Most of the people you meet every day are likely to be iPhone users. Just in time to revolutionize the smartphone, Apple essentially controls the fate of the smartphone. Millions more may have Android devices, but it’s the iPhone that sets the agenda and Apple, which takes all the profits from the smartphones sold. It’s true that most of the people you see on every street corner with an iPhone 6s or later are also Windows users.
Having an iPhone and having Windows as your primary computer is a delicate balance. On the one hand, you definitely want to use the iPhone’s App Store and a host of Microsoft’s apps to bring your favorite Windows experiences to your iPhone. On the other hand, you want to bring together everything you love about your iPhone and, if possible, bring them to your Windows PC.
You Can Get Rid of Installing iTunes
Striking the delicate balance between your Windows PC and iPhone starts with picking and choosing your favorite services. Microsoft and Apple offer an enormous range of apps and services that do everything from syncing your contacts to streaming music.
To get the best experience with your iPhone and Windows, you will need some services that will sync and be available on both devices. Other services are specific to one platform or the other. Here’s a quick start on which ones to embrace and which ones not.
Download These Microsoft Apps To Your iPhone
All the apps Microsoft offers to iPhone owners through Windows and the iTunes Store, which are somehow directly integrated with the Windows experience. Be sure to download the ones you already use on your computer. Skip the Microsoft-made iPhone apps if you decide to use Apple’s apps.
Apart from these apps, make sure to use the services available in both. For example, avoid Reading List in Safari on iPhone and use an app like Pocket, which is available on both iPhone and the web. If you don’t already have an iPad that you’re reading books on, or don’t already have a large investment in the iBooks ecosystem, consider using a Kindle instead of iBooks.
Sync Your Contacts with the Outlook App
One of the more confusing things about using an iPhone with Outlook.com, Gmail, or Windows is how you properly load and sync your emails and contacts. If you’re going to bypass the Outlook iPhone app, you’re all set. Connect your Outlook.com, Yahoo or Gmail account to your iPhone and let these services and iPhone do all the syncing for you.
Make sure every email account you check online or through Microsoft’s mail apps is available on your iPhone. Again, you can choose to throw the built-in iPhone Mail, Contacts, and Calendar apps by the wayside and use the Outlook app if you prefer.
Download iCloud for Windows
It’s okay to rely on OneDrive to sync all your content. Just know that the app cannot back up photos or Live Photos that you have taken securely without opening them. If you are partial to iCloud, go ahead and download iCloud for Windows sync the tool to your Windows PC.
Keep Everything in Your iTunes Folder
It sounds simple, but it isn’t. Apples iTunes for Windows the program wants to know where everything is – your music, pictures and more so it can sync that content every time you plug in your iPhone. Feel free to copy all your media to the iTunes folder, as iTunes is also a great media manager overall. It’s much easier than managing copies of a song you want to listen to or losing track of it because you forgot it.
Good luck with your iPhone and its Windows counterpart. The two can work together seamlessly, make sure you take your time now so that everything works out the way you want it to.
