Many things my new sony android phone doesn't seem to be able to do! Tips appreciated.

[wacoal]

Hello, I recently switched from a BB Z10 to a sony xperia Z3 c. Previous to the BB I was on iphone so this is my first android phone. The phone is running 5.1.1. I still have an iphone for work and hate it.
I chose the sony rather than another bb since I wanted a better camera and did not want a bigger phone and the Z3c seemed the only choice in the size I wanted. Also, sadly BB has not come out with a new premium touch device or I would have stayed with BB. I tried to order a moto g 2015 but motorola were complete asshats and would not let me order the phone with a US shipping address ( I am canadian).

Anyhow, my problems with android are numerous. I am on the verge of selling the sony and getting the bb Leap because I hate the phone that much.
Here are the things I hate:
-The keyboard. I've never typed so slow or had worse word predictions or made so many mistakes. HATE it. Are there any keyboards similar to the BB one with the word predictions above the keys rather than at the top which is so inefficient?
-I can not copy a portion of a text message and save to a clipboard to then paste elsewhere. This is so archaic. In the sony I can only select the entire message, not a portion of it. Can anyone tell me how to do this?
-I can not select a picture and forward it. If someone messages me a picture and I touch it, the only option is save. This is so stupid. I do not want to save, I want to forward the picture. Of course you can save and then forward but this is an extra step I am not interested in doing.
-I hate the settings menu. In settings I want to select sounds for each type of thing: text, email ect. This is not an option. Just 'notifications' generally.
-The LED light blinks for all notifications and I don't appear to be able to control for what. On BB I had the LED set to a different colour for each thing: text , email, phone ect. That way I could glance at my phone and know to check if I had a text but not bother if I had an email. Can you customise the LED notifications?
-The camera which is the whole reason I bought the phone is terrible. So many complicated menus and very difficult to use. Slow shutter and overall very un-user friendly. Any tips on streamlining this function would be very much appreciated.

The only thing I like better in Android is the contacts. BB had this ridiculous feature that linked your facebook contacts even when you told it not to. Hated that. The size of the phone is perfect.

Any advice appreciated before I throw away this phone.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Welcome to the forums.

1. You should be able to tap the word to get the cursor in it, then tap and hold to bring up the copy/past options. It will probably copy/paste the whole thing, but you can then edit the parts you don't need.

2. Each app has it's own sound menu in options. This will allow you to set unique tones for each app. Say you email app should be under settings in the email app somewhere.

3. LED custom options are probably only available with root access.


That about all I have.

 

[HaboobZ]

If your phone allows customizing the LED notification light, try out Light Manager - I use it on my G4 and it works great for changing the colours for different notifications/apps/contacts.

For the keyboard, are you tapping or swiping (pathing)? If just tapping, I believe I have read Fleksy keyboard is fantastic. For swiping/pathing you have a few more options too, such as SwiftKey and Google Keyboard (there are others, but these are the ones I'm familiar with).

For photo forwarding, if you long-press on the photo, is there not an option to Forward? I have that option in SMS on my G4 (using ChompSMS). It may be app dependent for that feature, meaning the OEM app may not allow/provide that option.

I don't have any experience with the Sony phones, but would assume selecting text and copy/paste is somewhat universal throughout - you double tap on a word to highlight it, then there are handles (for the lack of a better, or proper term - see screenshot) that you can drag to select/deselect specific portions of the text.

** Note that it also may be dependent or change based on the keyboard you're using.

 

[wacoal]

Thank you so much for the helpful replies.
I can't select a word at all. Any tap, double tap or long press in a text message selects the whole message. In emails the double tap zooms in and the long hold highlights a word, so it does work in email. For text messages, I don't want to paste the whole thing then edit later, I just want to select a portion of a message then paste that elsewhere. I didn't realise that these things could vary between different android phones. Good to know.

When I tap or hold on a photo that I have recieved, the options are to delete message or to save photo. If I hold to open the photo then press the 3 dots at the bottom then the only option is save. If I tap on the photo without opening/expanding it then the only options are to view, save, delete, add star (whatever the hell that means).

I will investigate light manager, that sounds great. Having different coloured LED for different things was one of the best features of my old phone.

Thank you about the sounds. I would prefer to access all sounds from the main settings menu rather than going into each app settings individually but I see that's what you have to do in Android. Seems quite inefficient but at least I can do it now.

I will try the flesky keyboard. I don't swipe, I type. I hate that I have to get all of these third party things. everything worked so great stock on my last phone, I wasn't expecting to have to do so much digging downloading and customizing just to have basic functionality.

Thanks again!! Really helpful.