Idiot questions from new Android user

[HappyAndroid22]

Windows Phone user thinking of joining Android flock, so excuse the idiot questions, I've never used Android.

OK so there are some of us still using Win phone….

Looking to jump ship for the Google Play store, sick of stuff not being available on the Windows Store.

Query is around how I migrate to Android. I work in a Windows environment, Outlook is my go to diary, address book and email client and I like just having the one app for this - add an appointment or address book entry on and device and its replicated to all others. If I jump ship and get an Android phone can I do the same or will I finish up with separate Apps that don’t talk to other devices where I'd need, for instance to add an appointment on the phone and then add separately to Outlook on my PC?

Gmail, Google Docs, google cloud storage (other than for photographs) and all that just don’t interest me, I'll probably never even install them.

Android also seems preocular in that all the phone manufacturers seem have their own version of Android and there are stories of handset users not being able to upgrade when new versions of Android are released. Is it possible to simply wipe the phone and install a stock download of Android from Google and bypass the phone manufacturers version.

 

[psionandy]

If you're a windows power user.. then office 365 is your friend.. Android gets better support for office365 than windows mobile, so just load the apps and sign in with your 365 password. and it all syncs up.

Like Windows Phone, Android is device specific.. (you can't load your 640 with 530 firmware and vice-versa), and there isn't a 'universal android' in the same way there isn't a universal windows phone.,

 

[lunatic59]

I work in a Windows environment, Outlook is my go to diary, address book and email client and I like just having the one app for this - add an appointment or address book entry on and device and its replicated to all others.

Me too, although I do little content creation on my phone. I use the gmail app for ALL my email since it now hooks into non-gmail accounts too. Some prefer to keep things separate. Up to you, but if you have the 365 license, you might as well give it a whirl. For appointments I use CalDAV-Sync to keep my Office calendar synced with my mobile devices. The only problem there is sometimes I get double reminders. At my age, I probably need them.

You'll need gmail for the play store. That's just the way it is. You don't ever need to use it for anything else but over time I've come to like it as a sort of junk drawer for email.

Is it possible to simply wipe the phone and install a stock download of Android

Nope. @psionandy explained why. You can, however download different launchers that change the overall look of your device. Nova and Apex are pretty popular. (I use both, but I am less popular. )

There is going to be a learning curve, just as if you were to switch from iPhone to Android or vice versa. We're here if you have any questions.

 

[kate]

Android also seems preocular in that all the phone manufacturers seem have their own version of Android and there are stories of handset users not being able to upgrade when new versions of Android are released. Is it possible to simply wipe the phone and install a stock download of Android from Google and bypass the phone manufacturers version.

Adding to the above info - phones from Google are a good bet for longer support, right now Google has the Pixel Phone.

 

[lvt]

Android also seems preocular in that all the phone manufacturers seem have their own version of Android and there are stories of handset users not being able to upgrade when new versions of Android are released. Is it possible to simply wipe the phone and install a stock download of Android from Google and bypass the phone manufacturers version.

Most of those phones can work with stock Android but some manufacturer-specific features might stop working. If you want to stick with Google you should buy a phone made by them like the Pixel phone. But at some point they also will stop releasing updates for old models, just like others do.

 

[Hadron]

There's also an Outlook app for Android you might look at, though I don't use it myself (I have an older version which allows me to just sync those accounts with my own preferred email and calendar apps, while at least when they first introduced the current one it expected you to just use it - they may have improved integration since but I don't know). But it might be that it will work for you.

 

[mikedt]

I think these days Microsoft seems to support both Android and iOS more than Windows Phone, which is pretty much dead now.