FINALLY. Fiiiiiinally. Native Exchange support for Android is here — and it’s 100% free.
Those of us who use our Android phone in an environment that requires Exchange email access no longer have to suffer with a 3rd party (slow) application to deliver our email via ActiveSync.
How is this possible? Well, I’m glad you asked.
The kind folks at HTC, who manufacture the G1 (HTC Dream), as well as the HTC Sapphire and HTC Magic, all running Android, have included native support for Microsoft Exchange in the base image they provided to the Canadian carrier Rogers.
In turn, through the dilligent work of Haykuro, Kiabiore, Cyanogen, Soulife, TheDudeOfLife, and VirtuDude over at xda-devs, we now have a plethora of Rogers ROMs available that include this native Exchange support. I have been running Kiabiore’s “Cyanogenized” Rogers ROM for about 2 weeks now and I can attest to its stability and functionality.
Here’s how you can have the same setup:
- Root your G1.
- Download the ROM here, and rename it to update.zip.
- Copy update.zip to the root of your SD card. Directions for that can be found here.
- Plug your phone into the wall outlet to ensure steady power.
- Restart your G1, and hold the Home key to boot into the recovery image you installed in step 1.
- Press and hold Alt+S to apply the update from your SD card.
- Press and hold Home + Back to reboot the phone once the update is successfully applied.
- Allow the phone a few minutes to boot into the new image (the first time is very slow).
- If you get a reboot loop (you see the boot logo “HTC” or “Android” over and over), you need to do a data wipe from the recovery console.
- To do the data wipe, reboot into the recovery image again, this time pressing and holding Alt+W to do a data wipe.
- Press and hold Home + Back again to reboot.
Tada! You’re ready to get Exchange email. Ok, so now what? Well, now you have to set up your account. Fortunately, HTC has made that incredibly easy on us.
Open the ‘Mail’ application, then press Menu and Add a New Account. It will ask if you want an Exchange account or a POP3. Obviously you want an Exchange account. Then you’ll be prompted for your account info (username, password, server — this is usually something like “http://mail.domain.com” where domain is your company’s name).
While this client is not necessarily as robust as Touchdown by NitroDesk or Moxier Mail, it is much speedier, much more battery-efficient, and F-R-E-E.
From here, you can configure the frequency the mail client checks for your Exchange emails (‘As Items Arrive’ is the equivalent of ActiveSync DirectPush. Choose this if you need email items instantly.)
Happy Emailing!
So, does this just support email or also calendar, contacts, tasks, etc? Is there a link that describes the full functionality of the exchange support?
Thanks.
Good question. It does actually support calendaring as well through the calendar widget as part of cupcake (Android 1.5).
The calendar will color-code your appointments based on the source. For example, I have my Google and Exchange calendars, as well as my wife’s Google calendar that she has shared with me. Each has it’s own color.
The HTC Mail app that enables this native support for Exchange is not as full-featured as NitroDesk’s Touchdown app, but it will let you navigate to different folders in your mailbox, and there is support for DirectPush/ActiveSync as well as timed synchronizations. I use a 15 minute timed sync for purposes of battery life preservation. DirectPush is faster than my desktop at receiving mail.
Thanks for your question!!
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