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Should Google spend more effort on their own stock apps?

I've had my Nexus One for quite a few weeks now, and I've made a list of my 'annoyances' from my own experience. These are all to do with Google's own apps, which is a bit disappointing because it is, ultiamtely, their own platform. They are annoyances instead of complaints because none of them hinder me in any significant way, but the length of the list do make me feel that there is no reason for Google to not include these features as soon as possible.
Contacts - Synchronization with Gmail contacts is great, but can't edit Birthdays on an Android phone.
Maps - Can't add an address pinned on the map to an existing contact, can't apply custom labels to starred items, My Maps always gives me "This Community Map could not be displayed because it contains errors."
Calendar - I've got 3 calendars synchronized with Google Calendar, associated with 3 different colours, and while all of them work fine in Day, Week and Agenda views, absolutely no colours show up in Monthly View! This is really annoying.
Browser - Can only recognize US phone numbers, so if I want to call a number on a page which is not in US format, I've to manually copy it and paste it in the Phone app, rather than just a long press or something easier.
Selection of Text - a bit cumbersome given HTC Desire does it better in my opinion.
Account Synchronization - Sometimes doesn't work. I've made changes in a contact and separately in my calendar entry, only to come back and find the change reverted to the original setting. I tried to repeat the change again but it would just revert back again. Finally I had to make the change in my PC browser and force-sync the phone for it to be accepted. Mind you, as I mentioned this has happened only a few times, it works fine most other times.
So as I mentioned, by themselves these issues aren't big. And I do realize in some instances a free 3rd party app is the way to go. But still, surely Google should make sure that their own apps leave as little to be desired as possible.
Thoughts?
A few key apps that aren't even developed yet:-
khaytsus said:
Google should write a good Google Docs
Google Tasks (integrate with Calendar, plus Widget)..
Maybe a nice shortcut forcing the Android browser for Google Reader.. I love Google Reader in the default browser, but if you have Opera set as default it looks horrid.
Google Analytics/Adwords
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

TT1986 said:
Calendar - I've got 3 calendars synchronized with Google Calendar, associated with 3 different colours, and while all of them work fine in Day, Week and Agenda views, absolutely no colours show up in Monthly View! This is really annoying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've just realized that the reason nothing shows in Monthly views is because events are all-day rather than during a specific time period on the day. If an event was scheduled for, say, between 1700 and 1800 hours, then a colour would show.
Not that this makes it any better. I still should be able to see something in the Monthly view to tell me that an all-day event is up on that day.

I know you're talking update what they have, but I think they're missing some important things..
Google should write a good Google Docs
Google Tasks (integrate with Calendar, plus Widget)..
Maybe a nice shortcut forcing the Android browser for Google Reader.. I love Google Reader in the default browser, but if you have Opera set as default it looks horrid.
Google Analytics/Adwords

You're quite right. The absence of an editable mobile app for Google Docs, from Google, is mind-boggling.
Infact I'll include your post in the OP. It'll help build a decent list of "Apps to Do or Improve by Google for Android."

Actually the most disappointing thing is that some of those issues are pretty obvious to anyone having used the phone a few days.
Also some were reported years ago ...
For example Google contact sync ridiculous resolution for photos, maps location labels etc ... And it's not like it would take them more than a couple hours work to fix either.

I dont think google will allocate their resources on specific stock apps or them given priority over the development on Gingerbread since with apps they have community resource.
unlike mobileme or exchange, google offers a lot of the cloud services free of charge for our personal use, and we shouldnt take that for granted.
and to answer the op, I too would like to have the listed features applied, but I would categorize them as 'nice to have'.
-Task list (would be very elegant solution to other 3rd party notepad software)
-gtalk video

chuday said:
and to answer the op, I too would like to have the listed features applied, but I would categorize them as 'nice to have'.
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Click to collapse
I agree, I'm not too inconvenienced by them, but it would make the platform/apps so much neater and more polished. Some of them are really basic though, and you have to wonder that if Google can include some advanced features in an app (for example - layers or the seemingly defunct My Maps in the Maps app) why not quickly complete the basics?
Here's another thing I've been noticing regarding Gmail's Push mechanism. I've subscribed to this thread and another thread for instant notification and I've received a total of 5 replies, so 5 emails. Two of those emails have been delivered instantly to my phone, but the other 3 emails have had delays, the worst one being 11 minutes.
Again, my Gmail account isn't critical, so it doesn't bother me. However it's a feature which I imagine a lot would like perfected.

TT1986 said:
Contacts - Synchronization with Gmail contacts is great, but can't edit Birthdays on an Android phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I absolutely hate how I can't stop it from syncing auto-added contacts, which should be an option to completely disable in Gmail anyway. It's been almost a year since they changed it but Google apparently doesn't bother paying attention to people's complaints.
I did read somewhere that 2.3 is supposed to be heavily focused on improving the stock design and apps. I certainly hope that's true.

TT1986 said:
I agree, I'm not too inconvenienced by them, but it would make the platform/apps so much neater and more polished. Some of them are really basic though, and you have to wonder that if Google can include some advanced features in an app (for example - layers or the seemingly defunct My Maps in the Maps app) why not quickly complete the basics?
Here's another thing I've been noticing regarding Gmail's Push mechanism. I've subscribed to this thread and another thread for instant notification and I've received a total of 5 replies, so 5 emails. Two of those emails have been delivered instantly to my phone, but the other 3 emails have had delays, the worst one being 11 minutes.
Again, my Gmail account isn't critical, so it doesn't bother me. However it's a feature which I imagine a lot would like perfected.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm? Layers and My Maps work in Google Maps... I have a layer of Star*ucks and Kroger Fuel stations and when I need to fuel up (me or the car ) I fire up Maps, turn Layers, My Maps, click the one I need.
I wish Google Maps could do orientation of travel... Navigator does, but sometimes a flat map is just fine.

I think they said Gingerbread would have major cosmetic changes so I think they will improve google apps, overhall the Music app (which has been near enough the same since 1.0) and the messaging app etc etc.

Θmega said:
I absolutely hate how I can't stop it from syncing auto-added contacts, which should be an option to completely disable in Gmail anyway. It's been almost a year since they changed it but Google apparently doesn't bother paying attention to people's complaints.
I did read somewhere that 2.3 is supposed to be heavily focused on improving the stock design and apps. I certainly hope that's true.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try going to contacts.google.com and set your contacts into separate groups (friends/family/etc) and tell the phone to only sync those groups. Lifehacker had a post about this awhile back with better directions

Google Apps are BY FAR the worst, most incomplete, apps I have installed on my phone.
How about the fact that you can't change your "send as" address in Gmail for Android? They gave us that ability at Gmail dot com years and years ago, but there's been an open ticket on adding it to the Android version for over a year with NO response from Google at all.
I HATE how the contacts app automatically merges similar contacts. My dad and I have the same name, so it adds my Facebook account and all of my email addresses to his contact after every sync.
The Google Voice App gives you the options to "Never call with GV", "Always call with GV", "Use GV for international calls", or "Always ask"... Why can't you set the option on a per-contact basis? I wan't to call half the people in my phone book with GV and half without it, but I have to tell it which is which for every single call. I opened a ticket on this months and months ago with NO response from Google.
The list goes on... I just can't believe how long some of these tickets have been open, and how many "+1" responses they have, but Google just ignores them. It really makes me wish they'd release paid versions of their software so that maybe we'd have a voice (nevermind the fact that I gave Google $575 for my Nexus One).
The other frustrating part is that Google's "novelty apps" seem to be more complete than their "productivity apps". Maybe it's because I don't use them every day or because I don't rely on them, but does anybody have any complaints about the My Tracks app? Or Google Goggles?
Anyway, thanks for letting me vent!
Billy

Another one of my rants, regarding the Gallery app: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=738590

harrellj said:
Try going to contacts.google.com and set your contacts into separate groups (friends/family/etc) and tell the phone to only sync those groups.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would you _please_ stop this, it's causing me utter agony
My Samsung Galaxy S is deprived of this functionality by Samsung (!). Groups sync but just don't show... To prove they indeed sync, just create a group in goole with the name "test". Then sync. Group does not appear on phone. Now try to create a group "test" on the phone -> Error "Group name already in use".
Samsung really f... up the contacts management

Customizable snooze times and volume per alarm would be nice.

Is google also responsible for the youtube app? It sucks too ^^
No comments possible for example...

That is def.ly a good topic to debate and I def.ly would say yes they should. It looks like those apps will def.ly be redefined come gingerbread time (3.0). Even the gmail apps is not as defined as it should. At least there should be an unread mail count by default in the app among other things.

TT1986 said:
You're quite right. The absence of an editable mobile app for Google Docs, from Google, is mind-boggling.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I gotta agree with this. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
Gmail: needs the ability to send to a group.
YouTube: needs a setting to tell it what resolution of video to default to. It's a pain to load the video and then select "high quality" every time.
And lets not talk about everything that needs to be done to make the Market app not suck.

I think they should. While Sense is nice (even though I'm not using it lol) I think it would be a lot better if Google's stock UI was much better. There's a lot of rumors going around that Gingerbread has Google focused on a much better user experience so that they don't need things like Sense, MotoBlur, etc...And I hope so. I think Google should stack it's main stock options, and then if people want to be able to add extra stuff by putting on some kind of skin/extra UI then they should have the option. Just my 2 cents

OP you read my mind. I really do think google should spend some time upgrading the overall look and feel of the stock apps. I mean they have added about every feature you can possibly need but some basic things they have seemed to overlook. Especially their music, email, youtube, and other almost daily used apps should be more pleasing to use. But as someone mentioned earlier, their 3.0 gingerbread might sexy things up a bit.

[Q] Prevent cloud storage of contacts and calendar?

I just got a SNS as my first smart phone, I went through all the privacy and account settings I could find and disabled all sync options.
So imagine my amazed horror when I found that all my contacts and calendar entries (and wtf else) are being sent to mr google for access through google dot com/contacts etc
I also found you cant delete a primary gmail account once it's in there - so I cant find any way to stop this behaviour.
Is it possible to keep your contacts and calendar etc only stored local to the phone?
If not possible with stock 2.3 is there a mod like CM7 that doesnt use the google services?
Cheers!

I don't see how it's a bad thing. You never ever have worry about losing your contacts once they sync up with the mothership.
I don't you can access things like the market without a Google account either.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App

@troopstar
Yes, it is possible to use the Nexus without a Google account in its stock and root state.
Stock and root you can tap the sign-in and navigate to the skip the Google sign-in, but as stated by Zardos66 you don't get to use the Google apps. Like the market, Gmail, Google voice and talk etc without some walk around.
You can sign-in and go back to the accounts & sync and uncheck the boxes and still use the phone and just save all contacts to phone only. This way you can still have access to the Google services if you choose to do so.

If you're so worried about your data being compromised or giving in to Google. Then why did you get a Google phone in the first place if you want to cripple the so-called "Google Experience" with a "Paranoid Experience?" Get a Windows Phone or iPhone.
Like seriously, you just defeated the whole purpose of a phone powered by Android. Google Apps are there to simplify your life. It just wants a warm hug back.
If you really want to cripple your phone and not have any Google services on then flash CM7 and dont flash the gapps.

zephiK said:
If you're so worried about your data being compromised or giving in to Google. Then why did you get a Google phone in the first place if you want to cripple the so-called "Google Experience" with a "Paranoid Experience?"
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Click to collapse
The question wasn't about "Google Experience" - the topic starter didn't want to get rid of Gapps, like GMail or Google Market. He just wanted to avoid syncing calendar and contacts to Google servers. What's wrong with that? I am getting my Nexus S in a week and I am worried about this issue too. I just don't want to sync online this kind of sensible data - I am perfectly comfortable with my offline contacts' and calendar copies on my PC and external HDD. I am backing up my cell phones from the year 2005 (always had SE, so I used MyPhoneExplorer) and I have never lost any contact, calendar entry or SMS. Hell, I have all my incoming and outgoing SMSes from 2005. I must admit that Google syncing is good for careless people who wipe their phones now and then and in doing so find themselves with no contacts, no calendar events and not even a saved backup to restore everything from. But it's not my case, do you see my point? I don't need Google to "babysit" me and offer his help in syncing my data to his servers - I back up my data very well on my own.
By the way, the "Google Experience" part in your post and your call for changing the Android phone for Winphone or iPhone was a very unpleasant and rude exaggeration. Basically, what you said was equal to saying, for example, that if you want to go the "French way" (or to have the "French experience", paraphrasing you words) you must eat frogs at the restaurant, and if you are of a different opinion and fail to do so - you are a loser. Personally, I hate frogs, but I will always go for a good french wine, so does it make my "French experience" less "french" than anybody elses? In other words, there is no need to be calling people "***holes" if their "Google Experience" doesn't match your own. It's an experience, and it differs from people to people. There is even a saying about that: "Experience may vary".
Getting back on topic, i.e. speaking of backing up in offline mode, I was wondering if you guys could gently help me by pointing at a good program that syncs Contacts and Calendar events to Microsoft Outlook 2007 (without uploading anything to Gmail). I know that the newest version of MyPhoneExplorer has the Android support, but does it work for Nexus S? If not, what other programs can do that? From what I've read so far, this issue is very crippled for Android (unlike many other OSes), but that was several months ago. Has anything changed in a positive way since then?

arbalet42 said:
The question wasn't about "Google Experience" - the topic starter didn't want to get rid of Gapps, like GMail or Google Market. He just wanted to avoid syncing calendar and contacts to Google servers. What's wrong with that? I am getting my Nexus S in a week and I am worried about this issue too. I just don't want to sync online this kind of sensible data - I am perfectly comfortable with my offline contacts' and calendar copies on my PC and external HDD. I am backing up my cell phones from the year 2005 (always had SE, so I used MyPhoneExplorer) and I have never lost any contact, calendar entry or SMS. Hell, I have all my incoming and outgoing SMSes from 2005. I must admit that Google syncing is good for careless people who wipe their phones now and then and in doing so find themselves with no contacts, no calendar events and not even a saved backup to restore everything from. But it's not my case, do you see my point? I don't need Google to "babysit" me and offer his help in syncing my data to his servers - I back up my data very well on my own.
By the way, the "Google Experience" part in your post and your call for changing the Android phone for Winphone or iPhone was a very unpleasant and rude exaggeration. Basically, what you said was equal to saying, for example, that if you want to go the "French way" (or to have the "French experience", paraphrasing you words) you must eat frogs at the restaurant, and if you are of a different opinion and fail to do so - you are a loser. Personally, I hate frogs, but I will always go for a good french wine, so does it make my "French experience" less "french" than anybody elses? In other words, there is no need to be calling people "***holes" if their "Google Experience" doesn't match your own. It's an experience, and it differs from people to people. There is even a saying about that: "Experience may vary".
Getting back on topic, i.e. speaking of backing up in offline mode, I was wondering if you guys could gently help me by pointing at a good program that syncs Contacts and Calendar events to Microsoft Outlook 2007 (without uploading anything to Gmail). I know that the newest version of MyPhoneExplorer has the Android support, but does it work for Nexus S? If not, what other programs can do that? From what I've read so far, this issue is very crippled for Android (unlike many other OSes), but that was several months ago. Has anything changed in a positive way since then?
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Click to collapse
Whoa. Didn't have to write a essay to me. Not even going to bother reading it because ur phone history and i can really care less.
If you read the ops last sentence in regards to cm7 without Google services. So was my post relevant? Yes.
If Microsoft wanted to they can create a Microsoft experience on Android with a manufacturer packaging MS apps like Bing, Bing maps, live mail etc.
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk

Frankly, get used to cloud sync most os manufacturers are moving to it.
Microsoft even abandoned desktop sync for info management / backup (except for pictures and music) in Windows Phone 7. Microsoft makes the majority of their money from desktop software (like outlook) so when they say direct desktop sync is dead it really is.

atlp99 said:
Frankly, get used to cloud sync most os manufacturers are moving to it.
Microsoft even abandoned desktop sync for info management / backup (except for pictures and music) in Windows Phone 7. Microsoft makes the majority of their money from desktop software (like outlook) so when they say direct desktop sync is dead it really is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I dont get why people don't trust these companies. Like really, if they were to compromise your data or it get compromised. It would devastate the company, it would damage their reputation in the business world. Leading to investors panicing and selling etc etc.
This isn't a business lecture so I wouldn't even go in depth. Long story short, it would look bad on their part and all the trust they would of gained would be lost by consumers and investors.

Well... don't wanna sound like a jackass or something, but to be plain simple: who gives a f#@% about your personal data? I mean aside yourself. It's simply not useful for anyone else, and I seriously doubt there's an evil dude siting in a chair in a dark room at montain view, laughing maniacly cause you just synced your phone book into google servers.
For them it's just statistics, no personal info is relevant. If the guy wanna keep all his data offline cause he don't think is safe enough to leave it in a server (gmail accounts being resetd)... Than I think is a lot more likely his phone get stolen and his house burn to the ground in the same day than google losing it somehow.
But it's free world and everyone can do whatever they want, so if I'm not mistaken all you have to do is skip the login at the beginning (like when you wipe your phone) and add the account manually and uncheck all kind of sync. And just to be sure don't put a sin card on the phone or activate the internet before u set it up.
And ofc delete all info in gmail contacts.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

The funniest thing would be to learn that the OP uses Facebook...
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk

Nutsonfire said:
The funniest thing would be to learn that the OP uses Facebook...
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'll be sad to hear that I havent ever used Facebook
I'm surprised by the hostility of some of the responses here. I like to think I'm pro-choice / freedom to tinker - let me choose to sync to the cloud and get the so called great experience, or choose to keep things local.
Mr Google already knows my porn surfing habbits and who I email via gmail, adding my phone contacts list gives pretty much a 100% view of my 'social network'.
I'm an Aussie, and while I guess my government here could get a bunch of warrants to piece this picture together - I have faith that this isnt gonna happen as I'm not a criminal or terrorist.
While I love you yanks (what we call Americans), I dont understand your legal system, and dont like the idea of all my info being mined courtesy of Google and the Patriot Act.
Call me paranoid if you like, but deny me this choice and I call you a wanker.
I thought a premise of an open source OS like Android was the ability to customise, not be locked into stuff like this?

gratti said:
Well... don't wanna sound like a jackass or something, but to be plain simple: who gives a f#@% about your personal data? I mean aside yourself. It's simply not useful for anyone else, and I seriously doubt there's an evil dude siting in a chair in a dark room at montain view, laughing maniacly cause you just synced your phone book into google servers.
For them it's just statistics, no personal info is relevant. If the guy wanna keep all his data offline cause he don't think is safe enough to leave it in a server (gmail accounts being resetd)... Than I think is a lot more likely his phone get stolen and his house burn to the ground in the same day than google losing it somehow.
But it's free world and everyone can do whatever they want, so if I'm not mistaken all you have to do is skip the login at the beginning (like when you wipe your phone) and add the account manually and uncheck all kind of sync. And just to be sure don't put a sin card on the phone or activate the internet before u set it up.
And ofc delete all info in gmail contacts.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did skip the initial login, however I had to add an account later to use the Market.
My contacts list is not being synced with new ones I add, but I think it did a one-time sync when I added the account as all those in the phone at the time are there.
I guess I'll have to use a packet sniffer to see if new ones are being sent to google anyway (if not displayed).
Thanks for the tip about just deleting them - I'll do that and hope no future 'oops' does a reverse sync and delete them all off the phone.

zephiK said:
Whoa. Didn't have to write a essay to me. Not even going to bother reading it because ur phone history and i can really care less.
If you read the ops last sentence in regards to cm7 without Google services. So was my post relevant? Yes.
If Microsoft wanted to they can create a Microsoft experience on Android with a manufacturer packaging MS apps like Bing, Bing maps, live mail etc.
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Touchdown works great with exchange. And there is no need to use Google with it. Hope that helps.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App

gratti said:
Well... don't wanna sound like a jackass or something, but to be plain simple: who gives a f#@% about your personal data? I mean aside yourself. It's simply not useful for anyone else, and I seriously doubt there's an evil dude siting in a chair in a dark room at montain view, laughing maniacly cause you just synced your phone book into google servers.
For them it's just statistics, no personal info is relevant. If the guy wanna keep all his data offline cause he don't think is safe enough to leave it in a server (gmail accounts being resetd)... Than I think is a lot more likely his phone get stolen and his house burn to the ground in the same day than google losing it somehow.
But it's free world and everyone can do whatever they want, so if I'm not mistaken all you have to do is skip the login at the beginning (like when you wipe your phone) and add the account manually and uncheck all kind of sync. And just to be sure don't put a sin card on the phone or activate the internet before u set it up.
And ofc delete all info in gmail contacts.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't read your whole post but I'm gonna answer that first statement about evils dudes and your personal data
Your right there not going to hack your data but they will sell it to other people. In turn sell it for thousands of dollars to people looking for a marketing crowd. I'm not saying Google does this but the risk does exist. Personally I trust Google with my data but I can definitely understand if people don't trust them. Android is about an open experience which means if someone doesn't want tosync to Google theta shouldn't have too.
Am I wrong in saying this?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App

Menu -> Settings -> Accounts and Sync
As suggested though, why get a cloud phone when you don't want to use it?

thommcg said:
Menu -> Settings -> Accounts and Sync
As suggested though, why get a cloud phone when you don't want to use it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fair question.
I was expecting the latest greatest android phone, from the guys doing the android dev, and with excellent intergration to google services if I wanted to use em.
I had nfi, and it wasnt on anything in the box, that all my contacts are synced to 'the cloud'.
Sure as an option that's cool but it appears to be a lot more tightly coupled, and thats my concern.

troopstar said:
Fair question.
I was expecting the latest greatest android phone, from the guys doing the android dev, and with excellent intergration to google services if I wanted to use em.
I had nfi, and it wasnt on anything in the box, that all my contacts are synced to 'the cloud'.
Sure as an option that's cool but it appears to be a lot more tightly coupled, and thats my concern.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its not.
Go into sync the gmail then untick where it says contacts or gmail or whatever else. Viola, no more syncing of contacts with your phone. Just by default it is ticked because most people want their contacts synced I would assume but its very easy to stop it. Just follow the insturction above.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App

dsellers2 said:
I didn't read your whole post but I'm gonna answer that first statement about evils dudes and your personal data
Your right there not going to hack your data but they will sell it to other people. In turn sell it for thousands of dollars to people looking for a marketing crowd. I'm not saying Google does this but the risk does exist. Personally I trust Google with my data but I can definitely understand if people don't trust them. Android is about an open experience which means if someone doesn't want tosync to Google theta shouldn't have too.
Am I wrong in saying this?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should had read until the second paragraph. Like I said before for them it's just statistics. Like, you sync your phone book and X% of your contacts are off state or international. That info is sent, so next time you log into gmail you gonna see an offer about long distance calls. Like I said, statistics.
They are not selling your info, they are selling the statistics they collect about their userbase. And thx to that you don't pay a dime for the best mail service around, and for that matter all google services.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

troopstar said:
Fair question.
I was expecting the latest greatest android phone, from the guys doing the android dev, and with excellent intergration to google services if I wanted to use em.
I had nfi, and it wasnt on anything in the box, that all my contacts are synced to 'the cloud'.
Sure as an option that's cool but it appears to be a lot more tightly coupled, and thats my concern.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you checked about sync options inside gmail? I would not be surprised if the contacts were getting pulled from the phone, so next time you would send a mail from browser you would had your contacts ready. That's google like.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

[Q] What is the best way to sync contacts

What's up people!
I use My phone explorer but often I got situation of duplicated contacts and bull**** I'm tired to deal with. If I leave it to google it will sync only emails but for phone numbers what do you use? I'm in canada on wind network so tmobile won't work... how do you easily deal with this?
Cheers!!!

I have all my contacts in google. None on the phone or sim card, just google. Every time I flash a rom, I get them all back on the first sync. Never had an issue with syncing or losing contacts doing it this way.
Also, make sure contacts syncing is turned on in your google accounts and sync settings.

Please use the Q&A Forum for questions Thanks
Moving to Q&A

Google agreed. Simple and effective.
Sent from my SGH-T959V using XDA App

Contacts --> Menu Key --> Display Options
Set these settings to whichever combo works best, which I'm guessing may be to enable only Contacts on your Phone and uncheck most of the rest.
Sent from my SGH-T959V using XDA App

GOOGLE is the easiest and it backs up phone numbers as well

+1 for google (get it?) contacts sync. It's made my life a lot easier.

FBis251 said:
+1 for google (get it?) contacts sync. It's made my life a lot easier.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I luld.
But yeah seriously, google.
Until recently I was relying on Facebook to sync my contacts... herp derp
Only problem is if you dont want to use the old tacky looking and buggy as crap facebook app... Most modified fb apps i've seen dont have that feature.

Force Close Error popup

I was getting a force close error on my Atrix 2 and tried everything to fix it. The error I was getting was.. "The process com.motorola.service.main has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again."
I even returned the phone to the store and got a new one, and later that same day started getting the error again. I figured out the solution if anyone else is getting this same error.
The email situation on this phone is the most unintuitive thing I have ever used. For sync purposes I logged in with my gmail credentials in the "Accounts" section. That also included my gmail email account in the "Gmail" app. But in order to use my other email addresses I had to use the "Email" app. Instead of having to use two apps for email, I decided to enter my gmail address in the Email app as well... that was the problem.
I ended up leaving my gmail address in the accounts entry of the phone, but I turned off notifications for Gmail and Email... and the Messaging app (wow, isn't that redundant?) I installed K-9 Mail and am happily viewing all my mail in one application with no force close error.
I hope this helps someone.

That is an android thing not a Motorola thing.
I have several different email address from several different companies. What I do is set up my gmail accounts to retrieve my email from the outside email accounts and then I only have to set up my gmail accounts on the phone. I can send a receive email from all accounts that I have set up.
For more info on setting that up go here http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=21288

Thanks for the link. I didn't know that gmails mail fetcher would work with other accounts. It looks like it limits to 5 email addresses though. Personally I have 9 email addresses so that wouldn't be an option anyway. K9 really seems to be the best option for me.
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lilhaiti said:
That is an android thing not a Motorola thing.
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As much as I love android, I have to admit the iPhone email system is much more intuitive than the stock '3 different apps' in android to handle email.
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Agnus Dei said:
As much as I love android, I have to admit the iPhone email system is much more intuitive than the stock '3 different apps' in android to handle email.
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It is not an Android issue, just that Motorola did a horrible job of handling it. I have had the original iphone, and the first 3g, I hated them, and I was sent a cease and desist letter from Apple, because I was one of the devs there helping with jailbreaking etc. I have to admit that they did a great job of integrating an all in one solution.
The True Android systems that do not have some "front end" over it, like Moto, HTC, and samsung do, don't have that issue, because they don't come with apps for anything like that on them, you get to install your own e-mail solutions that you like, from the market.
Try a true Google device, and it will only come with the ability to get Gmail, and usually no other email apps are installed by default.
That is why there are some great apps that allow an all in one e-mail solution if you like, including exchange and such, if you want that too. I do have to admit though that Android is WAY more flexible than the iphone for things like this though, but it is still more for someone who likes to tinker and play to get things working they way they want.

I'm a pretty intelligent guy. Im a programmer and I study Theoretical Physics as a hobby. It took me 3 days to figure out what Motorola was trying to accomplish with their email / messaging apps.
I love the versatility of android though. I'm looking forward to a custom ROM release for the Atrix 2.
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Agnus Dei said:
I'm a pretty intelligent guy. Im a programmer and I study Theoretical Physics as a hobby.
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Hence the reason why you probably like android.
Your wait for custom ROMs is almost over. The reason the dev section has been kinda quiet lately, is because the few devs we have in here, me included, have been hacking away on ROMs since there is a way to recover now.
I will be releasing a couple myself next week, and I know others are coming shortly after that. Mine will all be close to stock for right now. Others are trying to port some great ROMs for us all here, so that is coming too.... just hang tight a little longer...

Sweet! Thanks for all your work!
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Hey I´ve got my atrix 2 but sometimes while unlocking the pattern it lags a little bit, and have had twice to force close while writing... normal ?

a couple more noob questions

I'm not new to Android or Marshmallow, just the S7 and the Samsung skin and apps. I currently hooked up my company's exchange client using the S7 account manager and am using the mail and calendar app in Knox. Anyway, the crux of it is ... I'm not really liking the way the mail app works. I was previously using Touchdown on my Moto X and have been pretty used to that. Is there any opinions on whether the default mail client sucks, or is good does somebody have an Exchange (Activesync) mail client they REALLY like and want to suggest?
Or is this just a case of 'give it a few weeks to get used to it' sort of thing.
The same thing applies to the dialer, though I feel more stongly about this. I much prefer the stock Android dialer to the Sammy one. Can somebody give me some guidance on how to switch back.
Also, I'm really not liking the messaging client. That's easily switchable, but before I completely abandon it is there any really good things about it I'm missing out on that should make me reconsider?
Thanks,
- Steve

For dialer i dont have any option but for message app download stock google messenger

V_B said:
For dialer i dont have any option but for message app download stock google messenger
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+1 for the Google Messenger. It's the only one I've used for a while now.
As for Exchange, I put all my work stuff into My Knox - using the stock email client - and perfectly happy there. I used to use Touchdown as well.