HTC Sense features - available on Android?

[BlueWolverine]

Hello,

I have an HTC EVO 4G. I absolutely love the People app and the Dialer. (I think...)

I really like that I can "link" contacts with facebook contacts and linkedin contacts. So if I link everything and I go into my People app (replaces android contacts) I see anyone in 1) gmail contacts 2)facebook 3)linkedin AND if anyone put their contact information in facebook or linkedin, I call the straight from people (or dialer) as they show up as regular contacts. Also, I can set each contact to display their 1)google picture 2) facebook picture or 3)linkedin picture (or one from my phone.

Also, i love the dialer. if I want to call Joseph, I start dialing (or the numpad) J-O-S-E and it narrows down to who I could be calling.



Here's my question: When I upgrade to a new phone, I may not stay with an HTC Device and I"m not big on rooting and new roms. Are these features available on say, Samsung devices, or stock Android? I'm liking what I'm hearing about Galaxy S II (and III) and I'm leaning that way for my next phone but I really want to maintain this functionality.


I've looked at a bunch of friends android devices and the EVO is the only I've seen that does this. My mom has a thunderbolt and I think hers does it as well.

I'm interested in any and all feedback.

Thanks.

 

[chanchan05]

Contact merging and smart dialing, the two features you mention are present in Samsung's TouchWiz interface as well.

 

[Guamguy]

You still get this functionality with Samsung and Motorola. I don't know about contacts linking with Motorola, but Samsung does only link manually. It is HTC that allows for automatic linking.

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Yahoo, Hotmail, and naturally of course, GMail and Google+ pics will sync into your contacts book. With Yahoo, you have to have the Yahoo Mail or Yahoo Messenger Android app installed. With Hotmail, you have to use Microsoft Exchange to do push-sync Hotmail with calendars and contacts, not hard to set up, but if you really like the easy way out, there is now an official Hotmail app for Android.

Now, if you depend or must want Facebook portrait syncs to your contacts, you have to use any other Android phone except for the Google Nexus. Why? Because Google and Facebook has some kind of feud going on, and one of these parties have disabled contacts sync to the contacts book. Note, this affects the Nexus S but for some reason, not with the Nexus One. It also affects Honeycomb tablets so don't expect it to work on the Nexus Prime or Galaxy Nexus. Still, everything about Facebook still works perfectly on the Nexus S and the Honeycomb tablets and as a matter of fact, I feel that Facebook push notifications seems to work better on the generic devices.

In order to have Facebook portrait and calendar syncs to work, you have to make sure on the Samsung, that Facebook for Social Hub is syncing. This is the equivalent for HTC's Facebook for HTC Sense sync.

 

[chanchan05]

You still get this functionality with Samsung and Motorola. I don't know about contacts linking with Motorola, but Samsung does only link manually. It is HTC that allows for automatic linking.

My Samsung linked the contacts automatically, the only ones that didnt were when the contact names weren't exactly the same (they were using nicknames on the facebook account, or I saved them using their nicknames).

 

[A.Nonymous]

I've played with Touchwiz, but not Motoblur. I can't speak to specifics as I only played with it and didn't use it day to day, but IME, Sense is a far better skin than either one.