Database Users

[Q] Substitute for Google apps?

I am coming over from blandroid and unfortunately have a lot of time invested in google services. I know of a few alternatives to google products but there are a few I need help with:
Google Music: free cloud music storage
Google Navigation
Google Translate
Thanks in advance for your help

zune, skydrive, bing maps (and a bunch of good turn by turn stuff in the market)
not sure aobut translate.. but, like on andriod, find an app in the market

Unfortunately Navigation doesn't really have a good substitute. There are some paid turn by turn navigation, but they use local maps instead of always having the latest data straight from Google. The bonus is you get to use them offline, though these were available on Android, too.
Google Talk also doesn't seem to have a good substitute. GChat is alright. It takes a bit of time to start up and sometimes doesn't connect.
Microsoft needs to rethink their stance on multi-tasking. Maybe manually giving applications permission to multi-task. They also need to let developers make plugins for the messaging application to integrate other messaging services.
Overall I'm happy with my Venue Pro, but I won't be selling my Android phone.

If you have a developer phone, check out waze (you can find it in the developer forums here)

You can go for the real thing (sort of),
Google Music - Go to browser. You can actually play songs from Google Music. A bit limited, but whatever.
Google Navigation - gMaps although I am not sure that it has turn-by-turn, it is Google Maps though.
Goolge Translate - Translator Pro. Uses Google Translator's API so should work the same.
For alternatives,
Google Music - Zune Pass is a pretty good thing if you want streaming music, Rdio got updated to Mango to support background streaming. I'm personally waiting for Spotify because my whole music collection is on it (I local filed the songs that weren't in Spotify's database).
Google Navigation - Maps (which is built in), haven't used it, but I heard that it is iffy. If you have the money, go with Garmin. If you have the time, wait until Nokia Maps comes out (not sure if it is restricted to Nokia phones, but I heard that they will build apps for other OEMs).
Google Translate - The real alternative is Bing Translate, but honestly, you can just go into the marketplace and type in translator.
Hope that's helpful!

Once again, the XDA community proves to be the most helpful. Thanks everyone for all the suggestions. I do like the Zune pass idea but my wife will make me choose between Zune pass and Netflix. The joys of marrying an teacher; never lets me have all the toys I want. Thanks again.

[Q] Is there a way to access Google Tasks on a Google Wear device?

Hi,
I share a Gmail account which has some task lists within it - and I'd like to be able to look up outstanding tasks on my smartwatch (LG G Watch R). Ideally I'd also like to do the same thing with some task lists in an Microsoft Exchange account - but this is less pressing.
I know there is a multitude of tasklist / to-do apps out there - but I'd like to use the existing task lists I have.
I know that CalenGoo can sync with Google Tasks - however I couldn't find a way of browsing these task lists on the smartwatch (at least not within the 15 minute refund period!).
I have also seen TinyTasks (both on XDA and in the Play store), which sounds ideal - but doesn't look like it works with Google Wear devices (unless I'm mistaken).
What I'd like is an app on the smartwatch that I can open that will show me all my task lists (from this shared Google Account, or an Exchange account), let me browse through the (incomplete) tasks in each list, and then mark them as done.
I've tried searching, but the keywords "google", "wear" and "tasks" are wayyyy to generic to pin-point what I'd like - if it exists.
Does anyone know of an app that will do this?

Same here - looking for same app/funcionality.

Same for me
Full Todo List App on Wear but not for GOOGLE TASKS !!! Google not compatible with Google system ? I found this incredible
I have Google Task on my pebble : PebbleNotes, on my Sony SW2 : Tiny Task, but nothing for the Google Wear OS...

I came here looking for just this. Does anyone know of any app that will support Google tasks? I dont want to use anything else and its the one functionality I bought my smartwatch for!!

No, of course Google OS is NOT COMPATIBLE with Google Apps
Use TickTick if you want and leave Google Task....

help
I am using Keep to record my notes from Sony Smartwatch 3, but I really prefer using Google Tasks. I hope someone finds a way to use it and posts it here. Thanks.

I tried ticktick but I dont like it as much... I really just like Google tasks and I use gTasks. Anyway, I emailed the dev of gtasks - he said it's on the list but don't expect it any time soon. Maybe if more people expressed their desire he might do it sooner? Email: Support (a)t gtasks (dot) me
Is there a lot of work in making this happen? If anyone else finds a workaround please let me know - I really want this for my watch!

Now I'm using Samsung Gear. I will wait 3 or 4 years before Wear became an usable OS
GTask works on Watch : Android, Samsung Tizen, Sony SW, pebble. Just the Google Wear OS where Google Task do not works

I got it working
Ok I figure out a workaround, but it works great
Basically you need to use Zapier and Evernote. Evernote has a working Android wear app, and Zapier can copy any notes to Google tasks.. Start a new Zap from Evernote to add task to Google tasks. When adding the zap you have to play around - you put "Content Text" in the "Title" box - but it works perfectly!
The limit on the free accounts is 100 zaps per month - and it refreshes every 15 mins - but thats enough for me for now!
Hope that might help some people with the same problem...

Recommend and/or must have apps

Evening all,
As I'll soon be back on android I've been looking at apps for things like twitter and such. But also trying to see what other useful apps I could will need. I use all iPhone native apps at the moment mainly because I've never really liked the iOS and didn't want to get attached to any apps. The only two external apps I use is Tapatalk and waze.
What are the apps you all use on a regular basis and any that I should avoid?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Allo for messaging is really nice, Duo for video calls, Chrome for your browser, and Swype or Gboard for the keyboard.

Basically avoid anything made by Cheetah Mobile.
Launcher - Nova Launcher
Browser - Samsung Internet Beta
Music - Shuttle Music Player (good looking, has any feature you could want)
Podcast app - Pocketcasts
As for chat apps, they can basically all do voice and video calling, ask your friends what they use and use it.
You'll run into more apps as you get into the world of custom roms and rooting. Xposed still isn't available for nougat.

aalxx said:
Basically avoid anything made by Cheetah Mobile.
Music - Shuttle Music Player (good looking, has any feature you could want) .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will this app work with iTunes? From a mac? This is the next thing I need to look at as all my music is stored on my iTunes which is on my mac!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

aalxx said:
Basically avoid anything made by Cheetah Mobile.
Launcher - Nova Launcher
Browser - Samsung Internet Beta
Music - Shuttle Music Player (good looking, has any feature you could want)
Podcast app - Pocketcasts
As for chat apps, they can basically all do voice and video calling, ask your friends what they use and use it.
You'll run into more apps as you get into the world of custom roms and rooting. Xposed still isn't available for nougat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's Wrong with Clean Master?

running water said:
Will this app work with iTunes? From a mac? This is the next thing I need to look at as all my music is stored on my iTunes which is on my mac!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know, all my music is downloaded, you could try to download that music on your Mac and then use a USB cable to put it in your phone.
Edit: found something that might help you. This article (http://www.consumerreports.org/smartphones/how-to-play-itunes-music-on-an-android-smartphone/) shows how you can upload music from your iTunes library to your google play music library. I'm assuming you can download these songs somehow from one of the services.
choccy31 said:
What's Wrong with Clean Master?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Useless because LMK (low memory killer) exists. Contrary to popular belief android is pretty good at managing ram and "boosting" is unnecessary. Also cleaning junk is easy to do on your own. Basically it's an app which offers little additional functionality and uses misconceptions to make you think you need it.

Here's a couple of apps that I use relatively often, if not daily:
Texting (SMS/MMS): Textra
- Has been my texting app of choice at least the last 2 years. It's clean and simple and is everything I like in a texting app. And, if you're a fan of all things Dark Mode, they have it too.
- Chomp SMS is Textra's sibling app (same developer) and as all of the features that Textra has, plus theming.
Podcasts: Stitcher
Streaming music: Spotify
Keyboard: Swiftkey
- There's a bunch of keyboards out there, but this one's my personal favorite.
Mobile Payments: Samsung Pay
- I've never used Android Pay, but it's basically the same thing as Apple Pay, as both use NFC. I prefer Samsung Pay over both of those for the reason that you can use them at the older MST (magnetic strip terminals), where NFC won't work. If you've used Apple Pay and liked it, give Samsung Pay a shot. Most of the time, Samsung Pay works at places with the MST, in my personal experience.
Send Payment to friends/family: Venmo
- Simple and secure way to send money to friends/family. Useful so you can pay people back quickly, like if they paid for something for you and you have to pay them back.
Sending texts from your Tablet/PC: MightyText
- Similar concept of being able to send iMessages from your iPad or MacBook. As long as your phone's working, you shouldn't have issues sending messages. I've had times where I texted people using this app (there's also a Chrome extension too) and my phone wasn't on me... XD The free version only allows you to send 200 messages/month (I believe, correct me otherwise). Pro is a monthly subscription, but can send unlimited messages.

FluxionFluff said:
Here's a couple of apps that I use relatively often, if not daily:
Texting (SMS/MMS): Textra
- Has been my texting app of choice at least the last 2 years. It's clean and simple and is everything I like in a texting app. And, if you're a fan of all things Dark Mode, they have it too.
- Chomp SMS is Textra's sibling app (same developer) and as all of the features that Textra has, plus theming.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just got my S8... I've been using Textra for 2+ years and I was going to make it my default SMS app on S8. I have a Gear S3 watch too and when I went to swap the default, phone warned of 'missing functions' if I didn't stick with Samsung Messages app.
Any thoughts here? I'm inclined to ignore!

kartman_canada said:
Just got my S8... I've been using Textra for 2+ years and I was going to make it my default SMS app on S8. I have a Gear S3 watch too and when I went to swap the default, phone warned of 'missing functions' if I didn't stick with Samsung Messages app.
Any thoughts here? I'm inclined to ignore!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could be a few things. Sammy's stock messenger works like the Apple texting app, in that you get in-line read/receive notices and "other person is typing" icon things if you are both using the Sammy app. Most other features Textra can probably do just fine, Im betting if you installed a 1:1 clone of the Sammy app but with a different app sig and title, youd get the same warning.

Gentle Alarm app is a great clock/alarm. I've had it on all phones since my Samsung Captivate.

Waze is a good choice to stick to, over Google Maps. I love Google Maps, but Waze is FAR better on your battery for some reason. On my Note 5, with the screen on, fairly bright, and Google Maps navigating me somewhere, even plugged in the battery drains. But with Waze, it not only doesnt drain but charges properly, even if I also run music from the phone over bluetooth. Google owns both, but they give different directions sometimes, which is odd...but not a huge deal.
Google Play Music i think is a good suggestion, you can grab a 4 month free trial (which also includes Youtube Red) to test it out. Ive been using it over Spotify and IHeartRadio for a while.
Battery Widget Reborn is the best battery status monitor.
Dark Sky is the best (IMHO) weather app.
ES File Explorer is obviously a decent recommendation.
PowerAmp for playing music files stored locally.
QuickPic for viewing photos (unless you use the free Google cloud storage for photos).
Textra, of course.
There are others I cant think of now.
EDIT to add another thumbs up for Swiftkey, with a caveat. For me on my last three devices (Note 5, Xperia Z Ultra, Nexus 5) Swiftkey lags HARD on the Hangouts app and a few other apps. It was pure chance I got the issue across three phones, but it is a "common" issue with no real fix and has been around a while. If you do experience that issue with Swiftkey, my next keyboard recommendation would be Minuum. I dont use its teenie tiny mode that its famous/infamous for, I use it in the "full" keyboard layout and it is at least as good as Swiftkey.

Been using Textra for a while now. Tempted to use the S8 default messaging app for a while to see how it feels and what it offers so I'll be able to fairly compare it to Textra.
Agree with the following recommendations others have mentioned:
QuickPic for photo albums
Google Play (free) and Pandora for streaming
Waze for navigation (I live in the DC area and real-time traffic conditions can easily make a difference of 45-60 minutes in my commute)
Any task killer app is counter productive... I've written many posts about this topic in the past explaining why. It basically creates a bunch of work for the operating system with no benefit.
However, using the built-in running apps button and closing some apps you're not using can help because of the way some apps don't play nicely in the background.
Skype for video calls
SwiftKey for keyboard. I've been a long time Swype user (and alpha tester), but Nuance hasn't done much with it since they bought it, and it's losing traction
Nova for launcher
Chrome browser
Hangouts for chat
MightyText -- mixed results with this one. Really liked it for a while, but it took a significant toll on my battery, so I didn't always keep it installed. When I tried it again recently, it was much less reliable than I remembered. I had some duplicate messages and many missed messages that I never received in my browser, and many I sent from the browser that never made it to my recipients. Reliability is fundamental in texting, so I'll avoid this one most likely.
Nine for enterprise email

Useless because LMK (low memory killer) exists. Contrary to popular belief android is pretty good at managing ram and "boosting" is unnecessary. Also cleaning junk is easy to do on your own. Basically it's an app which offers little additional functionality and uses misconceptions to make you think you need it.[/QUOTE]
So true
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Join by Joaoapps (allows sync of messages to chrome desktop so you can sms from there)
PlayerPro (music player)
Nova Launcher Prime
Timely (perfect clock app with chill wakeup sounds)

Removable Apps ?

Hello,
I just got my sm-j730f (after 3 years of goo services from a s5 mini), and I have rooted it immediatly.
Now, I'm trying to clean it with the useless preinstall apps. I begin by the microsoft apps (word, excel...) and some google (films, music), but in this list, there is at least one app wich cause de the phone to bootloop the next restart...
I started to remove app one by one, and at this moment, I just can't remove ondrive without bootloop (list of remove app: word, excel, duo, google play video and films, google music, upday, talkback, smart switch, skype, samsung notes, samsung health and powerpoint but I don't have really use my phone after)
I will edit the list after more tests
So I'm looking for a list of removables apps (I only find one for the j727p)
Thanks and sorry for my english
Have a nice day guys!

Transflective Smartwatch with Google Fit Sync?

I'm looking for a smartwatch with a transflective display that has the ability to sync with google fit. I understand that the Garmin watches (vivoactive and forerunner) can sync with google fit through a secondary app like Health Sync but I'd prefer to not go that route. I've been looking at the Amazfit Stratos but one thing I don't like is that you can't do canned replys to text messages without installing AmazMods. I'm honestly just looking for a good Pebble replacement. My old Pebble Steel has screen tearing (yes i tried several method to remedy it) and the battery doesn't last as long as it used to. Ideally I'd like something that can do both google fit sync and canned replys for text messages out of box but I'd be willing to settle for something that requires a little tinkering provided someone has found and tested a particular method.