Little Annoyances w/ WP8 are Driving Me Nuts

[sluffmo]

I am seeing some glaring issues with WP8 that are just killing the experience for me. Maybe some of you have some solutions for these:

Internet Explorer

• While browsing the back button works fine, but if I go back to the start screen and then open IE again I lose all page history and the back button takes me to the start screen instead of the previous page. And no forward button. Really MS?
• For all of the ability to customize the start menu experience, there is a horrible lack of basic customization in IE. I work on network security devices, and some of these are essentially required for some of my job.
  No ability to disable JavaScript.
  No private browsing mode.
• Setting it to open the desktop version of sites barely ever works. This is especially annoying when I use google as the default search.

People/Contacts

• No ability to create custom labels for things like phone numbers. On my iPhone I had a "Work" contact that had all my conference call #s with custom labels saying which employee/meeting they represented.
• When you do a search for a business it will show it under "local", and you can select it to show the contact information. But you can't copy any of the information, or choose to create a new contact using the information. So, you have to manually enter all the information in contacts. I was able to do this on my iPhone from day 1.
• When I put in a contact with pauses (,) and then have it put in a conference code/extension, it dials the number, pauses, and then dials the conference code/extension so fast that it never registers. So, I have to put pauses between every number.
• You can't choose which linked contact is the primary one, so I keep getting these contacts with no picture for them even though there is only one contact without a picture.

E-mail

• Why can't I make it show me folders when I open the app instead of just my main inbox, and why won't it show me the number of ALL unread e-mails in all synced folders instead of just the ones in the inbox?

Wifi/Battery/Signal Strength Info Bar

• I know you can just swipe from the top to see these icons, but just show them all the time or let me choose to do that. They disappear nearly immediately.

Back/Windows/Search Buttons

• Why can't these be disabled, or let you put in an amount of time that you have to touch the icon to activate it (Hold it for 1 second)? I constantly hit the search button on accident with my palm, or while playing games where I have to touch near the edge of the screen.

I hated my iPhone, and for the most part I love my Lumia 920. These are all just little annoyances, but I run into them all the time. If you guys have work-around I would love to hear them.

 

[brmiller1976]

Try using the Lumia like a Lumia, instead of like an iPhone. Most of the things you've listed are iPhone user conventions, and you'll have to spend time "unlearning" them and learning the WP user conventions instead. Then you'll be kvetching about how much you hate your iPhone 7 since it's not simple like your Lumia 1050 was! :winktongue:

 

[Duvi]

How are you going back to the start screen??? If you hit the windows key, then hold back to reopen the app, it'll show the content you had prior to leaving the app. Maybe I'm not understanding? Do you mean if you went to page 2 and then did that, you couldn't go back to page 1?

Btw... Didn't even realize I could change the default search... Thanks

 

[sluffmo]

Try using the Lumia like a Lumia, instead of like an iPhone. Most of the things you've listed are iPhone user conventions, and you'll have to spend time "unlearning" them and learning the WP user conventions instead. Then you'll be kvetching about how much you hate your iPhone 7 since it's not simple like your Lumia 1050 was! :winktongue:

I'm not sure how I'm not using it like a Lumia :smile:. I only mentioned my old iPhone as a reference to the difference in ease of adding information to a contact from other sources (Apps, maps, etc). Is there some Lumia way to add phone numbers/addresses/etc from another app to your contacts without having to manually enter them?

What else did I say that has to do with learning the WP user conventions? That's certainly why I asked if there was something I'm missing.

How are you going back to the start screen??? If you hit the windows key, then hold back to reopen the app, it'll show the content you had prior to leaving the app. Maybe I'm not understanding? Do you mean if you went to page 2 and then did that, you couldn't go back to page 1?

Btw... Didn't even realize I could change the default search... Thanks

Try these steps to reproduce (EDITED):

1. Open IE and go to some web page.
2. Click on a link to go to another page.
3. Hit the back button and it will take you to the original page you opened.
4. Now, click the same link again, and then hit the Windows button to go to the start screen (You can go to any other app as well. This happens anytime IE is put in the background.)
5. Return to IE by clicking on the app icon from start.
6. Now hit the back button.

Instead of taking you back to the original page again, it sends you to the start screen. So, it's losing your browsing history every time you switch to something else, answer a call, or whatever.

 

[shinygerbil]

Yep, these are not so much 'conventions' as they are usability issues. Let's just hope Microsoft is committed enough to fix some or all of them.

 

[rider2040]

Instead of taking you back to the original page again, it sends you to the start screen. So, it's losing your browsing history every time you switch to something else, answer a call, or whatever.

One way to deal with this is to hit the ... to bring up the menu and then hit recent to show your recent history. Sometimes this is even better than a back button, once you get used to it.

I agree with you on almost every other issue that you raised above. The platform still needs lots of work. I hope they get this all dialed because I love my Lumia 920.

 

[argenys]

To get the picture you want on your contact just click edit and then the picture or in your case a blank one.

 

[Digital Moe]

Agree with you OP some of the ones that you mentioned really annoy me to. There seems to be far too many places in the phone that you can't copy text from which you should be able to. The signal/time/battery indicator really annoy me it is like some has gone out of their way to make some things really annoying.


The WiFi indicator is the most annoying thing it doesn't tell you what the signal strength is it just shows full strength ll the time that is a really poor shoring on Microsofts part.

And the back button exiting out of IE how silly is that? That really winds me up.

 

[Slai]

A big change they should make it to make the search button contextual.
IE if youre in your emails and press it, you search your emails.
If youre in the store, it searches the store.
If youre in contacts, it searches contacts.
If youre on home screen it searches EVERYTHING THERE IS TO SEARCH. IE, apps, contacts, messages, emails, call-list, store, internet, etc.

As of now I NEVER use the search button and would actually use it more often if it was a "Forward" button SOLELY useable in IE10. And thats saying something.

 

[shinygerbil]

That was the case back in WP7.0 and believe me it was worse that way round.

Sure it worked fine in the People app, the email app, etc. Basically any stock app.

Most devs didn't bother to stick to the rules though. You'd open up a youtube app or an RSS reader app or whatever, and hit the search button, and get booted into Bing. In another app, it'd work fine. There was no way to tell, and no way to enforce the rules. And back then, with no multitasking support...phew. I'm glad those days are gone.

 

[Slai]

Fair enough, im not saying change the train for a bicycle with a faulty wheel, Im saying change the train for an aeroplane.

I dont care about 3rd party apps tbh, I just want the search button to work with the stock things. Email, contacts, messages, apps, store. If it works on other apps; great. If not; not a huge hit for me.

In any case it would be far better than the waste of space that search button is now.

 

[nic comino]

The Solution? Wouldn't it be easy if MS staff used Android, ios and all the others for a while then stuck the best of everything into WP8 (which I love by the way) - especially on the Lumia 920 - it's breathtaking. Shame I had to swap my handset the next day, and they are currently out of stock in our country

 

[ousooner314]

The Solution? Wouldn't it be easy if MS staff used Android, ios and all the others for a while then stuck the best of everything into WP8 (which I love by the way) - especially on the Lumia 920 - it's breathtaking. Shame I had to swap my handset the next day, and they are currently out of stock in our country

I think it would be beneficial if the MS staff used WP8 as their primary everyday device. This, to me, is the best way to identify nuances, usability issues, and feature gaps. Basically, they need to do more than just use them as test phones - they need to use it as their primary device. They need to be passionate about the product, and not consider it as just another project to complete.

 

[bigkevbosky]

UGH if I read one more complaint about how the WiFi and battery indicators don't stay on the screen I think I'm going to throw my 920 at someone's head.

Just...STOP.

 

[ncxcstud]

Pertaining to your work number related point - Couldn't you just create a 'work group' that included all those numbers? Then you could pin that to the start screen and you'd have access to all those numbers without 'searching' for them right?

 

[tk-093]

Some of those are not "iPhone conventions" that you should unlearn. Pulling up a business in Local Scout and not having the ability to make that a contact is pretty basic, imo. Works that way on Android too.

As for the dial in conference. I just tested that and it works just fine for me. I have my number, two commas and my code. Sure it goes fast but it works just fine every time. I'm using Verizon audio conferencing. When you dial it manually do you ever put a # in there? On mine I don't have to, it will work with or without one.. it's faster with the #.

Linked contacts and pictures. I have not seen that. I have many linked contacts and most of them just have one picture (Facebook) and they all show up. I have several that don't have Facebook and have a picture from my Live account. Give me an example of one of the contacts that has a picture, but does not show up. What are the souces of the links? Facebook, Live, Exchagne, Google? And which one has the picture?

 

[Curtieson]

Try these steps to reproduce:

1. Open IE and go to some web page.
2. Click on a link to go to another page.
3. Hit the back button and it will take you to the original page you opened.
4. Now, click the same link again, and then hit the Windows button to go to the start screen (You can go to any other app as well. This happens anytime IE is put in the background.)
5. Return to IE by holding the back button or clicking on the app.
6. Now hit the back button.

Instead of taking you back to the original page again, it sends you to the start screen. So, it's losing your browsing history every time you switch to something else, answer a call, or whatever.

Maybe you need to update or something? I do not get that issue at all.
1) Open IE and go to Yahoo.com
2) Click the top article (currently Obama).
3) Click the Start button [I even tried Start then Mail...]
4) Hold "Back", select IE with the Obama article. [I even tried just tapping "back" until I got back into IE]
5) tap "Back" again, and I go to Yahoo.com.

Works fine for me...??? Nokia 920, OS 8.0.9903.10

 

[Curtieson]

Pertaining to your work number related point - Couldn't you just create a 'work group' that included all those numbers? Then you could pin that to the start screen and you'd have access to all those numbers without 'searching' for them right?

But you'd have to have a contact created for each individual conference room...that would be pretty cluttered in your address book/people hub...

 

[Fleon]

A big change they should make it to make the search button contextual.
IE if youre in your emails and press it, you search your emails.
If youre in the store, it searches the store.
If youre in contacts, it searches contacts.
If youre on home screen it searches EVERYTHING THERE IS TO SEARCH. IE, apps, contacts, messages, emails, call-list, store, internet, etc.

As of now I NEVER use the search button and would actually use it more often if it was a "Forward" button SOLELY useable in IE10. And thats saying something.

I tend to agree there should be a contextual pivot if the app supports search.
In fact, the search button used to work this way pre-Mango.

 

[brmiller1976]

It is 100% user convention. The back button expectation is legacy iPhone. The proper way to go back in a page in IE is select the page from the "recent pages" option in the control menu.