Gmail, Contacts & Calendar on WP8

[EZJ]

The thing is. I really want a Windows Phone. I love how it looks and how it works and I'm even willing to give up some apps and some functionality in some apps. Dropbox as an app, and sharing of video's and audio in WhatsApp just to name some things.

But what I'm really not ready for is switching from Gmail and thus Google Calendar and Google Contacts to Outlook.com. While the mail portion of it works fine. The contacts and the calendar parts are not really my taste. Outlook.com Contacts features huge text and combines groups into seperate contacts, making the overview a bit troublesome. And Outlook.com Calendar fills up all the screen and in the weekview only shows my appointments from 08:00 till 17:00, while Google Calendar uses less screen estate and shows me from 08:00 till 21:00 in one overview while even having space for a sidebar full of tasks.

So! For the big question. Is it still a huge hassle to get Gmail, Contacts & Calendar working on WP8? Or I'm I just gonna have to get used to Outlook.com?

 

[Jerry A]

CalDAV and CardDAV support (the protocols for syncing with Google Calendar and Contacts) was added in GDR2.

As long as you have an updated device you're all good.

 

[Nuttz565]

As long as your running the GDR2 update you should be fine. They implemented the caldav and cardav and I've been using my google contacts now with zero issues

 

[psiu_glen]

You should also be able to still setup your Google account via Activesync (ie Exchange) on a new phone. I believe they pushed the cutoff date back to the end of the year again.

 

[Ruben Aceves]

CalDAV and CardDAV support (the protocols for syncing with Google Calendar and Contacts) was added in GDR2.

As long as you have an updated device you're all good.

Jerry, how do I tell what GDR version I have? I have a Lumia 521 about 2 weeks old. P.S.- what does "GDR2" mean?

 

[Jerry A]

Jerry, how do I tell what GDR version I have? I have a Lumia 521 about 2 weeks old. P.S.- what does "GDR2" mean?

Go to the Settings and look at the "About" option. That will tell you what version of the OS you're running. You should have 8.0.10327.77 or 8.0.10328.78 for GDR2.

 

[Jerry A]

Sorry, just realized I forgot to answer your second question. GDR2 us the second update to the Windows Phone 8 operating system (Portico was the first update and GDR3/Update 3 is the third update).

 

[Ruben Aceves]

Thank you Jerry, much appreciated.