Switching from iOS or Android to Windows Phone? Here's how to find your favorite apps.

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

Probably the toughest problem any new user faces when switching platforms is finding comparable apps on their new OS. Sure, we have the Windows Phone Central forums to help and we try to do what we can here, but Nokia has something even better.

Nokia, in conjunction with Xyologic, have teamed up to bring a site called Find your Favorite Apps (www.xyo.net/lumia) that allows you to name the platform you’re coming from (iPhone, Android), choose one of 15 supported countries and then the app you are looking to pick up. The service then searches database and comes up with what it thinks is the best choice. Heck, it even auto-creates a QR code for quick and easy scanning.

After spending a few moments with it, we have to admit it’s not half bad and it should successfully aid those who are either switching or are thinking of switching to Windows Phone.

What’s of course interesting is that any potential Windows Phone user could use the site but Nokia has their marketing claws deep in this one, so “Nokia Lumia Windows Phone” is featured everywhere as a result.

Kudos to Nokia and Xyologic for coming up with such a unique tool. And as Nokia asks, spread it around so others may know too.

Source: XYO; via Nokia Conversations

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.

50 Comments
  • What about my favorite scratch n sniff app :P lol apps alot of times are overated only the important apps are worth it and we got all most all those
  • I guess an apps worth is in the eye of the beholder. Some that I think are great, someone else might not. There are some that aren't necessarily essential to everyday life. But they are fun and useful to use and would love to see them on WP
  • True
  • If I select sweden the site is quite bad. Like it can't find Audible if I select that as an iphone app. But if I switch to USA it works pretty good and gives good results. Will probably use this a bit when I eventually switch.
  • Yeah, my bet is something like this will take some machine learning and few tries to refine the results. A work in progress but a brilliant idea.
  • Just in case you didnt know, it is available on WP7.
  • <p>Yes I know. But the site doesn&#39;t know that if I select sweden, but it does for the USA. Same thing for many of the apps. In general the results were much better when selecting the USA, even though the apps are available in the swedish store too.</p>
  • Aha, well that's bad, but the typical WP trend. It's a miracle they sell WP outside US.
  • Kind of funny when it shows "Windows 8 Phone" for certain apps like Angry Birds space.
  • What about Instagram and snapchat?
  • You mean this instagram http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6853117/look-at-this-instagram-nickelback-parody
  • nice
  • -_-
  • I entered one of my more obscure apps that happens to be on both Android and WP (Shamrock Shake Finder)...it suggested Rihanna Youtube Tile and Nokia Trailers. Hmmm
  • Lol, pretty sure that's not considered a popular app. :-)
  • haha most certainly not. But after trying some other examples it looks like it's scouring the marketplace in some way...what search parameters are they using that don't actually include the title of the app??
  • Pandora too.. While Nokia music is fine it isn't Pandora.. I hate I heart radio
  • If you have Xbox live gold just use last.fm. Its basically Pandora with a larger music selection and unlimited skips.
  • Look for MetroRadio. It is a third party app that plays all of your pandora stations, let's you create new ones, and plays from the lock screen. It's an awesome app and was the only thing missing till I stumbled across it last week.
     
     
  • Try Metro Radio. It's a pandora client that works on the windows phone. Just look for it in the window's store. 
  • I stream Pandora from the browser too. Pinned the page to the start screen. It automatically plays when I tap it.
  • Where is Musta when we need him? Lol.
  • Have you tried Slacker Radio. I find it to work well enough.
  • Graffiti Radio, also.
  • The biggest thing holding people back from switching is that apps. And our apps are over priced. I hate how some app companies kinda boycott windows phone. Microsoft should start their own line of useful apps and games exclusive to windows phone. That would bring alot of customers in.
  • I have to kind of agree with that.  Granted, Microsoft is banking on the Xbox Live name and the Achievement integration but it is pretty ridiculous some of the prices we pay for free games - Draw Something for example.
  • Price is one thing, not having the apps is the real deal breaker for many.
  • I agree with all of the points. I wonder why some of the devs have refused to support WP. Did Microsoft not give them enough support when WP7 came out? I also think that Microsoft did everyone a disservice with the delayed delivery of the WP8 SDK.
  • I need dropbox and several bank client app...
  • We have 3rd party dropbox apps that will use your dropbox.
  • Any opinions on that?
    I know, that Windows uses Skydrive and it's better and all, but my friends and other people use Dropbox to synch our files, and I can't force like 50 people to just switch to Skydrive only because I want Lumia 920 :)
  • I been using Boxfiles-no problems.
  • Can u edit office files with boxfiles??
  • Absolutely
  • Thanks getting it.
  • Only two apps I miss from iOS are Downcast (best podcast app I've ever used) and Spendings (great budget app). Until WP8 has viable alternatives to these I'm forced to continue to carry my iPad mini.
  • Eww
  • i had some problems with the app store on wp7 personally, mine were instagram, keeper, scramble and hangin with friends, and honestly a list more :/ i was spoiled and felt like i was stripped of social gaming and instagraming. oh yea and facebook was a nightmare on my 710 and arrive.
  • This website isn't that great.  I searched for Xfinity and it recommended DirecTV, I searched for Sunday Ticket and it gave me a fantasy football app.  I'd prefer 'no comparable app available' as opposed to a flat out lie.
  • Amen.  Searching for my personal banking app and getting Bank of America isn't going to fly.  Asking for HBO GO and getting Crackle isn't helpful. The idea of the site is nice, but the problem isn't that I can't find the apps I want, it's that they don't exist for WP8. 
  • Is it too much to assume that Microsoft provide this sort of transitional help?  When I switched from Android to WP, I was disappointed at the lack of walk-through Microsoft provides.
  • It definitely needs some updates. I did a search for photo grid since it was recently released for WP and the site recommended everything but the real app lol. I saw a few more missing as well.
  • Apps are limited on WP... No instagram... Or Facebook made by Facebook.
  • And actually what does it change? For Flipboard it suggested Wikipedia (huh???). Right now I see no point to stay with WP. I just updated my Mozart to unofficial 7.8. It's pretty, really great to use, but I'm switching to Android, though I don't like it. Flipboard, banking apps, Kindle for Android (yes, that's a big difference), Torque, some other local apps and GTA III and so on.
  • For KeepassDroid the replacement "7pass" is not shown...
  • I need SunTrust bank, instagram......its some games I want but wish they ported more games over like Gameloft type, or Microsoft port some of those title they have
  • Yay, now i have a pretty tool to tell me there's no app for my favorite bank/credit union, airline, sports league, or TV channel!
    Better yet, it will completely ignore how limited or outright non-functional the WP8 version of the app is (yelp), or how poorly features such as live tiles work (espn scorecenter)!
  • Woah! Worked straight away. Did not know Cardstar was available on WP. Awesome
  • Leaving Android? For WP8? To learn in about 18 months that the platform is no linger supported and one MUST buy new hardware to get a "revolutionary new" WP9? Is this supposed to be a joke?
  • I'm am so upset that I bought this windows Nokia Lumia phone its a complete waste of my time my galaxy broke so I thought I'd try something different. What a mistake! Windows should just send checks to anyone who purchased these phones.i can't access the apps I love. I don't want alternative apps I want the apps I grew to love on Google there's some much I've had to get use to with this windows phone windows don't even offer alternative apps for every app on google like talkatone no windows app lets you call landlines or people who don't have the same app free like google voice. Aww you got me once but I will NEVER buy another phone from windows. This phone sucks! I can even explain how disappointed I am.