I Ditched Google Android and Moved to Windows Phone - Was it Worth it?

Like most of us out there (unless you are an Apple iOS user) I have been a Google Android user pretty much since smart phones came out. For the most part I have always been happy with the service and feature set of the Android devices - at least to the point that I knew the phone would do the job I wanted it for and so it became a tool, just another device in my digital life.

However, in late February 2018 I switched to a Windows 10 phone. “What on earth made you do that?” I can hear you say. Well as pretty much all Steem users will be aware of, Google and in turn Youtube, seem to have gone into almost full blown censorship mode. Whether that be penalising or removing Youtube channels, or down ranking news websites like RT.com.

Not satisfied with just being the largest internet company in the world and the biggest platform, now they seem to have moved into the censorship business and if not controlling what users see, certainly manipulating or influencing what users see - promoting one particular point of view other another. I think most reasonable and honest people would agree that this is not the job of internet giants like Google.

I don’t believe that companies such as Google/Youtube should be doing this. Freedom of speech is a fundamental right. Although Google haven’t outright banned websites like RT.com ( https://www.rt.com/op-ed/410981-google-rt-censorship-propaganda/) de-ranking them is indeed a form of censorship, or simply censorship through the back door.

I have always been a principled person and as I do read and frequent RT.com and independent news sites and various Youtube channels, it bothered me greatly that Google were and still are doing this. I felt that I could no longer use the services of a company that I had ideological differences with. A company that actively worked to restrict the information that I found useful, agreed with or was just interested in.

So I moved to a Windows 10 phone. I am no stranger to alternative operating systems. For the last 12 years or so I have been a Linux Mint user on my desktop. But recently (as you will see on my D-Tube channel) I have got back into one of the passions of my youth which is trains. So I switched back to Windows specifically to be able to use my Trainz - A New Era train simulator. The long and the short of this is that I am familiar with Windows 10.

So now we come to the phone - and the topic of this post.

I have a Acer Liquid Jade Primo - a mouthful of a name if I ever heard one.

First impressions were that this seems clean and smart - aimed more at the mature or business market rather than the young and hip Android and iPhone market. Certainly the Microsoft store lacks many many apps that are available for both Android and iPhone, but not being a big app user myself I did check to see if the main apps I used would make it feasible to switch to Windows phone. Sure enough the Microsoft Store either had the apps that I needed, or it was easy enough to just log directly into the websites of the services I use and access them that way. So no biggy there.

It has only been a few days of using Windows 10 phone, but already I am enjoying the experience. This has enabled me to do the unthinkable - I actually completely deleted my previous Google account. Hitting the delete button on the Google account website was certainly a satisfactory feeling. I was in essence saying “no Google, I don’t approve of or share your ideology and don’t want to be associated with you any longer” - and although a meaningless gesture in the grand scheme of things - it felt good! I should add that this doesn’t mean that Microsoft don’t have shady practises. The way they forced the majority of Windows 7 and 8.1 users to Windows 10 is certainly coercion, but being as Microsoft - as far as I know - don’t have a huge content sharing platform like Youtube - at least as influential as Youtube I don’t feel the same way about Microsoft as I do Google. Who knows in the future that may change.

As I stopped using Google for search years ago instead preferring Duckduckgo.com and never using Google’s calendar or gmail service I am now completely out of the Google eco system - again that feels good.

I do still view Youtube videos (when not watching D-Tube of course :) ) but now I do that without an account and just bookmark channels that I like to watch and access their content that way.

Only time will tell if Windows phone continues to meet my needs and keep me satisfied, but after all I still remember a time before mobiles existed and a time when I only checked my emails once a day on my desktop pc after getting home from work. So although all these devices certainly make life easier and more convenient, we can exist and function without them.