Next Steps for MS on Android (maybe iOS too)

[pallentx]

Having recently made the switch to Android (not exactly thrilled, but I do have functioning apps I need now), I am seeing that MS has done a lot for users on Android. Obviously, they brought Office over. They've added the Arrow Launcher, lock screen and other apps. IMO, they need to step it up a notch and compete the experience.

While they cant realistically replace the Play Store, they could do a lot to make life better for users coming from WP, or for those who just don't want to be all Google.

Contacts - Syncing Outlook.com contacts is a mess. What's the feasibility of porting People over from WP? Can it be made to integrate at a system level in Android?

Calendar - For some reason, I cant get Cortana to work with my Outlook.com calendar. Make Cortana work with Outlook if its installed instead of the system calendar, which doesn't seem, to like Outlook.com. Or make outlook.com work with the Android/Gmail system calendar.

Photos - yes, I can install One Drive and backup my photos, but to see photos from One Drive that aren't local, I have to open the One Drive app. MS needs to make a Photos app for Android that automatically integrates local photos with One Drive, maybe even Google Photos too. Allow me to make this the default picker for sharing pictures, etc system wide.

Music/Groove - For some reason, Groove on Android cannot play local files as the system default audio player. (unless I'm doing it wrong somehow) It only can play local audio that has been downloaded by Groove. This means if I want to play music off my SD card, I have to use Google Music or VLC or something else. Then, when I want to play music from my Groove pass, I have to open Groove.

Video - I have actually used Movies and TV to rent and buy movies a few times. It would be nice to have access to that content on Android too.

One Drive/Files - for an extra bonus, make the One Drive app also the system file browser so One Drive feels more like a seamless extension of the OS.

So, maybe this stuff is all obvious, but if MS isn't really going to me a mobile option, it would be nice if they took the Android integration of their services a step further and made them feel more native.

 

[libra89]

The calendar is a fail with the Outlook app. The only way to make that happen is to set up an Exchange account or get the excellent (paid) app called Nine to solve your contact and calendar issues forever.

Video would probably never happen because of licensing, so that's not really their fault. I believe in order to play local music, Groove has a workaround. I'm not sure how to do it though.

You have solid points but some things you mentioned is seriously phone dependent.

 

[pallentx]

I don't see why they couldn't do video - we have Netflix on all platforms, Hulu, etc. Why not MS' own service? Make the app also play local files and it can be your default video player like on Windows.

 

[xandros9]

Adding Outlook.com as an Exchange account and not using the Outlook app has resulted in flawless contacts sync for me.

Cortana works with my calendar too, also added as an Exchange account. (I use BlackBerry Hub, but I believe adding it to Gmail or whatever supports Exchange in Settings > Accounts works too.

 

[camaroz1985]

How did you add your Cortana account to your calendar? I assume you mean Cortana reminders, right?

 

[xandros9]

How did you add your Cortana account to your calendar? I assume you mean Cortana reminders, right?

If you're talking to me, I was talking about Cortana knowing when my appointments were.

 

[camaroz1985]

Oh, got you. I was hoping there was some way to sync Cortana reminders to the calendar. I use them quite a bit, and its a pain having to check two places to see everything that is upcoming.

 

[rhapdog]

With Outlook, it's not obvious. I couldn't sync People with my contacts on my new Android phone at first, but was able to figure it out.

I kept telling my phone contacts to sync with outlook, and it just wasn't working.

Go into Outlook. Settings. Then tap on your outlook.com account. Now you will see a "Sync contacts" toggle. Turn it on. It is off by default. If you don't turn this on, you won't sync anything! You need to turn it on here and in your phone's contact manager, then you will get People syncing.

I agree 100% on the photos app.

As far as Groove goes, it is so bad on Android, since I don't have a Groove Music subscription, I ditched it for VLC. Microsoft has a big fail with Groove on Android. If they don't improve that experience, why would anyone be tempted to even try Groove Music Pass on any platform other than WP? Makes no sense. Especially since you can use every other music platform on Windows 10 tablets and PCs. This is how Microsoft is killing Windows Phone, by making every user on every other platform think that Microsoft is too incompetent to handle a phone ecosystem. Unfortunately, those who think that are proving to be right in too many ways.

I would LOVE for OneDrive app to integrate as a local file explorer. Then I wouldn't need 2 separate apps.

As far as Cortana, she is pulling up my appointments just fine with Outlook calendar. In Cortana, enter the Notebook and select Connected Services. Make sure Outlook.com is turned on. You'll want to go through each of the settings in Notebook to make sure they are set up the way you won't, because none of it syncs from the Windows version of Cortana as far as the settings go.

 

[camaroz1985]

I haven't had any issues with Groove on Android or iOS, but I only use it to listen to my music stored on OneDrive, I don't have the subscription either. For this it works great. My wife signs on with my onedrive account as well and we can both listen to all of the music.

Maybe there is another app that integrates with OneDrive and does it better, but I don't know of one, and I don't really see anything that needs improved.