Hey folks,
is it at the moment (in the future?) possbile to use a fullfeatured android-system without a google account/being bound to google? I love WM 6.5, because it comparatively is independent of any cloud stuff. Windows Mobile Phone 7 is very closed and lives in the cloud. So how open is android and to what extent is it spy-/adware?
Thx
My thoughts:
I was a WM5/6 user for quite a few years (at least 4+ years). I heavily hacked my WM phones to get the functionality I craved.
After fooling around with various Android ports to my HTC Titan, I decided to give the TBD Verizon Android phone (aka Droid) a chance when it came out. Since that fateful day, I haven't had a single regret. The Droid (and Android) is absolutely amazing.
Prior to my Droid, I had a couple of almost totally unused GMail accounts. I was resigned to the idea that to get the full functionality out of my Droid, I needed to move into the Google "cloud".
I have been amazed at how well everything flows together, now that everything syncs/baselines off of my main GMail account.
I'm not sure how functional the phone will be if you don't have a GMail account. Here is my (probably inaccurate) guess of functionality degradation you will face by not using a GMail account:
1) The Google Market may not allow you to purchase any apps. App purchases are paid through Google Checkout - Which is associated with your GMail account.
2) EMail integration is obviously very well implemented with Google. When a message is sent to my GMail account, it seems like I get it just a few seconds later on my phone. You can also set up your GMail account to poll any of your already existing email accounts from other providers. While not updated as fast as your GMail account, it still operates very well, and also color-codes which email account your messages came from. If you don't want to use GMail, the K-9 Mail app can work as an alternative to the GMail app.
3) Syncing with Google Contacts and multiple Google Calendars won't be available to you. The instant syncing of contacts/calendars is *very* useful, and works totally seamlessly. Again, updating a contact (or event) on the web (or your phone) nearly instantaneously updates the phone / web, respectively. You don't have to worry about losing contacts or calendars anymore. If you already had a GMail account with Contacts & Calendars, all that information is available on your phone within a minute or so after you have powered up your Droid for the first time. (Note: I do have some moderate gripes about how contacts are displayed & grouped on GMail & Android. I hope Google will be addressing these items soon). If your Droid gets damaged and you don't have a GMail account, you will probably have to manually reenter all your contacts / appointments.
4) Other non-Google "push" apps (such as Flight Tracker Pro) probably won't work since they need your GMail address to send their integrated information to your phone to update their app status.
5) Probably a bit of other stuff, but I'm too tired to think right now.
As far as my "who is watching my activity" paranoia level is concerned, I don't have any concerns at all about Google. I haven't seen a single instance in the months I have been using my Droid where Google appeared to be targeting any overtly obnoxious advertising in my direction. (However, if you are still concerned about ads, there is a hack to Android to block all ads). If I had any concerns, I would certainly trust Microsoft less (by a few orders of magnitude) than Google.
I'm not entirely sure how Google is making a lot of money from the Android adoption, other than having more devices natively using Google for searching (which can result in their advertising revenue). But from what I have seen, it is no worse than when you are using Google on your PC to do your web searches.
After using Android for months now, I can't ever see going back to WM6 again. WM6 was incredibly lame in comparison. Web browsing on Android is what I always hoped the WM6 platform would achieve (but never seemed to reach). Android is an amazing OS, certainly comparable to the Apple iPhone in almost all aspects, and exceeds WM6 in most aspects.
My advise would be to take the plunge and get an Android phone & GMail account set up. Try it out. If you don't like the OS (or Google cloud stuff), you can always return the phone within a couple of weeks for all the carriers, and go back to a WM6 phone.
The only thing you really need a google account for the Market. I have all syncing (mail, contacts and calendar) turned off and auto sync turned off. I believe you have to leave background sync turned on but that's it.
For everything else I use a hosted exchange account.
if you can live without google voice and google talk, then yeah. It is a fully functional OS. Market is not essential to core functionality and you can always install apks directly from sdcard as well as switch your search engine to whatever you prefer.
Is there an app out there that would allow custom notifications for SMS\phone\gmail for users of google voice? There are several that work outside of google voice, but not so much with it.
Only app I found that mostly worked was Whoisit lite. Lite version works fine, except any new email cause it to stop responding & force close. Tried the pro version & got my refund. It didn't crash on email notification, but initially it would only play the default sound, not the custom, then it wouldn't allow anything to play when an email arrived. (The dev on this app has disappeared, so contacting him to fix it isn't going to work.)
I like having all my stuff in one easy to access location, that syncs everything with my voice account, so not using google voice isn't really a consideration.
Ideas or suggested apps?
Im a UK Pixel 2 XL user and having trouble switching Google Assistant "fully" to the US voice. I stress the word "fully." Despite switching languages to "English US" in General Settings and Google Assistant settings, Google Assistant fails to fully use the US voice. It replies in the US voice for certain responses including web searches but for when it comes to local weather updates it sticks with the default British voice. I never had this issue with the Nexus phones. Any idea? Thanks!
Just joined Google Fi. Is there any way to add "messages" to the google apps button?
Title says it all. I just left Google Voice for Google Fi and ported my GV number over.
Minor thing, but I miss having the function in gmail when I click on the google apps, then google voice, then it launches to web interface. I can't seem to find a similar setup for the messages for web app. Does this exist?
I realize I'm just lazy, but would be nice to have!
Picture to help with description: https://imgur.com/CnONzLP
I'm looking for some way to run google assistant instead of google now when I say the moto voice wakeup phrase (Ok google; Ok moto Z; etc).
The only thing I managed so far, is to install Automagic and configure a flow that launches google assistant when the google search application runs.
The flow has some conditions, so that google assistant doesn't run when I'm manually searching in google.
Unfortunately it is not perfect, because it doesn't automatically run google assistant with the screen off, you have to say the command "open assistant" to launch it, but if it works in any other situation
I'm still trying to modify the moto voice apk to change google now to google assistant by default, but I don't know enough about programming, so it's still a long way off.
if someone manages to make this work in some more efficient way and without third party applications it would be great to know.