Thanks.

 

[KEN SCHUSTER]

So would I! Now who can we talk to about this? Forget the .99 or 2.99 apps, I'd be willing to pay $100 easy for this.

 

[KEN SCHUSTER]

cajun456

Also the Samsung watch and the Huawei, both look very cool. But for years people have looked at me like I'm nuts for talking to myself, while I'm on BT. I refuse to let them see me talking to my watch.

But seriously, I think I might have to put on my reading glasses to use the watch. I'm also very hard on watches. The ones I wear to work are all mil-spec. I don't think a smart watch face will survive the things I unintentionally do to my watches. And it's another $300 bucks on top of the cost of the Note. That's hard to justify for me. If I had civilized job, instead of a field job, I might go for it.

When you use the watch, does the phone speaker automatically turn off, or do you have to put the phone on silent? And can the watch do different ringtones?

See, now you've got me thinking about buying a damn watch. Thanks a lot. j/k

 

[KEN SCHUSTER]

j_hansen

This is something that I'm going to have to look into. I haven't had the guts to delve into that kind of thing yet. Is there a forum for tasker experts? Maybe I could just pay some 13 year old to write it for me.
It's a great suggestion, Thanks.

 

[cajun456]

I love having the smart watch. I mainly use it for notifications and controlling music that is playing on my phone. I'm not sure about separate notification tones by contact. I leave the watch on vibrate. You could probably do it with Tasker, but I'm not sure how. I use Tasker, but only for basic stuff.

 

[KEN SCHUSTER]

Thanks, I'm going to have to take a look at tasker.

 

[j_hansen]

Thanks, I'm going to have to take a look at tasker.

I haven't really gone deep into tasker as I don't need that type of functionality in my day2day life but lots of people swear by it.
I do think you could benefit from looking into bixby though, you should be able to set it so when you walk towards your car and press the bixby button and say *car* it will turn on Bluetooth etc. from some of the videos I have seen you can set it very specific to a whole line of different commands

 

[Methos1979]

My custom ringtones come through my BT headphones so not sure why yours don't. That's odd. Also, when the BT headphones are connected, the speaker does shut off. Again, odd that yours does not.

As for reading incoming texts and send them, 'Ok Google' does this perfectly on my Note 8.