Android app equivalents on WP

[mtmjr90]

I've had several Windows Phones in the past, starting with the OG Samsung Focus and most recently the 925 on T-Mo. I've also had several Android phones and right now my daily driver is a Nexus 5. As I currently don't have a WP and I'm starting to get the itch again, I thought I'd do a quick survey of app availability on WP based on what I consider "core" apps on my Nexus 5 (i.e. apps that I open weekly, if not daily). Thought it might be interesting to share the results

High level, it's only getting better. If you don't include Google Apps (for which I've essentially given up hope for official apps), nearly 2/3 of my core apps have official clients and only 1 is completely unavailable in any way:

[TABLE="width: 500"]
[TR]
[TD]WP Availability[/TD]
[TD]Count[/TD]
[TD]Percent[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Official app
[/TD]
[TD]17[/TD]
[TD]63%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Alternate app/service[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]15%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Mobile site[/TD]
[TD]3[/TD]
[TD]11%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]3rd party client[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]7%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]unavailable[/TD]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]4%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Grand Total[/TD]
[TD]27[/TD]
[TD]100%[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Now, if you include Google apps:

[TABLE="width: 500"]
[TR]
[TD]WP Availability[/TD]
[TD]Count[/TD]
[TD]Percent[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Official app
[/TD]
[TD]17[/TD]
[TD]47%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]3rd party client[/TD]
[TD]8[/TD]
[TD]22%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Alternate app/service[/TD]
[TD]6[/TD]
[TD]17%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Mobile site[/TD]
[TD]3[/TD]
[TD]8%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]unavailable[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]6%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Grand Total[/TD]
[TD]36%[/TD]
[TD]100%[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Is it ideal? No...but as I said it's a lot better than it was and I only expect it to grow. I would note that for a couple of the apps that are "3rd party" or unavailable, the Android app is garbage too (Goodreads, Safeway)...so clearly they don't have a very good non-iOS focus. Additionally, the services marked as "mobile site" are really well done such that when paired with the WP app "WebApps," you'll hardly know the difference since the Android app is simply the mobile site in an app wrapper anyway. Here's the full list of my "core" apps if you're curious:

Android	WP8	3rd Party App or Mobile Site
Amazon	Official
Audible	Official
Bank of America	Official
Capital One	Mobile Site	moblprod.capitalone.com
eBay	Official
Evernote	Official
Expensify	Official
Facebook	Official
Gmail	3rd party	MetroMail
Goodreads	3rd party	Social Reads
Google+	3rd party	(nothing good)
Google Drive	3rd party	Google Drive on WP
Google Maps	Alternate	Waze
Google One Today	unavailable
Google Play Music	3rd party	CloudMuzik (get beta from dev)
Google Translate	Alternate	Bing Translator
Google Voice	3rd party	MetroTalk
Hangouts	3rd party	IM+ Pro
IMDB	Official
Instagram	Official
LastPass	Official
Lift	Mobile Site	www.lift.do
Mint	Official
MyFitnessPal	Official
PayPal	Official
PocketCasts	Alternate	Podcast Lounge (...waiting for 8.1's new app)
Press	Alternate	Nextgen Reader or Phonly
Safeway	unavailable
Skype	Official
Speedtest.net	Official
Talkatone (receive VoIP)	Alternate	Skype (paid) or Viber
Trello	Mobile Site	www.trello.com
Twitter	Official
Windows Phone Central	Official
Yahoo Sports	Alternate	Bing Sports
YouTube	3rd party	MetroTube or others

Point is, I think I'll be taking the plunge again with the 1020 Are there any great official apps, well done official web apps, or great 3rd party clients that you really like? I'm interested to hear what everyone's "core" apps/services are, particularly if you moved from iOS or Android and had to migrate to the new ecosystem.

 

[anon5354051]

Nice overview, but not very accurate. You can find an alternative to a lot of apps, but what if you have to use the one that's not available on Windows Phone?

 

[mtmjr90]

Nice overview, but not very accurate. You can find an alternative to a lot of apps, but what if you have to use the one that's not available on Windows Phone?

Curious...what do you mean? What's not accurate about my specific list?

Yes, there are certainly some apps that are simply unavailable on WP (i.e. no official app, no viable alternative, no 3rd party so app, no mobile site). The Safeway app is an example in my list.

For my part, I'll be keeping my Nexus 5 around for when I need those couple of apps, but the point of this post was to say that for my personal core apps, I'm nearly 100% covered by what's available on WP.