Will Android allow me to sync with Exchange AND Google?

[trojanshawn]

Question regarding Android. My work is potentially switching to Android phones, but I was curious if the Android will allow me to sync my Exchange email, contacts and calendar as well as my Google email, contacts and calendar.

I know this is a feature on the iPhone if you purchase MobileMe for calendars, but I am hoping that Google allows this with both contacts and calendar... I would love for my phone to have both my work/personal contacts and calendar.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Carl C]

Hi their and Welcome to the Forums

Android 2.0 supports Exchange and their are also a number of apps on the Market for it

 

[trojanshawn]

Thanks for the reply. I understand that Android phones can sync with Exchange servers for calendar, email, contacts... but what if I have two syncing points?

example: my work contacts, calendar and email is separate from my personal contacts, calendar and email. My work uses Exchange server to sync their three items and I use Google sync to sync my personal accounts. Will the Android contacts and calendar be able to handle the two syncing points or does it only work off of one sync point??

 

[jimdibb]

You can keep them separate. Especially if you need to use an App like Touchdown for secure exchange active sync. Touchdown handles exchange. The native android stuff handles everything else (in my experience)

 

[charames]

Thanks for the reply. I understand that Android phones can sync with Exchange servers for calendar, email, contacts... but what if I have two syncing points?

example: my work contacts, calendar and email is separate from my personal contacts, calendar and email. My work uses Exchange server to sync their three items and I use Google sync to sync my personal accounts. Will the Android contacts and calendar be able to handle the two syncing points or does it only work off of one sync point??

I am currently synching to Exchange and Gmail. Each has its own folder, very similar to how it appears on an iPhone.

 

[96BeaSSt]

I have both my Gmail account and work Exchange account configured on my Droid, and here is how it works...

The contacts are kept separate, but it does search for similarities to determine if it is the same contact. For example, if you have contacts A, B, and C on your Exchange, and contacts C, D and E on Gmail, you will see A, B, C, D and E within your contacts list on your phone. Furthermore, when you go into each contact's details, you will see which account they are tied to at the top, you will also see the details that are tied to each account for the contact(s) that overlap both accounts.

I hope this makes sense...

I am actually trying to find a way to synchronize my contacts list between both accounts so that I can maintain updated information between both as I have almost all of my contacts within both accounts.

The calendar portion is much different as there are separate calendars for Gmail and Corporate accounts.

 

[charames]

I have both my Gmail account and work Exchange account configured on my Droid, and here is how it works...

The contacts are kept separate, but it does search for similarities to determine if it is the same contact. For example, if you have contacts A, B, and C on your Exchange, and contacts C, D and E on Gmail, you will see A, B, C, D and E within your contacts list on your phone. Furthermore, when you go into each contact's details, you will see which account they are tied to at the top, you will also see the details that are tied to each account for the contact(s) that overlap both accounts.

I hope this makes sense...

I am actually trying to find a way to synchronize my contacts list between both accounts so that I can maintain updated information between both as I have almost all of my contacts within both accounts.

The calendar portion is much different as there are separate calendars for Gmail and Corporate accounts.

Good points.
And you can include other contact lists in this discussion. For example, I am using the Facebook application as well. Droid automatically matched my Facebook contacts with my Exchange and Gmail contacts. For entries which were identified as being the same, it provides merged data. The result is, I now have Facebook profile pictures on most of my Droid's contacts. I didn't have to do anything to make this happen.

 

[Terry1100]

Shawn,

I'm new to this whole Android malarkey (after years on Symbian and WinMo) and I should start by saying that I've had my Tatto for less than a week so users with more experience may have a better take on this.

My situation is that the phone belongs to me rather than the firm but I use it as much as a business tool as a personal mobile phone.

We use Exchange at work, and I have my own home e-mail (POP) on the device as well. I aslo have a Googlemail account which I do not use for e-mail ( I use the address for an e-mail newsletter I get in order to keep the account "live"). I use my work Exchange calendar for all my diary events work and personal.

E-Mail
The phone wants a default e-mail but what I have done is removed the "email" shortcut on the homescreen and repaced it with two separate shortcuts one to each "inbox". This way I can easily see which account carries any unread mail.

Contacts
I don't want my personal phone cluttered up with ALL my work exchange contacts so I exported contacts from my work e-mail to a .CSV as well as my home (Outlook) e-mail and put them in a single .CSV which I uploaded to Googlemail after editing out the work contacts that don't need to be on my mobile.

I now Activsync on Mail and Calendar only and control my contacts via Google (a neat touch, much easier to edit, create groups etc on a desktop PC).

Seems to work for me so far (YMMV, FWIW, IMHO, IANAL, ROFL, ETC)

Simples