• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Potential switcher, have some questions

Q

Quackington

Newbie
Hi guys,

I own the original iPhone 4, which is over 3 years old now and is chugging a little. I'd like to make the switch to the new Nexus 5 but have a few questions first which I'm hoping you guys can give me positive answers on so that I'll feel more comfortable about making the switch. I want to switch to a phone with stock Android, not to one of those that have manufacturer bloatware on. Questions below:

Group texting - How is this, has it improved? To clarify, by group texting, I don't mean me sending out a group text and then everyone being able to respond to the whole group, I just mean me being able to use SMS to send out a message to my Sunday football group to let them know of time changes, replacements etc. I'm expecting individual responses to come through to me.

The last time I owned an Android phone, group messaging wasn't easy. The stock message app wouldn't let me input more than 10 names to send a text message to, I had to download an app called Handcent to do this. However, handcent didn't show the message as a thread, instead it showed the same message to each of the 12 people I sent it to separately. Now, I expect the responses to show up in individual threads (because recipients are responding to me and not the group), but surely the message I send out should appear as one thread? That way I can just go back to the thread and send another message when I need to contact the same group of people again. I can do this on my iPhone stock message app no problem. I'd ideally like to use this on the stock message app and not have to download another app. Can someone confirm if this is indeed possible? I also remember that I couldn't just choose a group from my contacts in the To field when writing a text message (this isn't possible on iPhone either, not sure why). Please tell me this has changed!

Alarm clock - iPhone alarm clock allows me to set up multiple alarms at different times, not just one alarm time. Does the Android clock app allow you to do this?

Moving pictures/videos - is it easy to move my photos and videos (recorded on my phone) to an Android phone? If so, how do I go about it?

Contacts - is there a stock contacts app that doesn't have to sync with my Gmail? I've e-mailed so many people and places from my Gmail account, I hated the fact that all of them showed up in my contacts app...just need names/numbers of standard friends/family/work etc. not every e-mail address I've ever sent something to appearing. I'd love it if I could just set up a list of contacts on my phone that don't need to sync with my Google account.

Finally, I hate installing lots of stuff on my phone...would just like to do as much as possible via the stock apps.

Thanks a lot.
 
Group texting - Works great on most ROMs (I'm a dev for Vanir), I think stock is good now.


Alarm clock - Yes

Moving pictures/videos - Very google+ takes care of this backuping up full res to the cloud for free. Also easy to plug in via USB and backup. Or doubletwist syncs like itunes

Contacts - Will sync with any email via the email app (aka none gmail app). Also tons of apps in market
 
Quackington said:
Hi guys,

Group texting - How is this, has it improved?
Click to expand...

I believe SMS and Hangouts is merging. So, yes?

Google Hangouts Leaked Screenshots Reveal SMS Integration

Quackington said:
Alarm clock - iPhone alarm clock allows me to set up multiple alarms at different times, not just one alarm time. Does the Android clock app allow you to do this?
Click to expand...

Yes. Also, you might want to check out this app:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.bitspin.timely

Quackington said:
Moving pictures/videos - is it easy to move my photos and videos (recorded on my phone) to an Android phone? If so, how do I go about it?
Click to expand...

It is super easy if you let Google+ do the work for you.

Quackington said:
Contacts - is there a stock contacts app that doesn't have to sync with my Gmail? I've e-mailed so many people and places from my Gmail account, I hated the fact that all of them showed up in my contacts app...just need names/numbers of standard friends/family/work etc. not every e-mail address I've ever sent something to appearing. I'd love it if I could just set up a list of contacts on my phone that don't need to sync with my Google account.
Click to expand...

While you can use pretty much any email of your choice through the standard email app, I'd actually recommend spending a bit of time and cleaning up your contacts (you can do this from a PC/Mac more effectively). If you organize it (aka, remove them from the "Other Contacts" section), you can really make things nice. I feel you do lose a bit of the niceties that comes with the Gmail app otherwise. It will take a bit of time upfront, but well worth it.

Quackington said:
Finally, I hate installing lots of stuff on my phone...would just like to do as much as possible via the stock apps.
Click to expand...

I agree. I also hate lots of app clutter in my app tray. That is why I try to utilize stock apps as much as possible, but there are some apps that just are worth having to replace those stock ones (the alarm clock stated above for one).
 
1. Group SMS - They're ditching the stock SMS app in favor of Hangouts. I would imagine(no certainty) that they will allow better group messaging.

2. I use Alarm Clock Extreme free, which has more customization than stock. But I'm pretty sure stock Android allows multiple alarms.

3. Pictures and Video are pretty simple IMO.

4. There is an option when displaying contacts to omit any contacts without a phone number. This stops the people that I email only from appearing in my contacts.
 
Hi guys,

Thanks for the responses, most of it is pretty clear. Sorry if I've misread, but I don't feel like I've got a clear response on the group messaging side. I'm not fussed about hangouts or features that may come in the future - just want to know what the status is now because I don't want to buy the phone only to find out it can't do this and then be stuck with it. I don't use Google+ or Facebook, not much of a social network person at all so Hangouts as an app or feature on the web or a phone doesn't appeal to me.

With the current stock SMS app, can someone with a Nexus 4 or 5 please see if you're able to choose more than 10 people to send a message to? You don't need to use your text allowance to send the message, just see if the app allows you to choose more than 10 people and then start typing out a message? My Galaxy Note 1 from back in the day would stop at 10 people.
 
Quackington said:
Hi guys,

Thanks for the responses, most of it is pretty clear. Sorry if I've misread, but I don't feel like I've got a clear response on the group messaging side. I'm not fussed about hangouts or features that may come in the future - just want to know what the status is now because I don't want to buy the phone only to find out it can't do this and then be stuck with it. I don't use Google+ or Facebook, not much of a social network person at all so Hangouts as an app or feature on the web or a phone doesn't appeal to me.
Click to expand...

So hangouts works just like any other SMS app now (by "now," I mean the hangouts app that ships with the N5). Meaning you can send text messages with it just like any other text messaging app. Also, yes, you can do group texting with it very easily from what I can tell, and it won't split the responses into multiple threads like the old messaging app. I installed the new hangouts app a few days ago, and use it for all my texting purposes now.

Also, google+ isn't just a social network. I actually don't use it as such at all right now. I mainly use it just to back up all the photos I take with my phone. You just have to check a box in the options telling it to do so, and it will automagically put all of your pictures on the cloud shortly after you take them. No social networking necessary.

With the current stock SMS app, can someone with a Nexus 4 or 5 please see if you're able to choose more than 10 people to send a message to? You don't need to use your text allowance to send the message, just see if the app allows you to choose more than 10 people and then start typing out a message? My Galaxy Note 1 from back in the day would stop at 10 people.
Click to expand...

I just tried this, and went way past 10 with no issues.
 
On Google Hangouts: I use Google Hangouts for IM chatting with other family members. I can also use it to make and receive WiFi phone calls so that I don't use voice/text minutes. You need a Google Voice account (free) to do this. You don't really have to do the social networking stuff in Hangouts - the WiFi or cellular data options to make and receive phone calls and send and receive text messages can be used alone.

Google Hangouts also runs on iOS so you could install it on your iPhone and try it out for yourself. You will need to get a Google Voice account though.
 
Quackington said:
Hmmm...can you have circles in your contacts without being part of G+? And if so, can circles be made up of phone number-only contacts?
Click to expand...

As I understand things, circles is not just a G+ thing anymore, but google-wide. So, if you have a google account, you'll be able to do circles.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom