The Windows Phone App Gap Thread

[cracgor]

It may be that one as syncing an outlook.com account and not a work exchange account.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[cracgor]

Another app that is surely outdated is the kindle app. It exists only to exist. You can't even look up words on the dictionary. App is stuck in 2009.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[PuckCowboy]

I'm really on the fence at this point. I will try to see how WM10 is once I install it on my backup ATIV SE.

On a side note, one of the few apps that I've really wanted and had me thinking of switching was SiriusXM. Now I just found a 3rd party APP that does live Streaming of Sirius XM. It's pretty basic and rudimentary, but it works fine! Another reason not to jump ship too quickly. It's called ListenXM for all others interested.

 

[Nogitsune Micah]

I'm really on the fence at this point. I will try to see how WM10 is once I install it on my backup ATIV SE.

On a side note, one of the few apps that I've really wanted and had me thinking of switching was SiriusXM. Now I just found a 3rd party APP that does live Streaming of Sirius XM. It's pretty basic and rudimentary, but it works fine! Another reason not to jump ship too quickly. It's called ListenXM for all others interested.

Glad to see you are making it work instead of abandoning the platform and then running back to windows central to complain /bash the os


Why don't you just get a preowned m8 windows? You can get them for under $200 on swappa. Icon too.

In fact prepaid icon for Verizon is $149.99 WITHOUT a contract, just be sure to call 1800 sales number.

Verizon may not have a 950,950 xl but continuum and camera improvements aside, the last gen windows phone flagships from Lumia and to a lesser extent htc one m8 windows are still more than adequate

 

[PuckCowboy]

Glad to see you are making it work instead of abandoning the platform and then running back to windows central to complain /bash the os


Why don't you just get a preowned m8 windows? You can get them for under $200 on swappa. Icon too.

In fact prepaid icon for Verizon is $149.99 WITHOUT a contract, just be sure to call 1800 sales number.

Verizon may not have a 950,950 xl but continuum and camera improvements aside, the last gen windows phone flagships from Lumia and to a lesser extent htc one m8 windows are still more than adequate

I'd be on the Icon now but I'm just not a big fan of the shape (uncomfortable to hold) and it's limited to 32GB with no expandable memory or way to swap the battery. As far as hardware goes, I love my ATIV SE as its fairly slim and compact, and I have a 128GB card in it (Im at 31GB of space used with all my music, so Icon isn't an option.)

My dad has the m8 One, and while its.nice, it's also bigger and heavier than the Samsung and doesnt have wireless charging (which I have with the ATIV SE). Not to mention, my camera is better than my dad's m8 as well, and can hang in there with the ICON for day light pics (night shots are a different story, but still not bad.) I bought a secondary ATIVE SE on eBay in Brand New condition for $50 so I can throw WM10 on it and play around with it.

I'm going to give it a little more time now that I have my SiriusXM streaming and soon will be getting a new WM10 laptop. Like I think I mentioned earlier, I have a Note 4 as my Android Phablet backup if I ever need it. However, at the moment, all the apps I need are basically there for me at the moment in Windows Phone. They may not be great, but I don't use my phone for serious work / app use anyway. That's what my Surface and Thinkpad are for

 

[Nogitsune Micah]

I'd be on the Icon now but I'm just not a big fan of the shape (uncomfortable to hold) and it's limited to 32GB with no expandable memory or way to swap the battery. As far as hardware goes, I love my ATIV SE as its fairly slim and compact, and I have a 128GB card in it (Im at 31GB of space used with all my music, so Icon isn't an option.)

My dad has the m8 One, and while its.nice, it's also bigger and heavier than the Samsung and doesnt have wireless charging (which I have with the ATIV SE). Not to mention, my camera is better than my dad's m8 as well, and can hang in there with the ICON for day light pics (night shots are a different story, but still not bad.) I bought a secondary ATIVE SE on eBay in Brand New condition for $50 so I can throw WM10 on it and play around with it.

I'm going to give it a little more time now that I have my SiriusXM streaming and soon will be getting a new WM10 laptop. Like I think I mentioned earlier, I have a Note 4 as my Android Phablet backup if I ever need it. However, at the moment, all the apps I need are basically there for me at the moment in Windows Phone. They may not be great, but I don't use my phone for serious work / app use anyway. That's what my Surface and Thinkpad are for

I like the way you think. Though I. Shocked there are any Samsung windows fans left.

 

[Daor32]

I am missing 9GAG apps... I know that there are few in WP store, but they are really bad/ not working properly, even Rudy Huyn`s app are not good in this moment... But the biggerst problem of Microsoft is that Outlook, Office app are better on Android and iOS... and this is unacceptable! MS really p*** on their custommers.

 

[Byrese]

I find that humorous as my friends ask me to take pictures with my 1020 over their smartphones because it's such better quality.

Though, I do agree(mostly) with your overall point. It is rather hard to recommend windows phone to someone who isn't already heavily invested in the microsoft ecosystem. There's not much to draw them in, and even less to make them stay.

Personally, I don't use many apps so I don't notice the 'app gap'. Couldn't care less if snapchat ever makes it to Win10. But, I am heavily invested in Microsoft. OneDrive, Office365, Groove Music, apps I bought from store, multiple Win10 PCs/tablets, etc. So, for me, Win10 Mobile is a bit of a no brainer and I do love it. Though, as a long time windows mobile user I am getting a little tired of the 'official' mantra: "It's going to get better". While I still believe it, it's been a long road and trying to convincing others is just a waste of both our time.

To ur point about the camera...the hardware on WP is the best hands down! Though I like Apple's too. Everytime I'm out my friends want you use my camera. Not sure about these new flagship phones though in terms of build quality.

 

[saulgould13]

@Doar32 .. Lets make these forums constructive, instead of bashing the already kicked to **** app issue, come up with some ideas otherwise stfu and move on to another platform. First world problems man.

 

[Byrese]

@Doar32 .. Lets make these forums constructive, instead of bashing the already kicked to **** app issue, come up with some ideas otherwise stfu and move on to another platform. First world problems man.

Why so defensive? And of course he has first world problems...he probably lives in the first world.

 

[Manmikey]

As the title of this thread is "the app gap finally got me" I feel I can contribute, I have a L640 that I bought to test windows phone, initially 8.1 then W10M after years of android. Under 8.1 the 640 was amazing, there was only a minimal app gap for me and the battery life was a revelation, I found myself wanting and anticipating a L950

However, I now have W10 on my 640 and the "app gap" has become worse overnight, my banking app that was excellent on 8.1 (first direct) crashes on W10 and First Direct "have no plans to support Windows 10 mobile"

Wunderlist works on W10 but the live tiles are bust, on 8.1 I could pin lists to the start screen and the content of the list would be on the tile, not on W10 tho just a static tile with no content ( microsoft OWN wunderlist!)

To close the app gap we use pinned Web sites, however unlike the website thumbnail that IE on 8.1 would show on a tile, Edge just shows an ugly blue square, if you've got a few of them on your start screen then it's a mess and you don't know which is what.

This is the app gap for me , W10M has turned the pleasure using my 640 into a frustrating annoying pain in the but, there is no way I'll spend ?419 on a 950 now unless things improve over the next few weeks/months, I'll keep the 640 for now whilst I decide what to do next

 

[njnbat]

The app gap is worst. Existing app quality is the worst of all. My office mail app doesn't exist in windows store. WiFi connection token app not in windows store. I am tired of seeing mails from office that they dont have anything in windows store. Banking apps either dont exist nor show any existence with the kind of app they have in android or iOS. IOS 5 inch is too expensive in India. Going for an android phone and a better 2016 with some support

 

[mwindgre]

For many of the reasons listed I'm going to android. I tried a Moto e 2nd gen and found it loaded Web pages faster than my Lumia 735. Ok the windows phone is cleaner and emails are easier to write on it, but LastPass is so much better on android. Google now is much better than Cortana. I found I could listen on the speaker to a podcast and dictate a google now search, and the phone would distinguish between my voice and the podcast being broadcast. Sorry to leave windows. The windows phone app store has so many phony apps on it. And Microsoft talk about the serving the user but in practice they don't do it. Apart from candy crush I've not heard of any apps coming over from android. I think they should resurrect the Android Bridge project. Sorry Microsoft.

 

[nuttifeetfirst]

It is sure that there are plenty of apps on windows phones, yet people complain of the lack of them, why? does a phone need to be cluttered up with rubbish or is a phone wanted for more?. Todays market is very competitive and there are mobile phones to suit all needs, from what can be seen todays clients want glitz and software to make life easier. The glitz is there and makers push this to the hilt, with different coloured handsets that can be customized to suit the owner. This may be well and good however it does not take into account commercial use as many mobiles are incompatible with each other, all have problems in one way of another. The latest windows phone OS has tried to address these issues by creating one platform across the board and this is a big help, it is in its infancy at the moment nevertheless it will come and smart phones will become small PCs as they are starting to be now therefore once all the fine tuning is completed then there will be one platform to address all. A smart phone needs to be simple in operation with the primary use as a phone, secondly email and other apps that are used in the work place, then other apps the user likes with these being installed out of choice when necessary, as for the others why do people want more junk when this leads to slow down and lack of response.

On a personal note I use my phone purely for work, I can read and reply to email, store a document etc.and if I want to, watch a film as I travel. Keep it simple of good construction, with adequate storage that is all that's is needed.

 

[AbstractKiller]

I'll just leave this here for you:
[Context: My wife, having replaced her Apple iPhone and now using the Lumia 550]

"I thought there weren't any apps?!!"
...
"There are so many games!!!" (grin grin)
​

I'm so bored of the "app gap" argument:

1. Yes, we clearly lack some (well-known) apps. We all know that.
2. Of those apps (that you're aware of), are there any that you really need? (e.g. for me: Santander and HSBC banking, but I can just as easily use the web interface)
3. We're all aware of Windows having the greatest outreach in terms of Desktop, Xbox, Mobile... WAIT - regardless of the Mobile market position, developers would be out of their mind to ignore the masses of potential punters across Desktop and Xbox.

 

[J Dubbs]

My wife needed a square or paypal card reader for her business.......neither one offered for windows phones, so she bought a cheap android phablet to do the job. She wasn't too keen on that. She almost started using the phablet as her phone but it was just too big.

I got used to seeing every app I was interested in only being offered for android or ios :unhappy:

 

[PuckCowboy]

My wife needed a square or paypal card reader for her business.......neither one offered for windows phones, so she bought a cheap android phablet to do the job. She wasn't too keen on that. She almost started using the phablet as her phone but it was just too big.

I got used to seeing every app I was interested in only being offered for android or ios :unhappy:

I have a Paypal Card Reader for my business I use with my Windows Phone that plus into the audio jack. It worked great using the Paypal HERE app for Windows Mobile 8.1. and still works fine for me using Windows Mobile 10. Not sure why you had problems finding it.

 

[J Dubbs]

I have a Paypal Card Reader for my business I use with my Windows Phone that plus into the audio jack. It worked great using the Paypal HERE app for Windows Mobile 8.1. and still works fine for me using Windows Mobile 10. Not sure why you had problems finding it.

So there's a Paypal app in the windows store? My wife already has both the Paypal and Square readers and accounts for both, but when she contacted them they said no windows phone support...and the boxes say the same thing? She's running 8.1 and would LOVE to use her Paypal card reader on her windows phone. Is HERE still supporting that app since they dropped support for HERE navigation?

Now that I think about it I did a search in the windows store and found nothing for Square or Paypal........could you tell me how to find the Paypal app?

 

[PuckCowboy]

So there's a Paypal app in the windows store? My wife already has both the Paypal and Square readers and accounts for both, but when she contacted them they said no windows phone support...and the boxes say the same thing? She's running 8.1 and would LOVE to use her Paypal card reader on her windows phone. Is HERE still supporting that app since they dropped support for HERE navigation?

Now that I think about it I did a search in the windows store and found nothing for Square or Paypal........could you tell me how to find the Paypal app?

Yup, there are actually two Paypal apps. One is just called Paypal, and it's the standard app to log into your account, send money, etc. The other is called Paypal Here (no relation to the HERE Map apps) and it's the one you use with the credit card swiper to collect money.

In the store all I do is type Paypal in the search field and both come up automatically at the top of the list. Not sure why it's not working for you. Maybe there is something wrong with your "Store" installation?

 

[J Dubbs]

Yup, there are actually two Paypal apps. One is just called Paypal, and it's the standard app to log into your account, send money, etc. The other is called Paypal Here (no relation to the HERE Map apps) and it's the one you use with the credit card swiper to collect money.

In the store all I do is type Paypal in the search field and both come up automatically at the top of the list. Not sure why it's not working for you. Maybe there is something wrong with your "Store" installation?

Actually I found and installed it for her, she's VERY happy to say the least, which is a good thing for me :winktongue:
Thank you for telling me about the app! :grin: