Microsoft Exchange support for Android

[nitrodesk]

Originally Posted by dreeZ

Well, not for me. I have been an Exchange user for a couple of years using Windows Mobile and recently using iPhone. Their implementation is way better , besides the fact that the contacts, emails and calendar are merged in the phone ones, instead of using a disparate database.

I could only see one email, no folders, no contacts, or calendar events.

Exchange is a MUST for me and so far G1 is lacking this big time.

I like the phone very much, and would love native support like Windows Mobile, iphone, and blackberries.

Adriano

Very interesting thought. Something we as developers have to grapple with in this unique case. The big difference between g1 and iPhone is that the G1 has native google apps, which doesnt like to be replaced or augmented. Hence merging with the phone contacts/calendar would normally not be taken favorably by pure business users.

-Nitro

[dreeZ]

Well, I respectfully disagree with you. I'm a developer myself, and regarding replacing and augmenting applications, google advertises exactly the opposite:

(from android.com) Apps are created equal
Any app on the mobile device can be replaced or extended -- even core components such as the dialer or home.


Secondly I am a 100% business user. I have exchange in the company I work for, and for me, having calendar events, contacts and emails in a push form is a must.

Maybe your application has a different focus, or is targeted to a disparate type of user, and I can understand that.

If you check ContactSync available in Market today, it pushes Contacts from Exchange direclty into the phone's native one.

Dont you see value in having contacts, calendar and email data so other applications have access to those?

If I maintain my contacts in Exchange, wouldn't be great if I'm in a convention to know other people in my contact list that are also in there? There are already applications doing that, but I bet they wont be able to see your contact list.

Adriano Freire

[magus]

Well, as another longtime business (Exchange) user and Technical Manager I'll throw my $0.02 in: I'm pretty happy with the state of TD today. It's not all the way there by any means, but based on how long it took on platforms like the iPhone (former iPhone 3g owner) to get a decent Exchange solution, Android and TD are doing well.

I also think that although preferable, "push" is overrated as a "has to be there" feature. As long as I have the ability to set up a polling schedule, I'm about 80% content.

The Calendar and Contacts do need to mature in TD. I have to see appointments tht have been sent to me in the Calendar (and I have to be able to create them in TD and send to recipients) and there has to be better integration between Contacts (Exchange) and TD mail (I just can't continue to type full addresses in for co-workers).

Considering when Android and the G1 became available - TouchDown has evolved rapidly and any forwarding application where you need a dedicated machine sitting around is never going to be the solution.

[nitrodesk]

Originally Posted by dreeZ

Well, I respectfully disagree with you. I'm a developer myself, and regarding replacing and augmenting applications, google advertises exactly the opposite:

(from android.com) Apps are created equal
Any app on the mobile device can be replaced or extended -- even core components such as the dialer or home.


Secondly I am a 100% business user. I have exchange in the company I work for, and for me, having calendar events, contacts and emails in a push form is a must.

Maybe your application has a different focus, or is targeted to a disparate type of user, and I can understand that.

If you check ContactSync available in Market today, it pushes Contacts from Exchange direclty into the phone's native one.

Dont you see value in having contacts, calendar and email data so other applications have access to those?

If I maintain my contacts in Exchange, wouldn't be great if I'm in a convention to know other people in my contact list that are also in there? There are already applications doing that, but I bet they wont be able to see your contact list.

Adriano Freire

Adriano,
I *dont* disagree with you :-)

the key is "doesnt like to be replaced or augmented" and i mean it in technical and practical terms. Contacts is something which can be merged data-wise, and it is in the roadmap for us to do in the next couple of weeks. But for true integration and innovation, this is not enough.

In an ideal world, we would be able to simply read from exchange and stuff all that data into the native email, calendar and contacts, essentially making the phone feed from the exchange data, as if the google apps never existed (or existed side by side). But the way things are designed, this is non trivial. As of writing, these are the problems preventing us from doing so.

1. Cant detect changes. so if you edit a contact on the phone, we would not know. If you add a new calendar entry, we would not know. And the gmail app can never be really integrated with exchange mail backend and kept maintainable, since we have to program "outside the box".

2. Cant extend the fields. cant add additional fields in the google contacts o calendar or email for any additional exchange fields we support. Even If we did find a way, contacts/calendar/email app still cannot be extended to show that info.

3. Cant extend functionality: Things like support for saving exchange attachments locally, moving between exchange folders in email, not even having the email app (which is really a gmail app) know about exchange folders.

So to provide a richer experience for an exchange user, we had to write our own UI, which although non native, would still give a unified experience for everything the exchange user wants to do to his account.

This also allows us to provide more: exchange tasks, notes, journal, out of office etc.

However, we as always take every piece of feedback including yours seriously and wait for any opportunity to do the things as you perceive as right. At the end of the day, we dont build what we want to build, we want to build what you want to use.

Hope that is clearer, and thanks a lot for chiming in.
-Nitro

[nitrodesk]

@dreeZ,
Also, since you quoted.
"(from android.com) Apps are created equal
Any app on the mobile device can be replaced or extended -- even core components such as the dialer or home."

In the coming months we will probably get to a point where this will hold true. the replacing aspect of it. Lets say you are a business user, *nothing* stops TD from providing you with a replacement dialler, a replacement contacts app and a replacement mail app. While TD bundles them all up inside one single launcher, as time progresses, you might be able to safely ignore the default apps and just start touchdown instead for your day to day use of those apps.

So you are right, and the direction you say is the way to go, we are just not there yet. Probably just a few weeks away.
cheers
-Nitro

[Babblefish]

I am watching this thread with great interest.

I currently have a Blackberry Pearl for personal use. I do not sync with exchange as I do not have one, but regullarly sync Contacts, Calendar Notes and Task using Blackberry "Desktop Manager" with my Outlook. Changes made in either place (mobile or PC) are cross-synced automatically. My email is not synced, however, as I pull copies on my phone (pop) and to Outlook.

But the big issue is that I do NOT want my information pushed up to Google. There is no reason or advantage to me to do this, and many potential security issues and reasons to not do it.

So I am very much looking for the equivelant to what I have on Android. I was a Treo user, and with IntlleSync, it worked great. But the Palm OS was being left so far behind I moved to the Pearl.

I still have geat hopes for Android, and am a big supporter for open systems that encourage devlopers. Like Palm used to do.

But so far I can only watch, as there does not appear to be an application that will give me what I currently have.

[dreeZ]

Originally Posted by Babblefish

I am watching this thread with great interest.

I currently have a Blackberry Pearl for personal use. I do not sync with exchange as I do not have one, but regullarly sync Contacts, Calendar Notes and Task using Blackberry "Desktop Manager" with my Outlook. Changes made in either place (mobile or PC) are cross-synced automatically. My email is not synced, however, as I pull copies on my phone (pop) and to Outlook.

But the big issue is that I do NOT want my information pushed up to Google. There is no reason or advantage to me to do this, and many potential security issues and reasons to not do it.

So I am very much looking for the equivelant to what I have on Android. I was a Treo user, and with IntlleSync, it worked great. But the Palm OS was being left so far behind I moved to the Pearl.

I still have geat hopes for Android, and am a big supporter for open systems that encourage devlopers. Like Palm used to do.

But so far I can only watch, as there does not appear to be an application that will give me what I currently have.

Buy an iPhone. I am 100% happy.

[gibberwokky]

Hi All

It seems that there is a lot of older information posted on the support of Exchange. What is the current view on support for exchange or even dare I say it Blackberry enterprise servers? What works?

I am currently a BB user as I use my phone for work email mostly. I am due to change my phone and want something a bit more 'sexy', something that can do a lot more than just email (even though this is priority number 1). I would obviosly go for an iPhone as it covers alot of these bases but as I am forced to use Vodafone the HTC magic seems the best way to go but if I can't get good exchange access I will just have to get another BB (boring!!)

Cheers

[Droidr]

There is a company called Wave Global that are working on application called MyLink. You can sync up Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange data via USB on a desktop sync or wirelessly through your mobile carrier. Not sure when it’s out though. Check out their site for all the deets
http://www.waveglobal.net/Website/We...orAnd?OpenForm

My company use Lotus Notes, and as a beta tester, its great. There are a few apps for Exchange but Lotus Notes support is very limited. One to watch for sure!

[motu]

try using Daak