Migrating to Android, I have some questions on how to retain certain functionality [ATT]

[Phrozty]

Hey folks, I've been on WP since 2007, and other than helping my parents out w/a few things on their androids, I don't have a lot of experience w/Android. I'll be moving to an Axon 7 (should come in today), but there are some basic things I'd like to be able to retain from my windows experience, and I'm hoping one or several of you fine folks that moves back and forth between the OSes could help me out!

Things I'd like to retain:
- First and foremost, what steps do I need to take to get this phone working on ATT's network? My 1520 is 3 years old, so I might even need a new SIM, but I'm not sure....
- This question is assuming there's some central place to add services (live, gmail, exchange, facebook) in the OS. If this is not the case, please let me know: Is there a way to mash/link same contacts from different services into one contact, so I don't have 5 separate copies of contacts in my list?
- I know text messages are stored in outlook.com for windows phones. Is this native in android somehow, or do I need to get an app for this?
- I heard some mention about a skin for android to make it look like a WP... is this reliable? Does it require the phone to be rooted? I don't think the axon's OS UI can be rooted... but these are terms I'm not entirely familiar w/on the android platform.

Any other things that people who have switched have experienced that I should know? Any backups/whatever that I should do on my 1520 before I finally turn it off ( :unhappysweat: )? I'm guessing my list will grow as I start getting into the meat of the phone.

Finally, as you respond, please keep in mind that I'm trying to keep this thread from falling into phone wars so that I can hopefully get some actual help.

Thanks

 

[libra89]

1) I believe that you would have to register your phone's IMEI, I'm not sure. If your 1520 has a micro SIM, you'll more than likely need a nano SIM, which means that you have to visit an AT&T branch.
2) This depends on the phone but no matter the phone, they will show up in the accounts section after your intital log in. When you set up your phone, you will be asked to log into a Google account. After doing that, you'll be able to go to the accounts section to add exchange accounts and email accounts as well. As for the contacts question, it depends on the phone. Some phones can do smart pairing or if they don't, they allow you to link contacts together.

3)Not to my knowledge, but I'm not sure on this.
4) I hear quite a bit about Square Home 2 but I haven't tried it. No rooting required, just download from the PlayStore and set it as default launcher.

What you need to know is that in order for your Microsoft account contacts to appear (if they aren't already in your gmail) in your new Android phone as contacts, is that you need to add that account as an Exchange account. Just follow these steps: https://www.thurrott.com/mobile/and...r-the-windows-guy-use-your-microsoft-accounts

I recommend reading his whole series of how you can use MS services on Android.

 

[Neill Baldwin]

I can answer the" skin" question. As libra89 stated Square Home 2 launcher is the one to get. There are things missing, like the ability to add blank tiles to change up your screen, and the tiles aren't really live( although the photo tile rotates through my pics just like W10). It does let you add widgets which kind of give the illusion of live tiles. One reason I like it is because after using Windows so long I got use to scrolling vertically on my home screen instead of the horizontal use of home screens on Android. One thing you can do with it is change the effect of each tile. In other words you can have some tiles transparent, while others have a colored background. Kind of a neat effect.

 

[xandros9]

1. The SIM should be plug and play. No new SIM necessary unless you're coming from a 3G phone.

2. I believe you can do that.

3. They aren't saved anywhere but there are plenty of backup solutions.

4. Rooting isnt necessary for changing the home screen and default apps.

 

[Phrozty]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate your constructive replies!

 

[Phrozty]

Ok, it did come today, and I've worked through most of these items and have a few more questions.

1 - This worked right away. Didn't have to go to ATT or anything.
2 - I think I mostly got this working. I tried to follow Libra's link, but it didn't exactly work... probably because I use my emails address@gmail.com to log into my outlook account... so when I tried adding it as an exchange account, it thought I meant adding it as a gmail account and kept trying to auth w/gmails services. In the end, I had to export all of my contacts from outlook.com, which actually lost some of the extended information, and import them to gmail.
3 - I'm still looking for something to handle this request.
4 - I found Square home 2 and I'm working on trying to get it the same. Already missing WP 10 though, because I really like how they blended the alpha of the tiles into a background picture :/. Also, not sure what they were doing w/some of the tiling like in the contacts app, because it's not set up how WP was, and the search function is a bit wonky. I'm sure I'll get used to it..

Other things I figured out before coming back:
- How to get more than just 3 suggestions displayed for predictive type
- How to add a russian keyboard and a decent chunk of other language related things out of the way.

Things I need help with/have new questions about:
5 - On WP, when looking at voicemails, it lists out who called you for each voicemail, and you can choose which voicemail to select and listen to. On this phone, it seems you have to call in to your VM line. Is there a way to replicate the WP voicemail listing?
6 - This one is a bit crazy... while WP was short on a lot of apps, it had a super awesome steam authenticator, where it is lightweight and allows you to switch between multiple accounts. Anything like this on Android?

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/unofficial-steam-authenticator/9nblggh58psp <-- sorry I can't turn that into a link, every time I try, windowscentral's code keeps trying to insert an ad and it fubars the whole thing.

7 - I noticed when I'm scrolling around, when I get to the top/bottom/sides, there seems to be a momentary hump that protrudes from the end of whatever direction I've reached (i.e., if I'm swiping up to get to the bottom of a list and I reach it, there's a hump from the bottom of the screen). Does this actually mean anything significant, or is it just there for looks?
8 - I have a 64GB sandisk mini SD that my WP previously hamstrung to only registering as 32GB (it used to show up as 64GB, but then WP kinda killed it somehow). I put this card in my new android, tried to wipe the data and format it.... but it did nothing. Didn't even wipe the data. I can see everything that was on it before, and it's only registering as a 64GB card. Is there some way I can force wipe it? Or possibly some app that does a better job at formatting cards?


All for now.. but probably more later, lol.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Ok, it did come today, and I've worked through most of these items and have a few more questions.

1 - This worked right away. Didn't have to go to ATT or anything.
2 - I think I mostly got this working. I tried to follow Libra's link, but it didn't exactly work... probably because I use my emails address@gmail.com to log into my outlook account... so when I tried adding it as an exchange account, it thought I meant adding it as a gmail account and kept trying to auth w/gmails services. In the end, I had to export all of my contacts from outlook.com, which actually lost some of the extended information, and import them to gmail.
3 - I'm still looking for something to handle this request.
4 - I found Square home 2 and I'm working on trying to get it the same. Already missing WP 10 though, because I really like how they blended the alpha of the tiles into a background picture :/. Also, not sure what they were doing w/some of the tiling like in the contacts app, because it's not set up how WP was, and the search function is a bit wonky. I'm sure I'll get used to it..

Other things I figured out before coming back:
- How to get more than just 3 suggestions displayed for predictive type
- How to add a russian keyboard and a decent chunk of other language related things out of the way.

Things I need help with/have new questions about:
5 - On WP, when looking at voicemails, it lists out who called you for each voicemail, and you can choose which voicemail to select and listen to. On this phone, it seems you have to call in to your VM line. Is there a way to replicate the WP voicemail listing?
6 - This one is a bit crazy... while WP was short on a lot of apps, it had a super awesome steam authenticator, where it is lightweight and allows you to switch between multiple accounts. Anything like this on Android?

https://forums.windowscentral.com/e...?id=com.valvesoftware.android.steam.community

 

[Laura Knotek]

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4020-ALZM-5519#enablephone

 

[Phrozty]

Yeah, I've got that one... but it only allows access to one account. I'm looking for something that replicates what the unofficial steam app on win10 does:

 

[N_LaRUE]

There's a thread on Android Central about your point 3. There's two methods to look into. I'd suggest the easier of the two.

Transferring Windows Phone texts/SMS to Android - Android Forums at AndroidCentral.com

 

[Kimmo Toivanen]

3: For SMS, I recommend https://medium.com/@matteocontrini/how-to-transfer-windows-phone-smses-to-android-6d5e941f3362#.n5zd30fed
Requires installing Python 2.7 (can be removed afterwards) and does not handle MMS. I used that for my own phone and yesterday for my wife's phone.

 

[xandros9]

Things I need help with/have new questions about:
5 - On WP, when looking at voicemails, it lists out who called you for each voicemail, and you can choose which voicemail to select and listen to. On this phone, it seems you have to call in to your VM line. Is there a way to replicate the WP voicemail listing?
6 - This one is a bit crazy... while WP was short on a lot of apps, it had a super awesome steam authenticator, where it is lightweight and allows you to switch between multiple accounts. Anything like this on Android?

https://forums.windowscentral.com/e...m-authenticator%2F9nblggh58psp&token=P5Sn1uU0 <-- sorry I can't turn that into a link, every time I try, windowscentral's code keeps trying to insert an ad and it fubars the whole thing.

7 - I noticed when I'm scrolling around, when I get to the top/bottom/sides, there seems to be a momentary hump that protrudes from the end of whatever direction I've reached (i.e., if I'm swiping up to get to the bottom of a list and I reach it, there's a hump from the bottom of the screen). Does this actually mean anything significant, or is it just there for looks?
8 - I have a 64GB sandisk mini SD that my WP previously hamstrung to only registering as 32GB (it used to show up as 64GB, but then WP kinda killed it somehow). I put this card in my new android, tried to wipe the data and format it.... but it did nothing. Didn't even wipe the data. I can see everything that was on it before, and it's only registering as a 64GB card. Is there some way I can force wipe it? Or possibly some app that does a better job at formatting cards?


All for now.. but probably more later, lol.

5 - No default Visual Voicemail on Android for AT&T I believe despite being on WP and iOS. There is an app you can download for that however.
7 - It's just for looks. It's Android's visual equivalent to the rubber-band bouncing effect you'd get on some other phones when you scroll to the end of a list or something.
8 - I would try to make a PC format it if you can.

 

[Phrozty]

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried some of the methods mentioned there, N_LaRUE, but even after adding my account to a host of email programs, it still didn't want to cooperate when it came to contacts, so I ended up exporting from people on outlook.com, and importing into google... which lost some of the flavor information about people :/.

3 - Kimo, thanks, but I got SMS backup and restore ++ or something like that.. I'm going to give that a try. If it doesn't work, I'll take a look at your option.
5 - Gotcha... I'll look around for yet another app...
6 - I think I'm probably out of luck when it comes to this, which sucks.
7 - Ok, at least I'm not missing out on anything.
8 - I tried this a while ago, but it didn't work. Still wouldn't recognize the 64GB (I actually have a diff thread about this). Looks like my 1520 fubared it pretty good.

I like a lot of things about this new phone, but MAN am I missing WP . It's funny because, back when I had discussions w/other people about the differences in OSs and was highlighting the positives of WP (and we're talking years ago), those are all still valid! lol.

EDIT: right after posting, I looked for a visual voicemail app. Looks like ATT (my carrier) has one, installed quick. Works great! Just wish it was a native thing and not yet another thing I have to install...

 

[digitaldd]

Have you tried installing the Microsoft apps on your android phone to make you feel more at home. You can use outlook as your default email app and it won't confuse a work exchange account with a personal one, add Cortana (though it lacks the ability to do much integration in android, add any of the MS apps you need from the office365 stuff all the way to the Weather/Sports/News and Money/Finance applications. Personally I'm loving the new Clip-layer clipboard replacement which makes copy/paste actually useful on Android.