10 Android Tricks to Better Your Android Smartphone Experience

There is a saying that no matter you’re using the most advanced smartphone or the lowest entry-level phone in the world, you only make use of 30% of all its functions. This is a fact. There are far more fantastic features on our phones that we rarely explore. Whether we’re an Apple or Android fanatic, the phone in our hand has more capabilities than we’re aware of and we are using. Today, we would like to introduce you 10 Android tricks to better your Android smartphone experience.

1. Set your smartphone in Guest Mode: Share your phone but protect your private.

Use the Guest Mode to block your email, messages, etc. from being viewed by your friends or family members when they use your phone. Detailed operations are as followed:

1. Swipe down to open Quick Settings.
2. Tap the user icon on the top right and select “Add a Guest” to start Google Guest Mode. Your phone will switch to the guest mode and your information will be protected.
3. When you get the phone back, end Guest Mode by tapping the user icon and selecting “Remove Guest”.
4. Tap “Remove” to delete all apps and data from the guest’s session.

2. Share faster with those you share with most

In Facebook Messager, your top contacts pop up as little circles directly under your most recent conversions. Google provides a similarly easy-to-scroll-through option for Google app users, so the people and places you share with most ofter are ready to share within apps, faster.

1. In the share menu, you’ll find a list at the top of people or places (such as a Google Drive folder) you share with most.
2. Simply tap the person or place you want to share with and your item will be shared, without needing to open up the sharing settings.

3. Build your own Android likeness

The Androidify app allows you to build your own Android likeness through Bitmoji on Snapchat and others. You could create your own Android characters.

1. You need to install Androidify app on your smartphone.
2. Open Androidify app.
3. Start designing a character for yourself or a friend
4. Save it.

4. Use Google Photos to edit photos with multiple features

Google Photos is a photo editing app for Android smartphones. You could use it to edit photos, create movies, customize gif pictures with amazing effects.

1. Open the Google Photos app from the Google folder on the home screen.
2. Tap the menu button in the top left corner and then touch “Assistant”.
3. In v.1.23 and below, tap the + sign in the top right corner. Select “Animation”.
4. Choose between 2 and 50 images to animate, select “Create” in the top right corner. Your animation will auto-play on the screen. This will also be saved in Photos.

5. Schedule calendar via voice

You could use voice commands to schedule alarms, reminders, calendar events and more on Google Calendar app.

1. Say “OK Google” and then things like “Set an alarm for 7am,” “Remind me to call John at 6pm”, or “Create a calendar event for dinner in the city, Saturday at 8pm”.
2. If Google doesn’t recognize your voice, open the Google app and tag the menu in the top left corner, then tap “Settings > Voice > OK Google” detection.

6. Locate your lost Android phone

The Android Device Manager could locate the position of your Android smartphone. When your Android smartphone gets lost, use it to locate an approximate position of your phone.

1. Sign into the Android Device Manager website, and ensure your current mobile device is selected.
2. You can see the approximate location of your device. Here, you could also lock your phone, erase data, or ring your phone. Your phone will ring for up to 5 minutes even if it’s on silent.
3. To quickly find your phone in the future, you could ask Google to “Find my phone”.

7. Share your locked phone with access to one app

Share one single app when your phone is locked.

1. Swipe down to open Quick Settings and click the settings icon in the top right.
2. Under “Personal”, tag “Security” then scroll to the bottom of the list and tap “Screen Pinning”. Toggle the switch right to turn pinning “On”.
3. Open the app you’d like to pin to your locked screen and tap the square overview button, then tap the pin icon.
4. To unpin the app from your locked screen, hold down the back button (triangle) and overview button (square) at the same time.
5. Note: On some phones, Screen Pinning may be located under “Lock Screen and Security > Other security settings > Pin windows”.

8. Translate signs when you travel

With Google Translate app, you could use your phone’s camera to translate text instantly in over 25 languages.

1. Install Google Translate app on your phone and kick it off.
2. In the top-left corner, select the language of the text you’re looking at.
3. In the top-right corner, select the language you’d like to see the text in.
4. Tap the camera icon. Point your camera at the text you want to translate. The translation appears on the screen.
5. To pause the camera and see the translated text, tap “Pause” in the bottom right corner of the screen. To resume, tap “Play”.

9. Track your packages with Google

Get notifications on when your packages are sent and will be delivered.

1. Google automatically pulls tracking info from Gmail. To turn on Now cards, open the Aoogle app and tap “Now card”.
2. Turn “Show cards” on and follow the on-screen instructions to finish the setup.

10. Doze mode manages your alarm

Doze mode would automatically put your Android phone into a sleep state when your device is with low battery or at rest. Your Android phone will still set off your alarm in the morning.

1. Doze mode is an automatic feature of Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS. So you need to update your Android phone to this version to make use of this feature.