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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.
I've been working on this app for some time. I'm aware of the risks in using non-public API parts eg. Android calendar, but I needed the app features myself and so did many of my friends. So I've published it as a free app on Android market and it's been well received, but every now and then I get another error message. As I don't have any information on the phone or OS in question it's really hard to figure out what could be wrong. I typically test apps on 3 phones that I have readily available (HTC Hero, LG Optimus, SE X10 Mini Pro) and with Android 2.1 & 2.2. It would be great to hear if this app works as it should on your phones and if it breaks where/how it happens.
Your app looks quite useful.
Here's a clickable market link.
Do you mind adding some screenshots to your original post so we can get a better picture (pun intended)?
Edit: In case you don't add pics yourself, I've attached three from your market entry.
Edit 2: Here's the market description (for the lazy)
Android Market Description said:
ClickCal is a perfect blog tool, personal, family and work calendar app that allows you to create events and tasks by taking photos and/or via voice recording. No typing is required to create an event. Snap a photo of a document and save - your event is ready. Use your phones built-in camera to scan your paper invitation, dentist appointment note, screen of an e-mail/web page and your event is ready. You can record a voice message to add to the event as well. Optionally you can select event type, choose the calendar, set date and time, and if you really want to type you can add a description and location.
Adds an icon that allows to quick add an event from the desktop.
Syncs with Google calendar. Note: event images and audio can not be viewed in other calendar applications as they do not support this feature.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The background of creating this app is that I got really tired of trying to manage our kitchen bulletin board. Full of paper docs of kids school stuff,sports events & other activities and naturally no sync with phone or other calendars. Typing in the info sounded like a nightmare. So I was thinking how I could get those digitalized easily. ClickCal solves that problem. Later a friend asked how she could handle taking notes of customer meetings while driving back from the meeting. I proposed adding an audio recording feature to ClickCal. Next feature coming up is being able to log the GPS/Wlan -based location with the event.
But I've been having some issues with sporadic error reports coming in - and I can't reproduce the errors as the app works fully on my 3 phones.
I installed it to my epic 4g but will not open, say that i need to setup my google account (which i have) on my phone before using Clickcal???????
Oh, and as a side note, I have featured this nice app on the XDA home page.
I'm getting error messages a couple of times per week. Previously they were usually caused by Motorola having a different calendar provider address. Took me a while to figure out that they changed it back to the standard one when they moved from 2.1->2.2. That was finally solved with ClickCal version 1.6.2.
Samsung with 2.2.1 not working is news to me. The error message is probably caused by the app not finding Samsung's calendar provider. Haven't been able to test on 2.2.1 yet. So there's clearly more to the story. App testing is really the biggest issue with Android - many phones with variable screens and OS-versions.
Thanks for the testing. One step ahead.
Just got an idea: some phones like Samsungs come with the manufacturers own calendar app. They might not be 100% compatible with the Google Android calendar.
Was the test with the pre-installed Samsung calendar or the Google standard one?
Thanks - but a little bit too soon I'm still trying to figure a couple of reported issues.
HTC Thunderbolt, 2.2 Stock
downloaded, installed, opened-- "No Calendars Available. No google calendars were found on your phone. you need to setup your google account on your phone before using ClickCal". application then closes. can't get past that text box.
i have at least 8 Google Calendars & have been using this phone since launch day 3 weeks ago, so my gmail account is setup on the phone successfully & all calendars can be viewed on the phone through the stock Calendar app.
Dev, please fix--i'm pretty curious about this app & its capabilities.
Ok, thx for the feedback. Will work on this over the weekend. I was wondering that the retention rate was pretty low for an app I consider useful. Not wondering anymore if it doesn't even start up on some phones...
Anyway, I'm happy I found this site - without it I'd still be deep in the woods.
If you need note taking with the camera and/or audio recordings, but without the calendaring part I've also published ClickNote on android market. Based on the same principles, but no calendar. I haven't had any issues with ClickNote so far from any users.
The Samsung calendar
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App
I'm getting the no google calendar message then its exiting too.
On sony Ericsson x10.
Sent from my wolf 2.2 X10i using XDA App
Ugh - Sony Ericsson as well. I've actually developed this app for the SE X10 Mini Pro.
Ok, but based on the feedback on this board and a little more research I think I've discovered the problem. It's due to the manufacturers eg. built-in calendar which is not 100% compatible with the standard Android calendar. Now I can finally fix this issue. I'll develop a check for the calendars on the phone to test that they function correctly with ClickCal. On some phones it will probably mean that ClickCal will only work with the Google calendars.
Here is the logcat from my xperia x10. Hope it helps.
Finally got it! Thx for the X10 logcat output you sent. It showed that ClickCal was considering your phone as having Android 2.1.
Since the calendar provider is different (calendar vs. com.android.calendar) between 2.1 and 2.2 I'm doing a check on the OS version of the phone. Well my nice version string match was against "2.1". I think 2.2.1 might also match this
Just published version ClickCal 1.7 on Android market. Several fixes, but most importantly should work with Androdi 2.2.1 and hopefully Samsung stock calendar setup.
spfoo said:
Just published version ClickCal 1.7 on Android market. Several fixes, but most importantly should work with Androdi 2.2.1 and hopefully Samsung stock calendar setup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't have time to test it fully at the moment but i have installed the update and it recognises the google calendar and appears to work properly. I'll test it over the weekend fully hopefully.
Thanks for your quick response.
Ok i have tested it now ... i have a couple of things.
It only shows the main calendar that i have on my phone, not my holidays or birthdays calendar (these are both listed on the dropdown list at the top) it just doesn't pick up any appointments from them.
Is there a way to get it to add and appointment by long pressing at the correct time? I can't get used to having to go to the top and click new event.
Also can you get it to swipe left and right for next/previous day in the day view and not just the monthly view?
Also i know this is minor but can you move the save button to the bottom of the page? Or change its colour slightly? It is really hard to see.
Other than that i really like the app.
THanks
indesisiv said:
Ok i have tested it now ... i have a couple of things.
It only shows the main calendar that i have on my phone, not my holidays or birthdays calendar (these are both listed on the dropdown list at the top) it just doesn't pick up any appointments from them.
Is there a way to get it to add and appointment by long pressing at the correct time? I can't get used to having to go to the top and click new event.
Also can you get it to swipe left and right for next/previous day in the day view and not just the monthly view?
Also i know this is minor but can you move the save button to the bottom of the page? Or change its colour slightly? It is really hard to see.
Other than that i really like the app.
THanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are those holiday/birthday calendars internal phone calendars or google calendars? If you can do a few selections on these calendars and send me the logcat I can check what's happening.
Long-click to add event is a good idea - was thinking to enable long-click from the monthly view eg long click on a day to add event. But it's trivial to add to the day/agenda views as well. It may be hard to hit the exact right time though - the rows are narrow when there are no events on them.
Swiping to move days back/forward on day view is in the plans.
The Save button is on the bottom on some phones, but not all. Depends on screen sizes. I tried to optimize the view for the smallest screen eg the X10 Mini Pro. Perhaps a good idea would be to make the button full width and change the color?
Thx for the feedback. Will look into those items for the next release. Priority on the missing calendar data.
I have one google account with multiple calendars.
I can see the calendars etc but it only give info from one.
I tried to swap between them here. (logcat added)
Hope this helps
I just got my Sensation after jumping from the "magick Kingdom of Apple (tm)" and an old iPhone 3G.
I'm so pleased with the Sensation, the screen is amazing and so responsive but - since I'm used to Apple's - "My way or the Highway" approach, some of the freedom has me totally confused.
On the 3G there was one mail app - I see I now have GMail and HTC Mail and that's before I go near the Market.
I had a simple contact app but now I'm pushed towards HTC People which is flooding in my facebook contacts and their posts when mostly I just want folks names and numbers to phone or txt them. If I want facebook I'm happy to start a Facebook app, other than that I really can't be ar$ed reading the piles of crap that too many "friends" are putting on.
I read that I will have some things sync'ing via Google "automatically" and the phone keeps pestering me to sign up for an HTC Sense account while online forums are saying don't have a Sense account running as it will eat up your battery...
Maybe if HTC provided a manual with more than 10 miniature pages to start explaining all this!!!!
Can someone please explain in noob friendly English what is the best combination of general apps / syncing to get mail, contacts, SMS and calendar working so that they are automatically backed up but without trying to sync every 10 mins and running the battery down quicker than my car drinks petrol (which is pretty damn fast!). I don't care if its the HTC apps or Google Apps, I just one to be running one mail client, 1 calendar etc and be able to get all that data back should I need to.
I'm not a complete idiot by the way, I ran the 3G JB'd and unlocked for 3 years through every update Apple put out and I am here because I will root and load a custom rom eventually, but I'd like to learn my way about before doing anything too adventurous.
Anyone offer me any advice or point me to a website offering a class in "HTC Sense 101".
Thanks
BelfastLad
I second this question, starting new on a sensation this week and.... somehow my facebook wants to link with my HTC facebook.... wtf? Didn't realize the sense account was wasting my battery... should I disable it?... Basic configuration theory regarding all this Sense stuff would be useful... thanks.
BelfastLad said:
I just got my Sensation after jumping from the "magick Kingdom of Apple (tm)" and an old iPhone 3G.
I'm so pleased with the Sensation, the screen is amazing and so responsive but - since I'm used to Apple's - "My way or the Highway" approach, some of the freedom has me totally confused.
On the 3G there was one mail app - I see I now have GMail and HTC Mail and that's before I go near the Market.
I had a simple contact app but now I'm pushed towards HTC People which is flooding in my facebook contacts and their posts when mostly I just want folks names and numbers to phone or txt them. If I want facebook I'm happy to start a Facebook app, other than that I really can't be ar$ed reading the piles of crap that too many "friends" are putting on.
I read that I will have some things sync'ing via Google "automatically" and the phone keeps pestering me to sign up for an HTC Sense account while online forums are saying don't have a Sense account running as it will eat up your battery...
Maybe if HTC provided a manual with more than 10 miniature pages to start explaining all this!!!!
Can someone please explain in noob friendly English what is the best combination of general apps / syncing to get mail, contacts, SMS and calendar working so that they are automatically backed up but without trying to sync every 10 mins and running the battery down quicker than my car drinks petrol (which is pretty damn fast!). I don't care if its the HTC apps or Google Apps, I just one to be running one mail client, 1 calendar etc and be able to get all that data back should I need to.
I'm not a complete idiot by the way, I ran the 3G JB'd and unlocked for 3 years through every update Apple put out and I am here because I will root and load a custom rom eventually, but I'd like to learn my way about before doing anything too adventurous.
Anyone offer me any advice or point me to a website offering a class in "HTC Sense 101".
Thanks
BelfastLad
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cbutters said:
I second this question, starting new on a sensation this week and.... somehow my facebook wants to link with my HTC facebook.... wtf? Didn't realize the sense account was wasting my battery... should I disable it?... Basic configuration theory regarding all this Sense stuff would be useful... thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gmail is the official google app for Gmail. By default, Gmail will show your google account stuff when you first sign into google account and link it to your phone.
HTC Mail is a mail client that you can configure to show any of your emails. For example, I have my Gmail specifically for my gmail (I could funnel my hotmail and exchange account to my gmail, but I don't want to), and I use my HTC Mail specifically for my Exchange account.
Now, with Facebook. I linked my Facebook account with Facebook for HTC Sense. You don't have to do this, but if you like using Friend Stream instead of the official Android app, do this.
If you go to settings > Accounts & sync > Facebook for HTC Sense, you can sync live feed, calendar, and/or contacts.
I sync my contacts so that my Gmail contacts come up with facebook pictures.
With the official Facebook app, it'll ask you if you want to sync contacts. I choose no because it funnels ALL of your Facebook friends into your contacts account, something I don't like.
If this is all confusing, you can just go to contacts, hit menu, hit view, scroll down to options, and uncheck the Facebook so that they don't show up in your contacts.
I hope this helps. Let me know if you want more info.
Just use the gmail app for email (assuming you only use gmail) go into accounts and sync, add your google account and it will auto sync your mail, contacts and callendar. Dont worry about battery drain gmail uses push email.
Unless you want to use the htc fabeook or friend stream widgets I would avoid facebook for htc sense, just add your facebook account in accounts and sync, it will import your facebook friends into your contacts (if you want), shortly after youll get a notification about matched contacts and you can link your existing contacts with your facebook contacts, so all information (phone, email, address, facebook etc) is under a single contact. This same process can be done using your twitter account.
As for calendar there are several calendar apps on the market, I personally use Jorte calendar, it will sync with your goole calander and has some nice widget options and nice UI.
The only things I have auto syncing on my phone are google, facebook and twitter and weather. Like I said, unless you want to use the htc widgets I would avoid syncing anything "sense" related.
Thanks for the pointers so far
Thanks to the Mod who helpfully moved my thread. I'll watch that more carefully in future.
And to the guys who've posted some good helpful advice, much appreciated.
By this time next week I'm sure I'll be well sorted. The week after I'll probably be getting itchy fingers to get rooting!
Thanks for the help but I'd still echo the 2nd posters comments. A guide to initial set-up and recommended first tweaks would be great if some "expert" could ever find the time to write one.
- Any takers?????
A "quick" guide to HTC Sense
I will try to make this as simple as I can. Feel free to fill in the gaps if I miss something.
Initial Setup
It's nice of HTC to include a personalised version of that Android initial setup, but I recommend you skip through as much as you can.
- Select you language --- pretty straight forward, right?
- Transfer my stuff --- it's a really great tool if you need to use it
- Internet connection --- choose "Mobile network or Wi-Fi"; I don't know if this is the case with the Sensation, but on older HTC phones this setting actually forces the phone to get the correct settings for APNs
- Scheduled sync --- choose "Automatically sync data"; don't worry, you can turn this off later if you want too, it will just help sync your data if you add an account later in the setup
- Set up Wi-Fi network --- choose your Wi-Fi network
- Use Google location --- it's all up to you here, but it does help to let your apps know your location. I recommend you leave those on
- Tell HTC --- as you can read on the screen, Tell HTC is software that runs in the background. It's something similar to reporting errors on Windows
- Set up accounts --- you can always add accounts later, so I recommend you skip this step
Google account
As this is Android, you will have to sign in to your Google account. When you do this, your email will be synced to Gmail, your contact will show up in the People app from HTC and your calendar will be synced to the Calendar app also from HTC. You can always choose what items from your Google account you want to sync from Setting - Accounts & Sync - Google. I personally use all their services, so I leave all on.
HTC Mail app
HTC have made their own mail app so you can easily view all your account (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Exchange or other POP3 services). This is pretty useful and it works great. I only have the Hotmail and Yahoo accounts connected here, since Gmail does the rest.
HTC People app
All your contacts in one place. Nice, right? Not quite... It took me about a week to figure this one out, but I finally got it to work just right. I keep my contact on Google, you know, family, close friends, work people... and all the detailes I need are there, but when you start to use Facebook, Facebook for HTC, Tweeter, Yahoo and so on, you get all these messeges to sync your contacts. Fine, I did that, now my People app is full of "friends" I haven't spoken in years. They just lay there. And above it all you get all kinds of messages in the status bar to let you know you can "link" you contacts. A huge list if I might add . So whats the deal here?
Sure, linking your contact is useful. Say you don't have a friends email adress, but he posted it on Facebook, or his birthday, or something else. You can get them from linking his accounts and you can find all this info in his Contact Info page. Beside that, you have quick access to conversation history (txt or email), updates, gallery or call history. HTC Sense is great at that And even though Facebook and Facebook for HTC Sense target both the same service, there are a few diferences. For instance, the simple Facebook only syncs contact, while Facebook for HTC Sense syncs live feeds and calendars too for you to use on the Friend Stream app/widget or in the Calendar. The same goes for Twitter.
But when you start linking people, you see that their photo is being changed to whatever profile picture they have on Facebook, Tweeter or other services... and even their name can change too. To resolve this you just go into a persons contact info page, tap the chain icon at the top right hand corner, from there, tap the picture and choose from the list. The same for the name. Sure, you get previews of posts or text messages next to someone in the People app, but you get rid of those "stupid pictures"
Also, I found that having people actualy stored on the phone and not on Google, makes this process a little bit harder, because every time Facebook for HTC synced, contact photos changed. Very annoying.
I find it useful to sync contact from all services, what the hell, let's go crazy, but I sure don't like seing them all in the People app, so just tap the menu button, then tap View. Here you can scroll down to Options and pick what you want to be displayed. You won't lose contacts you don't pick, or the links between them, they just don't appear anymore. Jobe done.
As for creating contacts, be careful. By default, the contact type field is set to whatever category you are viewing in People. If you chose "Phone" here, the contact information will ONLY be present on your phone and it WILL NOT SYNC to other services like Gmail. I'm talking about information that you put there, not the one that is being synced. So in the end you must back them up if you plan to install a custom ROM, or you will lose them.
Accounts & sync
Don't be scared to dive deep in these settings and choose only what you want to sync. Every account has it's own settings, so be pationd.
Here I have my Google account syncing everything, Facebook is syncing contacts, Facebook for HTC Sense is also syncing everything but once a day, HTC Sense (yes, I have an account set up, and it doesn't drain the batery) has only Update when opened checked and update schedule is manual, News, Show Me and Stocks are all manualy updated too since I don't use them at all, Twitter syncs all but manual, Weather is syncing automatically every hour (not much trafic there). All these settings where mare having in mind that I have Auto-Sync enabled. Yes, I know, not so good, but the ammount of data being used is very little because it only has to do the hard job of getting all the stuff to my phone once, then it keeps track if that is up to date.
I hope I've touched every aspect and doubt that you might have had about HTC Sense. Chears.
You COULD read all the long posts above about how to get Sense working....or you could do the simple thing and just use CM7. I say rather than trying to get your feet wet with Sense, just jump straight off the deep end and S-OFF+root your phone and flash CM7. With CM7 you experience Android as it was meant to be experienced by Google. No extra nonsense, no crazy background syncing hogging your battery, just pure, silky smooth Android. Facebook just syncs your contacts with their picture and any phone numbers or email addresses listed on their facebook profile. You can also combine them with your Google contacts, so say for example you meet some girl at a bar and get her number and put it into your phone as a contact. Then later you become facebook friends with her. You can combine her facebook with the contact you already put in at the bar as one unit, and now in addition to the phone number you put in before, you now have her picture from facebook associated with her in your contacts book as well as any email addresses or other phone numbers from her facebook. This is all extremely simple and easy to do with the vanilla no-sense UI.
Not to mention the rom in general is lightning fast and smooth like warm butter It also has CPU management built in as well as tons of other features. It's the perfect combination of performance and simplicity.
to the clown above me
nobody and I mean nobody reads your damn posts,why?simply because they can't.Now stop with the annoying cyan posting
Ughhh... my eyes !
Why the awful colour ?
Macklessdaddy said:
to the clown above me
nobody and I mean nobody reads your damn posts,why?simply because they can't.Now stop with the annoying cyan posting
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Click to collapse
agreed. i cant even look at the screen when his post is above another im tryin to read
Having ruined my eyesight reading the cyan post above, it wasn't worth the effort. Seriously, I like Cyanogenmod as much as the next guy, but it's not answering the OP's question.
To the OP: Have you had a look on your SD card? When I got my Desire there was a proper manual on there in .pdf format. I've not checked on my Sensation because I put the SD card from my Desire into it when I upgraded. Failing that you can download it from here: http://www.htc.com/uk/help/htc-sensation/#download
SWBMO has recently got a One S, cracking phone! Noticed something odd last night in that i didn't see new calendar entries she's been putting in. For years we have used a shared calendar on google no problem but with the one S she can only add events to her own google calendar. Although the shared one appears in the drop down it won't select ( PC Sync will )
Quite frustrating, more so as trying to work around it I managed to delete the shared calendar!
Anyone found this?
Had a response from htc support.apparently you can only sync the primary google calendar not secondary ones,.new one on me, our shared calendar has been working fine until now!
The one s will see multiple calendars she just can't add events to others!
I await the next update!
Same issue here. Disappointing that a feature that worked and was heavily used on my 2-year-old Vibrant doesn't work on my brand new One S. I hate to have to buy a replacement app for one that should work as expected, but I can't wait for a fix.
HTC have come back and said it is an interesting issue and they are investigating.
I have done some more testing though. I created a new calendar and shared between our accounts. After sync I can see it in the multi calendar menu in the normal calendar app. When I add an event on her phone I go to the drop down at the top and see it listed.
Select the new calendar and it does go in the right place. But the issue seems to be the field at the top doesn't change from Google to reflect the calendar name so you don't actually know where you are entering it, could be any of the google calendars. They seems to have removed the variable part of that if it's a google calendar.
Don't know if it's the effect of creating the new calendar makes it kind of work or whether it just wasn't obvious before.
I reported a bug to HTC, who kept replying that "you can't add events to Google calendars other than your 'main' Google calendar". Then I did some more digging and figured out the same thing Scoop940 reported: you *can* add events to calendars other than your "main" calendar; the drop-down list just doesn't show the calendar you've selected.
One thing you still can't do, however, is "move" an existing event from one calendar to another. That ability wasn't present on my Vibrant running Froyo either.
Still ongoing with HTC this one, I have now sent endless screen shots from my sensation and wifeys One S to demonstrate the problem. It has now been passed to someone in the HTC Written team whatever that means and they now have the software info from the One S.
At the moment it feels like they are listening just hard to get through to them the problem. Change the static Google name back to a variable showing the calendar name, someone made the assumption that people only use one google calendar.
Will keep updated.
Well been recognised as a fault and escalated, although reading between the lines it says don't hold your breath!.;-)
Sent from my HTC Sensation using XDA
Thanks for the heads up on this. I am also able to create events in other calendars, the app just does not display the currently selected calendar at the top as you mentioned, so it's a pretty simple workaround.
Still, it's a bit annoying and it seems like a relatively easy fix, although I doubt it's high on the priority list.
Scoop940 said:
Well been recognised as a fault and escalated, although reading between the lines it says don't hold your breath!.
Sent from my HTC Sensation using XDA
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Click to collapse
Any movement on this problem yet?
While I'm a huge fan of Google products and services, there attitude of ignoring the masses when it comes to certain features that everyone wants/needs in the name of 'it's better' the way we designed it gets frustrating.
I'm hoping someone here knows a solution to this:
My contacts [not even the same name] keep getting merged/linked together automatically. It's happened on every Android device I've owned, and it's always happened to completely different names. I keep my contacts meticulously organized, and would never have a duplicate that would even need to be linked together. I've sent emails to Google asking how to disable it, etc. and they tell me it's a feature that everyone likes basically.
The most recent linking disaster was it linked my current girlfriend 'Lisa' with my ex-girlfriend 'Elizabeth' with TOTALLY DIFFERENT last names...WTF? So when I hit the dial button on the contact clearly labelled 'Lisa', and with her picture...I was actually calling my EX! Needless to say this led to a long argument that there was no way I could accidentally call me ex when trying to call my girlfriend, and blaming it on Google is ridiculous.
It's done this with a contact 'David', my then boss...and a contact labelled Dad...so when I tried calling work at 2AM (when I start) I actually woke up my dad in the middle of the night. There is no way of knowing when this happens unless I manually check every contact to see if there has been any merging or memorize everyone's phone number so I can see if it's really dialing the right number. It even linked my friend Charles, with Les Schwab Tire store once before.
Anyway, everything I've searched on the subject says that there should be some sort of notification asking me if I want to link/merge contacts, and to make sure to select 'NO'. I've never been notified though, and just get surprised at least once a month when my phone calls someone else, when I select a contact to dial.
Whoever knows the answer will save my life!
Thanks
JVogler said:
While I'm a huge fan of Google products and services, there attitude of ignoring the masses when it comes to certain features that everyone wants/needs in the name of 'it's better' the way we designed it gets frustrating.
I'm hoping someone here knows a solution to this:
My contacts [not even the same name] keep getting merged/linked together automatically. It's happened on every Android device I've owned, and it's always happened to completely different names. I keep my contacts meticulously organized, and would never have a duplicate that would even need to be linked together. I've sent emails to Google asking how to disable it, etc. and they tell me it's a feature that everyone likes basically.
The most recent linking disaster was it linked my current girlfriend 'Lisa' with my ex-girlfriend 'Elizabeth' with TOTALLY DIFFERENT last names...WTF? So when I hit the dial button on the contact clearly labelled 'Lisa', and with her picture...I was actually calling my EX! Needless to say this led to a long argument that there was no way I could accidentally call me ex when trying to call my girlfriend, and blaming it on Google is ridiculous.
It's done this with a contact 'David', my then boss...and a contact labelled Dad...so when I tried calling work at 2AM (when I start) I actually woke up my dad in the middle of the night. There is no way of knowing when this happens unless I manually check every contact to see if there has been any merging or memorize everyone's phone number so I can see if it's really dialing the right number. It even linked my friend Charles, with Les Schwab Tire store once before.
Anyway, everything I've searched on the subject says that there should be some sort of notification asking me if I want to link/merge contacts, and to make sure to select 'NO'. I've never been notified though, and just get surprised at least once a month when my phone calls someone else, when I select a contact to dial.
Whoever knows the answer will save my life!
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never noticed this...what version of Android are you on and what phone do you have?
In haven't seem it either...are you talking about the "merge duplicate" feature? Did you happen to leave the first or last name blank?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using xda app-developers app
electricpete1 said:
In haven't seem it either...are you talking about the "merge duplicate" feature? Did you happen to leave the first or last name blank?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
It's happened on my Atrix running GB, also on my Note running ICS. It's happened to 3 other people's phone I know.
I think you might be on to something...it does seem to happen most often to names where I have no last name entered. It merged 'Lisa' with no last name to "Elizabeth" with a last name. It has merged 'Dad' with quite a few different names beginning with D.
They are not merged/linked when viewing contacts on the web in gmail...they are still separate there. It just merges them on the phone only. The most recent one I can't figure out the algorithm behind thinking these were duplicates and merging them automatically was: [Lowe's] and my friend [Lana], Hit her picture from my favorites menu, and got the Lowe's Home Improvement store. Her picture was displayed on the dialing screen and everything. Had to go into contacts, choose 'un-link', and sure enough it had automatically merged to two contacts after sitting separately for years.
This isn't Google. This behaviour is of the stock contacts applications by Motorola and Samsung. Each one modifies the Google contacts app in their own way, especially with regard to linking of contacts and social networking. You'll be better off asking in your device forum to see if others are facing this issue, and contacting Motorola or Samsung about it. It doesn't happen on AOSP Android ROMs, and on pure Android devices like the Nexus line.
trenches oriedto
sashank said:
This isn't Google. This behaviour is of the stock contacts applications by Motorola and Samsung. Each one modifies the Google contacts app in their own way, especially with regard to linking of contacts and social networking. You'll be better off asking in your device forum to see if others are facing this issue, and contacting Motorola or Samsung about it. It doesn't happen on AOSP Android ROMs, and on pure Android devices like the Nexus line.
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Click to collapse
This is definitely the best advice. I had this problem when I got the original Evo which was running Sense. Your phone might be trying to link similar contacts as well as facebook contacts if you've logged into the facebook app and let it sync contacts. I recommend going directly to your Google Contacts and doing a bit of organizing and cleaning. Once you have that cleaned up it will hopefully not mis-link your contacts again, even when you log into facebook or something like that.
h0phead said:
This is definitely the best advice. I had this problem when I got the original Evo which was running Sense. Your phone might be trying to link similar contacts as well as facebook contacts if you've logged into the facebook app and let it sync contacts. I recommend going directly to your Google Contacts and doing a bit of organizing and cleaning. Once you have that cleaned up it will hopefully not mis-link your contacts again, even when you log into facebook or something like that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right. I did that when I first got my phone. I named all my contacts properly (First name, Last name) so the Sense Facebook sync linked my Facebook contacts correctly. If you want to keep nicknames rather than formal names, then adding all your contacts' email addresses from Facebook will also link them correctly regardless of name. Even if your email addresses and contact names don't match with Facebook, you have an option of manually going through all your contacts and linking them (in HTC Sense). You'll only need to do that once as Sense stores an '< HTCdata >' tag in the 'Notes' field of each contact indicating which Facebook contact it is linked to, so any future sync will immediately link the contacts based on this tag. The best Facebook sync app for AOSP ROMs, HaxSync, also makes use of these tags.
Organizing your Google contacts just once in your life goes a long way.
Sent from my Desire HD using xda premium