Convince me to leave Android

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theetommyt

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I've been an Android user since 2009. I had an iPhone 4 and iPhone 5 for about 10 months total, and had an HTC 8X for about 3 months when it first was released.

What I love about android: my most important information and apps are always easily accessible. I can put my calendar agenda in a scrolling widget on my home screen. Notifications are amazing. Slide down, check, respond. I'm a Google apps user for 2 different businesses. I did a one month trial with office365 but found it to be TOO robust. I wanted basically what their consumer outlook and one drive apps offered, but got more. Basically too much for me. The play store has a great selection of apps. Rarely is it missing anything. I have with many form factor options.

What I like about iOS: app selection is the best. Rarely is it missing anything or any app features. It's smooth. Little lag, and it mostly just works.

What I like about windows phone: a lot of info can be displayed on my home screen. Integration with windows 8.1 is very good. Mostly on par or better with apple osx to iOS integration. Different form factors to choose from. Smooth OS. Fairly customizable.

Apps I must have at least equivalent to in no particular order:
Facebook
Twitter app with lists
Facebook pages manager
Facebook messenger
Hoot suite
Chase bank
Google hangouts
Snapchat
Instagram
Pinterest
Gmail
Outlook
Google drive
Hangouts
Skype
Evernote
Mail chimp
Square
WordPress
Pulse news
Reddit
Pocket
Foursquare
YouTube
Pandora
Google music
Xbox smartglass
Media player that can use multi file types
Chromecast apps
Netflix
Craigslist
Eventbrite
A Great Podcast app
Skitch
Google voice
Workflowy
I made the switch to wp once but out did not offer everything I needed. Is it ready now?

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jleebiker

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It's close, but still not 100%. Even if the app is there, chances are likely, it doesn't have 100% the same functionality.
 

xandros9

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I might chime in later with more, but im going to go ahead and clue you in that there is little to no Google here.

Google has refused to put its services on Windows Phone, perhaps best illustrated by the YouTube fiasco.
Ironically the 3rd-party Youtube options are top notch. The two major players are MetroTube and myTube. both of which are very respectable.

Google has killed all Google Voice clients, Windows Phone ones included a while back, citing "security" reasons.

Hangouts is proprietary (so much for supporting open standards) and the best you can hope for is an app that supports Google Talk, like IM+.
Gmail will work fine though in the stock email app.

There is no Google Drive app I really would use in any situation other than a last resort and we're booted to a dumb phone website.
There are options, but nothing I consider great.

Facebook and Twitter are there (what are lists?)
3rd party page manager available, dont know how great or how bad it is. Seems OK.
6Snap is an excellent snapchat client, it has served me very well.

You have a multitude of Instagram options now, some are arguably better than the official app. (like 6Tag)

Never touched pinterest, so I wouldn't know about that.

No feature overload here, but the built in suite of calendar, contacts, is outlook, just not in one app.

Skype is here. Won't blow the others out of the water, but it works.

I think I saw Evernote in the store, I use Onenote though.

You have the options of two Reddit clients, Baconit and readit, both are great.

actually, go check out the store yourself, its been linked earlier.
 

theetommyt

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Thanks for the responses so far. I've seen the app store, but really want to know about features. I don't need the exact same apps, I need similar functionality.

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mickydale

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I also was an Andriod user for years... And in all honesty I do not understand how people complain about the lack of apps on Windows Phone. I have found all my apps, be it official or 3rd party, and I couldnt be happier with their performance.... The 2 exceptions would be Facebook , it lacks some features and lags some, but otherwise very functional....and with My 1020 , I rarely use the app because it is integrated so well int the phone through the me tile and contacts tile... 2nd my bank... in which case I have found Mint which i just as good. Like stated above about apps like Youtube, there are great 3rd party apps available...I guess there are some games that are not available, but I dont really use my phone for games, never really have other than a couple to kill time here and there.... The complaint of lack of apps to me is completely absurd claims made by other os fanboys.... The Wp os is so much smoother and never lags or at risk for virus or attack from hackers...True it is not as customizable as Android, but I prefer functionality and reliability.. Just my opinion
 

k0de

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I am coming over from iOS I don't know anything about android. But I can say this. Things here won't be the same like Android. They are very different and you will have to learn how to adapt. The more you use WP the better you will find yourself getting around. It takes practice but the learning curve is not so steep. So my best advice for you is "Just do it" and see if WP is for you. I did and to my findings I will never return back to iOS. Good Luck.
 

Giddora

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I came from Android about two years ago and I haven't looked back twice... But Android back then was an immature piece of steaming poo... Today it's only half the mess it used to be.
 

broar94

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Dont go for windows right now. Notifications center is only available with windows phone 8.1 which is coming out in april. Id recommend you to stick with android unless you want to try something new. and you don't have all the apps on windows phone.
 

anony_mouse

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Agreed but the fluidity of the OS is so much better than Android.

In the past, I would have agreed with you (although I always found Android rather *faster* than WP, even if sometimes not as fluid). However, I bought a Moto G recently and it is absolutely smooth at all times. I'm very impressed.
 
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hs k

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Lemme get my Shotgun real quick. I can convince you pretty fast then Lolol.

Naah, seriously, I just love the way Wp8 integrates W8. Thats it. I don't game much and I wanted something to help me bolster my attention to study and hence it was a no brainer.

Dude, but noone can convince anyone over gadgets interacting at a personal level. Go get a 520/525 and check out how that works out for you.
 

Saksham Sharma

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But do remember, dont say "520 doesn't even have that game ?" because wp has all nice games, but many aren't available for 512 mb ram phones.
But overall, you'd love the support, the fluidity, the smoothness, the great animations, the professional feel of the os, the epic camera (even in the 520), the epic nokia apps (nokia storyteller, nokia camera, nokia beamer etc), the fact that you wont have to reset your phone every 3 months, great cloud services, and yeah, the feel of using something different from every *****'s phones, very different... You'll love it ! and wait for windows phone 8.1 in April, it's gonna be a game changer ! It is going to have every single thing wanted in an os, and much much more !
I suggest you wait for Lumia 630, it'll come with windows phone 8.1, though it isn't a very high end phone, and lacks a camera button (sigh)... It's coming in mid April.
 

tgp

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Anyways, I say wait for 8.1 before you decide if the features are enough for you. There's a whole laundry list of them and it should make almost everyone satisfied unless you're a heavy Google user.

^This^. Wait for WP8.1 to decide. This update is supposed to bring functionality closer to Android or iOS.

But like someone said earlier, if you need convinced to switch WP, you should probably stick with Android. If you have a good Android phone, WP doesn't offer compelling reasons to switch unless you're trying to get away from Google, or if you want to try something different.
 

berty6294

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But like someone said earlier, if you need convinced to switch WP, you should probably stick with Android. If you have a good Android phone, WP doesn't offer compelling reasons to switch unless you're trying to get away from Google, or if you want to try something different.

I disagree. I believe his interest alone is enough reason to give Windows Phone a shot. I mean, if you have enough interest to join a forum site about it, definitely run with it a while! Who knows, you may end up staying with Windows Phone for reasons you don't even know exists!
 

worldspy99

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Thanks for the responses so far. I've seen the app store, but really want to know about features. I don't need the exact same apps, I need similar functionality.

Posted via the WPC App for Android!

Similar functionality is a ways away and hence I decided to get a Nexus 4 as a backup device for travel. When I am in town WP meets most of my needs. But over the last weekend, I was playing with both of them side by side and I noticed that even though the Android apps have more functionality I liked the feel of the WP OS much better and so I would rather just fire up my tablet/PC and use the web than depend on the Android app that might do the work but the feel of it was pretty drab. So I am thinking of just having a tablet around as well and using my phone as a hotspot:)
 

Jan Tomsic

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There are cloud6 apps incoming, it's already out for dropbox (and it's awesome, as you can tell from the 6, it's from Rudy Huyn), and there is one coming for google drive as well.

I never liked google drive, the web interface is bad, there is no camera upload (it uploads to google+ - useless, and doesn't sync with each other), google just confuses me. They are releasing services like crazy, and very little actually stick aroung. Buzz, wave, google+... all graveyards. I don't like hangouts, mostly because my previous phone got all slow with hangouts, but it works just fine on my tablet. However, I just want normal chat, and on the phone with very limited memory (all android phones before 2013) keeping a 20MB app (that was previously 600kB) is just stupid.
I like gmail though, it's web interface is better then outlook.com, although outlook also has some great features and design.

Yes, so what I was trying to say: onedrive is better then google drive (for me). I've used dropbox before, and I really liked it for it's camera upload. When I got WP, there was no good client for it while support for sky/onedrive was awesome. Since they've increased space and made camera upload on android, it's going to be hard to convince me to go back to (only) dropbox, but you'll never get me on drive.

Next point: chromecast... HAHAHA :D yeah, not going to happen probably :)
I don't know most of the apps that you've written, how about you try borrowing a windows phone, go trough the list yourself and just write 5/10 apps you're still looking for here? Most of the apps are there, and there's more added every day.


The more deep you are in google ecosystem, the harder it is to switch, because you are going to have to switch services you use too. But it's your choice in the end. I mainly chose WP for the brand (Nokia), its fantastic camera and smoothness of the OS, I've had 2 android phones before and both would lag like crazy (to the point where I wouldn't be able to answer the call because the screen froze and so on), I haven't had any such problems on WP (except an occasional self-restart, but android did that too, probably even more). I wasn't using many google services before (gmail only really) so the switch was easy.

There is a great app for gmail: metromail, it's still fresh, so there is a bug here and there, but it's packed with features.

Windows phone is also still quite fresh, but it hasn't reached platau yet, while I think Android has (I haven't noticed much difference since 4.0 onwards, except for some minor design modifications).
 
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