Features we are missing the most since jumping ship from android to 8X

Dano79

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Im just wondering what everyone would want/expect in the next update or updates in the future. I would love for the led too blink for missed calls, sms, etc. I know this is possible through update since we have a led. A new sms message reminder would be sick as well this is something I miss from my Iphone too.
 

Daniel0418

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The back button. I heard people complain about the inconsistancy of the back button in Android, but Windows is way worse. The back button drives me nuts. I wish it worked like it does on Android. Also, Google Now was very good. I miss it as well. And Notification center, but I think we are going to get some kind of notifastion system soon
 

Tumultus

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The BACK button works fine for me. I find the SEARCH button more inconsistant! For example, while in an app that supports search, you have to rely on a menu option or search icon rather than a native integration of the SEARCH button. Having this button just to open Bing is quite useless in my opinion.

About the notification center:
I guess I am the only one who doesn't care! The live tiles work well enough for me; I have no desire for an Android-like notification center.

Never understood the need for Google Now. I am capable of organizing my life without an automated system trying to stay ahead of me. That is why my WP8 device has a calendar and other PIM features that synchs with Live to my desktop and back.

I don't even think that I miss much from Android, at least nothing comes to mind that I can't live without.
 

chicubs1908

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- LED to blink different customizeable colors depending on text/phone call/email/voicemail/person (BeBuzz on Blackberry essentially)
- Back button and search button consistency
- Instagram (I don't take instagram photos but I like looking at my friends)
- Programs scaled to screen (black bar on the top of older Windows Phone apps is quite annoying on the HTC 8x
- Public Transport app
- I actually don't think a notification center is really that necessary, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to include
 

zero157h7

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1. A good Navi app that doesn't cost a boat load. Fortunately I don't need it often so it is not a deal breaker.
2. NOTIFICATIONS. I have heard fanboys say it isn't needed or try to justify its absence but it IS necessary. Quite frankly I am tired of hearing my phone go off and then opening up and hunting down where it came from. Either give me a unified center for notifications or build in some Xbox Live components to finding the app that notified. I don't care if it is in the me tile, a new notifications tile, a pull down or a swipe the opposite side of apps but it is needed. This has gotten on my nerves enough to make me consider swapping back.
3. Background functionality- I'm not sure if this is a WP8 issue or just an issue with apps being built for WP7 and not updated yet, and I am not sure what is going on, but I love Google Voice and I can't stand not having reliable notifications for it. I have seen 2 apps that have clunky workarounds with forwarding and email for notifications but that just does not cut it. I use GV too much to tolerate this for too much longer. This makes me jumpy about other stuff because I don't know what is working and what isn't. Is my Google Talk client really running in the background? Will I really not mice messages there or on Facebook? What about @replies or dms on Twitter. I just don't feel comfortable.
4. I really wish they would open up the messaging tile to work with more services. Google uses an open standard for Talk and there is no reason it should not work on their end. It should be more palm like.

That's it for now. I am really close to sticking around.
 

sravanv

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Free wifi tethering by rooting your Android. I tried the wifi tether WP7 trick but either I suck at following directions (which is actually very possible) or it doesn't work for WP8.
 

zero157h7

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How about a link to what you are talking about. It makes me wonder, if someone developed a wifi tether app, would MS allow it in the store? We know that Verizon can't block it anymore.
 

Coffee

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- LED to blink different customizeable colors depending on text/phone call/email/voicemail/person (BeBuzz on Blackberry essentially)
- Back button and search button consistency
- Instagram (I don't take instagram photos but I like looking at my friends)
- Programs scaled to screen (black bar on the top of older Windows Phone apps is quite annoying on the HTC 8x
- Public Transport app
- I actually don't think a notification center is really that necessary, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to include

If you don't upload to instagram, you can use the Metrogram app.
 

mainevent3405

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1. A good Navi app that doesn't cost a boat load. Fortunately I don't need it often so it is not a deal breaker.
2. NOTIFICATIONS. I have heard fanboys say it isn't needed or try to justify its absence but it IS necessary. Quite frankly I am tired of hearing my phone go off and then opening up and hunting down where it came from. Either give me a unified center for notifications or build in some Xbox Live components to finding the app that notified. I don't care if it is in the me tile, a new notifications tile, a pull down or a swipe the opposite side of apps but it is needed. This has gotten on my nerves enough to make me consider swapping back.
3. Background functionality- I'm not sure if this is a WP8 issue or just an issue with apps being built for WP7 and not updated yet, and I am not sure what is going on, but I love Google Voice and I can't stand not having reliable notifications for it. I have seen 2 apps that have clunky workarounds with forwarding and email for notifications but that just does not cut it. I use GV too much to tolerate this for too much longer. This makes me jumpy about other stuff because I don't know what is working and what isn't. Is my Google Talk client really running in the background? Will I really not mice messages there or on Facebook? What about @replies or dms on Twitter. I just don't feel comfortable.
4. I really wish they would open up the messaging tile to work with more services. Google uses an open standard for Talk and there is no reason it should not work on their end. It should be more palm like.

That's it for now. I am really close to sticking around.

As far as your google voice issue.....GoVoice really works great for me. Not clunky at all. You have to set it up correctly, but I actually like this google voice better than the one on Android. The only thing I CANT do is change the notification tone. Nothing is going to be as simple to use as the app for the client that was made by the client, but GoVoice is great!

Also, GPS Voice Navigation works great for me as well. Turn by turn, voice activated, doesn't cost a lot at all and it saves info for every trip with a multitude of information.

The LED is an issue for me though.
 

snaqvi91

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- LED to blink different customizeable colors depending on text/phone call/email/voicemail/person (BeBuzz on Blackberry essentially)
- Back button and search button consistency
- Instagram (I don't take instagram photos but I like looking at my friends)
- Programs scaled to screen (black bar on the top of older Windows Phone apps is quite annoying on the HTC 8x
- Public Transport app
- I actually don't think a notification center is really that necessary, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to include

For public transit, gMaps got updated recently and now supports public transit. So does Bingle maps.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
 

Samst22

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Not coming from android but here are a couple little things that I'd find useful.

- No pause between songs when playing music, rather annoying compared to using an iPod.
- Easier way to close background apps
- Being able to drag finger to an emoticon in messaging and then spring back to the keyboard similar to how it works with numbers and symbols. Don't really understand why MS haven't included this, would be so useful.
-Wi-Fi staying on while screen is locked.
- Actual facebook app that works. - This is the only app which continuously crashes for me.
- Being able to group apps in the app list how I want.

I'm not that bothered about a notification centre either, live tiles and my lock screen do the trick for me. Usually get the phone unlocked in time to see the notification bar anyways.
 

pdt

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Google Maps and Navigation is what I miss most. In fact, I think it is the only thing I miss from Android. What I especially miss is the integration among all the features, and the fact that the capabilities were all fully functional. On WP8 I've tried pretty much all the alternatives, and settled temporarily on Garmin for auto navigation, Mango Transit for transit routing, and gMaps for walk routing. These are all very different from each other, so it makes a rather klunky way to get around. And none of them work very well on my HTC 8X.

In researching this, I really grew weary of false and misleading claims made for these apps, and I am not terribly happy with any of them. The Garmin app is extremely slow, taking many seconds, sometimes a minute, to respond to a button press. Many of the buttons on the map view don't seem to do anything at all (and in some cases it's not clear what they were meant to do). However, once you get the navigation started, it works pretty well, and has some good display features. Incidentally, I complained to Garmin about the unresponsiveness of their app, and their response was that there must be something wrong with my phone, and I should go to HTC for help. They couldn't explain why none of their competitors, nor any other apps, had this problem on my phone. In short, their response was "Don't bother me."

And another informative story about Garmin: 4 years ago I bought the Garmin app for my Blackberry. It had an amusing bug where occasionally a different voice would break into the navigation script and give incorrect directions. We called the normal Garmin voice Gertrude, and called the incorrect voice "Gertrude's Evil Twin." Now today, on a whole different platform, Garmin's software still has Gertrude's Evil Twin. I wonder if they ever do any software maintenance.

VZ Navigator is also disappointing. If you visit their web site, you see descriptions and screen shots of all sorts of wonderful features. But the real app has none of the features described on the web site. It's like an entirely different program, or like the Windows Phone version is a quick port of a 5-year-old Windows CE version of the software. If you haven't yet spent money on something like Garmin, you might be just as happy with Turn-by-Turn, which is more basic but at least you get what you pay for.

Several apps claim transit support, and most of these claims are bogus. A couple of them (e.g. Garmin, Here.net) do transit routing, but don't consider the bus schedule. So they can't ensure that transfers will work, and can't tell you when you need to get to the bus stop. gMaps is even worse: it has a map layer for transit, but no transit routing at all. Fortunately Mango transit seems to work, but the routes it proposed were not always the best, and sometimes led you to take long bus rides (out to the end of the line and back) unnecessarily.

It's weird on Windows Phone that you can mark a location in the Maps app, and then pin this on your Start Screen. Then if you press the tile on the start screen, it doesn't take you back to the Maps App, but instead gives you a link to navigate to the location in VZ Navigator (if you have it). And if you decide to pin two or more locations on your start screen, you have to use a large tile size because otherwise there is no way to tell the tiles apart from each other.

So Google had its act together on navigation, but Microsoft's ecosystem is a mess at this point. Maybe at some point Nokia will produce something that doesn't look like a dog's breakfast, but the Here.net web site is pretty inadequate so I'm not holding my breath. I'm afraid that until Microsoft itself gets its act together on maps and navigation, this is going to be a major weak point in WP8.
 

snaqvi91

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Which one is better? gMaps or Bingle?

I actually don't have a windows phone device yet hopefully I will soon. I tried out gmaps on my friends device it a seemed fine. I made a topic asking which public transit app is best so you could check it out. I think Nokia transit is the worst for sure. Oh and there's mango transit too.

@PDT: gmaps actually got updated recently and now has public transit routing. I tried it on my friends device it seems to work.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
 

pdt

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I have version 1.26 of gMaps, which is what the Windows Phone store is offering. It does not have transit routing. Transit routing is more than showing the routes on a map. It means entering a destination and a desired time to either leave the origin or arrive at the destination, and receiving one or more routings that tell you where and when to catch the bus, the details of any required transfers, and walk routes to and from bus stops along the way. Google Maps does all of these things. gMaps does none of them, at least not on the HTC 8X.
 

WizeGuyDezignz

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I currently have a Verizon GS3 and have been an exclusive Android owner for the past few years. Actually, other than flip phones and feature phones of the past, Android has been the only phones I have owned since then. I never wanted an iPhone and never will probably. I am now toying around with the idea of trying a WP8 phone.

With that being said, I see people mentioning issues with the LED notification light. I'm confused, I thought this phone had one? And if so, doesn't it blink when you have a text, etc.?
 

arterbizzle

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Nope, I only have noticed LED on when charging. Otherwise it just remains off. Seems foolish that it doesn't do anything else and I imagine they have more plans for this with an update (fingers crossed).
 

Coffee

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To each his own. I don't care about the LED notification, some people do. If we had it, people would be complaining about how it shortens their battery life and demanding extensive options to turn it off, have it sometimes on, halfway on, on for certain apps, on for certain functions, etc.

On WP8, you hit the Home screen, you can see the texts, phone calls, etc. It's a different approach, but that's how it works. Now if we want to talk about a notification center...
 

Ryan Roark

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  • LED Notifications - ability to customize would be nice too
  • Free Tethering App - I'm on Verizon with a corporate plan and its 20 extra bucks..
  • Volume button Snoozes Alarm - as far as I can tell, it just silences the alarm sound, never to return. On Android you can choose between the Volume button "Snoozing" or "Dismissing".
 

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