How do I make my phone look less childish?

[Zoolok]

Once the phone gets updated to Marshmallow, the standby battery life will be a lot better because of Doze.

I'm also an ex WP user. Started with the Samsung and WP7 and switched after my Lumia 1020 kept freezing while being charged (and stopped charging) once 8.1 was out, and even after 3 replacement phones, the problem would still be there.

Over time I've come to appreciate a lot about Android that so far you probably haven't had time to do. Firstly, the apps that are in both WP and Android are so much better on Android, there is no comparison. Secondly, of course there are far more apps, and then things like quick charge, the speed of launching the camera and the speed with which the camera processes photos is far better than the Lumia 1020/1520.

Hopefully with all the customization mentioned above you can get past the UI issues. For me, I never felt that it looked childish. I just miss live tiles, the MS default keyboard and calendar. If you don't, In confident MS will resolve the WP10 mobile teething issues in the next month or two and then you can probably sell your S6E+ on swappa.com for about the same price as the 950XL.

Posted via the Android Central App

There are many other advantages. The quality of the existing apps, and rate at which they get bug fixes is also way higher than that on WP. Google Now has many advantages over Cortana, and once MS has resolved issues with Cortana for Android, you'll have both. Android flagship phones get updated once a year at a minimum, while MS has at least in the last 2 years taken 2 years to replace their flagships. Android has many more choices when it comes to fitness devices, banking apps that support fingerprint recognition and mobile check deposit, and more. That's no to say that there aren't a lot of things that are nicer in WP, but it's not just customization and apps that are advantages of Android.

Posted via the Android Central App

I think I may be a special case, since I really don't care about any of the things you mention. I didn't need quick charge, since I didn't need to recharge the battery twice in 24hrs (and I prefer it that way). I don't care about the camera because I own an entry-level DSLR and no cell phone in the world can come even close to that (I don't carry it with me all the time, but I also don't take pictures/videos all the time; additionally, the battery life of a phone when taking pictures or recording videos goes down really fast, and then you can't use it as a phone any more). I don't know if you can, but you should really try and compare the same photo taken with any cellphone and any DSLR. The difference is just mind boggling and I doubt you'll ever take a photo with your cellphone again.

As for Google Now, is that restricted to certain regions, since it isn't working all that well? Most of the time it just does a Google search for what I say (e.g. when I say 'what do I have on Monday' or 'show me my calendar for Monday' it actually does an image search for a picture of a calendar with Monday circled on it). I managed to get it to set an alarm and a reminder, but for everything else ('tell me a joke' finds a website with jokes) it just does a search on Google. Samsung's S Voice is just horrible and it sounds like it wants me to end its suffering.

Now, fitness devices, banking apps, fingeprint security, apps in general... I don't need any of those. I live in Serbia, so most of those aren't available, anyway. Apps are LOADED with ads, so much that I hate using them (the few ones I do use, for Reddit, Imgur, a newsreader and a couple of others maybe). Most of the apps on the store are some gimmicky pieces of software that I'd run once and forget about them. What apps do you use?

Also, since you mentioned fingerprint security, I don't think you should consider it to be all that secure. First of all, at least on the Edge+ phone, when adding a fingerprint, you also add a password 'just in case fingerprint scanning doesn't work' (so your phone is still as secure as the password you set). Scanning also doesn't work every time (about 9 times out of 10 it does) and if it can't recognize your fingerprint sometimes, I'm pretty sure it can also be fooled by someone else's fingerprint. If you read online, I think you'll find there are a lot of ways to fool the fingerprint scanner on any cellphone.

Iris scanning might be more secure than fingerprints, but I wouldn't bet a lot on it. If you want your phone to be secure, put a strong password and encrypt the content.

 

[torbach1]

I think I may be a special case, since I really don't care about any of the things you mention. I didn't need quick charge, since I didn't need to recharge the battery twice in 24hrs (and I prefer it that way). I don't care about the camera because I own an entry-level DSLR and no cell phone in the world can come even close to that (I don't carry it with me all the time, but I also don't take pictures/videos all the time; additionally, the battery life of a phone when taking pictures or recording videos goes down really fast, and then you can't use it as a phone any more). I don't know if you can, but you should really try and compare the same photo taken with any cellphone and any DSLR. The difference is just mind boggling and I doubt you'll ever take a photo with your cellphone again.

As for Google Now, is that restricted to certain regions, since it isn't working all that well? Most of the time it just does a Google search for what I say (e.g. when I say 'what do I have on Monday' or 'show me my calendar for Monday' it actually does an image search for a picture of a calendar with Monday circled on it). I managed to get it to set an alarm and a reminder, but for everything else ('tell me a joke' finds a website with jokes) it just does a search on Google. Samsung's S Voice is just horrible and it sounds like it wants me to end its suffering.

Now, fitness devices, banking apps, fingeprint security, apps in general... I don't need any of those. I live in Serbia, so most of those aren't available, anyway. Apps are LOADED with ads, so much that I hate using them (the few ones I do use, for Reddit, Imgur, a newsreader and a couple of others maybe). Most of the apps on the store are some gimmicky pieces of software that I'd run once and forget about them. What apps do you use?

Also, since you mentioned fingerprint security, I don't think you should consider it to be all that secure. First of all, at least on the Edge+ phone, when adding a fingerprint, you also add a password 'just in case fingerprint scanning doesn't work' (so your phone is still as secure as the password you set). Scanning also doesn't work every time (about 9 times out of 10 it does) and if it can't recognize your fingerprint sometimes, I'm pretty sure it can also be fooled by someone else's fingerprint. If you read online, I think you'll find there are a lot of ways to fool the fingerprint scanner on any cellphone.

Iris scanning might be more secure than fingerprints, but I wouldn't bet a lot on it. If you want your phone to be secure, put a strong password and encrypt the content.

That's strange that you can't use Google Now. Maybe it is a region thing, but have you held the home button, gone to the Google Now home page and agreed to its terms? If not it would react much the way you're describing. After I did that, it started showing me news stories based on my interests, calendar entries for today and tomorrow, weather and weather alerts, exchange rates as soon as I arrive at a country with a different currency (all of this us proactive).

If it recognizes for example that every Saturday I go to a specific address and arrive there at approximately 11:45am, it will start warning me to leave in order to make it there on time if it sees traffic in the way. Does the same for my commute to work and home. So the I can check it at any time and will know how long with current traffic, my commute to work will be, and if there is a major delay compared to normal, it will proactively notify me. This is all not including the things it can do when I speak to it like I would with Siri.

Apps I'm talking about are FB, Waze navigation, Youtube, whose apps are worlds better than those on WP, but also digital banking, credit card apps, airline apps with digital boarding passes, etc.

As for a DSLR, I have one, and if is lot better, but I don't take it with me everywhere I go. I'm more than happy with the phone's camera for 90% of my needs.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[SactoKingsFan]

You probably should have got a Nexus phone or Moto X Pure Edition.

 

[Phillip Pugh]

I was thinking the same thing I mean every statement this guy's made was like he hates the phone . OK you know when you go in the store there's plenty of demo phones on the wall ....well there there for a reason use them duh ?? . If you liked windows so much why the heck didn't you just keep your 1520 . My wife has one and she still loves hers . Besides you had two weeks to decide on rather to keep the gs6 you should have returned it. TouchWiz is samsung and samsung is TouchWiz how did you not know that being that it's now 8 years old

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Phillip Pugh]

You had two weeks to decide if you didn't like the phone ......next time do that

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Zoolok]

You're right, I'll shut up. Thanks for the tips and the patience people, I'll investigate better next time

 

[torbach1]

You're right, I'll shut up. Thanks for the tips and the patience people, I'll investigate better next time

Don't let haters stop you from asking... yes, you can research these things, but there's a lot to learn when making this transition. It took me a while to love Android.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[wlonsdale]

I came from WP but the lack of app updates, if there were any drove me nuts not to mention the severe lack of them. Love my S6. No issues at all..

 

[thetruth1960]

I've not made the full move yet (meaning I'm still using my W10M as my daily driver). But here are my thoughts...
I do miss the clean layout of a Windows Phone. However, on Android you can change the layout to what you want. Hey who knows, maybe MS will come out with another launcher (besides Arrow) that looks more like WP.
I do miss live titles. Yes, you can add widgets, but I'm not sure the concept (performance, battery life, etc) is the same. What I've done is add Snap Swipe Drawer which allows me to have widgets available but away from my home screen (see later on for an alternative).

I'm deciding between Action Launcher and Nova Launcher to when I make the final move. I don't use many apps in a constant basis. So I've setup my home screen with 3 folders. The folders have pretty much everything I need and keeps the home screen clean. Instead of those lifeless icon that are the trademark of both iOS and Android. The rest of the apps are in the app drawer. I've not setup folders in the drawer yet, but I will to make things simpler.
I might add a weather widget that is simple to balance the home screen out.

My life is in the MS ecosystems and will continue to be there for the foreseeable future. So I've installed the MS apps that I use. Outlook, Office, Skype, OneDrive and Cortana.
For the most part the MS apps are either the same or better than in W10M. However, there are three things that I don't like with them.
1) Cortana is not fully integrated (and probably will never be unless you go with a Cyanogen phone and at this moment only one of them). But what I really don't like is that if I set a reminder in Cortana it will remind me as late as 15 minutes later than it is supposed to. This is hopefully a bug that is fixed.
2) I cannot send SMS from my PC using Cortana. Of course, there are other ways to do this so there is a workaround. For instance using Pushbullet will accomplish this and much more.
3) Here is the big omission in the MS apps that is one of this you say "What? Really You Can't Do That? What Were They Thinking?" You cannot update your contacts in the Outlook app.
So since I want to use the Outlook app for all my other stuff, I had to setup an Exchange Sync with the stock Android app so I can update and add new contacts on the phone.

Now going back to the launchers, there are just so many that is hard to decide which to use. But I find that one of the two I mentioned will be the ones that I will use for now because they give me what I need. One thing that I like about Action Launcher is the feature it calls shutters. It basically add the Widget for the application on the icon itself. So for instance you can swipe on your Outlook icon and see the Agenda or Inbox widget. I think this is a great feature.
Yesterday I discovered the Min Icon Pack. I like it because it is very "min" and I think it looks elegant.

Anyway, like I said, I've not completely move yet since I can still return my phone if I decide not to go Android.

Oh, I forgot, I bought the Moto X Pure (Style outside the US). I think you get a lot for the money. And you get a lot less for the money. What I mean by that, is that I don't get a bunch of bloatware you might (most likely) will from others. I bought it from Amazon which means nothing but stock Moto ware setup. And it is upgraded to Android M.
The Nexus 6P was too expensive for me. And the Nexus 5X had lower specs for about the same money as the Moto X Pure.

 

[applehater87]

sy solution.

 

[Zoolok]

I've not made the full move yet (meaning I'm still using my W10M as my daily driver). But here are my thoughts...
I do miss the clean layout of a Windows Phone. However, on Android you can change the layout to what you want. Hey who knows, maybe MS will come out with another launcher (besides Arrow) that looks more like WP.
I do miss live titles. Yes, you can add widgets, but I'm not sure the concept (performance, battery life, etc) is the same. What I've done is add Snap Swipe Drawer which allows me to have widgets available but away from my home screen (see later on for an alternative).

I'm deciding between Action Launcher and Nova Launcher to when I make the final move. I don't use many apps in a constant basis. So I've setup my home screen with 3 folders. The folders have pretty much everything I need and keeps the home screen clean. Instead of those lifeless icon that are the trademark of both iOS and Android. The rest of the apps are in the app drawer. I've not setup folders in the drawer yet, but I will to make things simpler.
I might add a weather widget that is simple to balance the home screen out.

My life is in the MS ecosystems and will continue to be there for the foreseeable future. So I've installed the MS apps that I use. Outlook, Office, Skype, OneDrive and Cortana.
For the most part the MS apps are either the same or better than in W10M. However, there are three things that I don't like with them.
1) Cortana is not fully integrated (and probably will never be unless you go with a Cyanogen phone and at this moment only one of them). But what I really don't like is that if I set a reminder in Cortana it will remind me as late as 15 minutes later than it is supposed to. This is hopefully a bug that is fixed.
2) I cannot send SMS from my PC using Cortana. Of course, there are other ways to do this so there is a workaround. For instance using Pushbullet will accomplish this and much more.
3) Here is the big omission in the MS apps that is one of this you say "What? Really You Can't Do That? What Were They Thinking?" You cannot update your contacts in the Outlook app.
So since I want to use the Outlook app for all my other stuff, I had to setup an Exchange Sync with the stock Android app so I can update and add new contacts on the phone.

Now going back to the launchers, there are just so many that is hard to decide which to use. But I find that one of the two I mentioned will be the ones that I will use for now because they give me what I need. One thing that I like about Action Launcher is the feature it calls shutters. It basically add the Widget for the application on the icon itself. So for instance you can swipe on your Outlook icon and see the Agenda or Inbox widget. I think this is a great feature.
Yesterday I discovered the Min Icon Pack. I like it because it is very "min" and I think it looks elegant.

Anyway, like I said, I've not completely move yet since I can still return my phone if I decide not to go Android.

Oh, I forgot, I bought the Moto X Pure (Style outside the US). I think you get a lot for the money. And you get a lot less for the money. What I mean by that, is that I don't get a bunch of bloatware you might (most likely) will from others. I bought it from Amazon which means nothing but stock Moto ware setup. And it is upgraded to Android M.
The Nexus 6P was too expensive for me. And the Nexus 5X had lower specs for about the same money as the Moto X Pure.

I guess we all have different usages for our phones and we all like different things. Yes, you can change the layout on Android but I haven't found one yet that I really like. I can bear some of them and that's it. I tried flashing a few custom (and rooted) ROMs, but they were clearly made by teenagers with teenage ideas about style, design, UI and everything else. And they didn't even bother to remove Samsung's S-apps, so I returned the stock ROM and I'll leave it as that.

I too keep the screen clean of icons - I have one home screen with a few icons at the bottom (that I use the most - phone, SMS, Contacts and Opera). There is five more apps in the 'Edge' screen (you swipe from the right and you get a list of five apps - there is an option to add contacts also, but I can't get that to work) and that is it. The rest of my tiny app library is in the 'app drawer' - Microsoft apps, Viber, Messenger, a news reader (I chose Feedly, though I deeply miss Fuse), Philips Hue (miss Oni A LOT) and I wanted to put Discovery News (miss its live tile), but apparently, they don't update if for Android, so it won't even start. That's it - I read dozens of 'best Android apps' lists, but I didn't find a single one I would use. I got Android and Windows Central apps, though

I also miss Cortana and Outlook's Calendar, especially the former. Cortana on Android is choppy and looks like it will fall apart at any moment. Just like you, I also can't update Outlook contacts from the Contacts app, but a friend of mine on an LG G3 can, so I've no idea who is to blame.

I'll give Action Launcher a shot (don't remember if I did already), but most of them look the same to me. Some are really bad (I gave up on the one I initially liked, Buzz, because it was too complicated to use). I have the Lumia 1520 on the table and Windows just looks so much more... Modern. Icons are a thing of the past, even on my PC my desktop is empty and everything is in the Start menu. Android can be customized into oblivion, so much so that two Android users can't use each other's device because of the UI differences between them. But with all that, even with good icons and decent launchers, it doesn't come close to tiles, not for me anyway.

How did you setup Exchange Sync with the Contacts app? I set up my account in Outlook as Exchange, but they are still read-only.

 

[thetruth1960]

I guess we all have different usages for our phones and we all like different things. Yes, you can change the layout on Android but I haven't found one yet that I really like. I can bear some of them and that's it. I tried flashing a few custom (and rooted) ROMs, but they were clearly made by teenagers with teenage ideas about style, design, UI and everything else. And they didn't even bother to remove Samsung's S-apps, so I returned the stock ROM and I'll leave it as that.

I too keep the screen clean of icons - I have one home screen with a few icons at the bottom (that I use the most - phone, SMS, Contacts and Opera). There is five more apps in the 'Edge' screen (you swipe from the right and you get a list of five apps - there is an option to add contacts also, but I can't get that to work) and that is it. The rest of my tiny app library is in the 'app drawer' - Microsoft apps, Viber, Messenger, a news reader (I chose Feedly, though I deeply miss Fuse), Philips Hue (miss Oni A LOT) and I wanted to put Discovery News (miss its live tile), but apparently, they don't update if for Android, so it won't even start. That's it - I read dozens of 'best Android apps' lists, but I didn't find a single one I would use. I got Android and Windows Central apps, though

I also miss Cortana and Outlook's Calendar, especially the former. Cortana on Android is choppy and looks like it will fall apart at any moment. Just like you, I also can't update Outlook contacts from the Contacts app, but a friend of mine on an LG G3 can, so I've no idea who is to blame.

I'll give Action Launcher a shot (don't remember if I did already), but most of them look the same to me. Some are really bad (I gave up on the one I initially liked, Buzz, because it was too complicated to use). I have the Lumia 1520 on the table and Windows just looks so much more... Modern. Icons are a thing of the past, even on my PC my desktop is empty and everything is in the Start menu. Android can be customized into oblivion, so much so that two Android users can't use each other's device because of the UI differences between them. But with all that, even with good icons and decent launchers, it doesn't come close to tiles, not for me anyway.

How did you setup Exchange Sync with the Contacts app? I set up my account in Outlook as Exchange, but they are still read-only.

Agree. There is no comparison between Tiles and Icons. My PC desktop has one icon. The Recycle Bin. That's it.
As far as setting up contacts this is what I did.
1) Installed MS Outlook and connected to my two Office 365 accounts and my two Live accounts
2) I made sure that I didn't Sync Contacts for each account is turned off in Outlook. What this does is syncs Outlooks clients with Office 365 and Live, but not with the local contacts
3) When to the local setting on the phone and under Accounts I added the same accounts as above. Once I added, I made sure that the synching option for Calendar and Mail are turned off. The only one is Contacts.
So now what you have is your contacts are synching from Office and Live to your phone. And you can make changes and add contacts from there.
I might decide to Sync calendars too. Even thought I would be using Outlook for calendars I might want the events in the stock app so I can use the Do Not Disturb with those events.

If you've tried Nova Launcher, I don't think you are going to get more (or less) from Action Launcher with the exception of the mentioned shutters. I don't think Nova has that.

Here are the two reasons I would move to Android
1) I build systems for companies. One of the system that I'm building right now will need a couple of mobile apps. These are going to be develop for Android and iOS. As I mentioned before in Windows Central, there is no way the customer will pay for development of the apps for WP. Simply there is no Market for it.
2) The app gap just got to me. As I said, I don't use many apps. But here is a few examples...
My car manufactures provides a mobile app that will work with all mobile phones as long as those phones are iOS or Android
I have two banks. Both have mobile apps that only work in iOS and Android.
So yes, I've lived without these so I can continue to do so.
But take for example the bank apps. I can do mobile deposit from them. I work out my home for several clients.
So here is my scenario.
I don't get checks from clients the same day. So in a week say I might checks on Monday and Wednesday.
I can go the bank on Tuesday and Thursday to deposit those checks or hold on to the one from Monday and hope I get the one on Wednesday and then go to the bank.
So I'm either wasting time driving to the bank or not having the money available while I wait for the other check.
I go the bank twice a month. Each time it takes about 45 minutes by the time I go there, deposit the checks and drive back.
One of my banks has had an app for about 6 years. So let's do the math. It cost me about $70 worth of not working to go the bank. That makes it $140/mo. In the last 6 years that has cost me $10,000+ in non billable time.
I could had bought tons of phones by now

When I got my first WP 5 years ago, it would annoy me that companies wouldn't develop for it. Now, it doesn't anymore. The reason it does't anymore is that the fault is not the companies, it is MS's. MS didn't do what they had to do to make WP what it could had been.

Okay I'm stopping now. It seems that I'm just writing a lot to justify the move to Android. The more I write the closer I get to the move

 

[branedge]

Hey Zoolok - now you have my nervous just put in an order from an samsung galaxy 6 active...leaving wp for now (currently have the 950) but like you the os is too buggy the core apps are not working. so did you settle in with your new android phone? i hate to leave WP but the os and apps are just not there....wish me luck!

 

[Nsh222]

Just change your phone. If you don't like it, don't suffer with it.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Ken Allen3]

Material design theme by Samar Zayer in the theme store is really nice and clean and far less colourful /childish looking. That's what I use.

Posted via my SM-G928F

 

[Ken Allen3]

This is material design theme

Posted via my SM-G928F

 

[Christine Aflak]

This theme would be perfect if it weren't for the colourful contact icons. Looks so childish. And I don't have photos of my contacts so I can't change them

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[pbickel]

This theme would be perfect if it weren't for the colourful contact icons. Looks so childish. And I don't have photos of my contacts so I can't change them

Posted via the Android Central App

One thing you can do is download an app called sync.me it gets your contact's pictures from Facebook. That's what I do as I can't stand it being initials or blank faces.

 

[Christine Aflak]

Don't have Facebook old fashioned ol' me

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Zoolok]

Hey Zoolok - now you have my nervous just put in an order from an samsung galaxy 6 active...leaving wp for now (currently have the 950) but like you the os is too buggy the core apps are not working. so did you settle in with your new android phone? i hate to leave WP but the os and apps are just not there....wish me luck!

Hi,

Well, I got used to it, I cannot say I enjoy it, but I got used to it. For the UI, I got the Action Launcher, Min Icon Pack and Microsoft's Next lockscreen, so now it all looks decent. I also had to swap Samsung's kernel for another one, since Samsung's spent way too much battery. Android has its own share of bugs and issues, but they are not as serious as the ones on Windows 10. At the moment, I think Windows Phone 8.1 is the best, most polished OS for mobile.

Also, I am not seeing any real benefit from not having the "app gap" any more. There are tons of them, but most of them are useless to me. I found equivalents of the ones I used on Windows, and that's it. I'm not using anything new that I didn't have on Windows. The one thing that is better is that Firefox browser has add blocking, which I didn't have on Windows.

I also went all in, so I bought a Gear VR as well. I never thought VR will be a hit, and now I'm pretty sure I was right. Having something on your head is just not how people want to use computers/cellphones/whatever. Even simple 3D glasses are too much and 3D never became mainstream (I have a 3D monitor and yes, gaming in 3D is better, but even those tiny glasses are too much for most people). This thing is like wearing a helmet and, while the initial effect really is WOW, it quickly fades and you begin to see just how terribly ugly the picture is and how difficult practical use is (I'm sure whoever had to enter a web address in a browser by using Gear VR will agree - look at a letter, press button, look at another letter, press button...). The videos are terribly low-res and blurry, the image quality is like watching old TVs from the 80s or so. The one thing I do like (even with terrible image quality) is Google's street view, which does make you feel like you are there (like, right under the Eiffel Tower). But that's it, and as for "gaming" on Gear VR, it is not gaming at all, it is very casual, to say the least.

But I didn't have this on Windows, so there