My switch from IOS to Android

[MadFloyd]

As I grow older and my eyes deteriorate, I've been desiring a larger screen on my smartphone. It seems I was only using my iPhone 4S for texting, weather, email reading (not writing), a sound pressure meter and Flipboard (the latter because it had an easy to read font).

I've also been feeling IOS is antiquated, not to mention SLOW (on my phone at least) since IOS7.

So Friday I picked up a Samsung Galaxy Note 3. It's huge - probably too big in some respects but I'm giving it a whirl. I have another 12 days to change my mind.

I like a lot of things about the OS so far, but some things really puzzle me. The phone keeps making noises every so often - a water droplet type of sound that I'm pretty sure is some sort of notification, but I can't figure out what. I'll pick up the phone and there's nothing new. It seems Android doesn't push notifications in text form so one can understand what it's trying to tell you. At best if I receive a text it won't show the text - it'll only tell me that I have a text. Not as convenient as IOS.

A weird thing that I haven't figured out is: I text my wife from my new phone and when she replies it goes to my iPhone (which no longer has over-the-air service, just wi-fi).

For the life of me, I cannot get my IOS contacts over to the new phone. I've read a number of instructions on the web but none work. I have turned on contact syncing with Google (I use gmail after all) but in my GMail I only have the same 4 contacts while my IOS devices have hundreds.

Ahh, the joys of converting. At least I can read the screen...!

 

[RBFC]

IPhones have an option in the Settings menu for messaging that allows the use of SMS messaging when iMessage is not available. Perhaps by activating this option you might receive the texts on your new phone.

Lee

 

[garylkoh]

The water droplet sound tells you that you have a notification. To see these, swipe one finger down from the top the screen.

Many carriers these days let you receive phone calls/SMS messages via wifi. You may have to turn this off on your IOS so that it will go to your Galaxy.

 

[amirm]

Likely it is Gmail messages that make that sound. You disable it in the notification option of gmail setup. Just set it to silent. As Gary says, if you pull down the upper bar, you will see that you have new mail. Touch that and it should take you to the mail program and you can disable it there. Ditto for new text messages.

As to return text going to your old iphone, wonder if your wife's contact database still has your old number in it.

 

[MadFloyd]

Thanks for the replies. Amirm, I carried the same number to the new phone.

Here's another interesting and silly tidbit. I transferred all my photos and videos from the iPhone to my computer. Would you believe about 95% of them (both pics & videos) are upside down? Considering the iPhone knows which way is up and it would have adjusted the display so I was seeing what I was recording properly, why would it store it differently. Shrug...

 

[Keith_W]

Hi Floyd,

1. The reason your wife's iPhone is replying your SMS and sending it to your iPhone, is because her phone thinks that you are still using an iPhone - so it replies using iMessage by default instead of sending an SMS. I suggest you use WhatsApp instead of SMS. It sends messages using cellular data, so it is much cheaper than SMS. It is also multi-platform and available for iOS.

2. As others have said, the droplet sound is your phone sending you notifications. Swipe down from the top to see them.

3. If you want iOS type SMS notifications, most third party SMS apps have this feature. I don't know about the standard messaging app on the Samsung (I don't own one). I use Handcent.

4. Not sure why your phone won't sync contacts with your gmail account? I've never had a problem with mine. The first time you use your phone, it should ask you for your gmail account. The moment you provide it, it syncs all your contacts over the air. Did you skip this step? Do you have any contacts on your gmail account?

Hope this helps.

 

[Steve Williams]

Not sure why your phone won't sync contacts

perhaps because it's an android

 

[MadFloyd]

Hi Floyd,

1. The reason your wife's iPhone is replying your SMS and sending it to your iPhone, is because her phone thinks that you are still using an iPhone - so it replies using iMessage by default instead of sending an SMS. I suggest you use WhatsApp instead of SMS. It sends messages using cellular data, so it is much cheaper than SMS. It is also multi-platform and available for iOS.

2. As others have said, the droplet sound is your phone sending you notifications. Swipe down from the top to see them.

3. If you want iOS type SMS notifications, most third party SMS apps have this feature. I don't know about the standard messaging app on the Samsung (I don't own one). I use Handcent.

4. Not sure why your phone won't sync contacts with your gmail account? I've never had a problem with mine. The first time you use your phone, it should ask you for your gmail account. The moment you provide it, it syncs all your contacts over the air. Did you skip this step? Do you have any contacts on your gmail account?

Hope this helps.

Thanks, Keith.

1. I've downloaded WhatsApp and will try it out, thanks.
2. I get the notification system now, thanks. It's pretty good.
4. In my case it's not a question of my Android phone not receiving my Google contacts, it is. The problem is my Google contacts is a list of only 4 items. I need to figure out how to get my IOS contacts INTO gmail so that I can get it on my new phone.

 

[amirm]

Here is Google's help file on how to transfer contacts to Gmail: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/2753077?hl=en

 

[Peter Breuninger]

Another victim... I'm setting up the Note 3 this afternoon. First off, I think I want to turn off the "My Magazine" phone feature. I've looked around and found that you have to "agree" to the PP and TACs, before you can access anything, like disable the home startup. I love the sound, it's very good in speaker mode.

 

[MadFloyd]

Here is Google's help file on how to transfer contacts to Gmail: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/2753077?hl=en

Those instructions are for getting your goggle contacts into IOS.

I finally found a way to get my IOS contacts on to my (Win7) computer and then import them into Gmail. Unfortunately that didn't get them into my new android phone. I found an import feature on the phone but it wants to import via USB so I'll have to give that a go when I get home.

So many nice things about Android; it would be hard to go back to IOS. That said, I've never been so frustrated with basic things because there are so few settings in Android.

- I still can't receive texts from an iPhone (people report them as undeliverable)
- I still don't have my contacts
- I haven't figured out how to multi-task yet. I did find an app that show me the number of concurrent apps and will give me a list, but I know there is a way to go directly from one app to another (I just haven't figured it out yet)
- I haven't found a way to choose a default mail app (i.e. I would like to use Gmail instead of the Samsung app)

Complaints that are phone specific:
- sound is bad (e.g. when speaking on the phone); not as clear as the iPhone
- camera is the worst camera I've ever witnessed. Everything is pix-elated beyond belief. I wanted a better camera than my iPhone (especially for low light conditions) but my iPhone seems amazing by comparison.

Peter, I do like the My Magazine. I also have Flipboard (which I prefer) but the My Magazine doesn't seem to do any harm.

 

[MadFloyd]

Those instructions are for getting your goggle contacts into IOS.

I finally found a way to get my IOS contacts on to my (Win7) computer and then import them into Gmail. Unfortunately that didn't get them into my new android phone. I found an import feature on the phone but it wants to import via USB so I'll have to give that a go when I get home.

So many nice things about Android; it would be hard to go back to IOS. That said, I've never been so frustrated with basic things because there are so few settings in Android.

- I still can't receive texts from an iPhone (people report them as undeliverable)
- I still don't have my contacts
- I haven't figured out how to multi-task yet. I did find an app that show me the number of concurrent apps and will give me a list, but I know there is a way to go directly from one app to another (I just haven't figured it out yet)
- I haven't found a way to choose a default mail app (i.e. I would like to use Gmail instead of the Samsung app)

Complaints that are phone specific:
- sound is bad (e.g. when speaking on the phone); not as clear as the iPhone
- camera is the worst camera I've ever witnessed. Everything is pix-elated beyond belief. I wanted a better camera than my iPhone (especially for low light conditions) but my iPhone seems amazing by comparison.

Peter, I do like the My Magazine. I also have Flipboard (which I prefer) but the My Magazine doesn't seem to do any harm.

Coincidentally, my new phone just synced contacts with Gmail. Yay! One down...

 

[MadFloyd]

Holding down home button shows list of active apps. Two down!

 

[amirm]

Multi-tasking is always there. Leaving an application does not kill it as you have noticed. The app can keep running and doing its thing.

 

[Keith_W]

- I still can't receive texts from an iPhone (people report them as undeliverable)
- I still don't have my contacts
- I haven't figured out how to multi-task yet. I did find an app that show me the number of concurrent apps and will give me a list, but I know there is a way to go directly from one app to another (I just haven't figured it out yet)
- I haven't found a way to choose a default mail app (i.e. I would like to use Gmail instead of the Samsung app)

1. Can't receive a text from an iPhone is because your iPhone is registered with iMessage. All iOS devices will try to send you an iMessage by default. You need to find a way to disable this on your iPhone.

2. Good to hear you sorted out your contacts. As I said, if you have no contacts in your Gmail account it is because your iPhone didn't send it there. I seem to remember that you need to change a setting on your iPhone to force it to sync with Gmail.

3. Answered by Amir.

4. Simply install your new app. When you tap on an email, it will ask you to choose which app you want to complete your action with. Make sure you tap on the "set as default" checkbox.

 

[MadFloyd]

1. Can't receive a text from an iPhone is because your iPhone is registered with iMessage. All iOS devices will try to send you an iMessage by default. You need to find a way to disable this on your iPhone.

2. Good to hear you sorted out your contacts. As I said, if you have no contacts in your Gmail account it is because your iPhone didn't send it there. I seem to remember that you need to change a setting on your iPhone to force it to sync with Gmail.

3. Answered by Amir.

4. Simply install your new app. When you tap on an email, it will ask you to choose which app you want to complete your action with. Make sure you tap on the "set as default" checkbox.

Thanks.

I turned off iMessage on my wife's iPhone and was then able to deliver texts from her phone to mine. I then turned iMessage back on her phone and it still worked (I guess my contact was no longer registered as iMessage by this time).

I do get the prompt to set default browser (when tapping on a link) but what I guess what I really want to do is turn off Samsung's mail app and only use GMail. The motivation here is that I'm getting double notifications and if I don't pay close attention I'll tap on a Samsung notification and load the Samsung app by accident.

Thanks again for all the help.

 

[MadFloyd]

Interesting tidbit:

Instead of being at RMAF I was camping this weekend. My wife and I share a plan with AT&T. She still has her iPhone 4S and I have the new Note 4 as stated above. She had a solid, functional 2-3 bars of service the entire time. I had none. :-(