4 ms·

- solved by any launcher - solved by any launcher Then you have never used Windows Phone. None of the Android launchers provides the equivalent of WP tiles wit

- solved by any launcher - solved by any launcher Then you have never used Windows Phone. None of the Android launchers provides the equivalent of WP tiles with the same amount of integration. There is no API that launchers could use to pull out the same amount/types of information. - gmaps handles this automatically Nonsense. It does some prefetching, but if you are in another country (no data) and you go slightly off-route, there is no maps coverage anymore. Luckily, new versions of Google maps allow you to download offline maps ahead of time as well. For me the reason to switch if I was still on WP is that the app state is so deplorable that even Microsoft's apps on iOS and Android are miles ahead of WP's counter parts.

rwmj 10y ago
You should probably look at OSM (eg. OSMAnd, but there are others). I just download the whole country map before I visit somewhere.
- danieldk 10y ago
  I use OSM on my Garmin GPS for hiking/cycling, especially when Garmin's maps for a particular country are overly expensive. http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl
- fsloth 10y ago
  HERE maps for android is pretty nice - ar least for traveling in europe there is a very good ui for downloading regional maps and it performs offline routing pretty well.
fsloth 10y ago
"There is no API that launchers could use to pull out the same amount/types of information." What's missing in Android compared to WP in this regard? I have widgets on my Android homescreen that has buttons to activate app functionality (e.g. Audible's 'play' button) and that dynamically update their content. Is there some richer interactor or viewing scheme wp supports?
vyrotek 10y ago
Interestingly enough, Microsoft actually has an Android Launcher called Arrow. It's not an attempt of bringing the WP experience to Android though. That said, it's a great launcher and I use it on my Note 4. I still don't fully understand the strategy behind why Microsoft released it though. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.launcher&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft....

rwmj 10y ago

You should probably look at OSM (eg. OSMAnd, but there are others). I just download the whole country map before I visit somewhere.

danieldk 10y ago
I use OSM on my Garmin GPS for hiking/cycling, especially when Garmin's maps for a particular country are overly expensive. http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl
fsloth 10y ago
HERE maps for android is pretty nice - ar least for traveling in europe there is a very good ui for downloading regional maps and it performs offline routing pretty well.

fsloth 10y ago

"There is no API that launchers could use to pull out the same amount/types of information." What's missing in Android compared to WP in this regard? I have widgets on my Android homescreen that has buttons to activate app functionality (e.g. Audible's 'play' button) and that dynamically update their content. Is there some richer interactor or viewing scheme wp supports?

vyrotek 10y ago

Interestingly enough, Microsoft actually has an Android Launcher called Arrow. It's not an attempt of bringing the WP experience to Android though. That said, it's a great launcher and I use it on my Note 4. I still don't fully understand the strategy behind why Microsoft released it though. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.launcher&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft....