Exchange By TouchDown

by Antonio Wells Mar 20, 2009 11:38 AM – 134 Comments

Install

Exchange by TouchDown syncs emails, contacts, calendar and tasks on your Android device.

Price: Free 5 Day Trial, License $19.99

AndroidTapp.com Android App Review:

First off Exchange by TouchDown is Awesome! This Android App Review is 2 months of evaluation in the making… so here goes.

Our system specs:

Migrated from Domino Server to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 with ActiveSync
We tested “Exchange by TouchDown Beta” which has Push (be sure your version has Push, otherwise the regular version syncs your emails in 1 hour increments)

Note: Please DO NOT purchase a license until you have verified that it works for your Exchange server!

Features:

Exchange by TouchDown is quite honestly featured packed with most of the mobile email features you would expect when connecting to a Microsoft Exchange server. Exchange by TouchDown features full Email, Calendar, and Contacts capabilities. Gripe Alert: the only feature missing is Tasks or email Search. We asked the developer and Tasks, Notes and Search is on the radar, so stay tuned!

Email: Send and Receive email just as if you were using your Outlook desktop client all with ActiveSync Push technology. You can switch to different Folders; Sent, Deleted, Drafts, etc. and manage Read/Unread states. What’s great about the ActiveSync Push technology is any action you perform on the phone is synced with your desktop Outlook client in near real-time. For example, if you open your desktop Outlook client and delete an email on your phone, the email will be deleted on Outlook… and vice-versa. The best example is when you Send an email from the phone and it appears in your “Sent” folder in Outlook. That is the pain of using POP3/IMAP email clients (such as the default Android Email or K9), your desktop or webmail accounts are not in sync.
Calendar: Sync your Calendar and view events in 1 Day, Week, Month or Agenda views. Just like your desktop Outlook client, Exchange by TouchDown alerts you of events with Android Notifications. Even cooler, you can Send/Accept Meeting requests via the phone and sync with Outlook.
Contacts: Although we didn’t have our own Contacts ported from Domino/Lotus in time for this Android app review. We’re sure they can be synced with Active Directory. As an alternative you can create contacts manually in Outlook as well as on the phone that will sync.

The feature list of Exchange by TouchDown really helps Android users stay connected with their mobile life.

: Exchange by Touchdown Agenda View

: Exchange by Touchdown Inbox

: Exchange by TouchDown Settings – Account

: Exchange by TouchDown Settings – Connection

: Exchange by TouchDown Settings – Advanced

: Exchange by TouchDown Compose Email – Send To

: Exchange by TouchDown Compose Email – Carbon Copy (CC)

: Exchange by TouchDown Compose Email – Message

: Exchange by TouchDown Email Notifications

: Exchange by TouchDown Inbox

: Exchange by TouchDown Inbox Menu Options

: Exchange by TouchDown Email Action Options

: Exchange by TouchDown Read Email

: Exchange by TouchDown New Contacts Entry from Phone

: Exchange by TouchDown Calendar – Monthly View

: Exchange by TouchDown Calendar – Reminders

: Exchange by TouchDown Reply to Send To

: Exchange by TouchDown Reply to Email (CC)

: Exchange by TouchDown Reply to Email Message

: Exchange by TouchDown Select Folders

: Exchange by TouchDown Settings – Advanced 2

: Exchange by TouchDown Settings – Advanced 3

: Exchange by TouchDown Start Screen

Usefulness:

For business users of Android, this Android app bridges the gap for being able to receive corporate email on a G1 or Android powered phone in real-time.

Ease of Use:

Once you properly configure your connection settings, Exchange by TouchDown is somewhat intuitive to use. Meaning, using the “Menu” button on the G1 opens avenues to switch around to folders and pressing the “Back” button on the phone sends you to the start screen for more features and settings. Note: by default, all of your folders do not appear in the “Folders” list, therefore you must check what Folders you would like to display in the Advanced Setting Menu.

Here’s a link to the configuration help document.

Frequently Used:

Intended for daily use. (WARNING, can officially turn your Android phone into a “CrackDroid”… Android’s equivalent to BlackBerry’s “CrackBerry” nickname)

Interface:

The user interface is optimal for thumb/finger operation.

AndroidTapp.com Rating

AndroidTapp.com Rating! (4.3 out of 5)

Should you Download Exchange By TouchDown? Yes! The features and functionality-to-cost ratio justifies the $20 expense.

Developer: NitroDesk Inc.

Tags: Active Directory, ActiveSync, ActiveSync Push technology, Android Apps, AndroidTapp.com App Review, Email Push for Android, Exchange 2003, Exchange 2007, Exchange By TouchDown, Exchange Email, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Nitro Desk, Push Email, TouchDown

Categorised in: Communication, Productivity, Tools

134 Comments

By six41 on March 20, 2009 at 12:10 pm:

this app effectively allowed me to move the the G1 since i could not be without my exchange connection. it’s good app and the tech support is very good. admittedly i have also tried the Moxie beta and have to admit that it’s more attractive and “appears” faster. i says appears because Moxie does not download the content until you try and open a msg. touchdown takes a while to sync (after all . . . it is syncing contacts and calendar too) but the msg text is instantly available. the touchdown folks keep implementing new features so i feel like i got my $$ worth.

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By Joel on March 20, 2009 at 12:50 pm:

I’ve been a user for a couple of months now, since before the push feature. This was THE app I was waiting for in order to transition from WinMo to the ‘Droid. It does everything my WinMo does (with Exchange 2003 server!) and the support has been exemplary. If I report a problem or have a question the normal response time is less than an hour (quite frequently it’s a few minute). Not to be a fan-boy, but this app simply rocks.

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By JayCee on March 20, 2009 at 1:04 pm:

Agree with everyone else, overall a very good app. My only beef is that the user interface (especially setup) is kind of convoluted.

Support is excellent and they keep improving it.

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By Ed on March 20, 2009 at 1:46 pm:

The push feature is out of beta. The user interface got a bit cleaned up too. Support has been awesome and all updates, including major ones like ActiveSync, have been free.

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By Frenchy on March 27, 2009 at 10:22 pm:

This is a must have for the employees that have Exchange servers for email. This app is the best, and now it pushes mail.

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By barb on April 8, 2009 at 3:36 pm:

I only wished I had bought this back when it was still $19. But it is worth the money. If it keeps improving (and it’s improved leaps and bounds from the earlier versions), I might be able to convince my brother-in-law to invest in a G1.

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By Lor on April 23, 2009 at 12:17 pm:

I love touchdown. But I want to be able to have my upcoming appointments visable at all times. (at least the next 2 upcoming events, you know like BB) I forget to look into my agenda on a regular basis. Just seeing the list would be very helpful

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By nitro on April 26, 2009 at 11:02 am:

Thats (one of the things) for next release!
cheers!
-Nitro

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By Anthony on May 11, 2009 at 10:03 am:

has anyone else had issues with the push feature causing massive battery drain?

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By Gu on September 14, 2009 at 9:25 pm:

Hi,
I’m thinking about getting a ‘droid phone but I work with outlook (without
exchange server)… So, if I read correctly, using touchdown would mean being able to sync my contacts, calendar and mailbox with outlook ? can anybody confirm that ?
I would need at least an android app that could do the same job as a sony-ericsson or nokia ‘PC suite’, will touchdown meet this need ?

Thank you !

Gu.

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By NitroDesk on September 15, 2009 at 7:50 am:

Sorry Gu,
TouchDown does not work with any server other than activesync. It cannot sync with desktop outlook .
sorry about that
regards
-nitrodesk

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- By Gu on September 15, 2009 at 10:13 am:
  
  got it. thank you for your post !
  interesting app tho.
  
  Reply
By Bart on October 2, 2009 at 10:18 am:

Love the app for what it should do; only it doesn’t

I want Touchdown to use a client certificate (on my sd-card with the filename client.pfx); when I select this option, it still is not able to sync with pushmail / activesync Exchange server (2007-version). Any suggestions anyone?? If I get it to work, there is at least 8 licenses to be bought by me and some colleagues! Thanks for your suggestions!

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By nitrodesk on October 2, 2009 at 10:55 am:

Bart,
Would you mind emailing support at nitrodesk.com ?
We can perhaps chase it down with some diagnostics you may be able to generate.
thanks!
-nitrodesk

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By Jean on October 9, 2009 at 6:50 am:

The review should be updated. This application has well matured since the version you show-case now.

In addition it should be mentioned that the support is outstanding as well as the number of updates and improvements added on a day to day basis.

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By Hey on October 23, 2009 at 12:03 pm:

My work does not want to support push technology for exchange other than blackberry and iphone (the IS department is pretty useless here). It this something I can install on my own work computer and have it push email/calendar updates to my phone individually? I am able to install software on my terminal at work.
Or is this something that would have to be installed by an admin?

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By nitrodesk on October 26, 2009 at 7:48 am:

Hey,
You can try this : First go to the third tab of settings, change the DeviceType string from Android to iPhone
Save settings
then perform a quick configuration again and see if that works..
regards
-g

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By Monica on November 9, 2009 at 7:36 pm:

What does ActiveSync ERROR:403 mean?

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By nitro on November 12, 2009 at 1:16 pm:

403 typically means the server or your user account is not enabled for activesync

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By John O on November 15, 2009 at 10:31 pm:

Can Touchdown be configured to sync notes, in addition to contacts and calendar? I’m moving from the Palm and I used the notes a LOT. I was able to sync them from Exchange to the Palm before. If you don’t can you recommend any app that does sync with notes?

Thanks!

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By Allen W on November 16, 2009 at 2:53 pm:

Nice app, note the price is now $10! Good deal became great deal. A few questions:

I have been asked by a peer if it can sync to more than 1 exchange server, does anyone know?

I entered a contact in Gmail contacts as FirstName LastName as were my other contacts (they sync’d to Droid in same format on initial sync) but this new contact sync’d to my Droid as LastName, FirstName therefore alphabetically incorrect as last name was mixed with first names. I’m probably missing the obvious, does anyone know what it is?

Does anyone know of ANYthing out there to compare to touchdown with Outlook syncing especially noting the ability to sync tasks with categories? (just want to know options before purchase rather than after purchase)

Nitro – Nice job! would love to have ability to do second layer of task filter (category then priority, example show only office category, high priority), second best would be ability to choose sort so that I could sort by priority rather than due date (ex. inside the filter of “office” category, high priority on top rather than oldest).

Still overall, this is a 5 star app!
Thanks for the help,
Allen

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By nitro on November 16, 2009 at 4:05 pm:

thanks allen
to sync more than one exhcange server, click Menu/More/Profiles in the main screen and create a new profile.
Only one server will sync at a time, but now you will have a new button on the home screen to quickly switch profiles.

The android contact book displays fname lname, while exchange typically sets your contacts for lname fname

thanks for the feedback

john,
TouchDown cannot sync notes. Activesync does not support it
-g

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By GF on November 19, 2009 at 4:32 pm:

I have heard in other area’s that the contacts from exchange sync in as Gmail contacts? My Gmail account is personal and I would prefer not to have my exchange contacts synced into my Gmail account. Could you shed some light on how this works before I download to give it a test?

Gf

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By GF on November 19, 2009 at 4:39 pm:

I have read in other places that exchange contacts sync in as Gmail contacts. I prefer to keep my Gmail and exchange contacts separate, and don’t want my exchange contacts ending up in my GMail account. Can you shed some light on how this does work before I give the application a try?

GF

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By nitro on November 19, 2009 at 5:21 pm:

Yes this is the case ONLY if you are using the Droid. For other phones, it should not copy to gmail as long as you dont check the “Update to Google” check box on the last tab of settings
-g

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By Chad on November 20, 2009 at 12:02 am:

I am not sure if this is a toudown thing or an exchange thing with Droid. I don’t get emails until I actually log into my computer and download the emails or view them in webmail. Then all of a sudden they come flying through to my Droid. I know it is strange. Any thoughts?

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By nitro on November 20, 2009 at 7:46 am:

This is an exchange thing. something to do with an Antivirus that is installed on your server.

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By Ross on November 20, 2009 at 2:07 pm:

Just installed on Droid. Works perfect with Exchange 10

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By Stephen on November 23, 2009 at 10:31 am:

This is a great app, if not for this I would have returned my Driod phone.

Is there a dictionary/spell check function in the e-mail platform?

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By curtis on November 23, 2009 at 8:54 pm:

sounds like a great app. I just have one question regarding the deletion of emails. I really like the way blackberry phones are able to chose to delete an email from the device and the server or one and not the other. I have not found a program or app that allows that to happen on any other OS. This could be a deciding factor for the purchase of and android phone, if your app was able to perform this funtion. If it doesnt now, could it be updated to do so? By the way that was the only thing I liked about the Blackberry.
THX.

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By nitro on November 23, 2009 at 10:59 pm:

Stephen,
Sorry We dont have spell check..

Curtis
In touchdown you have the ability to suppress deletion from the server, but at a global settings level. it will not give you a choice when performing each deletion.

regards

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By Laz on November 24, 2009 at 6:12 pm:

I installed the app and all works fine, but when i try to sync contacts to the phone it does not work successfully. I am using the beta version as I understand that version works fine with contacts, but when i try a refresh all of my contacts are gone. Does anyone have this issue?

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By nitro on November 26, 2009 at 9:30 am:

If you request a refres all from within contacts, it may blow away existing contacts an refetch them from the server. You should not be doing that to get contact changes.. If you are on the Droid, you should try the Droid specific beta
-g

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By Lazaro on November 30, 2009 at 10:26 am:

I am using the Droid specific beta version. I love the app but my contacts do not sync as I change them in my exchange account. I have tested by adding and removing contacts and nothing seems to copy to my phone . The app does get the changes but does not put them in the local phone book.
laz

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By Lazaro on November 30, 2009 at 7:16 pm:

sorry for the double post but I just realized that the sync icon that is displayed is on top of the droid menu is present and then disappears. My emails still sync and calendar but not my contacts.

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By nitro on November 30, 2009 at 7:24 pm:

Do your contacts appear in the TouchDown list?
In the phone book, did you open Display options and expand TouchDown-Exchange and select to view contacts?
-g

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By Lazaro on November 30, 2009 at 7:28 pm:

yes they do appear in TD list and the display all updates correctly but not in the phone book. In the display options, yes the check mark is on display all contacts for the touchdown account.

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By nitro on November 30, 2009 at 7:51 pm:

In the last tab of settings, is the “Update contacts to phone book” checked on ?
Also, what happens if you go to touchdowns contact list and perform Menu/Copy to Phone ?
Please email support directly, since we prefer that for tracking purposes.
thanks
-g

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By Lazaro on November 30, 2009 at 7:57 pm:

yes it is checked on, when that happens all of my contacts from the phone directory are wiped out, they do not appear until I do a refresh from the TD main menu. What is the email address for support and is there a ticket number?

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By Spencer on December 1, 2009 at 3:24 am:

Wow. Yep. That sums it up. “WOW!”

I was none too happy with my new droid phone because the email interface for Exchange wouldn’t connect to my exchange server. It was working fine on my Instinct, but refuses to connect on my droid.

Anyway, I searched for “Exchange” in the market and found this app. To my shock, the demo connected instantaneously and started syncing. I couldn’t believe it. I’ve been fighting with the native mail app for 3x days now, and this thing was working in less than 5 minutes.

So I have 5x days to use the demo, but I’m 99% certain that I’ll be purchasing an official copy very soon.

Great work Nitro Team … from a 10+ year software engineer turned patent attorney … I am impressed. That is a rarity.

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By nitro on December 1, 2009 at 7:58 am:

Thank you Spencer, it has been one year in the making, but comments like yours make it totally worth it.
-g

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By Spencer on December 1, 2009 at 1:58 pm:

Hey Nitro team:

How do we submit recommendations for additional features?

In particular, with respect to the calendar settings, the “agenda” view is my preferred view, but there does not seem to be an option to control how many days worth of activity to sync or download. In the email settings, I can control how much I wish to download/sync based on size and time, but there is not a corresponding option for the calendar; at least, not one that I am able to find.

Thanks for your help!

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By Lazaro on December 1, 2009 at 3:41 pm:

So far I am happy with the app also, I been having some issues but the response from the Nitro Team have helped out. I did purchase the app as you can not go wrong with the price and support you get. Getting support makes an app more effective to users.

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By nitro on December 1, 2009 at 6:52 pm:

Spencer,
the agenda view currently does not have this option unfortunately. You might want to tune into our google group page (not putting a link here since it causes my message to be kicked out as spam).
g

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By Stefan on December 3, 2009 at 6:32 pm:

Trying to get touchdown to work. I’ve always used BB’s in the past with outlook. Because I have so many email accounts it’s really necessary for me.

When signing up I’m not sure of what to put in the fields.

USER ID – I think this is the “System Name” from outlook?

Domain – Don’t know what that would be or if I need it.

Password – I think this is the system password for my computer.

Server – I don’t know what this should be. mail.outlook.com ???

Can someone help me get this figured out?

Thanks,

Stefan

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By nitro on December 3, 2009 at 7:29 pm:

Touchdown does not support Outlook. What it is asking for are details of your corporate exchange server account. Please consult your IT admin for these values.
-g

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By Laz on December 3, 2009 at 8:04 pm:

USER ID – I think this is the “System Name” from outlook?
This would be your LAN ID (Network ID used to sign on PC)

Domain – Don’t know what that would be or if I need it.
This is the domain of your network at your office. You can find this when you log onto your PC, it is the third box on your windows logon.

Password – I think this is the system password for my computer.
Your right, the password is the same as your LAN password

Server – I don’t know what this should be. mail.outlook.com ???
This is something that you IT department must provided. The server name should be webmail.something.com/org/net etc….

This information is based that exchange is configured with your AD on your network.

Hope this helps

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By Stefan on December 3, 2009 at 10:47 pm:

Thanks Laz,

Actually I work from home so don’t have in IT to department. There is no network and that’s why I thought it would be mail.outlook.com.

I was planning on using touchdown to incorporate all of my emails and scheduling that I do in outlook on my cliq.

Nitro says Touchdown does not support outlook although 2 other people have told me that it does.

What would be the best way for me to sync all of my emails going into outlook, my calender and contacts all together on my cliq?

Thanks,

Stefan

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- By Lazaro on December 8, 2009 at 6:26 pm:
  
  Well if you work from home, what is your email domain? are you using Outlook program to download emails from a POP3 provider, then I think the team is right, touchdown is more designed for Exchange environment. If that is the case i would suggest you use gmail. Hope this helps and sorry for the late response.
  
  Reply
By jonK on December 5, 2009 at 7:18 pm:

For the Nitro team: I cannot tell from all that I have read whether the email client allows for sorting by sender, recipient, etc. Also, is there search within mail?

thanks very much; I am hoping this app will be the solution or I’ll sadly have to return the Droid.

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By Jenny on December 9, 2009 at 8:54 am:

If you sync more than one exchange server, will notifications from both show up in the notification bar? Thank you for your help.

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By Robert on December 9, 2009 at 4:22 pm:

does touchdown support SSL Certificates?

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