Any reason to switch to a live account instead of gmail?

[N8ter]

Sky drive Zune and Xbox live. Plus using multiple email accounts gets old after a while. I always switch everything to the service my primary platform uses for this reason. Synching multiple accounts to one device also wastes battery.


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[Umm Yeah]

I'm tied into Google calendars for now and my publicly available email address is a Google email account. I had to create a Live account to use my WP phone but other than that, I never use it. Just having the required Live account created automatically gave me access to Skydrive anyway, so that's no advantage, just an after effect from having to set up a Live account to use the phone.

So for me, it comes down to this - if you have no ties to one service or the other, which do you hate/fear the least, Google or MS? Good luck and godspeed in figuring out how to split that baby in a way that makes anyone happy.

 

[11B1P]

I've had a Live account for ages ... but it's my gmail adress. So I don't have the Hotmail Email stuff, but I get access to all the nice Live features like Skydrive etc. while still only having to use my Gmail-address. So if you don't want a @live.com address, just use your Gmail address to open your account.

This is what I did. I keep everything updated in google.

I have been wondering if there is any benefit to resetting my phone and importing everything to live.com. At least my calendar and contacts. It is too much trouble to move to a new e-mail address. Guess that could be one way to filter out some spam e-mail!

 

[N8ter]

I'm tied into Google calendars for now and my publicly available email address is a Google email account. I had to create a Live account to use my WP phone but other than that, I never use it. Just having the required Live account created automatically gave me access to Skydrive anyway, so that's no advantage, just an after effect from having to set up a Live account to use the phone.

So for me, it comes down to this - if you have no ties to one service or the other, which do you hate/fear the least, Google or MS? Good luck and godspeed in figuring out how to split that baby in a way that makes anyone happy.

The person said Live Account. He should have written Google Account instead of Gmail, since both Hotmail and Gmail and Sub-Services of Windows Live and a Google Account.

If you want SkyDrive, you still need a Live Account. You need a Live Account period to use a Windows Phone, anyways. Only thing you have to think about is where you want your email to go to, and that's strictly your choice. Even if you actually have Hotmail, no one is forcing you to use it. You can just set it to never sync email, remove the tile, and replace it with the Google Mail Tile.

A Windows Live Account is needed for Microsoft Services like Zune Pass, SkyDrive, etc. though.

The same way you can use Picasa and delete your Gmail sub-service at Google, you can use SkyDrive and never use (or have, in many cases) Hotmail.

I just wish they'd fix their Contacts so that only one list is managed, instead of two. It's causing Windows Live Messenger contact names to change on my phone from the real name to the nick name, and oftentimes it shows up as an email address instead of the contact name in Threads.

 

[cgk]

As far as I can tell, the built in email app also doesn't delete Gmail messages properly, it just removes the inbox label. I manually move mails to the deleted items folder now.

I think that has been fixed today - just testing, you need to go to m.google.com/sync and there is a setting that I think solves that.



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[lumic]

If I get a wp is there any benefit to switch from gmail to live?

There is a Gmail bug where it will not allowing you to search through "archives" (any messages not stored on the phone). This is a pretty big one, and I'm considering switching to Live because of it. However, I can't get over how ugly the Live suite looks, so I'm sticking with Google's great refresh for now.

 

[TGBmark1234]

There is a Gmail bug where it will not allowing you to search through "archives" (any messages not stored on the phone).

Is that right?

I don't typically search through email on the phone, but I did last night. Searched for a message in gmail that I knew had aged off the phone. The initial search result only showed messages on the phone, but there was an option to search gmail. I choose that and it came straight back with the message I wanted.

 

[cgk]

There is a Gmail bug where it will not allowing you to search through "archives" (any messages not stored on the phone). This is a pretty big one, and I'm considering switching to Live because of it. However, I can't get over how ugly the Live suite looks, so I'm sticking with Google's great refresh for now.

That server bug was addressed yesterday along with a number of other changes (multiple calendars, able to properly delete emails from the phone).

 

[lumic]

That server bug was addressed yesterday along with a number of other changes (multiple calendars, able to properly delete emails from the phone).

It seems I had to visit m.google.com/sync before it took effect (or it just fixed itself today for me), but yes, now I have no reason to switch off Gmail! Thanks Google...

As for N8ter, I was under the impression that email and such is all handled by a Windows Live backend and hence you only sync once? Regardless, email syncing isn't going to be the one draining your battery.

 

[N8ter]

It seems I had to visit m.google.com/sync before it took effect (or it just fixed itself today for me), but yes, now I have no reason to switch off Gmail! Thanks Google...

As for N8ter, I was under the impression that email and such is all handled by a Windows Live backend and hence you only sync once? Regardless, email syncing isn't going to be the one draining your battery.

Synching multiple ActiveSync accounts does drain battery (well, that's obvious, the extent is what's in question). Not only does it send keep-alive messages and routinely check, anyways, but it's also looking for Contact and Calendar information from Windows Live - not just email. There is no way to turn off some of that stuff in the Windows Live ActiveSync settings for Hotmail. When you set up you only get a Toggle for email. (yes, I know there are other dispirate places where you can try to disable things but that's not intuitive and the average user will probably not find it anyways).

When you add more ActiveSync accounts, it impacts battery life. ActiveSync PUSH is not anywhere near as efficient as BIS PUSH on i.e. a Blackberry where the server sends the data directly to the phone negating the need for the ActiveSync (or any) connection to be kept alive. They can do this because every Blackberry has a unique PIN. ActiveSync devices do not work that way. It's a Hybrid PUSH/PULL solution not a true PUSH email protocol like BIS/BES on Blackberries, hence the connection requirement. That's why Blackberries have never had ActiveSync support. It's a battery killer compared to BIS/BES. That's also why RIM forces a lot of apps to go through their NOC for PUSH Notifications, Messaging, etc.

I am not sure what Google uses in their Android GMail App but anytime I hooked up Hotmail to my Vibrant via ActiveSync I lost hours of battery life, literally. I had the same experience on Windows Mobile Phones as well (using Gmail ActiveSync in conjunction with WL4WM "PUSH" email for Hotmail).

Dunno what you're trying to get at with that Windows Live Backend thing. All mail is handled by the server backend. The only difference is the manner in which they sync to the device. That is what impacts the battery. One ActiveSync account is decent, but when you get into hooking up multiple accounts it can really impact your device uptime.

And everytime you open an ActiveSync mail client, it polls the server for emails, as well. That's why you see the "Email is up to date" message whenever you open the WP7 mail client. Almost every email client I've used has this behavior, except the few BB phones that I've owned.

Additionally, GMail message delivery is slow as ****, so I don't really care to use it as a primary account. Hotmail has more users so it can't be that their servers are overloaded (unless their infrastructure is inferior to Microsoft's). It just takes significantly longer for messages to arrive to GMail than to Hotmail. I see it all the time when I forward emails to myself from and CC both addresses. It was just as slow on an Android phone, as well.

I'll keep the account since I bought like 30 Android apps, though. Can't really throw away all that money

 

[jfa1]

Well I have ahotmail (msn) account and have had for a long time. With direct sync with outlook gone (at least for now) I have pretty much switched from outlook to hotmail for calendar to dos contacts etc and live handles them relatively well and with gmail and googles new policies recently announced I am sticking with them. I have had two gmail accounts set up for several years with the thought of going google docs and calendar etc but now I think I will stick with my present setup.

 

[Reflexx]

Turn over a new leaf and switch from Gmail to Hotmail in 3 easy steps

*Hotmail & Facebook work well together. You can update your Facebook status, chat with Facebook friends, view their updates, and comment right from your Hotmail inbox. You can't do this from Gmail.

*You can easily share lots of photos and large attachments. Hotmail lets you share hundreds of photos or other files in one message using the integrated online storage from SkyDrive. You can't do this in Gmail.

*Hotmail works great with Office. Using the Office Web Apps, Hotmail lets you view and edit Office docs for free right in your inbox. Gmail doesn’t work well with Office.

*Hotmail lets you get a handle on graymail. With customizable categories and scheduled sweeps, you can quickly clean up things like newsletters, social updates, and daily deals so you only see the mail that really matters to you. Gmail doesn’t have Sweep.

The Graymail thing is pretty big. There is a lot of mail clutter that isn't really SPAM since they are newsletters or ads that you specifically have asked to get. But many times you don't want to read every single one. They're only important to you at particular times. So you want them put in a different folder automatically as opposed to having to manually create rules for every newletter you subscribe to.

 

[cgk]

*Hotmail & Facebook work well together. You can update your Facebook status, chat with Facebook friends, view their updates, and comment right from your Hotmail inbox. You can't do this from Gmail.

Maybe I am being a bit stupid but with WP7 integration with facebook why would you want to do this via email to start with?

 

[downhillrider]

well I recently closed my gmail acct (I had to give them an email address to use google "services" before I could delete it.) because I dont like your gmail acct being used across the board with their services. I dont like that Google can use my personal info whenever they want. MS to my knowledge doesnt do that *yet*. Besides its just easier to use with my phone,xbox and zune.

 

[SolunaKitty]

I've had a Live account for ages ... but it's my gmail adress. So I don't have the Hotmail Email stuff, but I get access to all the nice Live features like Skydrive etc. while still only having to use my Gmail-address. So if you don't want a @live.com address, just use your Gmail address to open your account.

This is what I did. My main email is my Gmail, and I signed up for a Live account with Gmail.

 

[N8ter]

well I recently closed my gmail acct (I had to give them an email address to use google "services" before I could delete it.) because I dont like your gmail acct being used across the board with their services. I dont like that Google can use my personal info whenever they want. MS to my knowledge doesnt do that *yet*. Besides its just easier to use with my phone,xbox and zune.

You can delete gmail from your google account.

One of the main reasons people I know won't try win phone is the fact that you cannot close a windows live account like you can a google account if you return the phone. Lots of privacy conscious people hate that, and specifically mentioned it to me as a show stopper.

Since the phone basically requires a live ID, they simply won't consider it. Family members are the same way. "Why use a phone that makes me create an account I can't even delete, I already have yahoo/google and don't want it."

Aol and yahoo let me delete my account, twitter, four square; google, LinkedIn, etc.

Microsoft: wait 270 days.

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[anon(5335877)]

Maybe I am being a bit stupid but with WP7 integration with facebook why would you want to do this via email to start with?

I think that's the only way to do it, if you link your Facebook and your Live account together.

You can delete gmail from your google account.

One of the main reasons people I know won't try win phone is the fact that you cannot close a windows live account like you can a google account if you return the phone. Lots of privacy conscious people hate that, and specifically mentioned it to me as a show stopper.

Since the phone basically requires a live ID, they simply won't consider it. Family members are the same way. "Why use a phone that makes me create an account I can't even delete, I already have yahoo/google and don't want it."

Aol and yahoo let me delete my account, twitter, four square; google, LinkedIn, etc.

Microsoft: wait 270 days.

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I hate sites that won't let me delete my account because I think that's stupid. I mean, I feel like I'm trying to help them by clearing their servers of an account that won't be used anymore but instead they want to keep it.

But with Microsoft, I think 270 days before deleting an account is better than them keeping it forever.

But if they're so worried about privacy, then why are they on the internets? What about cell phones? They know that certain carriers keep call records, text message records, and some even keep text message content and your browsing history for quite a while.

"You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it."

-Scott McNealy

 

[lumic]

One of the main reasons people I know won't try win phone is the fact that you cannot close a windows live account like you can a google account if you return the phone. Lots of privacy conscious people hate that, and specifically mentioned it to me as a show stopper.

Yet you're the only person I've ever seen voice this opinion over the variety of podcasts, comments and blogs I've viewed in 15 months of Windows Phone.

These people you are surrounded with are either grasping at straws in order to discredit Microsoft's product, or are plain stupid.

 

[Rich Edmonds]

Yes.

1. If you have an Xbox Live account, using your Live account links your gamertag to your phone.

2. The Skydrive integration. That's 25 GBs of extra storage linked to your phone.

3. Office Web Apps: Word, Excel, Onenote. Access it on your computer through your live account and it syncs to your phone. Vice versa.

4. From my experience, Live Calendar plays best with WP7. My Tasks/To-Do's on Google Calendar didn't sync to my phone.

That's all I can think of right now...

Pretty much sums up my reasoning, oh and it's Microsoft so makes sense to keep everything integrated nicely. Plus, with the constant privacy concerns surrounding Google, I'd never use my Google account for anything other than Analytics and Adsense control.

 

[cdook]

I was a Gmail user prior to WP7. I figured I'd go for the full experience and got a Live/Hotmail address. From the Hotmail web GUI I set it up so Hotmail imports mail from Gmail. And that was it. For me it's more convenient to have everything go through one address.