Google account sync - Without Gmail

[terryhawkins]

I'm quite new to the Android OS and am thinking of changing my mobile to an Android one. I just have a quick question.

I have a Google account (using my own email address and not @gmail.com) and of course I do not have or use Gmail.

Can I add my Google account to an android phone to have it sync calendar and contacts? Or does it have to be a Gmail account?

Email is hosted via a third party with my own domain hosting, so that would be completely separate from the Google account.

 

[Rachel A]

Not sure if it fully answers your questions but...

I have a Google Apps account - which means that my domain name for my email etc. does not contain Gmail.com anywhere. It is a Google account however and that is all that is required to connect your phone to Google Play.

Once you've done that you're totally free to access email, tasks and calendars any way you wish. For example if your mail server supports ActiveSync you can use the excellent TouchDown client ($).

The base GMail client that comes with Google phones can only be used with Gmail - beyond that you have more flexibility. There are many different email clients out there that can perform POP3, IMAP and ActiveSync connections that make them suitable for most email requirements.

That said however, the more Google Services you do use the easier it can be to do certain things. Contacts for example can either be phone or cloud based. Whilst many apps allow you to Sync contacts from various sites such as Facebook or your exchange server, the cumulative list can be tied into a Gmail account and thus easily restored as you switch phones.

You are not absolutely required to use Google for much of anything - in fact many of the phones in Asia are pure Android and don't even come with the Google Apps.

However for me I feel the provided apps help glue the phone together (in much the same way I'd imagine having a hotmail account would be for Windows Phones).

I too have a totally separate email provider but do use GMail at the end. That way I do get to keep multiple copies of most of my correspondence without relying solely on one provider.

 

[pseudoware]

On my prior Android phone with a Gingerbread-based ROM, a Gmail address was required on the "primary" Google account (the one used to access what used to called the Android Market).

I recently bought a Galaxy S3 and have found that this is no longer a requirement. I'm able to use a Google acct w/o an Gmail address to connect to Google Play.

Maybe this is a change in ICS? Not complaining, but I'm interested to know the background on this.

 

[ayaznoor]

it needs a "google" account, not necessarily a gmail account

 

[termi]

In the settings window, go to accounts+sync. There you can select your Google account and deselect which parts of Google you don't want to sync with.