Creating a Google account for an Android phone without signing up to Gmail

mrochester · 4 Sep 2016 at 10:52

Hi all

I'm going to give my aunt an Android phone as an upgrade to her Lumia 520. She already has an Outlook email address and all her contacts are synced with this account. To be able to download apps from the Play Store, I need to create a Google account for her. Is there any way to create a Google account without it being a Gmail address? I'd rather just use her existing Outlook account if I can.

Many thanks

M

Richie · 4 Sep 2016 at 11:41

I'm pretty sure you can use any email account when setting up a Play Store one.... Its been a while since I logged into my Google account on my phone but, IIRC, you can put any address in e.g. Outlook.com, live.com yahoo.com etc.

scrivz69 · 4 Sep 2016 at 11:48

I use a Yahoo account with no problem.

Stusteel · 4 Sep 2016 at 12:37

I use my Hotmail account with no issue.

mrochester · 4 Sep 2016 at 13:07

So I've just tried to create an account by opening the Play Store and signing up for one. However, part of the process asks to create a username which is automatically given @gmail.com. I've tried tapping this to change it to her @outlook.com email address but there doesn't appear to be an option to change this.

Does anyone know how to do it?

Many thanks

M

Stusteel · 4 Sep 2016 at 13:11

Don't do it on the phone. Create the play store account on a pc. Once done you can then sign in on the phone using the Hotmail account.

mrochester · 4 Sep 2016 at 13:11

Stusteel said:
Don't do it on the phone. Create the play store account on a pc. Once done you can then sign in on the phone using the Hotmail account.

Great thanks yes I've just realised you can't do it on the phone at all.

Orcvader · 4 Sep 2016 at 13:12

I don't think it's possible any more.

Just create the Google account and use that purely for the Play store. You can disable the Gmail app and use a different email app so she won't get confused between the two accounts. You can also set the contacts/peoples app to only use contacts in her Outlook account. Calendar can also be set to only use Outlook.

mrochester · 4 Sep 2016 at 13:34

Orcvader said:
I don't think it's possible any more.

Just create the Google account and use that purely for the Play store. You can disable the Gmail app and use a different email app so she won't get confused between the two accounts. You can also set the contacts/peoples app to only use contacts in her Outlook account. Calendar can also be set to only use Outlook.

Definitely possible still as I have just done it.

Holst1981 · 4 Sep 2016 at 13:40

Does it matter?
You only need the account login.
Just never use the email account.

mrochester · 4 Sep 2016 at 13:47

Holst1981 said:
Does it matter?
You only need the account login.
Just never use the email account.

I wanted her login to be the same as her existing online credentials. Saves having to remember loads of different usernames.

Holst1981 · 4 Sep 2016 at 13:56

I have the play store login automatically.

So I only do it once.

Stusteel · 4 Sep 2016 at 14:14

But if you can use an account you already have with no issues, why bother with creating a gmail account? mrochester's aunt will only have to sign in once if set to but with her Hotmail/outlook account anyway.

Richie · 4 Sep 2016 at 14:56

Exactly. Without knowing the OP's aunt, a lot of older people are not tech savvy and having loads of different logins can be confusing so why create another one when she can use the Outlook email account...