Does Blackberry 10 support Google contact groups/labels other than My Contacts?

I loved my old, old Blackberry for enterprise work duties (MS Exchange with BES). I moved jobs and after trying Android I am now on Windows Phone 8.1. I thought I'd try a BB Z10 because while I like Windows Phone and it accommodates most enterprise functions, Blackberry really rocked. How bad could it be today?

I just got the Z10 and am setting it up. At my current job we use Google Apps for Business. I am using Exchange ActiveSync on the phone, and everything's synchronizing. But the only contacts that sync are those with the My Contacts label, which is very few of them. I need all of my contacts to sync, with all labels intact, and be available no matter what label or labels they have in Google Contacts.

In addition, I need to be able to use those labels as To: addresses when composing emails.

(I absolutely must use Exchange ActiveSync and no other sync method, because that is the only mechanism that allows me to perform a contact lookup in my corporate directory.)

Before I spend a lot of time on this, does anyone know if Blackberry 10 is even able to achieve any of this? If not, I would say Blackberry has absolutely abandoned its roots of supporting the enterprise, given that large enterprises are moving from the MS Exchange (with BES) model and over to Google Apps for Business (for whatever reason).

If BB10 does not do what I want, is there such a thing as a third party BES to filter and manage all of this? Not that I want to pay for such a thing necessarily. Or is there a third party app to help manage all of this (like I have to use on my Windows Phone)?

Right now, as it stands, my Windows Phone is doing enterprise better than anything I've used.

As with most things Google.. nothing is quite standard. Google Apps does not actually support a traditional Active Sync protocol. It uses 'Google Sync' which is basically a basterdized version of Exchange Active Sync. You are able to connect to it using the active sync option on your BlackBerry and other devices.. and it works.. pretty well for the most part.. but there are several excentricity's that just don't line up exactly unless you're on Android. That's not BlackBerry's fault.. it's the way google wants it. And I can tell you that it works much better on BB10 then it does on ios. I don't have much experience on windows phone but I don't imagine they fair much better with google. If you want 100% compatability well then it only makes sense that google web service works best with googles devices.

Blackberry's exchange client absolutely allows you to do a lookup for an email in the exchange corporate directory. Even if they are not saved in your local contact group.

Z30 Club Member