10 Useful Android Tips And Tricks You Should Know

10 Useful Android Tips And Tricks You Should
Know
1. Disable App Notifications
Bugged by annoying app notifications that just
keep coming? If you don’t know already, these app
notifications also drain your phone’s battery. If you
want to turn them off, and you are on Jelly Bean
4.1 and above, here’s how:
On any of your unwanted notifications in your
notification bar, long press on the notification for a
message box to appear.
Tap on App Info > Untick Show Notifications > OK.
Disable App Notifications
2. Disable Mobile Data
Whenever you don’t need to stay connected,
disabling the Mobile Data can help keep your
smartphone battery from draining too quickly.
Turning off mobile data is as easy as:
Going to Settings > Data Usage.
Disable Mobile data by toggling the setting from
ON to OFF.
Disable Mobile Data
Read Also: 10 More Tips To Conserve Your
Smartphone Battery
3. Set Mobile Data Limit
Want to keep track of how far your usage is from
your monthly mobile data limit? If you have ICS
and above, there is a feature which lets you keep
track of how much of the quota you have left.
Head over to Settings > Data Usage.
Set your data limit by dragging the orange line to
reflect your monthly quota.
Set your data usage cycle based on when your
"month" starts and ends, and you’re done.
You will be alerted once you hit the limit you have
set. Note that the tracked data usage of your
phone may vary slightly than your carrier’s
tracking.
Set Mobile Data Limit
4. Add Multiple Google Accounts
You need a Google account to use an Android
phone but did you know you can choose to run
more than one Google account on your Android
device. This is convenient if you use more than one
account for several of your Google services. To add
multiple Google accounts:
Go to Settings > Add account.
Select Google and setup your New or Existing
Google account.
Once added, choose what you want to sync with
the account.
Repeat all the steps above if you want to add more
accounts.
Add Multiple Google Accounts
5. Disable Automatic App Updates
Prefer to read through app permissions and
manually pick which app updates to adopt? You
can, but first you need to disable your automatic
app updates. Here are the steps:
Open Play Store and head over to Settings.
Tap on Auto-update apps.
Choose Do not auto-update apps.
If you want to enable the auto updates, follow the
same path and choose Auto-update apps at any
time or via Wi-Fi (available for certain Android
devices only).
Disable automatic Apps Updates
To update your apps manually, just open Play
Store, and on the main page swipe in from the left
and tap on My apps. You can tap on apps with
pending updates and update them manually, or if
you like to update them all at once, just tap on
Update All.
6. How To Check For Android System Updates
For Android users that are using stock ROM, you
may want to look for new updates to your system.
To check for updates:
Go to Settings > About phone/tablet.
Tap on System updates.
Tap Check now to look for system updates.
Check For android System updates
7. Changing Default Apps
If you have already set some default apps for
particular tasks (e.g. using Chrome for opening
web links) but wish to change this:
Go to Settings > Apps.
Swipe right and look for the All tab.
Select the app you want to remove as default.
Tap on Clear defaults.
Changing Default Apps
8. Organize Homescreen Shortcuts With Folders
Once you have a lot of apps installed, your
homescreen might be filled with app shortcuts.
Unlike the app drawer, the apps on your home
screen are not arranged alphabetically. So, you
might want to create some folders for your
homescreen shortcuts.
Assuming you have more than a handful of
shortcuts already on your homescreen, long press
on any of the shortcuts and drag it onto another
shortcut.
A circle should now appear around the apps,
indicating that a folder has been created.
By tapping on the newly created folder, a mini
window will pop up with your apps in it.
You can drag and drop additional apps into the
folder if you like. You can also rename the folder
by tapping on the text area at the bottom of the
mini window.
Organize Homescreen Shortcuts With Folders
9. Disable Animations
Here’s a tip on how to make your Android device
run a bit smoother: disable its animations. You will
need to have access to Developer Options which
can be found under Settings or About device.
Note: For some phones, you may need to go to
Build number and tap on it repeatedly until you see
"You are now a developer!". Developer options are
now enabled.
Under enabled Developer options, look for Window
animation scale, Transition animation scale, and
Animator duration scale. Then, turn them off
(disable) them one at a time.
Disable Animations
10. How To Turn Off Auto-Correction
Hate the fact that your phone is going English
teacher mode on you? Turn off auto-correction for
peace of mind when texting.
Go to Settings > Language & input.
Tap on the settings icon next to the keyboard that
you are using, e.g. Google Keyboard.
Look for Auto-correction and tap on it.
Select Off to turn auto-correction off.