Windows Phone to Android: Need some advice on email and calendar

[AC Question]

I used Windows Phone for along time (I am guessing 7 years) and just switched to Android (Galaxy S8).

I am having some issues with setting my phone up in a way that makes it as functional as Windows Phone (which is shocking me).

On Windows, I was able to have my outlook.com and work email pinned to the home screen separately. In addition, I could turn off my work email but continue to sync the contacts and calendar. I've tried using the Outlook app but it appears that I have to sync everything or nothing. And their calendar app isn't great.

In addition, my wife uses iOS. On Windows, I was able to sync her calendar which gave me the ability to view is as well as add to it. I really need to be able to do that.

So my questions are:

Any suggestions for email where I can control what accounts sync and possibly have separate icons for each account but not a different app?

Any suggestions on how to sync iCloud easily so I can view and add events? I also want to see the iCloud calendar on the same screen as my Outlook.com and work (outlook exchange) calendars so I can easily see scheduling issue.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Welcome to the forums. In Settings>accounts, I think you can control what syncs and what doesn't. As for the iCloud question, I am not sure. I don't use any Apple products.

 

[joe_easton]

Welcome to the forums. In Settings>accounts, I think you can control what syncs and what doesn't. As for the iCloud question, I am not sure. I don't use any Apple products.

Thanks for the reply! Are you referring to the Settings in the Email app that comes pre-installed or the Outlook app?

 

[Golfdriver97]

Thanks for the reply! Are you referring to the Settings in the Email app that comes pre-installed or the Outlook app?

General settings of the phone. The same place you would look for, say your storage stats, or your battery.

 

[LeoRex]

First off, what you are trying to do is get services from Microsoft, Apple and Google to play well with each other... that's not easy.

Microsoft's Outlook app for Android is, from what I've seen, an entirely different app than their native Windows mobile app... it was a 3rd party app they bought and rebranded. I use it only for my work email, just to have it separated out. Have you tried using the GMail app? You can add multiple accounts (including Outlook.com and Exchange accounts) and it should have more granular controls as far as what gets sync'd and when.

The calendar sync is a bit more tricky. If you have access to Microsoft Flow (flow.microsoft.com) and your work outlook account is configured to allow it, you can have it automatically synced to a calendar in your google account (you can have multiple calendars). If you have an office365 account, you might be able to do it via an ICS link there as well (https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/89473/sync-office-365-calendar-to-google-calendar). It USED to be easy, but Google started with enterprise applications and Microsoft no likey... but that seems to be softening now and they are playing nicer again.

I can't test either the Flow or the office365 link because my organization, aparently, has not 'enabled' whatever Outlook hook I need into my office365 portal.

As you can tell, there are a LOT of moving parts getting this stuff to work in sync.

As for iCloud... try this (https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-get-my-iCloud-calendar-to-show-in-Google-Calendar) it is an older link, but it might still work. I don't have an iCloud account so I can't test.

Again... moving parts.... They should all get together and agree that people use all three company's products and it might be nice if they made it just a bit easier for people to use them all at once. But I am not holding my breath.

 

[joe_easton]

Thanks for all the info! Yes, a lot of moving parts with this. I hate to be the guy that wants my new phone to work like my old one but there were things that worked really well on Windows Phone. Outlook was one of them.

Looks like the standard Email app that came on the S8 will do most of what I want; including syncing calendars. The only issue is I use an alias in Outlook and the app won't let me send from that email address. It will receive so I will live with that for now.

For iCloud, it seems insane that it can't be directly added but at least subscribing will let me see what's on there. I am assuming I won't be able to add to it.

These 3 companies do some great stuff but the incompatible nature of their services is round on consumers. The funny part is that I've never thought about dropping a service that I use because of the incompatibility. I just find a work around because I am not willing to ditch something I like just because a company doesn't want to play. But that's the tech world.

Thanks for all the advice; I'll be back for more as I discover more questions.

 

[LeoRex]

These 3 companies do some great stuff but the incompatible nature of their services is rough on consumers.

Indeed... At least Microsoft and Google have a little bit better hooks back and forth. Microsoft knows its mobile platform isn't going anywhere, so they see the value in cross platform services. Google? Near everything they have is cross platform. They just to improve the integration points.

Apple? Well, Apple sells iPhones. They sell a LOT of iPhones and need to sell a lot of iPhones to keep making all that money. So they aren't going to go out of their way to let anyone use their services on a device that lacks an Apple logo on it.

 

[Centerman66]

Try the BlackBerry suite of pim apps