Here is the collection of various Android Tips and Tricks Part 1 across various android devices.
Now and then you may have come across ‘unable to install in default location’ or ‘not enough space to update’ or anything similar. This is caused by the unnecessary cache from the apps installed in your device. You can manually select each app and clear its cache or use any other 3rd party app available on the Play Store such as SD Maid but Samsung users can follow a simple procedure. You need to dial *#9900# on your Samsung device to open up a hidden menu. Select the 2nd option i.e. Delete dumpstate/logcat. After you’ve pressed it, you’ll get a toast saying how much space have been freed. Now you can update or install apps again.
2) Never lose S-Pen:
Losing your S-Pen diminishes the value of your Samsung Galaxy Note series smartphones and the empty compartment also attracts dirt and dust like vacuum cleaner. You can prevent this by enabling the S-Pen alert. To do so, head over to Settings > Controls > S Pen and check the box for S Pen Keeper. Now, you’ll be alerted whenever you leave you S-Pen. The screen must be off for this to work.
3) Access Quick Search Bar:
It is the horizontal bar on the top of your home screen. Some devices may not have it so this will not work across every android device. You don’t always have to click on the bar to access it, you can simply press and hold the menu key and Google Search will be launched.
4) Expandable Notifications:
Android offers a standalone feature allowing you to drag down a notification to view additional information about the particular notification. This feature is only available on Android Version 4.1 (JellyBean) and above. Google applications like Calendar, Gmail, Messaging, Google Plus and many 3rd party apps provide expandable notifications. You can ‘expand’ the notification by touching and swiping the notification using two fingers in a downward movement. After that you will be provided the options to reply, delete, etc. depending up on the nature of notification.
5) Keep Caps Lock on:
This is a pretty simple thing to do and many of you may know this to. But for those who don’t know how to keep the Caps Lock on till you disable it; you have to double tap or tap twice on the Caps Lock button on the keyboard. Doing this will keep it on until you disable it by tapping on it once. This feature is universal and will work on any keyboard across every device.
6) Setup Home/Work Location on Google Now:
Google now automatically supplies you with the information about the weather, traffic, duration, etc. on your trip but for this to work correctly, you need to first setup your home and work location. To so this, open the Google Maps app. Then tap on Maps and then on Location History. Now tap on the menu button and click on Change Work Location and Change Home Location. Set up the location for each. You’re done. Now the Travel Time card will be enabled on the Google Now area.
7) Enable various Google Now Cards:
Google Now is useful to get the necessary information on a particular topic you want and the best thing is you don’t have to search manually, it’ll display the information automatically in the form of cards. To activate cards, tap on Google Search widget, go to settings and activate cards. You can get remainders like for example when a new episode is on air of your favorite TV series, or there is a football match of your favorite team.
8) Wifi network as mobile Hotspot:
This process is called Tethering, which means to share your internet connection with others. Android version 4.1 (Jelly Bean) and above has a feature to enable tethering and doesn’t require you to any 3rd party apps. To enable tethering, go to Settings > Wireless & Hotpots > Data Usage > Mobile HotSpots. Most of the devices have same or similar path to enable hotspot.
Also See: How to share mobile internet using Android WiFi HotSpot feature
9) Reboot to safe mode:
This is similar to safe mode of Windows. You can reboot to safe mode if anything goes wrong and uninstall the 3rd party app that’s causing the problem. To reboot to safe mode press and hold the power button. When the pop-up appears, press and hold the Power off option. You’ll be asked if you really want to reboot ti safe mode. Click on Ok. This may not work on all devices.
10) Expanded Volume Control:
In Jelly Bean and above, you can enable expanded volume control which will allow you to adjust volumes of media, ringtone, alarm and notifications directly. To access expanded volume controls, just press volume up and down button. Or in some devices you can also enable expanded volume controls by default by going to Settings > Sound > Volume panel style and selecting Expanded.
11) Access app info directly from respective notification:
In android version 4.1 and above, you can access app info directly from its notification. This feature comes handy when you need to know what app is causing the notification to appear. To access the app info, long press (press and hold) the notification and tap on App info. Then you can disable the app, uninstall it, disable its notification, etc.
12) Speech to text:
For all those people (myself included) who are too lazy to type, you can use your voice and android will type for you. This feature required internet connectivity to function but from Jelly Bean, you can use this feature while you’re offline. To enable voice typing, go to Settings > Language and Input > Google Voice typing setting and download the offline speech recognition data.
13) Re-size home screen widgets:
Most of you may know how to re-size the widgets on your home screen. You can do this by long pressing the widget and release it, then drag the arrows. After you’re happy with the size just tap anywhere on the screen. This feature is available only on Android version 4.0.4 and later but you can install 3rd party app launchers enable re-sizing of widgets.
