Abandoned iPhone New to Android!

[iris1513]

Hello my dear Android people. After so many years I finally decided to reward myself with a Note and left the Apple clan. Always wanted a Note due to its versatility but never had the guts 5o learn an entirely new operating system. Feeling overwhelmed and like a fish out of water. Love my phone but so much to learn. Any tips are welcome to make this transition easier. Happy to be here and be a part of such a helpful Forum.

 

[ocnbrze]

welcome to AF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

welcome to the dark side. did you get the note 10 or 10+?

 

[The_Chief]

Hi Iris, welcome to Android and Android Forums! It's great to have you here!

Like so many others who have left the walled garden, I think you will be astounded by the versatility of Android. It's not difficult... and you will soon master the OS and your device, making it truly your own and unlike anyone else's. There are plenty of tutorials on Android basics out there: watch several. Then watch tutorials on the Galaxy Note 10, what sets the Note apart, and the best ways to get the most out of your S Pen. It's so much more than a stylus!

Of course, we're right here to answer your questions, give you tips & tricks you may not be able to find online, and help you. You're gonna love it!

 

[svim]

One way to become more familiar with your new Note 10 is to just take some time to sit down and go through the Settings menu. Once you get a better grip on your phone's particular features you'll be a lot more comfortable using it. Don't rush through this either, a lot of those menu options will have their own sub-menus and/or contextual options that are dependent on whichever main option. And don't make too many alterations at one time, you need to keep track of what you do and don't change in case you inadvertently change some setting that results in disabling some feature you like. Also keep in mind that the Settings menu in your Note reflects specifically with the capabilities of your Note (i.e. there won't be an option to set up a microSD card to be adoptable as Samsung has opted not to include that feature in its products.), and to a lessor extent the Settings menu may contain carrier-specific things as well.

When you're looking though the different items something to also keep an eye on are the top (mostly) and bottom (only occasionally) menu bars as there are often sub-menu options that might also be relevant. Sometimes it's a cog icon, sometimes the hamburger menu icon (three horizontal lines), sometimes three vertically aligned dots, some times you need to long-press on a icon to see its contextual menu. Apple is a little more stringent on enforcing uniform UI standards so you just need to be a little more flexible with Android menus (It's not like you should need to access them on a continuous basis so it's not that big a deal for day-to-day usage anyway.)

One thing the Apple platform has that's missing in Android is an integral, automatic, full back-up solution that allows the user to easily do a full restore and/or migrate from one iDevice to another iDevice. There's a backup/restore option in the Settings menu but it needs to be noted that it applies only to Google related services, it does not apply to data like photos, videos, audio files, etc. that you'll be accumulating as you use your Note. You should think about installing the Google Photo app if it's not already installed as it includes a nice automatic backup and syncing feature. It will backup your photo and video library up into your online Google account, so you'll be able to access them either on your phone through the app or remotely by logging into your account at:
https://photos.google.com
But given that Samsung is such a major presence in the Android platform, it does have its own back service along with a computer-based backup and maintenance utility. You might want to install Samsung's Smart Switch utility, it's not as seamless as Apple's iCloud services but it will make doing something like a Restore easier if some disaster occurs, and if you need to migrate your data from your Note to another Samsung phone it will make things a lot less of a hassle (also applies to other Android makes and models, if compatible).
https://www.samsung.com/us/smart-switch/

 

[olbriar]

Hello again Iris and welcome again. I've never owned an I device but my son is a fanboy. I've seen his phones through the years and my take on them is that they are designed to do what they do and they do it well. Android is designed for you to decide what you want it to do and how you want it to look and behave. With all of that flexibility there are unlimited options to make your phone YOU. With that in mind, don't stress on setting it up perfect all at once. Make some changes and try them for a while. Try another option for a while. The perfect setup is whatever makes you happy. I edit my phone settings a little all of the time. I try something new or someone suggests something to try. It's fun to mess with and it's fun to enjoy a change of pace as well. In any event, I admire you for making the change to Android and the wide world it will open. Have fun and it is a pleasure to have you as a new member and Note 10 owner.

 

[marctronixx]

OP,
you will have a bit of a learning curve if you want to take full advantage of the note 10+s feature set.
here's a thread you can smoke over and comment on if you desire:

https://androidforums.com/threads/new-note-10-10-features-at-least-to-me.1311197/

 

[Steven58]

Welcome to Android Forums, Iris. Don't be shy. Ask questions. If you can stand my dad humor, you'll learn a lot here! Welcome!

 

[iris1513]

welcome to AF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

welcome to the dark side. did you get the note 10 or 10+?

Thank u haha and I got the note 10+

Thank u all so much for the kind welcome.

 

[PitCarver]

 

[ocnbrze]

Thank u haha and I got the note 10+

nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!

good choice......that is one beautiful phone you purchased. congrats!!!!!!!

i love my note 10+

here are some great tips for you new shiney phone:

 

[iris1513]

I'm having issues sending or receiving videos. They always come out crazy blurry even though the quality is amazing. Is there a setting I need to change?

 

[ocnbrze]

I'm having issues sending or receiving videos. They always come out crazy blurry even though the quality is amazing. Is there a setting I need to change?

how are you sending them? most text messaging in android are kind of limited when it comes to video. it also depends on the size of the video?

 

[marctronixx]

crazy blurry but come out amazing? don't understand what you mean. can you take a sample video and upload it? the sensor and cam software on this phone is top of the line and what you are experiencing is very uncommon.

 

[svim]

I'm having issues sending or receiving videos. They always come out crazy blurry even though the quality is amazing. Is there a setting I need to change?

That's a very common problem with video content when transferred via text messaging. The problem with that relates to MMS and with how different carriers interact with each other.
When you were using an iPhone, with iMessage all text messaging, and any attachments, get transferred through Apple's iCloud server farm, no matter if your carrier was AT&T, or Verizon, or Mint Mobile, etc. Everything goes through iCloud. But with Android, things like video content often needs to get scaled down when it involves media content (photos and videos). SMS and MMS are dated, very low bandwidth communication standards, so when it involves higher res content (their file size is also larger accordingly) media content will often get scaled down on-the-fly as it gets transferred from one carrier's servers to the other. There is no working, established Android equivalent to iMessage currently. Google is touting RCS as an iMessage equivalent for Android, but note that Apple has no intention to include RCS support in its iMessage app so it's still a matter where SMS/MMS are the primary text messaging links between the two platforms. A future scenario might be iMessage will remain as the standard for Apple and RCS will become the standard for Android, but the two platforms are still more or less isolated from each other.
There's also the problem in that the different carriers have set their own arbitrary file size limitations to text messaging attachments so that just adds to the problem (they have been increasing them lately because so many people are upset about this). So depending on your carrier and the text messaging app you use, video content will be scaled down differently.
On the receiving end for you, it's not a matter of some setting you can adjust fix this resolution issue (allowing for some options that some text messaging apps do have), we all have to just wait for the proprietary pissing matches to subside. On the sending end, if people on the receiving end of your text messages have issue with photos or videos you sent them, you can instead use sharable links that most online file storage services provide (Dropbox, Google Drive, SpiderOak, MS OneDrive, etc.); or you can post them to file sharing services like Firefox Send (works with any browser) and just send the provided link.
Or if you still have your iCloud account, you can upload things using a web browser and share your content from there.
https://www.icloud.com/

 

[iris1513]

That's a very common problem with video content when transferred via text messaging. The problem with that relates to MMS and with how different carriers interact with each other.
When you were using an iPhone, with iMessage all text messaging, and any attachments, get transferred through Apple's iCloud server farm, no matter if your carrier was AT&T, or Verizon, or Mint Mobile, etc. Everything goes through iCloud. But with Android, things like video content often needs to get scaled down when it involves media content (photos and videos). SMS and MMS are dated, very low bandwidth communication standards, so when it involves higher res content (their file size is also larger accordingly) media content will often get scaled down on-the-fly as it gets transferred from one carrier's servers to the other. There is no working, established Android equivalent to iMessage currently. Google is touting RCS as an iMessage equivalent for Android, but note that Apple has no intention to include RCS support in its iMessage app so it's still a matter where SMS/MMS are the primary text messaging links between the two platforms. A future scenario might be iMessage will remain as the standard for Apple and RCS will become the standard for Android, but the two platforms are still more or less isolated from each other.
There's also the problem in that the different carriers have set their own arbitrary file size limitations to text messaging attachments so that just adds to the problem (they have been increasing them lately because so many people are upset about this). So depending on your carrier and the text messaging app you use, video content will be scaled down differently.
On the receiving end for you, it's not a matter of some setting you can adjust fix this resolution issue (allowing for some options that some text messaging apps do have), we all have to just wait for the proprietary pissing matches to subside. On the sending end, if people on the receiving end of your text messages have issue with photos or videos you sent them, you can instead use sharable links that most online file storage services provide (Dropbox, Google Drive, SpiderOak, MS OneDrive, etc.); or you can post them to file sharing services like Firefox Send (works with any browser) and just send the provided link.
Or if you still have your iCloud account, you can upload things using a web browser and share your content from there.
https://www.icloud.com/

Thank you svim that made alot of sense actually and I did do some research and found all the same information also. I'll just send through social media for now.

 

[dontpanicbobby]

Thank u haha and I got the note 10+

Thank u all so much for the kind welcome.

How does it feel in your hand @iris1513?