A Week With Windows Phone 8.1 - an Android User's Experience

tgp

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Unless I am missing something, that app is for Nokia only. I cannot install it on my 8X. Looking at it in a positive light - if I buy a newer WP it will definitely be a Nokia so I will gain this functionality.

Even on a Nokia device the app is quite clunky. You have to need it pretty bad to go to the bother of using it, not to mention setting it up.
 

SpaceyO

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The app called "Start Perfect" can generate "Label" tiles that can organize your start screen a bit more.

Curious as to how your 8x is performing with WP8.1. I've been loving it on my Lumia 822, but I've read such negative things about how the 8x reacts to the Dev Preview I've told my gf to wait until it goes official before even thinking about upgrading her 8x.
 

snowmutt

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While I feel you may find WP wanting, it is simply fantastic to see someone posting this kind of thread. It is an education for us as WP users to see what an Android user like yourself wants from an experience and how he feels after trying things out.

It is an app comparison, that is for sure. And while WP is light years ahead of where it was in the Dell Venue Pro days (I so regret not grabbing that phone), it is still not the selection of the big 2. The two areas I see WP lacking is the (already mentioned) Google apps and the podcast app. I love podcasts, listen to them often. But I know the experience on WP is still not great.

Thank-you for the open mind, and please keep us up to date. It would be fun if the preview of WP 8.1 sold you enough that the app situation worked itself out.
 

Kellzea

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Great to see people trying wp with an open mind and an optimistic outlook. WP is a fantastic os and should easily meet your requirements in that sense.

That said you will have trouble with certain apps and services. Google purposefully deny wp users a good google experience, this probably won't change until google have no choice but to compete on wp.

A few apps to mention would be Podcasts! It's a fantastic podcast app with tons of sources and the ability to search and add. You can also pin podcast subscriptions to your start screen.

There are tons of apps that allow you to make header, label and list tiles, I used mytile for a while but dropped it in favour of a more"traditional" start arrangement.

Rooms is a feature of the os that pretty much destroys all other messaging apps and services, but as its wp only it's not really an option for you.

Fantasia painter is a wonderfully powerful photo manipulation tool that gives photoshop level power to your phone, if that's your bag, it's worth playing with.

Do try to keep in mind that your start screen will differ immensely from android, both in look, feel and what it actually does. Try to use large tiles when possible and enable "more tiles" in settings to get the most from it.

Good luck and welcome aboard.
 

dkp23

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Hate to hijack your thread, but thought it would be interesting if i mentioned i am on the opposite end. Long-time windows phone user since wp7 having a focus S, 900, 920, 1020, and 620.

I received a free S5 last week and been using it for a few days.

After these few days, i can't imagine how anybody can stand going through all these settings just to configure the phone the way you want. I fyou dont, then you have all these notifications and vibrations happening constantly and having to individually adjust those settings for every app is annoying. That is why i like the general settings in windows phone and especially with the new action center being able to configure these all in one place. ugggh..

But i understand why the popularity of android devices, the deep integration of google services. That is what makes the phone work IMO, i realize why google doesnt want to support MS and provide official app, most likely due to a competitive standpoint.

So far, i spend more time trying to configure this phone searchign through settings then actually using the phone. Of course this is only the beginning, once i set it up it will be all good. My experience with windows phone is been smooth and simple which i like, but the lack of apps compared to android is glaring once you use android device.
 

Reebs Reebs

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Sorry to say you might be disappointed. It's great to have an open mind and give it a shot.

I came from Android recently as well, but I was pretty flexible with my apps selection. The only Google app I needed was Google Voice/Gmail. That said, I missed many third party apps for sure.

Not to jump the gun, but I think you'll like the OS but go back to Android due to the lack of specific apps you need. You'll realize that from the first couple of days, if you haven't already :)

Let us know what you think!
 

darkoman4

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In my family, wife uses iphone, kids android and I WP and Blackberry. It is hard to find location app to work on all 4. Finally we settled on Google + Locations. It works ok between android and iPhone, and for WP and Blackberry, I set up browsers to open desktop version of Google + and I can see their locations.
 

neo158

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Thanks. My WP homescreen is already much more cluttered. I obviously need to think about how I want to arrange things. Wish I had app folders.

I don't use app folders on my ATIV S, the thing to remember is not to pin everything to the Start Screen. Just pin the apps you use regularly.

I'm not sure if this will cover your news feeds but I use Nextgen Reader on my WP which uses a Feedly account.
 

MrWhiteman

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Google is much easier to get away from than Apple trust me. Simply transferring files, contacts etc was just a nightmare and any music bought from iTunes is basically gone. With WP you download MP3s not some silly super-encrypted file which looked like a music file. Not sure what Google is like with music but tbh, who actually pays for music these days?
 

MrWhiteman

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In my family, wife uses iphone, kids android and I WP and Blackberry. It is hard to find location app to work on all 4. Finally we settled on Google + Locations. It works ok between android and iPhone, and for WP and Blackberry, I set up browsers to open desktop version of Google + and I can see their locations.

Stop spying on your family, jeez! That's just pure creepy.
 

andyqkw

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I am not going to be able to help you with apps. You have some Google apps there that simply can't be replaced and google and MS hate each other so nothing from google will be on WP.
Microsoft is showing some love to Google, but Google hates Microsoft to the core.
 

captaincalamity

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My alternatives, I don't use or require some of the other apps

NewsBlur - Bing News is brilliant, also Magnify Beta makes flipboard look so boring
Google Hangouts - I use viber, simply because everyone else i know does to, be it if they are on iOS or Android or even your PC
OneDrive - I use this all the time to backup photos automatically, also for gpx files and all kinds of word, excel and powerpoint stuff
Google Play Music - I tend to use Amazon as most of the time its cheaper and can easily be shared across my devices
Out of Milk - I use Evernote, as you can create a list, note music/voice clip and its simply syncs to my Ipad and WP
Facebook, Instagram, are very well integrated into WP, I don't use Pinterest

Twitter - in my opinion is far better and quicker to use as its integrated in WP

I'm learning and stumbling my way about the Windows Phone world, coming from a fully dedicated Android background, OK I miss a few games and some of the apps are not quite so feature rich, but they are coming and development is building, to be honest its so much more exciting each day discovering new or favourite apps arriving in the WP Store, I find I use Facebook and Twitter more than I ever did with both iOs or Android as its seems more integrated and part of your everyday WP life.

Now just today one of my favourite Android games has appeared Darts Match and it loads fast and plays perfectly...

I am becoming a WP bore, With Android my life was taken over with constant tweaking and ROM flashing, forever messing about, never happy with my widgets, always changing my launchers and actually not really doing anything constructive or social, with iOs I never really knew why I bothered its just too staid and tedious, great way to nod off, stare at the iOS screen, the Ipad is great for my gaming needs, but that's about all its good for.
 

Torch4x4

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My HTC 8X is running well with the 8.1 dev prev, also I have too much apps running at the same time, my storage is almost full with only 2.45Gb free... and No lag!
 

skavooviee

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You'll love this new OS (8.1). Very fast, minimalist and lot af apps that meet your requirements. I'm a Linux OS user since 8 years ago, so I heated M$ in all flavours, I was a Symbian user since long time ago, so I would expect become an Android user when my Nokia 808 becomes unsupported, old or unusable. When It have an "accident" last year (droped in a glass of beer and the camera takes brighten pictures :sweaty:), I started to search an Android Phone to buy, meanwhile, my boss gives me a Lumia 720 to replace, temporarly, my old phone. I decided give it a chance. So I stop searching Android because I liked WP OS, then, after 4 months, I decided to buy the Lumia 1020 and I'm still happy with It. I show all the capabilities of this to my family, partners and wife (she's an iPhone 5c user) and liked too, some of the office work stuffs like email, calendar, contact tiles, MS Office, OneNote, reminders and easy access to this, seems better than her iOS, she's planning migrate to WP on her renewal contract. Obvliously, I'm proud to show the pictures taked with Lumia 1020 too.

You'll not be dissaponiting with this experiment, so welcome to the WP OS.

NOTE: I'm still working with Linux OS (Ubuntu), I'm still hating Windows OS.
 

pdawg17

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And should you convert your family members to WP as well, there is feature called "meeting place" which has features integrated you mentioned, such as GPS location of a member of the group, unified messaging between members, shared picture gallery and calendar :)

Sent from my Nokia Lumia 1020 using Tapatalk for wp

Where is this "meeting place" item?
 

pdawg17

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It's the Rooms feature in the people hub, I have it set up on my phone but I need to convert my family over to Windows Phone to get the best use out of it.

Sorry last question...I've set it up but can't find where to GPS locate someone. Is there somewhere I can find out how to do that?
 

meddyrainzo

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***EDIT*** I think the title would be more appropriate as A Week With Windows Phone 8.1 - an Android User's APP Experience ***/EDIT***

Let me preface this by saying that I am not a newcomer to Windows Phone. I've been using WP since the WP7 days. My first WP was a Dell Venue Pro (what a keyboard!). I've also had a Lumia 822 and I've had an HTC 8X for the last eight months or so. These were always secondary devices. The 8X has been active and quietly collecting my corporate email for that period but I have never really been 'all in' on it. I don't use it for much other than email. My main SIM has been in a Moto X or, previously, a Droid DNA. I'm a heavy user of Android. Every device I've had has been rooted and tailored to meet my requirements and preferences.

The recent release of the DP for WP 8.1 has encouraged me to shake some of the dust off my HTC 8X and give it a real test. I plan to use it almost exclusively for the next week and see where it succeeds and fails as an Android replacement. I'm encouraged to do this by a few things: the notification center, start page wallpaper, distinct volume controls, and Cortana. I'm really interested to see if I can comfortably use WP full time and whether I should invest in a Lumia Icon as my next phone.

I've detailed below the apps and functions I frequently use on Android and I will eventually report back on the equivalents I found on WP and how I got on with them. I am not looking for free alternatives, necessarily. In many cases I would prefer to purchase an app and support development.

  • NewsBlur - this is my news feed aggregator. I've tried some NewsBlur clients on WP before and wasn't too impressed. Hopefully things will be better now.
  • Google Hangouts - I use this for "text" and group messaging every day. I have gotten my entire family and extended family on Hangouts. Finding a replacement for this is a must and I cannot ask everyone to change to a different messaging platform.
  • Life360 - this is a family location sharing app. Use it to keep track of my kids and other family members. I go into this knowing there is no WP app. Not sue how I will get around this one.
  • Bible (YouVersion) - use this daily for devotion time with my wife and then weekly at Bible study and church services. Also use a home screen widget for the verse of the day.
  • Pocket Casts - I have a long commute and my job lends itself to podcast consumption. This is the best podcast app I've found. It's reliable and supports variable speed playback on a per show basis. I must find a good podcast aggregator.
  • OneDrive - I store all my photos and documents on OneDrive.
  • Trigger - Trigger is a great automation program. It automatically changes volumes, sound profiles, radio states, etc based on time/location/network status/etc for me.
  • Timely - my alarm clock. Extremely flexible and syncs my alarms with the cloud and between multiple devices.
  • Google Play Music - I am an All Access subscriber. This is where all of my music comes from.
  • White Noise - really slick sleep sounds app. Has dozens of sounds to choose from and a very nice UI.
  • Out of Milk - grocery list app. My wife and I use this to keep track of what we need from the store.
  • My Disney Experience - as Disney World annual passholders and DVC members this is a really nice app to have. We use it to check hours, wait times, make reservations, etc.
  • Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest

I'm also including screenshots of my Moto X homescreens. I'll use those to compare how I am able to setup the 8X start screen and how it impacts my usage.

View attachment 65730 View attachment 65731


REmember to download Lockmix.
You can have a daily Bible passage on your lockscreen with this app
 

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