Moments ago, I received an email from HTC customer service warning me that HTCSense.com will be shutting down most of its cloud functionality. On May 1, all backed up Contacts, Messages, Footprints, and Call Histories will be purged from the company’s servers. If you own an HTC phone or have previously owned an HTC device and relied on its service to back up your contacts (in many cases, HTC phones encouraged or pressured you to do so), you have through April 30 to retrieve that data. 

How to export your data:

You can download a zip file of your data by visiting http://www.htcsense.com and logging in with your HTC account name and password. There is a Download button in the Account Overview section (and currently right on the homepage).

New services coming? We hope not

HTC points users toward Google Play (Android Market) for their backup needs, but gives a cryptic statement at the end of the release, stating that “new and improved services” may soon be ready. Seriously?

If HTC is actually planning on releasing another contacts, messages, footprints, and call history backup service, it has completely shot itself in the foot. You don’t shut down your cloud service, force users to download all of the data, and then relaunch a new, similar service. If this is HTC’s plan, then it has some terrible leadership. Not only has it scared its entire user base by threatening to delete their data, but now it wants them to trust HTC with more data? As the old saying goes, fool me once…

We do not recommend you use embedded things like Verizon Backup, HTC backup, or any other service that’s on your phone to backup your data. The best way to ensure your Android phone has contacts that you can use anywhere is to make sure those contacts are connected to your Google account. Google has tools that allow you to export your data if need be, and its services aren’t going anywhere. If you don’t like Google, then we don’t recommend you choose Android.