[quik4life]

Hey everyone,

This may be a stupid question... my father and wife both have Z30s and are eyeing the DTEK60. I'm the "tech guy" of the family but I'm still holding onto my Q10 in hopes of the Mercury.

Both my father and wife have hotmail accounts. Can they setup their Google account with their hotmail accounts, or do they need gmail accounts? Are there any advantages to having a gmail account with an Android phone over having a hotmail account?

Thanks.

Posted via CB10

[gebco]

I have read that you can set up your phone using a hotmail account. I chose not to. Instead, I created a Google account which I used to set up my phone and for the Google Play Store. I do not use it for email. At all. I don't even have the account set up in my Hub. I have different email accounts from different providers for different reasons (work, personal, shared family account, etc) so no one provider can gather all of my info. So in the case of Google, they do not have access to my email; they do have access to some of my locations as well as my browsing habits, but there isn't anything there as confidential as my email. Maybe I should be wearing a tinfoil hat, but it works for me.

[quik4life]

For me, I just want things to work. It's a bit of a hassle to change from one email to another, especially since my wife has so many things connected to that account.

Any other opinions?

Posted via CB10

[peninha]

You don't need a Gmail account, just create your Google account with your hotmail email. I don't have Gmail and don't have any issues, can access all the Google apps like the playstore, youtube, sheets, slides, google drive (they give you 15Gb free). The only one i can't access with my outlook account is Gmail lol.

[Mikey_NNG]

You must have gmail account to access all the features of Google (as it relates to Android; Android is powered by Google).

You can use a hotmail account account or any other third party account, but you will lose functionality.

The advantage of having a Gmail account over a hotmail account with Android is simply that it will your life a lot easier. It's free.. It doesn't take any effort to create one and you don't even have to actively use it for it to be accepted.

[quik4life]

You can use a hotmail account account or any other third party account, but you will lose functionality.

What sort of functionality will I lose? Users like peninha says they can access everything, and then you're saying that I will lose functionality. I'm confused.... Can you be specific on how it will complicate my life to not just have a gmail account?

[Mikey_NNG]

What sort of functionality will I lose? Users like peninha says they can access everything, and then you're saying that I will lose functionality. I'm confused.... Can you be specific on how it will complicate my life to not just have a gmail account?

As far as im aware, one shouldn't be able to access the Android Market (Google Play Store) without a gmail account. At least thats how it used to be... maybe it has changed.

Otherwise, things like the syncing of contacts, backing up of photos/data/calendar, easy restoration, free space on the google drive and general nifty suggestions and notifications all use a gmail account to work. This includes the small stuff like reminders about select information pulled from your emails, tips about somewhere you just visited etc.

Again, all of this can be attained without a Gmail account with varying degrees of workarounds. Some of them being unnecessary given the ease of just having a gmail account.

[peninha]

As far as im aware, one shouldn't be able to access the Android Market (Google Play Store) without a gmail account. At least thats how it used to be... maybe it has changed.

Otherwise, things like the syncing of contacts, backing up of photos/data/calendar, easy restoration, free space on the google drive and general nifty suggestions and notifications all use a gmail account to work. This includes the small stuff like reminders about select information pulled from your emails, tips about somewhere you just visited etc.

Again, all of this can be attained without a Gmail account with varying degrees of workarounds. Some of them being unnecessary given the ease of just having a gmail account.

The only ones I'm not sure of is the easy restoration, and the reminders about select information pulled from your emails everything else can be done with your outlook google account without any workarounds. Although i can sync to google, for contacts, calendar, and reminders i choose to sync to my outlook account.

[chris1h]

I use Outlook email, my google account has no Gmail set up, just a Gmail account for accessing playstore etc. My contacts and calendars etc all sync perfectly using Outlook.com, so Hotmail should be the same

[peninha]

I just checked my settings on the PRIV. If the easy restoration is in the backup and reset section where you backup your phone to the google servers and can turn on the automatic restore you can also do that with an outlook google account.

[SeanKent]

I'm pretty sure there are no disadvantages to using a Hotmail account. As mentioned, some people are unaware that you can set up your Google account with your Hotmail address. As far as I'm aware, as long as you have a Google account then all runs as it is supposed to.

My Google/YouTube account is with my Hotmail address, and I have full functionality with no missing features.

[sdgardne]

The key here is to understand that having a google account does not necessarily mean using GMail for email. On Google, you can create an account using whatever credentials (userID/email address and password) you desire. Just like on MicroSoft, you can do the same...create an MS account using any valid email address, but that doesn't require the use of Outlook.com/Hotmail for email. It's who's server the account resides on that matters. but the credentials (userID/email address and password) can be whatever you want (as long as it's a valid email address on some system somewhere).

The BB/Android devices require a Google account for all functionality to work (Play Store, Anti-Theft, etc.), but that does NOT require you to use GMail for email. It simply is an account, on the Google servers, to associate the device with for all of those required functions...but email from GMail is NOT one of the required functions. And, once you associate your device to that Google account, you never really have to worry about it again -- but do please make 100% sure that you remember the credentials...you will need them if ever you should activate the anti-theft function.

Think of it the same as BBID is for BB10 and prior devices...it's just an account, on the BB servers, for enabling all of the proprietary services (including anti-theft) that you get with such a device. But your email can be on whatever hosting service you desire it to be. Same here...you must have a Google account to enable the device, but are not mandated to use GMail for your email.

Good luck!

[quik4life]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Very much appreciated.

One quick question... I assume two-way sync of contacts works flawlessly?? No hiccups using the BlackBerry Contacts app (ie, double entries) or the stock Android contacts app?

Posted via CB10

[sdgardne]

"Flawlessly" is a pretty tall order...along the lines of "perfect". When dealing with things designed, built, and operated by humans, neither of those can truly be expected. ;-)

That said, I use EAS via Hotmail/Outlook.com, and it works "flawlessly" for me...but I use the quotation marks quite intentionally. I would recommend you favor EAS, then IMAP/CardDav/CalDav, but never POP nor local sync.

And I use the BB Contacts app...don't even see any "stock Android contacts app".