Android v Windows Phone Update
I'm now something like a week and a half to two weeks into own my Nexus 6P. And something I hadn't expected has happened; I don't actually care one way or another. I came into this expecting that after a week or so I'd either hate Android or "have seen the light" and been happy to have left Windows Phone. I mean, I was always a WP supporter prior, and while I followed the news and whatnot for Android and iOS I always just assumed I was biased against the competition. I'm actually less impressed now than I was a few days in.
Let's not read too much into that. I took getting me to a very frustrated place to leave Windows Phone. And my experiences still aren't enough to bring me back. Its also worth noting that one of the key pain points for me with Windows Phone is something most users don't care about (as proven by Android's dominance) which is having the phone hardware abandoned perpetually. Yes Nexus phones are the exception to the rule (hence my purchase) but most people don't run an Android device with stock Android and aren't getting many (if any) updates. And the impression I get from the average person is that they are actually cool with that.
Specifics on why I feel as I do? I'll start negative and end positive.
GMail and Calendar are terrible. I can't even think of where to start with those, they are just so universally shit compared to Outlook Mail and Calendar. And Microsoft didn't add the ability to control sync frequency for accounts, so to preserve battery life I'm left with the stock option or something even worse. I hate red... why can I not change the color in GMail? I've also really gotten used to Outlook only showing me the content of the current email rather than the entire email chain. Add to which Google also shows the individual emails above the current email. So I end up with the email history both above and below the current email. It is fucking insane. I actually have to scan the screen (sometimes several times over) just to find the actual current response I care about. Either parse out the history from the current email or not show the whole thread! Showing both is just absolutely infuriating!!!!
Next, who decided my GMail account was my "primary" account. I don't see anywhere to change this. I use my GMail account for spam. I don't really want to default to that view... ever. In fact, "All Inboxes" is probably the most ideal. But second to that would be my work email. But you think I can actually control that? Not that I can tell. In Outlook (for Windows Phone), my linked inboxes never become magically unlinked. If inboxes are linked, I always see the linked inbox. If not I see the specific inbox which I can control which I open via a live tile.
Continuing on the GMail tirade... how the sweet fuck do I set an Account picture? I've already set account pictures in like 4 billion places and somehow I still don't have one in the GMail app. AND both of my other accounts just have different shades of blue with an "A" in them. If I want to switch to a specific mailbox I really have NO half decent indicator which is which.
I just don't get how anyone who uses email on a phone can suffer through Android. Those above points were just scratching the surface. It also decides to hide away "Social" and "Promotional" emails. I don't remember telling it to do so. It only has one direction worth of swipe actions. And the list goes on.
Needless to say, the Mail and Calendar experience is one of my biggest gripes with Android so far.
Next would be Groove Music. Works fine on Marshmallow, won't even open on N. Sure, N is still in preview and this is a first release at that. But every other Office app works fine. For now I'm just using my 3 month Play Music subscription (which, by the way I also hate). If, by the time that subscription is up Groove Music still isn't working (should be 2-3 more N releases in between) then I'll be reverting back to Marshmallow and this will be a black mark against N.
Which leads me to Play Music. This is preference I suppose. But I didn't pay money to get radio style playlists. And while I can download specific albums and songs, the process is not advertised in the app and it is convoluted, basically requiring you to add the songs/albums to a playlist and then telling it to download the playlist. Why the FUCK can't I just say "download this fucking song". I just want to download a ton of songs and be able to play them offline. I have ZERO interest in building a playlist just to accomplish this. It is an extra, completely unnecessary step.
And since I've been bashing apps... hi Play Store. This one isn't directly Google's fault. But the ease and speed of publishing to Play Store seems to have resulted in apps being updated like every other day. Frequent app updates wouldn't be a problem except that it has effectively ruined comments regarding performance and stability since basically every single comment is marked as "for an older version". Also, every time I rate an app, the app just reminds me again because the version changed. I'm sure those frequent updates are probably there to solve bugs but it has created a system where many app developers break the intended side functionality of the store.
The rest I'd nitpick about is more minor. So, onto the good.
Notifications. Funny thing, notifications in Android N are delivering on the promises Microsoft made in Windows Phone 7 and doing even better than Windows 10 mobile at it at the moment. Being able to respond to a notification right in the notification which may even be on my lock screen is great. Microsoft has been talking about this for a long time. I'm sad they dragged their feet on it. They're going to look like copy cats when they do get it out there.
I also prefer the Android style of lock screen notifications. It is arguably more expedient than needing to open the notification area first. Granted, Android sacrificed some lock screen customizability to get here. But, I think this is actually more valuable than widgets on the lock screen. And as one app has shown, with how complex the Android notifications can be, a notification can basically BE a widget if done right.
My stance on apps is unchanged. App developers clearly spend more time on Android apps. Features simply rape their Windows Phone counter parts. I hate talking about this one though because it isn't really Android that makes the apps any better. It is the developers. In many cases there really aren't any reasons why the app couldn't be done just as well on Windows Phone.
The OS also looks MUCH better than the last time I looked at it prior to this phone. It still has some feel of its Linux heritage but the Material design language and UX tweaks over the years have turned that into something much more bearable.
I'm sure there is more, but the rest feels like a wash.
I could see myself going back to Windows Phone. But I don't really want to go back to either of my old handsets. And I probably won't buy a new Windows Phone device until Microsoft has proven they've gotten their shit together and stop abandoning phones.
Let's not read too much into that. I took getting me to a very frustrated place to leave Windows Phone. And my experiences still aren't enough to bring me back. Its also worth noting that one of the key pain points for me with Windows Phone is something most users don't care about (as proven by Android's dominance) which is having the phone hardware abandoned perpetually. Yes Nexus phones are the exception to the rule (hence my purchase) but most people don't run an Android device with stock Android and aren't getting many (if any) updates. And the impression I get from the average person is that they are actually cool with that.
Specifics on why I feel as I do? I'll start negative and end positive.
GMail and Calendar are terrible. I can't even think of where to start with those, they are just so universally shit compared to Outlook Mail and Calendar. And Microsoft didn't add the ability to control sync frequency for accounts, so to preserve battery life I'm left with the stock option or something even worse. I hate red... why can I not change the color in GMail? I've also really gotten used to Outlook only showing me the content of the current email rather than the entire email chain. Add to which Google also shows the individual emails above the current email. So I end up with the email history both above and below the current email. It is fucking insane. I actually have to scan the screen (sometimes several times over) just to find the actual current response I care about. Either parse out the history from the current email or not show the whole thread! Showing both is just absolutely infuriating!!!!
Next, who decided my GMail account was my "primary" account. I don't see anywhere to change this. I use my GMail account for spam. I don't really want to default to that view... ever. In fact, "All Inboxes" is probably the most ideal. But second to that would be my work email. But you think I can actually control that? Not that I can tell. In Outlook (for Windows Phone), my linked inboxes never become magically unlinked. If inboxes are linked, I always see the linked inbox. If not I see the specific inbox which I can control which I open via a live tile.
Continuing on the GMail tirade... how the sweet fuck do I set an Account picture? I've already set account pictures in like 4 billion places and somehow I still don't have one in the GMail app. AND both of my other accounts just have different shades of blue with an "A" in them. If I want to switch to a specific mailbox I really have NO half decent indicator which is which.
I just don't get how anyone who uses email on a phone can suffer through Android. Those above points were just scratching the surface. It also decides to hide away "Social" and "Promotional" emails. I don't remember telling it to do so. It only has one direction worth of swipe actions. And the list goes on.
Needless to say, the Mail and Calendar experience is one of my biggest gripes with Android so far.
Next would be Groove Music. Works fine on Marshmallow, won't even open on N. Sure, N is still in preview and this is a first release at that. But every other Office app works fine. For now I'm just using my 3 month Play Music subscription (which, by the way I also hate). If, by the time that subscription is up Groove Music still isn't working (should be 2-3 more N releases in between) then I'll be reverting back to Marshmallow and this will be a black mark against N.
Which leads me to Play Music. This is preference I suppose. But I didn't pay money to get radio style playlists. And while I can download specific albums and songs, the process is not advertised in the app and it is convoluted, basically requiring you to add the songs/albums to a playlist and then telling it to download the playlist. Why the FUCK can't I just say "download this fucking song". I just want to download a ton of songs and be able to play them offline. I have ZERO interest in building a playlist just to accomplish this. It is an extra, completely unnecessary step.
And since I've been bashing apps... hi Play Store. This one isn't directly Google's fault. But the ease and speed of publishing to Play Store seems to have resulted in apps being updated like every other day. Frequent app updates wouldn't be a problem except that it has effectively ruined comments regarding performance and stability since basically every single comment is marked as "for an older version". Also, every time I rate an app, the app just reminds me again because the version changed. I'm sure those frequent updates are probably there to solve bugs but it has created a system where many app developers break the intended side functionality of the store.
The rest I'd nitpick about is more minor. So, onto the good.
Notifications. Funny thing, notifications in Android N are delivering on the promises Microsoft made in Windows Phone 7 and doing even better than Windows 10 mobile at it at the moment. Being able to respond to a notification right in the notification which may even be on my lock screen is great. Microsoft has been talking about this for a long time. I'm sad they dragged their feet on it. They're going to look like copy cats when they do get it out there.
I also prefer the Android style of lock screen notifications. It is arguably more expedient than needing to open the notification area first. Granted, Android sacrificed some lock screen customizability to get here. But, I think this is actually more valuable than widgets on the lock screen. And as one app has shown, with how complex the Android notifications can be, a notification can basically BE a widget if done right.
My stance on apps is unchanged. App developers clearly spend more time on Android apps. Features simply rape their Windows Phone counter parts. I hate talking about this one though because it isn't really Android that makes the apps any better. It is the developers. In many cases there really aren't any reasons why the app couldn't be done just as well on Windows Phone.
The OS also looks MUCH better than the last time I looked at it prior to this phone. It still has some feel of its Linux heritage but the Material design language and UX tweaks over the years have turned that into something much more bearable.
I'm sure there is more, but the rest feels like a wash.
I could see myself going back to Windows Phone. But I don't really want to go back to either of my old handsets. And I probably won't buy a new Windows Phone device until Microsoft has proven they've gotten their shit together and stop abandoning phones.
Comments
Post a Comment