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iPhone 4 to S4 (my first Android) - CONCERNS

I have had iPhone devices for years (even though I can't stand any other Apple product, personally). Most of my friends and associates are on iPhone, however I do have some regular contacts that are on iPhone. - All of this is relevant.

I have decided to switch over to the Galaxy S4 or the Note 3 (when it comes out). Samsung is creating amazing devices. I love almost everything I see, read and hear. However, there are 3 hesitations that hopefully I can get help with.

1) Sharing Contacts - Currently, when one of my iPhone peers needs a contact, or I do from them, we open up the contact, hit "Share Contact" and send it over. We can receive it, choose "Add as New Contact" and it's done. Whenever I share a contact with an Android friend, they get jibberish. My friend with the Note 2 said he can see all of the contact info, but it's in there with the gibberish and he has to figure out what is real info. Is there an app or anything that can allow me to continue to share and receive contacts with peers on the iPhone once I switch over? Also, can I share with other Android users? By the way, "BUMP" will not work as we are usually not next to each other when this info is needed to be shared.

2) Sending/Receiving Picture Messages - When sending an image from my iPhone, if I open up a text and select the picture from there, most of my Android peers do not receive it. However, if I go into my photo album, select the image and choose "Send in Text", they do. This is annoying but I'm ok with the extra couple of steps. However, once I switch over, this may cause quite a big deal with people trying to send me images. Is there a setting or something in Android that will allow the user to be able to accept all images? And visa versa as well.

3) I forget what the 3rd things was. I'll add as comment once I remember. But these are 2 very huge things for me. Also, is there anything else I should know about before switching over?
 
It really comes down to standards. The rest of the industry uses a set standard to share contact data and pictures. Contacts are shared via vCard files and I'm not sure what is used to transfer pictures but it is an industry standard.

Leave it up to Apple to decide to do everything differently and to make their devices incompatible with everyone else. That's really the whole point of their all-encompassing ecosystem, to keep you locked in. Suffice it to say, that's why I don't like Apple. I don't agree with their "it's our way or the highway" mentality.
 
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1) I don't know of any quick, easy ways to send contacts like the method you describe, but there probably are many. Whenever I need to send someone a phone number or an email address, I just type it and text it.

2) Plenty of my friends have iPhones (of course) and I've never once had problems receiving picture messages from them or vice versa. So no, there is no switch you'll have to flip to receive pictures from iPhone users.

3) There aren't really any big steps to hurdle in switching over. Android is pretty simple to use, especially Samsung's flavor of it. 4 year olds have phones these days.

Just in case:

If you do run into any problems upon purchasing your Galaxy S4, odds are you will not be the first to have had said issue (iPhone users switch to Android daily), so I would personally suggest you just Google your questions. That way you don't have to wait for a forum response.

I hope my poor answers did not discourage you from your decision to switch. The android community is very large and the marketplace is very vast, so there is likely an app or a youtube video for any reasonable thing you could possibly need to do (i.e. contact sharing).
 
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without going into much detail, i just switched from an iphone 5 to an S3 and couldnt be happier, I am not missing anything

How did you transfer your music? And what music app do you use on the S3?

I'm also dumping my iPhone 5 for the Galaxy S4 the second it's available.
I even thinking about getting rid of our iPads.

I don't know why but I'm just sick of Apple.

I'm getting the S4, but will not ditch the iPad. I love that thing!
 
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How did you transfer your music? And what music app do you use on the S3?



I'm getting the S4, but will not ditch the iPad. I love that thing!

Unless the files have the m4p extension (protected), you can jist copy the whole lot via USB. Did that myself coming from iPhone. Some album art can easily be fixed using software like Tag&Rename. I did notice something interesting when switched . ITunes does a VERY BAD job in tagging. Some Infos seem to be stored locally in iTunes rather than in the files properly. But that was a small price to pay. Speaking of price. Google shop is a lot cheaper than iTunes - music or otherwise.
 
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I have had iPhone devices for years (even though I can't stand any other Apple product, personally). Most of my friends and associates are on iPhone, however I do have some regular contacts that are on iPhone. - All of this is relevant.

I have decided to switch over to the Galaxy S4 or the Note 3 (when it comes out). Samsung is creating amazing devices. I love almost everything I see, read and hear. However, there are 3 hesitations that hopefully I can get help with.

1) Sharing Contacts - Currently, when one of my iPhone peers needs a contact, or I do from them, we open up the contact, hit "Share Contact" and send it over. We can receive it, choose "Add as New Contact" and it's done. Whenever I share a contact with an Android friend, they get jibberish. My friend with the Note 2 said he can see all of the contact info, but it's in there with the gibberish and he has to figure out what is real info. Is there an app or anything that can allow me to continue to share and receive contacts with peers on the iPhone once I switch over? Also, can I share with other Android users? By the way, "BUMP" will not work as we are usually not next to each other when this info is needed to be shared.

Open Up your Contacts. Click on a Contact. Hit Menu>Send Contact. Easy enough.


2) Sending/Receiving Picture Messages - When sending an image from my iPhone, if I open up a text and select the picture from there, most of my Android peers do not receive it. However, if I go into my photo album, select the image and choose "Send in Text", they do. This is annoying but I'm ok with the extra couple of steps. However, once I switch over, this may cause quite a big deal with people trying to send me images. Is there a setting or something in Android that will allow the user to be able to accept all images? And visa versa as well.

That just sounds like a problem somewhere on your end. My gf has an iPhone and she never has any problems sending me pictures.
 
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