How can a Windows user switch to a Google Phone?

[mkenyon2]

For over 10 years, I've had Windows Mobile/Phone/Mobile/etc. I've seen Microsoft bring out some neat tech, often ahead of anybody else. But I've also seen them left behind, like a kid leaving a toy in the yard. I had hopes for the Band. Groove seemed groovey. But they've never felt finished, polished, or supported like I'm seeing from Google and Apple.

After Windows Maps on my 950 tried to get me lost in New Jersey (it kept abandoning the route I picked and switched to a completely different route or couldn't recognize what road I was on) I think it's time to leave Windows like it was HAL 9000.

My primary account is an @outlook.com account. I have an @gmail.com account, but have so much set up with my outlook account. I would like to stay with @outlook as my primary account. What kind of migration path am I looking at?

 

[G4Grandad]

Outlook and every other MS product works brilliantly on Android phones. You've nothing to worry about

 

[TechFreak1]

Thread closed as it is a dupelicate post.

Edit: Thread re-opened by request of OP and due to cross deletion.

 

[PerfectReign]

So I tried again today. Saw we got a bunch of S8 units. I pulled rank and grabbed one to swap out my crappy S6. The S8 is just as bad only with a horrid aspect ratio.

Here it is between my 950xl and my son's V20.

 

[N_LaRUE]

I'm not a huge fan of Samsung. Hardware is nice, software is debatable. However, lots of people like Samsung.

Though I'm not a fan of the look of Pixels, it would be my choice if I was entering the Android ecosystem for the first time.

To the OP.

I had no issue moving over to Android and haven't looked back since. Take the time, investigate what works for you in looks. Then set up your phone the way you want it to work. It's not much different than playing around with tiles.

Depending on your personality, it may never be 'right' for you but that's up to you to decide.

 

[digitaldd]

Some things which will ease the transition. Edge is coming to both iOS and Android & MS has at least one launcher that works very well on Android, Arrow. https://blogs.windows.com/windowsex...-edge-for-ios-and-android-microsoft-launcher/

 

[Laura Knotek]

I posted this thread on our sister site Android Central 2½ years ago, when I initially switched to Android. https://forums.androidcentral.com/p...ft-user-tries-android-guess-what-s-great.html

Since then I've had 3 Android phones, my current being the LG V20.

 

[covfefe]

For what it's worth, gMaps Pro is a decent backup to Maps as it uses Google Maps. Old Silverlight app though.

I predict Microsoft is going to try dual-boot, or at least select which operating system to use out of the box, with the likes of Samsung etc., to get Windows available on Phones again...

 

[kaktus1389]

I was forced to move to Android for a few weeks as my 950 was (and still is) being repaired. I expected Android to be ultra superior to Windows 10 Mobile as everyone is talking about it like it's the best platform out there, but I really didn't like it a lot and traded that phone for a 640 and now I am much happier.
What bothered me:

1. UI inconsistency between apps and across the OS itself (maybe it was just the OEM "skin" or whatever, I just didn't like it), especially the default launcher. It was slightly better after downloading the Arrow launcher, but I still didn't like it as much as I like Windows Phone/Windows 10 Mobile.

2. Battery life. The phone had a 720p display and at beginning I was impressed by its battery life but I became very disappointed after I downloaded a few apps - background tasks on Android eat up all the battery very very soon if you don't manage it and tbh I don't have the time or will to manage in which case 20-30 apps are going to run.

3. The apps. Yes, there are a lot of them, more than you will probably ever need but I honestly didn't like them. For example - the built-in music player didn't work at all and the one that I downloaded from the play store stopped working after I changed the song/artist. Not to mention that each OEM has their own apps for basic tasks, which is ridiculous in my opinion. And one more thing - I may sound funny but I actually prefer the design of UWP Facebook and Messenger apps over their Android counterparts.

Conclusion - I just can't cope with Android - it's too much stuff to think about and adapt to for me. That doesn't mean you should not switch, I just wanted to give you the idea of what I was going through. At least I am happy that I didn't wait and throw 500€ on a phone that I couldn't use - I decided to stick with my 950/640 until they work, after that I will probably buy an iPhone. Definitely NOT Microsoft's next device.

 

[nasznjoka]

I was forced to move to Android for a few weeks as my 950 was (and still is) being repaired. I expected Android to be ultra superior to Windows 10 Mobile as everyone is talking about it like it's the best platform out there, but I really didn't like it a lot and traded that phone for a 640 and now I am much happier.
What bothered me:

1. UI inconsistency between apps and across the OS itself (maybe it was just the OEM "skin" or whatever, I just didn't like it), especially the default launcher. It was slightly better after downloading the Arrow launcher, but I still didn't like it as much as I like Windows Phone/Windows 10 Mobile.

2. Battery life. The phone had a 720p display and at beginning I was impressed by its battery life but I became very disappointed after I downloaded a few apps - background tasks on Android eat up all the battery very very soon if you don't manage it and tbh I don't have the time or will to manage in which case 20-30 apps are going to run.

3. The apps. Yes, there are a lot of them, more than you will probably ever need but I honestly didn't like them. For example - the built-in music player didn't work at all and the one that I downloaded from the play store stopped working after I changed the song/artist. Not to mention that each OEM has their own apps for basic tasks, which is ridiculous in my opinion. And one more thing - I may sound funny but I actually prefer the design of UWP Facebook and Messenger apps over their Android counterparts.

Conclusion - I just can't cope with Android - it's too much stuff to think about and adapt to for me. That doesn't mean you should not switch, I just wanted to give you the idea of what I was going through. At least I am happy that I didn't wait and throw 500€ on a phone that I couldn't use - I decided to stick with my 950/640 until they work, after that I will probably buy an iPhone. Definitely NOT Microsoft's next device.

The problem is not android.... its you... learn to change bruh!!

 

[kaktus1389]

The problem is not android.... its you... learn to change bruh!!

I didn't say it was Android's fault that I didn't like the UI And what phone I would like to use is my choice and I choose not to switch to Android and rather go with iOS when I'm ready to upgrade.

 

[mmcpher]

If you are a "power user" of email and outlook get ready for a stepdown from what you are used to. I am using Newton and Outlook for Android but it isn't as good as Outlook on Windows Mobile And get ready for BLOAT!

 

[Tjalsma]

I, as well, changed over to Android some months ago. I picked a Sony Xperia due to it's price primarily.

I still do not like the Android OS. No matter which launcher I have or theme I apply. I just don't like it. The access to apps is great but I find myself using less and less of them.

Sad thing is that Windows Phone 8 was superior to Windows Mobile 10 in many ways. So many, to me, that I switched back to my Lumia 925 to use as my daily driver as I kind of keep my Sony Xperia as almost a tablet at home.. Here Drive is still the best navigation app I've ever used. It's sad that many apps are not supported on Windows Phone 8 that are on Windows Mobile 10, and it's sad that there are apps on Windows Phone 8 that are not supported on Windows Mobile 10 - it's bizarre.

Saying that, the change isn't horrible. I actually found myself moving away from Microsoft services (except for OneDrive which I use a ton for work). Not saying this is the case for everyone but I really didn't feel the need to go out of my way to support their services when there are offerings of equal or better quality available (except for the Outlook app - I do use that).

 

[vzzbuckz]

So I switched from 950XL to Huawei P8 lite 2017 (low cost to try it out).

First, Outlook is fairly poor on Android. Does the job (just) but has lots missing e.g. some contact fields like anniversary. It also doesn't integrate to the phones contacts so you need to make sure the phone has some sort of sync to update the phone's contact manager with Outlook (the Huawei one did luckily).

The Good: Lots of apps. The Huawei has an SD card, 1080p screen, a fingerprint sensor and NFC for Android Pay. I do like Android Pay.

The Bad: Camera is flaky. Andoid itself needs a lot of TLC. I quite regularly have to bin all the in-memory apps, or you can do one at a time, to get other apps running. About 1 sec to do but a pain. There are also apps that clean up the cache etc - stuff you just don't think about on Windows mobile.

There are no updates. My last Nougat update was Feb 2017 (it's now October) and there are lots of updates released, but the vendor doesn't include them.

IMO - the Microsoft apps on Android as no where near as good as on Windows 10 mobile, especially, Outlook. The camera is a bit rubbish too - which I would have expected for the price point ($200).

So - all in all - Android is not ideal, I'm not paying for iOS so will just have to put up with it for a while or maybe think about spending more for a OnePlus class phone. I'm still keeping my 950XL for holidays though (for the camera).

 

[Toby Simpson]

I now pronounce Meecrosuft in French as I hereby consider them a bunch of consumer hating surrender junkies.

As such I am going to have to give android another crack which wasn't enjoyable last time on an HTC One. This was largely because the UI is deadly boring and privacy is a big problem with Google/Android. Samsung hardware does look great, and perhaps the Microsoft aps I use the most will have integrated better into the android platform of late, particularly one drive syncing.

 

[sumton]

I switched from crappy experience to another crappy experience but with apps and customization.

 

[Toby Simpson]

Has anyone tried Blackberry OS 10?

 

[ioioos]

I've been on android for a year now, and its fine. But...I don't love my phone like I used to with WP, its just a tool now. Perhaps that's a good thing and it will get me out of the chase for the next toy.

I started by installing all the MS apps, but slowly I've converted to the superior integration of the google versions.

First to go was Cortana (Google voice recognition is the best in my opinion). Second was the move to Google Maps. Nothing beats it. Thirdly was the switch from Bing. Here in the UK at least, Google produces far better results.

I didn't think I'd switch from outlook, but I have so many issues with it (it can't sync the native contacts folder both ways, can't separate the calendar icon/function, log in issues, folder naming issues), that I've been trying the google versions. I think I might drop outlook now. Shame.

All in all, with outlook being bleak, I think I might drop onedrive and my 365. MS is not value for money anymore, at least, not for the average consumer.

 

[fschmeck]

Has anyone tried Blackberry OS 10?

I went from BB10 to windows to Android. My experiences :

BB10 (also now dead) has the best email support, and the bonus of being able to run Android 4.3 apps from the amazon App store. Anything more consumer friendly (Facebook, etc) is accessible but not great. Very much a side move from Windows.

My android experience is that it requires a lot of customization: arrow launcher , outlook for email, disabling all the crap and endless notificationss you don't use that you can't get rid of. It is frankly nowhere near where I felt BB10 or WP10 were, but the apps are the thing.

 

[AdamInTx]

I switched about a month ago. Some things have been great compared to WP and others have been a disappointment.

The biggest disappointment for me has got to be Outlook for android. There is no way to switch between messages, you have to go back to your inbox/folder and then pick the next message. At first I thought this has to be a mistake on my part but then looking online found that it actually wasn't me it was indeed outlook. Mail in WP has those nice up and down arrows in the upper right to move between messages, androids email app has the ability to swipe to change emails. Outlook has "go back to the inbox and pick a new one."

A second thing that I never really expected but has come up a few times is that many of the third party apps on WP are better than the real versions. I've got several official apps now that make me want to no longer use them due to bad layout or extreme number of adds that just weren't there on the WP version. There is the flip side to that with apps like Facebook that are tons better on android. I haven't had a single crash since moving, FB on WP crashed multiple times a day.

I never liked the live tiles at all (and got a lot of flak for that on this site) so not having them is no loss to me at all.

The app selection is a bit overwhelming at times. Things that may have had a couple app options on the WP Store have hundreds in the Google Store. Of course a massive % of the apps in the store are pure trash so the sheer number comparisons are worthless. However, all the big name apps you could want are there.

Lastly, like somebody else said the background tasks that are allowed to run by default will destroy your battery life. I have to charge way more often than I did my windows phones. However, my new phone has quick charge so I can charge the whole phone in practically no time at all.