If you're planning to get a new Windows Phone device, this might come as
a sigh of relief, especially if you're hooked on to the Google
ecosystem. Microsoft has
announced
that Google has decided to extend the deadline for supporting Google
Sync till 31st July 2013. Google Sync allows users to access Google
Mail, Calendar and Contacts via the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync
protocol, to synchronize email, contacts, and calendar on their phones.
Google had earlier
announced that it
would cease support for its Google Sync service for new users starting
30th January 2013, while it would continue to support existing sync
connections.
This means that users who wish to set-up a new Google
account to sync their contacts, calendar, and e-mails on their Windows
Phone devices would be able to do so via Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync
till the end of July. It's noteworthy that Google had said that it would
instead offer sync services through the more open IMAP, CalDAV and
CardDAV protocols for users of its free services. However, users of
Google Apps for Business, Government and Education were not affected and
would be able to use Google Sync even after the sunset date. Since
Google pays licensing fee to Microsoft for Exchange ActiveSync, it makes
more sense for the company to extend it only to users of its paid
services.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has also announced that the Windows
Phone team is building support into its software for the new sync
protocols that Google is using for calendar and contacts-CalDAV and
CardDAV, while it already supports IMAP. Most likely, support for the
protocols will be extended to users before the sunset date. Apple
already supports CalDAV, CardDAV and IMAP but its users would also not
be able to use Exchange for sync