Windows Phone. What apps are left and what's functional?

Forums › Legacy mobile platforms (Windows Mobile, Palm OS, Web OS, Symbian, Meego, Blackberry) › Windows Phone. What apps are left and what's functional?

mudguard

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#222622 21-Aug-2017 08:53

So it's been some time since I've used a Windows phone. I use Android and Apple. But my mother is kind of tied into Windows phone. I gave her a Nokia 620 (I think) and 520 a few years ago. Both were pretty faithful until recently so my sister gave her a 1020 (which is gorgeous and a phone I wanted if it wasn't Windows).

However after trying to set a few things up it seems there are even fewer apps than I remembered available. I can't even get her email to work.

Short of buying her an iPhone, are there any functional apps anyone can suggest for email and photo storage? I tried flickr and google photos, but neither were available. The phone is a borderline dumb phone now, she can send texts, make calls, take photos but is manually offloading the photos onto a laptop.

edwinov

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#1860057 7-Sep-2017 00:08

I am still using a Samsung ATIV-S Windows Phone, running 8.1. It's TERRIBLE!

More and more programs (I hate the buzzword 'app') are dying. Even Skype (a M$ product, unfortunately) is NO LONGER being supported on Windows Phone (at least on 8.1). The only half decent browser for Windows Phone is the UC Browser, the latest update for that feels like it was a century ago. Whatsapp takes AAAAGES to load, constantly busy on 'resuming'...

I LOVE the Windows Phone, the layout, the live tiles, but I HATE the fact that M$ keeps completely changing everything every few years (WP7 -> WP8 -> WP10), that has pissed off a lot of developers (including me) who for the 3rd time had to rewrite their program because M$ changed everything. As a consequence there are hardly any apps for it, it's all M$'s own fault.

I hate to say it, but Windows Phone is dead. I bought an Android phone not long ago because my drone needed one for a display and I'll soon make the switch and completely ditch the Windows Phone.

M$ has ruined the platform.

Technofreak

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#1860131 7-Sep-2017 09:02

I think the email should still work. We have a 1020 here, I just checked one email account and that's working OK.

I recommend Opera Mini as the browser to use.

Sony Xperia XA2 running Sailfish OS. https://sailfishos.org The true independent open source mobile OS
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Technofreak

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#1860134 7-Sep-2017 09:06

edwinov:

M$ has ruined the platform.

Are you surprised? Their record with mobile devices and mobile platforms is abysmal. They inherited a very good OS when they bought Nokia, but pride and or ignorance meant they killed Meego off in favour of a much inferior Windows Phone 7. Their track record prior to that was just as bad.

Sony Xperia XA2 running Sailfish OS. https://sailfishos.org The true independent open source mobile OS
Samsung Galaxy Tab S6
Dell Inspiron 14z i5

elpenguino

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#1860161 7-Sep-2017 09:44

Still using Win 10 as my daily driver - my phone works great. It was unbelievable value at $77.

You should be able to use outlook for your email no drama.

I'm not into social networking (ugh) but all the main brands should be in the app store, as well as plenty of other useful ones.

I mostly use the web browser, email and the metservice app.

Skype is there too.

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

jonb

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#1860167 7-Sep-2017 09:58

Facebook still works on 8.1, but not Messenger. Can access Messenger from the phone browser still.

WhatsApp still good on 8.1.

OneDrive for photo storage.

I won't bother upgrading the family members phone to Windows Phone 10 - only really to get FB Messenger working, but MS now officially abondoning 10 so not much point making hte user get used to the new UI etc.

Will give it another year for them and then get them a Xiaomi Redmi 4x or whatever the equivalent model will be.

dafman

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#1860196 7-Sep-2017 10:44

I had high hopes some years back of migrating from android to windows phone - I loved the look and feel of the tile-based UI, I just had to wait for some more apps to be migrated. Sadly, the OS went one way, and not the way I wanted. RIP