Switching platforms? | Thinking of leaving?...comment here!

[Cloudscout]

Is there an android launcher that looks and functions like WP8/WM10's live tile start screen? (I'd prefer not to use widgets)

Yes, there are several. Most are terrible, though. The one I'm trying now is called "Launcher 8 WP Style". Here's a link to it in the Play Store:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lx.launcher8

Keep in mind, the icon standards are different in Android so things are going to look a bit messy. I spent literally two hours fiddling and tweaking to make it look good (at least in my opinion). I did have to use one widget in order to get the calendar on the screen but I did so in a way that it looks pretty natural. Some of the regular Android icons can be made to look okay in tiles. Others can be replaced with images that look more like WP tile icons. I will probably do a bit more customizing on my phone to clean up some more of the ugly icons. Here's what the "Start Screen" on my Sony Xperia Z3 looks like right now:

 

[Cloudscout]

*Compare WP apps Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest (the 3rd Party app), ebay, Amazon, Newegg
with same apps on Android. The ones on WP are borderline unusable! Microsoft can make a deal with these companies to pump some money into WP /W10 universal app development - if they don?t see that WP 10 and W10 are connected they are missing out big time!

The Facebook app on Windows Phone was always done by Microsoft and the. It looks like the PC app is listed as being written by Facebook Inc... has the W10M version been updated to an official app or is it still Microsoft's painfully inept attempt at playing catch-up with the Android and iOS versions of FB?

 

[groady-ho baluzy]

Verizon phones are required to be unlocked and have some but not all LTE AT&T bands, but I really don't care, it works great for me & my needs. Plus LTE is not GSM & all carriers are moving to 100% LTE & VoLTE and will stop using their old GSM & CDMA networks & refarm them to LTE. http://gsacom.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/151013-Evolution_to_LTE_report.pdf

As I said before all carriers will be switching to VoLTE in the very near future and all phones will work where ever as the big 3 US carriers already have agreements in place. All Verizon phones from the past 1 1/2 years are VoLTE compatible and will work on AT&T & TMO & Sprints VoLTE networks.

I've said in other posts, it's just a damn phone not my identity, it's a communications tool made by a company that I have no personal stake in, zero. Nor any other company or service "winning or losing" & don't feel the need to put others down to make myself feel better about the *&$% phone, computer, gaming console, car or any other product I use. It's like people who when their favorite sports team wins, say "we won" like you had some part in the team actually winning..... If you like WP10 & it works for you, awesome, good for you, if it doesn't & android or IOS works for you awesome, good for you. I swear these boards are like high school boys ******* matches sometimes. The funny thing is, in the grand scheme of life, NO ONE CARES & none of this matters at all.....

You are absolutely right. No need to get all worked up and no ******* matches going on. As an old Colorado head I don't throw bad vibes around or judge what 1 uses. I was just saying Verizon doesn't offer cheaper windows phones such as a 640, blu, or even alcatel phones. Some of us do like to play with our windows phones whether it be on insiders for new builds or just enjoy wp. It's hard to do when your only options are a $530 icon or $200 735. the wife and I have both..If you like windows phones Verizon is not the way to go. that's all I was saying.

 

[Robinsonmac]

No worries, yeah it sad state of affairs for windows phone on Verizon, my icon broke and I got a gs7. Its not that ms didn't try and get phones on Verizon, Verizon didn't want them because they didn't sell well and the ones they do sell have a high return rate. If they had a 950 I would have gotten that. The store in Fort Collins is horrible in regards to windows phone.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[brebo33]

Where is the WindowsCentral app for iOS???

Had a wp7 phone (Trophy) then a wp8 phone (928) and was really looking forward to a w10 mobile but when it came time to get a new phone V had nothing I wanted running windows and since it is my work phone I really need it to work well. I went with the iPhone 6s. It has been bittersweet. There are some things I really like about my new phone. The old, worn-out iOS UI is not one of them. (I was pleasantly surprised to find out how much better the MS Office apps work on the iPhone than they did on my wp.)

One major gripe I have (and maybe a bit ironic): Why is there no WindowsCentral app for iOS??? This notion that a person is in one camp or another is a false one. I may be on an iPhone but I am still interested in Microsoft. In fact, I also have an Android based tablet that I use. And getting an iPhone doesn't mean I'm throwing away my laptop to get a macbook. I use what works for me.

 

[libra89]

Re: Where is the WindowsCentral app for iOS???

One major gripe I have (and maybe a bit ironic): Why is there no WindowsCentral app for iOS??? This notion that a person is in one camp or another is a false one. I may be on an iPhone but I am still interested in Microsoft. In fact, I also have an Android based tablet that I use. And getting an iPhone doesn't mean I'm throwing away my laptop to get a macbook. I use what works for me.

I agree about the app thing. Android seems to be the only platform that has all of the apps. It's disappointing that there's only the Windows Central forum app, but eh. I have that app installed and I just pinned the Windows Central site to my home screen (with me being logged in, of course so that I can comment). It's not the same but it will do. I kind of realized that I'm usually refreshing the forum more than the actual site, but I still read the site too.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Re: Where is the WindowsCentral app for iOS???

One major gripe I have (and maybe a bit ironic): Why is there no WindowsCentral app for iOS??? This notion that a person is in one camp or another is a false one. I may be on an iPhone but I am still interested in Microsoft.

I believe that is an App Store issue, not a WindowsCentral issue. Apple is notorious for not allowing apps that promote other platforms. There isn't an AndroidCentral app in the App Store either.

Google doesn't care. There are apps for all of the Mobile Nations sites (AndroidCentral, Connectedly, CrackBerry, iMore, and WindowsCentral) in Google Play.

 

[thekonger]

I use Launcher 8 on my Note 3 too. The WP UI is the only thing keeping me sane with my Android device. Still need to get a good WP on Sprint though. And fast.

 

[Arcalis]

Just checking in again to update people on my switch from Windows to iOS. I picked up a 64GB iPhone 6s on Sunday and I thought I'd inform others of my experience so far, especially as I've never owned an iPhone in the past.

Hardware
The device itself is lovely to look at and it feels very premium in the hand. Very thin (almost too thin) and occasionally it feels quite slippery. I don't think I will actually drop the phone but at the same time it doesn't fill you with complete confidence. It will likely improve significantly once I buy a case to protect it. Overall though, very pleased with the build quality.

Touch ID & Apple Pay
I thought these features deserved their own section as, coming from Windows phone, there's nothing comparable. In a word it's amazing. It's great to pick up the phone, click the home button to wake the device and then just instantly being logged in to your phone. The same goes for authenticating App Store purchases or using Apple Pay. Just briefly touch your thumb on the home button and it just works. Lovely stuff.

Apps
The reason I left Windows Phone. Apps are everywhere on iOS and the quality is so much better than Windows Phone that I don't even know where to begin. Suffice to say I don't think I'll be complaining about apps on my iPhone for a very long time (if at all). No crashes or slowness on any of the 30 or so apps I regularly use. Facebook and Twitter (popular examples) are just so much better on iOS...I can't see WM10 ever catching up if I'm honest.

Oh and Skype is so fast on iOS compared to on my 930.

Notifications
They work. I was on WM10 preview builds (slow ring). Yes I know it's pre-release software but the notifications were still absolutely s**t. I still haven't got over the novelty of notifications actually working now. Simple things, eh?

General UI
I do miss the live tiles and the overall darker theme of WM10. However, iOS does have a significant amount of polish and, while I'm new to the device, everything does feel novel and fresh. How long this feeling will last for, I can't say. For now though, I am enjoying learning how the OS works. While the overall feel of WM10 is really quite nice, it just can't make up for the lack of apps (or app quality for those that do exist on multiple platforms).

In essence, WM10 is just very immature and I'm glad I have left the ecosystem. WM has, in my opinion, a very long way to go before it's even close to the stability and reliability of iOS. Again, I stress that I'm aware WM preview builds are pre-release but, after this much development time and for a company as large as Microsoft, the current state of play is simply not good enough. They will have to really pull the rabbit out of the hat if they are to tempt me back.

At the end of the day, I've got to the stage in my life where I want a phone that just works, supported by apps that are of a sufficiently high quality. I don't want to be installing preview builds every 2 weeks in some desperate attempt to gain functionality and stability that should have been there years ago. I don't care who makes the device, as long as it works. WM10 doesn't work. iOS and iPhone 6s does. This will be my choice for the foreseeable future.

 

[rucaryl]

Totally agree with you. I have recently change from my Lumia 1020 to S7 Edge. At the beginning I was very sad to do it, but here in Peru there were no news on when does the Lumia 950XL will arrive, and my screen broke. I even talked to a friend that works on a carrier and he told me that they will no longer support the WM platform.
So far with the S7 I am very pleased to find that everything works fine and the apps are way much better (I Use a lot WAZE) and having all the apps from Microsoft on Android makes the transition very easy.
I will have no trouble at all to return to WM (I have a Surface Pro 3) when Microsoft has a 10% market share and the apps that I most use are available.

 

[jabtano]

I have always had a WP HTC HD7-Nokia 710- Nokia 925- HTC M8 for Windows.I'm on T-MO us with a 6 person family plan. do switching to AT&T was not an option for me. the M8 died with nothing to upgrade to I went with the Galaxy S6 edge plus. I love the device but I'm not a fan of android OS I miss the live tiles giving me info at a glance, I miss having my notes and reminders pined on my tiles. There is so much good to the WP OS it really is amazing.. If only Microsoft felt the same way. they could have made a few really nice high end units and put them out there not just on one carrier. My gosh T-MO us wanted the 950xl but Microsoft never offered it according to T-MO CEO.Really? how can one mke a device and then restrict it's sales and availability.. No I did not leave WP. WP and Microsoft left me.

 

[SEB2014]

today is my first day on the S7 Edge after the L1520, 640XL, L1020....So far I am really underwhelmed, really hard to getting used to the UI paradigm, I installed all the Microsoft apps on it and it still not good! argh!

 

[refishafi]

Finally had enough and left the 950xl

i am a great fan of windows phone and have evangelised it in the past, i've owned the 1020, 930 and 950xl
But ongoing 950xl woes, bugs, freezes, crashes, ux inconsistencies etc, finally made me decide to ditch it and go for the nexus 6p

Although I miss the win phone ui and the live tiles, I am extremely impressed with the android phone. Initial thoughts
1) Although all the apps I use are available on win phone, the quality and features of the same apps on android set them a world apart
2) All the MS apps I need are available on android and of very good quality. In fact, annoyingly, I think one note (which I use a lot) is better on android than it is on windows phone!
3) The app gap is huge, never really hit me until I've actually used android again. I do wonder if MS will ever be able to catch up
4) Apps launch much faster than they ever did on the 950xl and none of the annoying resuming messages either
5) Last used android in the days of the s3 and it has come leaps and bounds since then, most of the bugs and inconsistencies I remember have been resolved. If only windows mobile got some of the same love.
6) When the 950xl came out, many reviews said that it felt cheap and plastic. I never really agreed. until I held the nexus 6p, which I got for a hundred odd pounds cheaper than the xl. Massive difference, the hardware is beautiful

I would love to go back to win phone, however the OS is not ready (in my personal view), it is not as feature rich as other OS's, and is not as app rich. Perhaps will look at it again when/if the surface phone is released

 

[hasasimo]

Re: Finally had enough and left the 950xl

Let me guess... you were on an insider build...

 

[refishafi]

Re: Finally had enough and left the 950xl

I was on production, then the insider for a while, then went back to production (latest version). It would be silly to compare the win OS while on an insider build to a production build of android.

 

[abel46]

I've had several Android phones before, and none of them (post Gingerbread) have slowed down over time. I think the people who experienced these issues probably didn't wipe cache or factory reset after a major OS upgrade, or they bought a very cheap old Android and expected it to perform more like a flagship device. I've seen many friends of mine who use expensive iPhones buy those "free" Android phones on contract (which have old hardware, old OS, typically Gingerbread) and then complain that Android sucks. If you are going to compare to an iPhone, you really need to use a better midrange device (like the Moto G) or a flagship. I did see slowdown in the early days of Android, but anything after Gingerbread, I've had no issues with.

The latest crop of Android phones are great, not at all like the old slow ones back in the day. My current Android phone, the Note 5, has been going strong since I got it. The iPhones are great as well.

There are some limitations with iPhones. The file system is not exposed to the user like Android. You can't just connect it to a computer and drag and drop files like you can on Android. Usually you have to make use of cloud services to do this. Kind of a hassle for me, so I've never been able to stick with iOS due to this. I find it MUCH easier to simply connect and drag and drop on my Android and Windows phones.

Why not try both? Does the retailer you are buying from have a return policy? Something like 2 weeks or 30 days? That would be the best way to go about this. Nothing beats trying out the devices yourself in your use case.

Yes, some companies does have a 30 day return policy, which I have used more than one time. But for some reason they do not for phones. (Even when you buy it unlocked and us your old SIM card.)

 

[Erik Timko]

Re: Finally had enough and left the 950xl

I made a switch to android after 2,5 years with my Lumia 520. At first I was kinda sad when I said good bye to my L520 but now I feel like it was the right decision. I switched to Moto G 3rd gen now with Android 6.0 with Microsoft Arrow Launcher, which is great for people who don't like widgets like I do. The reason I switched was my growing frustration with the platform. Here are few of many frustrations over the past 2,5 year:

App Gap:
The App Gap is a real problem and it was the biggest frustration of them all. In one sentence you can say the Windows App Store is a rubbish, filled with 3rd apps with very low quality and abilities but filled with so many annoying ads that's not even pretty. Let's take a youtube app for example. Sure there many 3rd party apps but they just sucks. Many of them have very clumsy UI and very basic capabilities. And it's not the only app that's missing. Where's the Twitch app, reddit app, 9gag app and the list can go on forever. Even the apps that are there simply suck and are just sad excuse for usable app. Facebook messenger is old and in need of update because with current version of messenger there are no calls, no way to send a video you can't even change that stupid like finger for something more usable. Next is the great joke instagram app that will propably be forever in beta state. Even MS apps that should be best on WP are far behind MS app on Android. And in past few months MS basicly said "nah man we gonna give 99% of our support to devices with screens from 9-30inch because screw the mobile division" and other developers are jumping ships leaving apps with no updates and support.

Windows 10 mobile joke:
I kinda get it my L520 is very old device but I got annoyed with MS big way when they pulled that Win10M crap. At first they were like "Yeah win10 for everybody" and now they are like "wait we said that?? Nope we must've been drunk. We would never said something like that". So I was left with choice either stay in WP8.1 with even worse support than win 10 or go for the insider that is just far cry to usable OS. I chose the insider choise and boy was I wrong. Even the "production" build was so bad and unstable, it was even worse than android 2.3/4.0.1.

WP8.1 UI:
UI in WP8.1 was one big mess. Sure in many system apps the UI was nice and clean but other than that it was a bad dream. Ok let's start with home screen. The guy who thought that putting a picture on tiles not behind the tiles should get fired and never hired by anybody anymore. How in holly hell they thought it was a good idea to put a picture to the place where all the info was?? That was not funny MS.
The notification bar was and still is a big mess as well. It was completely useless and for some reason it refused to notify the live tiles that the event was already checked. And then there were settings. Oh boy, just why??

No solid upgrades:
MS was unable to give a solid successors to the first generation of WP8 phones. For me there was no reason to upgrade my L520 because in that price range there was no phone that would be 100% upgrade. Every phone was either worse or nearly the same or more expensive than L520 2,5 years ago. The only device that is good as upgrade is the new L550. Other devices from the first generation have similar problem.

All the promises from MS:
All I was reading for the past 2,5 years was "Yeah we will bring developers", "We will make WP great", "We will bring upgrade" but in reality nothing happened and what's worse I feel cheated because I paid my money to be some kind of lab rad for MS so that they can beta test their services and app for other OS on me. Because android and iOS

So yeah here are my reasons why I switched from windows to android. I was just sick and tired by being lab rat for MS with all it's promises. My L520 was getting old and it's battery was very weak so it was time to upgrade but after 2,5 years and all that supposed to be and didn't happen I was very hesitant to buy another Lumia phone. But when I came to the store I saw Lumia 550 and promise what can be with Win10 Mobile for 150€ and next to it I saw Moto G for 180€ with clean android I had to make decision to choose a WP that may or may not be usable and without app gap and may or may not end up like BB 10 or to choose widely supported Android.

 

[sprtfan]

Yes, there are several. Most are terrible, though. The one I'm trying now is called "Launcher 8 WP Style". Here's a link to it in the Play Store:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lx.launcher8

Keep in mind, the icon standards are different in Android so things are going to look a bit messy. I spent literally two hours fiddling and tweaking to make it look good (at least in my opinion). I did have to use one widget in order to get the calendar on the screen but I did so in a way that it looks pretty natural. Some of the regular Android icons can be made to look okay in tiles. Others can be replaced with images that look more like WP tile icons. I will probably do a bit more customizing on my phone to clean up some more of the ugly icons. Here's what the "Start Screen" on my Sony Xperia Z3 looks like right now:

View attachment 125329

What widget did you use for calendar? Are you using Outlook calendar or moved everything over to Google calendar? Calendar has been my biggest hurdle so far in trying to set up something on Android. Thanks

 

[msft_tinkering]

Same here. Yesterday was my first day on a Nexus 6p. Icons everywhere. semi useful widgets, but it's no home screen with live tiles. I now have a useful tool versus a really nice device that provides really intuitive & sometimes even enjoyable experience.

The Nexus 6p is a sunk cost, so I'll use it for as long as I can tolerate it and hopefully MSFT will have pulled their head out and produced something worth coming back to on more than one network.

 

[Tejasvi Bhat]

My Lumia 925 is finally giving up on me. Windows mobile insider worked well while it lasted with a few forgivable gimmicks. I am wondering what to do now. Do you guys think Lumia 640 XL would be a good cheap alternative till the supposed Surface phone comes out? It is available for a great price on Amazon India. Only worry is the 8gb internal memory. Lumia 950 and 950 XL just don't seem worth it especially considering the price hasn't dropped at all in India as compared to other countries. And I really do not want to switch to Android.