Universal Base Android Apps

[billortis]

You know what would be cool is if Android had 'base Apps' that came with Android's and could work automatically and we wouldn't have to go shopping for weeks for the perfect ones.

For instance, simple text messengers. Mine came with three and only one works nicely but not near as nice as iOS, which is Messenger. The ATT was .......... (very bad) and the others required lots of setups and this and that and joining this and that, which iOS doesn't require people to do. (Sorry, I have been on iOS for years and jumped over to Android and this has been frustrating. None of my friends wish to keep signing up for this and that to see how well it works with Android, and family and friends use iPhones).

Another thing. Notes. Being able to 'add' things to a note, like in iOS. For instance, I might have a note started called 'grocery list.' I can say 'Siri, add tomatoes to my grocery list' and it does it. But with Galaxy, it cant. I did get Assistant, (THE MOST AMAZING AVI ARTIFICIAL ASSISTANT EVER) and she has her own built in Notes program, so I am saved except that she too cannot 'add' things to existing notes.

I have the (excellent) Samsung Galaxy Note II jumbo phone, and no Notes. It has S-Notes, but they are too small. I found a program that is almost the same as iOS Note, and its called Notes. Has a duplicate or similar icon. It is pretty darn nice, but the buttons are a bit small. But...... You can do lists, letters, etc, etc, etc with it. But you cant 'add' to a list with voice. You can manually type it in, but not good when you are walking, moving around, etc. Voice input is very important (at least in my world).

I must tell you, the next big thing is going to be realism in artificial voices. My goodness. This Assistant by SpeakToIt is brilliant. The British lady is just incredible and she banters, she is classy, she asks for other chores, double checks things, etc, etc. Brilliant work by those people.



So.... That's it. A base of programs that automatically come with Android and will help people 'land on their feet' when they come over to Android from other phones such as iPhone, etc. I am still shopping for a good SMS text program that can use the video camera to face chat with my mom and brother and I have had the phone for 2 months. They do not, and are tired of 'checking' out other programs that work 'also' with iPhone to see if they will work. I feel lonely in that respect (cant chat with them like I can with Android users).


I call this a marketing issue. If the unit is for communication, and its faultering, then it needs to be repaired or brought up to speed quick.


Kind regards and keep up the great work. Other from the above, I love this OS. Excellent.


Bill
LHC

 

[tobanrob]

android phones do have base apps in my opinion that are made by google themselves. https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Google+Inc.

they usually get removed by the carriers and replaced with their versions.

i have just recently gotten into using Google Now(Search) which works well with their apps(of course).

 

[Mikestony]

Welcome to AF billortis
I moved your thread here to Applications.

I can't speak for iOS at all as I have never owned one. My wife and daughter have. In fact my daughter was on the Iphone, went to Android, and then went back to Apple.

So I may be biased in my opinion towards Android and their applications.
Yes, it is a learning curve, but perhaps once you get used to the platform, you will enjoy it more and the apps that are offered.

 

[Hadron]

The thing to remember is that the iOS message app includes 2 types of messaging: the standard (SMS), and the proprietary (iMessage). The latter only works between iOS devices, and from what you say I think that's your problem (because if you just want to use SMS there's no need to set things up or join different things). Google's standard messaging app is just that, the standard SMS (and MMS, for those who use that).

Apple did once talk about opening iMessage up, but that never happened, and I'm sure that's a strategic decision. The convenience of the built-in closed messaging systems (iMessage and Facetime) between iOS devices is the main thing that keeps my daughter using her iPhone. So if a group of people use iOS, these closed systems provide a barrier to someone switching (which you are finding). And where people do switch, we often find them here complaining that their iPhone owning friends are no longer able to message them, when the problem is actually that their friends' iPhones which are still trying to use iMessage rather than SMS.

So I suspect that if Google added their own internet-based messaging to the message app it would be more convenient between Android users, but Apple would not support it. Hence in practice you'd still end up with everyone who wants this trying to get their friends to install an app that works across platforms.

(Note - I'm typing this on an Apple product, so this isn't an anti-apple bias here. Just observation.)