Android phones are available in an extensive style of styles and sizes. However, within, they all run the same simple working machine. That Android code includes settings that can help you tailor your phone to your needs. In this manual, we accumulated 24 lesser-known customizations so that you can toy with them.
Before we start, a short caveat: Although the identical Android code runs all of these phones, producers regularly alter the running device with the aid of slapping a software program skin on top. Our commands especially observe the modern stock model Android, 8.0 Oreo, which you will locate on Google’s modern-day Pixel phones. However, if you own a phone that runs a specific Android version, you could nonetheless observe those settings—you just must rummage around a bit greater to discover them.
1. Increase font size
You don’t must squint and pressure your eyes whilst viewing Android displays: Open the Settings app and pick out Display, accompanied by Font length, to make adjustments. Drag the pointer along the slider to make changes, and check the preview window to peer what the stop result will appear. Once you set the Android font size, most apps will follow it.
2. Make certain you can find your cell phone
Worried about losing your cell phone? To maximize your possibilities of improving a missing tool, ensure to set off Android’s built-in tracking device: Open Settings, visit Security & area, and tap Find My Device. After that, if you need to misplace your cell phone, head to this web page in any browser, and log in to your Google account. You’ll be able to view your handset’s vicinity on a map, among other options. For greater details, check out our guide to finding a lost cell phone.
3. Tweak the Quick Settings panel
Drag two fingers down from the top of the screen, and you will open Android’s Quick Settings panel, which gives immediate get right of entry to settings inclusive of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and flashlight mode. These shortcuts are useful. However, you could make them even handier by customizing which of them show up and the order wherein they appear. Open the panel, faucet the pen icon on the decrease left, and you may be able to add shortcuts and drag the icons into a new arrangement.
4. Reduce facts usage
Android includes an integrated system to restrict how a whole lot of facts historical past apps can gobble up (as a minimum when you’re now not connected to Wi-Fi). This mode will affect one-of-a-kind apps in numerous approaches—as an instance, in a browser, snapshots won’t show up except you tap on them. To turn on this handy characteristic, open Settings and choose Network & Internet, then Data usage, then Data Saver.
5. Stop new apps from creating shortcuts
By default, when you deploy an app, it routinely seems like a shortcut on one of your phone’s domestic monitors. This allows you to quickly launch a new app, but it can also muddle up your interface. To disable this default, perform an extended press on any blank part of a home screen. When a menu pops up, choose Home Settings and flip off the Add icon to Home display screen alternative. Note: This placing used to seem in the Play Store app but in Android eight. Zero Oreo, you could now get right of entry to it from any domestic display screen.
6. Rotate the house monitors
Within an app, you could turn your phone to replace the view from portrait to panorama or vice versa. But the home display screen doesn’t include the identical default—you need to turn this feature on. Return to the Home Settings screen discussed inside the preceding tip. Here, you could pick out whether or not or not the house monitors rotate with the telephone by turning Allow Homescreen rotation on or off. Note: You might not be able to access this option (it’s going to appear grayed out) in case you’ve locked the orientation of your cell phone. To restore this capability, you need to unencumber your display orientation: Open Settings, visit Display, and trade the Auto-rotate display screen alternative.
7. Project your cellphone on a bigger display screen
Android now comes with integrated casting, so you can replicate the screen on any screen or television equipped with a Chromecast tool. Although many apps have their own Chromecast buttons, you could additionally challenge any screen or app from the Settings. Just visit Connected devices and pick out Cast.
8. Change app permissions
How a good deal of your personal statistics can any person app get right of entry to? You can see exactly which permissions an app has been granted by going to Settings, tapping Apps & notifications, and selecting an app (or hitting See all to view the full listing). Then, to view and edit that app’s get admission to, tap Permissions. For example, you may permit an app to get right to entry to your contact listing, however, not your location.
The adoption rate of mobile gadgets continues to leap, with Android leading the way. The open-source running machine using Google is now determined on greater than half of all smartphones. This large user base has caught the attention of cybercriminals, who have begun to double down their efforts to illegally achieve personal information from Android proprietors. While maximum mobile malware is determined in nations like Russia and China, customers from Europe and the USA are not completely immune.
You can take some simple steps to avoid getting your facts locked up in an encrypted prison.
App source
Only download apps from sincere assets like the Google Play Store. Be cautious of any website that lets you download paid apps without spending a dime.
App permissions
Even whilst downloading from the Google Play Store, you need to be cautious. Check the permissions the app asks for. Often, apps that encompass malware will ask for many permissions with the intention to speedy benefit manipulate all your cellphone’s statistics.
Settings
Google includes numerous settings in the Android working device that can prevent malicious assaults. Devices jogging Android 2.2 or better, which basically way nearly all Android devices, have to get right to entry to Google’s malware scanner. Before putting in a utility you downloaded outdoor from the Playshop, Google will test the app and provide you with a warning of any capability threats.
