A couple of questions

[Pcause]

Just found the product and it looks great.  Before I use I have a few questions:

- I don't want my email contacts stored in the phone contact list/address book.  Privacy issue.  Does the app store email comtacts to the phone?

- Can I use the share action on an email or attachment.

I know this isn't the place for suggestions, but for Office365 users, having a checkbox on the first set up screen when you select EWS that says "office365" can save having to use the manual screen.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Thanks.

1 - Android has a system service that stores contacts. Aqua can autocomplete contacts from there (as other Android mail apps do).

Aqua also has a built-in contact picker where you can pick:

- For Exchange / EWS accounts, server side contacts
- For all types of accounts, addresses from recent send and received messages

You can bring up the built-in contact picker using the buttons to the left of of each recipient entry field

2 - Yes. Messages can be shared to: EverNote and such, printed... attachments can be uploaded to DropBox etc.

3 - The app tries to auto-detect hosted email accounts, including those at Office 365, but it's not quite perfect, depending on network connectivity (there is a time limit on how long on the DNS MX query).

If you think your connectivity was good at the time, feel free to drop me a note at kmansoft / gmail, and include your Office 365 domain name so I can check.

[Pcause]

Thanks for the reply.  I take it that the first answer is that AM will not take my Office365 contacts and put them in the phone contact apps.  This is terrific.

Wrt Office365.  We are on office365 using domain logins.  In this case all you need to do is use outlook.office365.com as the server and your domain credentials.  The auto-discovery process does work for the android client, but it turns out it isn't needed.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Well, it does cache contacts on the device in its own storage, but they won't be visible in system contacts.

I am going to work more on Exchange a bit later and add full contact sync -- but based on your inquiry, I guess it should be optional, possibly with a setting to keep it private (i.e. not accessible to other apps on the same device).

Aqua does not do Microsoft's complicated auto-discovery, but it does a DNS MX lookup. It *should have* recognized an Office 365 account, so my offer to investigate still stands.

[Pcause]

Thanks for the further reply.  Yes, please make storing contacts optional and note that you have to do this when the account is set up.  A different program initially implemented this as a step after initial account set up and some contacts got synced before people could get the option and turn it off.

By the way, are contacts from other email services synced to the phone's address book?  So if I add a hotmail or gmail account will you sync all the contacts from each of those to the phone's address book (not the apps, but the phone one)?  I hope not!

Let me see what I can discover about the issue with auto-discover.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Accessing contacts via IMAP is, if at possible, definitely not commonplace or standard.

Some mail services support LDAP.

(e.g. FastMail -- I've been thinking about switching for my main email account, and lack of contact sync is the only thing stopping me...)

[Pcause]

Thanks.  I've used this client for a while and find it very strong, lots of options, etc.  The one thing that stops me from switching to this one is the lack of offline address book that is *NOT* integrated with phone address book.  Too many apps try to steal your contacts and suck them into their cloud and use them.  I need something that keeps the contacts from Office365 available offline and doesn't put them in / sync them with the phone address book.

This is an Android issue that we can't control use of the address book with the right granularity, but apps that do this can appeal to privacy aware users.

I will likely buy this and use it anyway, because i like the app and flexibility of the itnerface, but would love to see the address book added.  Thanks for such a great app.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Right now, Aqua lets you access server side Office 365 contacts (including search in the Global Address List), but *does not* -- I repeat, does not sync them with system Contacts.

They're still cached on the device, but are not accessible from other apps. Problem solved?

[Pcause]

I need to access the addresses offline, including all contact details and search on multiple fields. The first 2 are the most important.  I dont see how to open the full contact or access contacts except for entry in an email address field

[Kostya Vasilyev]

@pcause -- in this case, I don't have a solution for you. As far as I'm concerned, there are only two ways:

1) sync into the system-wide contact storage (which Aqua does not do now) and
2) make them accessible in the app's own contact picker (which it does do)

For 2) there is an offline cache, including previously searched global contacts, but I'm just not going to build a full contact editing app.

[Pcause]

I appreciate the cache and the fact  is is *NOT* integratned and sy nc'ed with the phone address book.  I understand your desire to avoid building a full blown contact app.  My tought was that display of the full cached contact entry is enough.  Gets me most of what I need and I suspect others as well.  Since you have the comntgact entry and a earch ability, the display is what would be added. 

Anyway, thanks for the conversation and you continued willingness to hear feedback and reply

[Kostya Vasilyev]

@PCause -- improving Exchange is a valid reason for a new feature, a new idea or an old one (e.g. push)...

However, I think editing contacts is going to happen by syncing them with System Contacts (this will be an option for the security conscious).

Realistically, I'm just not going to be able to build even a simple two-way contact editor, since that would mean sacrificing other features / tasks (which are more common and visible, e.g. calendar sync and push for EWS).

Just a matter of having to prioritize, there is only one Android developer and one tech. support here, and it's the same person (me).