[nzrocketman]

Is it better to transfer all my google contacts and calendars windows live and only use google as my emails

[MojoHand69]

My phone arrives this week. I am hoping to keep my contacts in google and just sync gmail, contacts and calendar. I have been using google for years now and hope that the WP8 synchronization is smooth.

[Tyresian]

I don't think either is better. Both work equally well. I synced with my Google on Android, 2 WP7 phones, and now my Lumia 920 with Google seamlessly.

[davedavedavedave]

As previously said, either should be fine. I recently migrated everything from Gmail to Hotmail for 1 simple reason, the contact pictures. In Gmail, no matter the quality of picture associated with a contact, it would always look pixalated on the phone. Hotmail doesnt have any of these restrictions.

[gapost]

Does WP 8 now pull in categories from Google Contacts?

[MechanizedSunrise]

Just me personally, I setup a Live account specifically for my phone. I have my Outlook contacts and calendars synced to it. I also have my linkedin and my microsoft dev stuff all linked to it.

I prefer this over Gmail mainly because I like to compartmentalize things. Gmail sync (at least when I tried it a while ago) would also sync my gchat list into my contacts. I ended up with a ton of random email addresses/usernames that I didn't feel like linking.

But I'm just weird like that.

[Agent-P]

I use Google calendar and Gmail, but Live for my contacts.

As previously said, either should be fine. I recently migrated everything from Gmail to Hotmail for 1 simple reason, the contact pictures. In Gmail, no matter the quality of picture associated with a contact, it would always look pixalated on the phone. Hotmail doesnt have any of these restrictions.

This is the same reason I moved my contacts from Gmail to Live. Although I think recently Google fixed this, but I'm not going through the trouble of moving them back.

[mdameron]

Do Android or iOS phones sync with Live contacts? If not, go Google so you won't be trapped in the Windows Phone ecosystem.

[fwaits]

I would say unless you have a strong need/desire to keep the contacts/calendars on Google, having them on Live/Outlook.com would be more "native" and easier to manage/sync across MS products assuming you are planning to take advantage of the Windows ecosystem.

[St_Deborah]

I'm just starting to move some of my main contacts over from gmail because all of the pictures I save as a google contact come out looking grainy, like from my old-school Nextel camera phone. Terrible. I just recently found out that the Windows Live contacts don't have this problem when adding a photo.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

[mdameron]

I'm just starting to move some of my main contacts over from gmail because all of the pictures I save as a google contact come out looking grainy, like from my old-school Nextel camera phone. Terrible. I just recently found out that the Windows Live contacts don't have this problem when adding a photo.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

You go through the hassle of manually saving a picture for each contact in Live?

[St_Deborah]

I guess so.
Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

[Coolknight1968]

Use Live. Add the pictures on your phone, real good app.

[simpkijd]

I'd use Google for the following reason: Your contacts will follow you if you decide to move on to another system. I don;t see that ability to do so if you use Live.

[Rico]

I'd use Google for the following reason: Your contacts will follow you if you decide to move on to another system. I don;t see that ability to do so if you use Live.

You can import your Live contacts on iOS and Android. No worries there.

[TaliZorah]

Do Android or iOS phones sync with Live contacts? If not, go Google so you won't be trapped in the Windows Phone ecosystem.

You know, it's really, Really, REALLY easy to export and import contacts in Windows Live. Just as easy with google.

You would never be "trapped" in the WP ecosystem just because that's where your contacts live. lol.

[FredW3]

I am thinking about going back to Google to store contactacts and calendar. MS doesn't have a way to sync calendars from Outllok (without Exchange) to live. It apparently takes a separate product (which is not free) to do this. Google gives this functionality free.

If anyone knows how to accomplish this through MS, please let me know. I was really hoping to get out of the Google ecosystem completely.

[entropism]

You need to change the settings to only sync contacts with phone numbers. Makes things a LOT easier.

Just me personally, I setup a Live account specifically for my phone. I have my Outlook contacts and calendars synced to it. I also have my linkedin and my microsoft dev stuff all linked to it.

I prefer this over Gmail mainly because I like to compartmentalize things. Gmail sync (at least when I tried it a while ago) would also sync my gchat list into my contacts. I ended up with a ton of random email addresses/usernames that I didn't feel like linking.

But I'm just weird like that.

[mdameron]

If you use gmail, you should use google for your contacts for the sole reason of easily emailing from a PC.