What would you like in WP7

[M_Lyons10]

I thought this would be a fun general discussion type thread. Just things that you personally would like to see in the OS in the future. Who knows, maybe Microsoft will see it. lol

For me it's really little things honestly. And I'm sorry if some of these have been fixed in Mango, I'm still on NoDO...

1) It should be a requirement for apps to include a change log with the update. This really drives me nuts. The eBay app for instance never tells you anything, and seems to only take things away.

2) It should also be a requirement for apps to have a way to e-mail support (For paid, carrier, or OEM apps). I'd love to contact Verizon but e-mails never seem to go to the right place.

3) In the Marketplace, I like the link to OEM apps, but it would be nice to have a link to Carrier apps.

4) This one is (I think a bug), but when setting the sync setting in e-mail to 3 days it doesn't seem to ever remove mail from the phone. When set to 7 days it seems to work as designed...

5) It would be nice to be able to create folders and organize pictures better. It would be nice to have a folder of just wallpapers for instance.

6) When sending a text to multiple people I would personally prefer that it just add the text to each persons discussion than create a new discussion with 2 contacts. That's how Windows Mobile did it and I think it made more sense.

But anyway, that's just a couple of things that I personally would like and I was really curious what other people might have. The OS is really awesome,. so I think it mostly just needs a little refinement. And if any of these things were changed in Mango, please let me know. lol

[Ji@nBing]

Theme support. The base OS is actually really nice. It's just the default theme is plain, flat, and really, really boring. If they allowed theme support and came out with a couple of nice themes with "pop" and some depth to them, I think WP7 would get a better look by a lot more people than it is now. I know I would certainly consider it for my next phone. As it is, it's just too ugly for me to want to use. It's one of the ugliest UI's I've ever seen.

[jakem1]

Theme support. The base OS is actually really nice. It's just the default theme is plain, flat, and really, really boring. If they allowed theme support and came out with a couple of nice themes with "pop" and some depth to them, I think WP7 would get a better look by a lot more people than it is now. I know I would certainly consider it for my next phone. As it is, it's just too ugly for me to want to use. It's one of the ugliest UI's I've ever seen.

We know you feel that way because it's all you ever post in these forums :rolleyes:

[Ji@nBing]

We know you feel that way because it's all you ever post in these forums :rolleyes:

In WP7 related stuff, yeah. Isn't the the point of discussion forums, you express your opinion?!?!?:rolleyes:

[George P Global Moderator]

Themes will never come, at best you might see a future option to have different types of tiles other than the current flat colored ones, but that's it. Changing the UI in any big way breaks everything, there's no need for it at all. If you don't like the tiles fine, then go with icon grid or widget grid if that looks better to you.

[M_Lyons10]

Well, to each their own. I personally really like the WP7 UI. I've seen the request to allow you to change the background color before, and would be O.K. with that option (Though I think I would still keep mine black)... I don't think they will probably make it all that customizable though as they are trying to keep everything the same...

[Ji@nBing]

Themes will never come, at best you might see a future option to have different types of tiles other than the current flat colored ones, but that's it. Changing the UI in any big way breaks everything, there's no need for it at all. If you don't like the tiles fine, then go with icon grid or widget grid if that looks better to you.

I like the tiles. I don't like the monochrome one color background to the tiles and the simplistic icons on them. Something like the glass WMC theme would look really nice IMO. Like I said, something with some pop and depth to it, rather than the flat, plain theme they have going now that literally looks like it was made in MS paint by a 12 year old.

[jakem1]

In WP7 related stuff, yeah. Isn't the the point of discussion forums, you express your opinion?!?!?:rolleyes:

Over and over and over again? At this point you're just beating a dead horse.

[M_Lyons10]

Well, to each their own. I just don't want the topic to become an argument back and forth. I'm hoping the discussion can be about things everyone would like to see in WP7. :)

[Dashel]

3) In the Marketplace, I like the link to OEM apps, but it would be nice to have a link to Carrier apps.

5) It would be nice to be able to create folders and organize pictures better. It would be nice to have a folder of just wallpapers for instance.

In regards to

3) My Focus already has separate sections for Samsung and ATT

5) Since I use Live heavily, it imports those folder already (I have one for Wallpapers). I would like the feature for taken pics though. I also don't like how it pukes over the My Pictures library at times.

I would add

-A better way to 'close all' apps/panes. I find I keep neurotically hitting the back button to close them all out. Even more annoying if I don't use a 'blank' IE tab as last.

-Customizable app groups, the list does get a bit long after a while and I like my main minimal (only have 4/12 tiles out of view by default)

-A better synthetic voice. Its not just a WP7 issue, MS should have paid whatever it took to replicate M.Barrett's voice.

-The big one, Media Player/Center integration. I should be able to access all my home media remotely and control the player from my phone.

I prefer the flat tiles/icons personally and also think theme support would be detrimental to the platform. Glossy 3D icons are so 2000.

[M_Lyons10]

In regards to

3) My Focus already has separate sections for Samsung and ATT

Really? That's weird. Verizon doesn't have that. Must have been an oversight...

-Customizable app groups, the list does get a bit long after a while and I like my main minimal (only have 4/12 tiles out of view by default)

-The big one, Media Player/Center integration. I should be able to access all my home media remotely and control the player from my phone.

I prefer the flat tiles/icons personally and also think theme support would be detrimental to the platform. Glossy 3D icons are so 2000.

Those would both be really nice. I like to keep my main screen pretty clean too, so pinning a few to the top of the app list would be handy.

[Mockingbird]

I want a way to close apps from the task switcher.

Yes, I know the apps are not technically running, but I want a way to clean them out anyway.

EDIT.

Like Dashel said, AT&T has its own section in the Marketplace call "AT&T AppCenter".

[M_Lyons10]

I want a way to close apps from the task switcher.

Yes, I know the apps are not technically running, but I want a way to clean them out anyway.

EDIT.

Like Dashel said, AT&T has its own section in the Marketplace call "AT&T AppCenter".

I find that very interesting. I guess they must have forgotten for Verizon. Maybe it'll be added in Mango. Not that Verizon has many apps or anything... lol

And I've heard a lot of people request the ability to remove apps from the task switcher. So I'm sure that'll be coming...

[Mockingbird]

The other complains has to do with Internet Explorer Mobile.

I don't want to tap "..." to access Tabs/Favorites: too many steps

"find on page" is missing.

At least there's now an address bar in landscape.

In another thoughts, I wonder why Microsoft didn't add the tabs and favorites icons next to the address bar. Make the buttons auto-hide (eg. slide off the screen) if they take up too much space.

The whole address bar should auto-hide when I scrolled down the page.

[Calum Veteran]

Over and over and over again? At this point you're just beating a dead horse.

I disagree. Not only will some people have never seen him post about this gripe of his, if this is his main complaint with Windows Phone, it's understandable he'd be passionate about it. This thread even specifically asks what he would like to see in Windows Phone, so he posted with his completely on-topic thoughts. I disagree with his opinion in this case, but I don't mind seeing him post about it.

I constantly berate Twitter for maintaining that needless character limit because I have to use their service (seeing as some of the friends I'd like to keep up to date with use it), but I cannot tweet or reply to people while the character limit is in place. The only way I can make my voice heard is to post about it in on-topic threads and forums whenever possible if I've already suggested it to Twitter and they haven't yet removed it.

[M_Lyons10]

The other complains has to do with Internet Explorer Mobile.

I don't want to tap "..." to access Tabs/Favorites: too many steps

"find on page" is missing.

At least there's now an address bar in landscape.

In another thoughts, I wonder why Microsoft didn't add the tabs and favorites icons next to the address bar. Make the buttons auto-hide (eg. slide off the screen) if they take up too much space.

The whole address bar should auto-hide when I scrolled down the page.

I agree, those are some strange changes. I'm hoping Find on Page comes back in final, because I use that a lot.

[random_n]

Separate volume levels for ring, media, notifications, etc. Its rather annoying that if I turn down the volume to watch a video I then have to remember to turn it up again later if I want to hear incoming calls or messages.

Also, a properly Zune-integrated backup and restore function. The current thing of dumping the entire device contents, firmware and all, to a local disk using third-party software is really sketchy. Cloud sync for everything would also be acceptable. Reloading all the apps by hand and having no way to restore settings or saved games is poor.

[Holey]

Separate volume levels for ring, media, notifications, etc. Its rather annoying that if I turn down the volume to watch a video I then have to remember to turn it up again later if I want to hear incoming calls or messages.

This.

[M_Lyons10]

Separate volume levels for ring, media, notifications, etc. Its rather annoying that if I turn down the volume to watch a video I then have to remember to turn it up again later if I want to hear incoming calls or messages.

Also, a properly Zune-integrated backup and restore function. The current thing of dumping the entire device contents, firmware and all, to a local disk using third-party software is really sketchy. Cloud sync for everything would also be acceptable. Reloading all the apps by hand and having no way to restore settings or saved games is poor.

Oh, those are some good ones honestly. I forgot about separate volume controls. That would be very nice and has screwed me up a couple of times actually.

And the ability to backup more things on SkyDrive would be very nice. Backing up text messages like MyPhone could do would be a big plus (And archive them), and of course application settings would be really awesome.

In fact, for heavy texters, that is really going to eat up a lot of storage space over time. I remember being shocked by how much space on my WinMo device was eaten up by text message storage honestly.

And for fleets it would be really cool if you could set WP7 to track the phone. This would be good for parents too. I know it uploads where the phone occasionally, but it would be nice to be able to see this as a company or parent at all times...

[123456789A]

I want to be able to change the color of individual tiles, so I can have a fruity arrangement.

[George P Global Moderator]

The whole "static icon" argument for live tiles isn't valid anymore. With Mango and the new tiles being able to flip and show info on the back there's really no need for any sort of "static icon" to be used. If you notice on dev phones or those who hacked to get the mango RC on their device that there's very very few tiles that just sit there. I've often seen devices with lots of tiles that are in motion and doing something. That's enough "pop" right there imo.

I agree for the need to have separate volume controls for different things (games, ringer, alarm, music) as well. That's the only big thing I can think of, other stuff things are minor that I don't think about them much.

[Dashel]

This would be good for parents too. I know it uploads where the phone occasionally, but it would be nice to be able to see this as a company or parent at all times...

You can track your phone via the linked Live account in the device section. Its nice because you don't have to fork more money to the carrier for their app to work. Not for 'full time' tracking (battery issue I assume) but great for spot checks. :shiftyninja:

Fully agree on the device backup and split volume controls. The nice thing is that the phone is already pretty damn solid, there isn't anything not in Mango I'm truly pulling my hair out over.

[BajiRav]

I am using mango for last two weeks and here is my wishlist

1. Separate volume controls (for ****'s sake!)
   
2. Notifications on lock screen (wasn't this obvious?) :huh:
   
3. Outlook categories support
   
4. Streamline the multi-task UI - it works but is a bit messy
   
5. Bring back the playback timeline on lock screen (why did they remove it? :o)
   

[guru]

Basics:

-- Option to increase font size in texts / messages

-- Option to Foward a contact via messages

others

-- Implement GP007's idea of background picture for tiles

-- App Groups

Now that i've had Mango for a while, i wonder how many features Tango will add

[micro]

Theme support. The base OS is actually really nice. It's just the default theme is plain, flat, and really, really boring. If they allowed theme support and came out with a couple of nice themes with "pop" and some depth to them, I think WP7 would get a better look by a lot more people than it is now. I know I would certainly consider it for my next phone. As it is, it's just too ugly for me to want to use. It's one of the ugliest UI's I've ever seen.

NEVER, that would be the worst idea ever.