Help Help! iPhone user for the past 5 years making awkward transition to Android

[TheBardKSU]

About myself: I have had an iPhone 3GS for the past 5 years (ya I know.. ). Just made the switch to the Galaxy S5 a couple days ago. My phone was starting to get slow and buggy and certain apps couldn’t be downloaded any more. I wanted to try out the Android system to see which I may like better. It has been a pretty massive change, some pretty good and neat things, some frustrating things.

I am a fairly technical person (electrical engineer, programmer, and used to build computers for people back in high school 15 yrs ago), but I’ve gotten so busy and haven’t been as interested in new technology lately so I’ve been way out of the loop for awhile (obviously having my last phone as long as I did says a lot! ). And I don’t really do a whole lot with my phone, mostly web browsing, music, lots of podcast listening, photos/videos here and there, checking email periodically. I’ve enjoyed how simple, neat and tidy the iPhone OS/apps/hardware has been, plus using the free Genius Bar has been something that would be tough to quantify a value on. I’m wondering if I made a mistake going with the android platform, but I really want to give it a good solid try!

Here are some things I was hoping you guys and gals could help me out with.

1) Samsung account, google account, etc.

• What do all these do? Do I really need a Samsung account? I think it had me sign up for one when I first used the phone??? FYI, I already have a gmail account.

2) Syncing

• How does syncing work? Ideally I would like to use something like iTunes, where it does backup of the entire phone, and syncs music, photos, videos, podcasts all in one easy method.

3) Pre-loaded software.

• The amount of software which comes with the phone is pretty overwhelming. Which software that comes with it would you say is worth trying and which would be ok getting rid of? And how would I go about getting rid of things?

4) Visual voicemail

• I’m not sure why on earth the Android software does not have this built in. It was very easy to use on my iPhone. How would you suggest getting visual voicemail on my phone? I am using ATT btw.

5) Any other suggestions you might have for easing the transition???

Thanks a bunch!

 

[nyydynasty]

to answer briefly:

1) you dont need a samsung acct to get the "android experience". A Google account is all you need.

2) i dont use the google backup/sync option so I'll leave this to someone else with more experience

3) bloatware is the #1 problem with any non-nexus device (in my opinion). IMO, none of the bloat is worth trying. Without root access, you cannot get rid of any of it but most (if not all) should give you the option to 'disable' it. If you gain root access, you can get rid of everything.

4) Android doesnt have visual voicemail built-in but Google does have Google Voice but the translation feature is pretty terrible, to be honest. ATT should have a visual voicemail feature but I dont use it so I can't speak of it.

switching to Android from iPhone (especially someone who has used iOS for a long time) is not easy. I'm not going to sit here and try to sell you on android and how much better it is because that'll just waste your time. Android, just like iOS, is not for everyone. Good luck! I hope it works out for you.

 

[Crashdamage]

Quickly, I don't have much time right now...nyydynasty got you going...

1. You don't have to have a Samsung account. In fact, I would pass on it. You don't have to use a Google (aka Gmail) account either, but I highly recommend you do, even if you don't use it for email. It gives you access to the Play store, sync of contacts and more for backup and sharing across devices, cloud storage, etc etc.

2. See this: http://www.android.com/switch/

3. Simple answer: ignore it or disable it in: Settings > Apps > Select app > Disable. Unfortunately, AT&T gets carried away with this crap.

4. Google Voice is very good if you can't find an AT&T solution.

5. Learn all you can from the user manual. Don't would about rooting, it's not for beginners and you probably will never really need to root anyway. Rooting is the Android equivalent to iOS jailbreaking. Don't install any task killers, memory optimizers/boosters, etc.
.
Google search and this forum are your friends if you get stuck.

 

[funkylogik]

^^two excellent replies!!
I'll try to answer number #2
No Android can't back up your complete device, there are far too many Android devices to make that possible.
Sync will backup contacts, calendar, pics, email logins, and a list of the apps you have installed so that the next phone can download them automatically when you log into it (I've probably forgot a few things sorry but the backup feature is nowhere near as good as (im guessing) apples is.
My advice, if you're stuck with this phone, is to embrace it and not try to replicate an iPhone