New to Android, can I get some help with a couple of questions we need help with?

[ltjuanito]

New to Android - a couple questions we need help with.

So the wife has the new S6E and I still have my iPhone 5s for the time being.

1. We notice that when I send her a video via text message the video is very blurry on her S6E. So I tried emailing her the video to see if that works better, and when she goes to access the video, her Samsung won't open the video file and says it cant find a program to open it. I know I can't be the only person who has experienced this. Is this normal with iPhone to Android media transfers?

2. With the iOS we are able to specify which specific apps we will allow Location Services to be enabled. With Android, however, it seems like there is either an all-or-none option when it comes to turning on/off Location Services.


We've been long time Apple users, but I'm trying to make the transition to Android. Pretty big differences in the way the phones work - and lots of lost features now that we both have different phones - and I'm hoping I didn't make a bad decision here by getting her the S6E.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Re: New to Android - a couple questions we need help with.

Welcome to the forums. As opposed to emailing, can you upload the video to say Google Drive or Dropbox and then does viewing make it easier?

Location services should have a Battery saving option. Yes, you can't grant certain apps to have certain levels, but I have found that battery saving is more than enough for most things, aside from navigation (which obviously needs high accuracy).

 

[ltjuanito]

Re: New to Android - a couple questions we need help with.

Upload the video to Google Drive... or Dropbox...
Ok these are all new terms to me. I'm a pretty computer savvy person, but when it comes to mobile applications and capabilities on an android platform, I'm pretty ignorant at the moment. I'm working on it though.
So you're saying I shoot a video on my iPhone. then I upload the video to Google Drive from my iPhone? But at that point, you're pretty much putting a video out there in "the could" and it's no longer a product between A and B. Regardless, moving forward: so my wife then, what? Downloads it from the Google Drive using my credentials?

That's what I'm trying to understand, there must be some step I'm missing here. The majority of people we know are iPhone users and whenever my wife would receive videos on her iPhone, it was no problem. Now, however, she cant see any videos whenever family members send them to her new S6E. I'm sure it's a simple thing she has to do and a very common issue that occurs all the time.
iPhones send video in a .mov format, and there has to be android apps out there that can play them once they are on the phone. My only question is: is that what has to be done?

And regarding the battery saving option... I'm not sure what battery saving has to do with Location Services. What does the battery saving option have to do with applications and their location services capabilities?

 

[trevor42088]

Re: New to Android - a couple questions we need help with.

So the drive thing goes like this. You both need accounts. They are free and come with free storage. You upload video to your drive (i hope from your iphone, ive only had android devices so im not sure if there is a way to do that from the iphone, is there an app for that?), You can then set the permissions of the video and share it with her. A link via text would work, but when ever you include someone in the permissions of that video, an email is sent to that person. They can then stream that video, theres no downloading AFAIK unless they choose to save it (and again, i think there is even a permission for that kinda thing as well.)

Honestly, most videos worth showing my girlfriend of things through out my day can be shown later that day. I use snapchat to send videos of in the moment things. Instagram even allows private sending of videos, limited to 15 seconds or something like that. Not limited to just live or just shot video either, u can choose from your devices camera gallery and send via direct message on instagram.

Your girlfriends phone has to use a gmail account, they come with drive. Her phone may have even come with 100gb of free one drive storage as well. All these things are just options. Im sure a quick google search will get you lists of apps that do video and media sharing across devices.


real problem is regular MMS messaging is limited by file size, and its very small for good resolution video now days. I believe iphones use their own messeging app that may allowing iphone to iphone videos be much larger than iphone to other devices. Google has an app called hangouts, and can be used for texts and hangouts messages. Not sure of the limits through there data connection hangouts messaging. I know it also does video peer to peer calling which is a great feature for couples(in a non pervert way of course).

 

[ltjuanito]

Re: New to Android - a couple questions we need help with.

I appreciate the reply, trevor42088 and Golfdriver97.
This is all just... seems like a pain in the ***, doesn't it? I mean you guys may be used to it, because this is what you're used to with Android. I've never been an "apple is better than android guy" or vice versa, but damn things were way friggen simpler with iPhone. I bought into the whole Android is way more advanced and customizable than iPhone iOS, which may be the case; however, things sure as hell seem way more difficult with Android. You're saying I gotta upload a video to an online location, set permissions, which sends them an email. have them log into that location just to pull a video?
I probably sound like a crazy person who is complaining, but I mean... realistically, isn't the iPhone method WAY friggen easier? I guess I'm just trying to be sold on this whole Android thing, but the more we use this S6E, the more painful simple things seem to be. While the S6E has some awesome capabilities, I almost wish I can have this phone with its cool features but with iOS installed on it.

 

[Crispynoodle71]

Re: New to Android - a couple questions we need help with.

No, I too got the same issue with i os to android videos when my mother in law sent me videos from her whitewater rafting trip to my S6e. she is using a 5s as well, and the videos are very, very blurry when sent via mms/sms. She however is not "tech smart" so trying to get her to upload to a google drive or other online service isn't an option. Its pretty clearly an issue with the messaging services, not just a one off issue. hopefully those more experienced with Android than I will be able to figure out exactly where the issues are and drive a resolution , considering that this is bound to be more of an issue with different os handsets being used more frequently.

 

[erasat]

Re: New to Android - a couple questions we need help with.

So the wife has the new S6E and I still have my iPhone 5s for the time being.

1. We notice that when I send her a video via text message the video is very blurry on her S6E. So I tried emailing her the video to see if that works better, and when she goes to access the video, her Samsung won't open the video file and says it cant find a program to open it. I know I can't be the only person who has experienced this. Is this normal with iPhone to Android media transfers?

2. With the iOS we are able to specify which specific apps we will allow Location Services to be enabled. With Android, however, it seems like there is either an all-or-none option when it comes to turning on/off Location Services.


We've been long time Apple users, but I'm trying to make the transition to Android. Pretty big differences in the way the phones work - and lots of lost features now that we both have different phones - and I'm hoping I didn't make a bad decision here by getting her the S6E.

I'm afraid I'll speak of something I'm not an expert of, because I don't use SMS or MMS too often, I've always used WhatsApp and other messaging options.

BUT (again correct me somebody if I'm wrong) each carrier has it's MMS size limits, T-Mobile has a 1MB limit, others have even less than that, so it's up to your Carrier, nothing that can be done on the App or Android to be blamed for, that's the way it is even for iPhones, the difference is that iOS devices use iMessage and that is an Apple thing where it allows to send SMS and MMS with full size, they use their servers for that, not the carrier, the only ones that goes through the carriers are the messages that go to other non-iphones devices.

If you ask me that was a very good idea from Apple, that made their users happy, but caused a lot of issues for other users of other devices and even worse, for ex-iphone users that moved to other devices, after a very long time and a couple of lawsuits, they even created a way to de-registered those devices from the Apple servers to try to avoid lost messages.

In a summary, sorry, that's the way it is, no matter the App, if they go through the Carrier servers all of them have Size Limitations, only solution is to use an alternate messaging app that use their own servers and allow Full resolution photos and videos, which one?, like I said, I'm not an expert and I don't have the needs for it, so I haven't even look for any alternative, maybe some other user can give you more information about it.

 

[trevor42088]

Re: New to Android - a couple questions we need help with.

I appreciate the reply, trevor42088 and Golfdriver97.
This is all just... seems like a pain in the ***, doesn't it? I mean you guys may be used to it, because this is what you're used to with Android. I've never been an "apple is better than android guy" or vice versa, but damn things were way friggen simpler with iPhone. I bought into the whole Android is way more advanced and customizable than iPhone iOS, which may be the case; however, things sure as hell seem way more difficult with Android. You're saying I gotta upload a video to an online location, set permissions, which sends them an email. have them log into that location just to pull a video?
I probably sound like a crazy person who is complaining, but I mean... realistically, isn't the iPhone method WAY friggen easier? I guess I'm just trying to be sold on this whole Android thing, but the more we use this S6E, the more painful simple things seem to be. While the S6E has some awesome capabilities, I almost wish I can have this phone with its cool features but with iOS installed on it.

because everything is auto signed in and resorts to using mobile apps if installed on the phone, its probly alot easier than it sounds.

and things seems much easier on iphone because you were both on the same platform. Had you been both android for a while, you would have found out the awesomeness of google and its apps.

Hangouts is Googles iMessages. If you both were able to be on the same android platform, these questions would be a non issue. Dont blame it on android that now you must find a work around, when it was your decision for switching in the first place.

 

[Crashdamage]

Re: New to Android - a couple questions we need help with.

I don't know squat about Apple stuff and don't want to but I know this: Regardless of whether you use Android or iOS, text messaging is a poor way to send photos and videos. Resolution gets reduced and quality suffers. Email works, but only for a few photos at a time or small videos.

Best to upload them in full resolution to cloud storage such as Google Drive or Dropbox (think of them as equivalent to iCloud). Anyone with a Google account has 15GB free space on Google Drive. Anyway, once uploaded sharing photos or videos in full quality, or any file for that matter, is click-click easy. It emails a link to who you want to share, they click on the link and wa-la!

It's really pretty easy. Once you do it a couple of times you'll have it down.

And, by doing it this way, it's totally cross-platform. It works with everyone, you don't get trapped into using anyone's proprietary system like I message or Hangouts.

Android since v1.0. Linux user since 2001.

 

[Daspoo]

Re: New to Android - a couple questions we need help with.

I think things are seeming extremely difficult with Android bc you're not used to interacting with it like you are with iOS, and bc you and your wife were both under the Apple umbrella - i.e., no cross-platform adjustment needed. Just hang in there - when things become more familiar, you'll see that they're not any harder that iOS.

For the video issue, just have your wife download this video player from the Google Play Store - https://forums.androidcentral.com/e.../details?id=com.zgz.supervideo&token=5uSo6Uc1. It's rated high and mentions the ability to play multiple video formats. That might get you past the issue when attempting to view it through email, and rid you of the extra effort in doing the cloud thing (which isn't platform-specific btw).

It was an adjustment for me when I switched over from iOS to Android, since my closest friends and family are still there. But after giving it some time, interaction headaches became a non-issue.

-# Cheers! #-

 

[John Woo1]

Re: New to Android - a couple questions we need help with.

Sending video by MMS, video are always blurry and since S6 Edge have 2560x1440 display, will make it even worser.
iPhone 5S video recording are in .mov format, using h.264 codec (Apples own quicktime .mov format) and android doesnt support the .mov format by default, neither do others OS. Since .mov is a container and 3rd party app will support to play .mov format. Mobo player, MX player, Dice player to name few.

The main problem lies at Apple, with theirs closed OS and makes it hard for peoples to switch.