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Nairaland Forum / Science/Technology / Phones / 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using (33838 Views)
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7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by maverickdude(m): 2:12pm On Jul 19, 2015 |
Android is stacked with so many tools and configuration options, we often overlook some of its most useful features. Sometimes they’re hiding in plain sight. Other times, they’re buried so deep, you’d never discover them without spelunking deep into sub menus, groping blindly in the dark. But don’t let that one killer feature get away. Even if you consider yourself an Android power user, you’d do well to make sure you’re familiar with every single menu, toggle and utility on this list. We’ve done our best to identify the precise locations of the features listed below, but you may have to hunt around menus a bit if your device manufacturer has excessive interface customizations. Use Android Device Manager for remote security Use Android Device Manager for much greater control over a lost phone. The Google Play Services framework is used to manage all sorts of back-end services, and Google updates it frequently in the background. Most of the functionality packed away in this framework is of little user-facing consequence, but there’s a lot including account sync, malware scanning, and the Android Device Manager. This feature allows you track, ring, lock, and wipe your device if you lose track of it. By default, you can only ring and locate a device with Android Device Manager, so if you want the full gamut of features, go into your main system settings and scroll down to Security. Find the Device Administrators option, and open it to see what apps have been granted admin privileges on your phone or tablet. Checking the box next to Android Device Manager allows you to wipe and lock the device in addition to the ring and locate features. You can remotely access Android Device Manager in a number of useful ways. If you only have one Android device, you can use any web browser to go to the Android Device Manager page and log into your account. From there, you can see a map of where your phone is located, and issue commands to nuke it or just lock it. Before resorting to extreme measures, you might want to start with locating and making it ring to ensure it didn’t just slip between the couch cushions. Should you have access to more than one Android device, you can use the Android Device Manager app, which you can keep on all your devices to locate and manage the others. Screen Recording Screenshots are for chumps. Show everyone else what you’re up to with a screen recording. A subset of Android users over the years have resorted to rooting their devices to get more advanced features. Android has slowly gained features over time that make root less of a necessity. As of Android 5.0 Lollipop, there’s less reason than ever to root now that Android supports screen recording. You just need an app to take proper advantage of it. A screen recording is simply an MP4 video file of what’s happening on your screen for the duration of the capture. There is no native tool to do this on most Android devices for some reason, but there are a ton of them in the Play Store. My personal favorite is the aptly named Rec. Whether you’re using Rec or another app with support for Lollipop screen recording, all you need to do is accept the screen capture request when it pops up. An icon in the status bar will appear to let you know the screen recording is ongoing. Some apps have support for different resolutions and bit rates for the recording as well, but the default will be the native screen resolution of your phone or tablet. The way you end a recording varies by app, but there’s usually a notification or you can simply put the device to sleep. One of the reasons I prefer the aforementioned Rec is that it has support for both of those options as well as shake to stop a recording. Speed up your phone 10x faster Why suffer even marginally slow animations when your processor can handle faster speeds? Android devices are faster than they used to be, but you can make your experience feel even zippier with one simple tweak. Android contains a hidden developer options menu that you can enable by going into your main system settings, then navigating to About > Software Information > More > Build number . Now tap on the build number—literally, tap on it numerous times—until a small message at the bottom of the screen confirms that you’re a developer. Now, don’t worry: This doesn’t make any modifications to your system. It just turns on the Developer Options menu back in the main settings list—so head back there and open it up. Developer Options has tons of interesting features to play around with, but you can also mess things up pretty badly, so it’s best not to change anything you haven’t thoroughly researched as this might affect your phone. Inside Developer options, scroll down to Drawing and find Window animation scale , Transition animation scale , and Animator duration scale . These are all set to 1x by default. These animations are the eye candy you see when apps open and close, menus drop down, and more. They help cover up lag as the system catches up, but you don’t really need slow settings on a fast device. You can set all of these to 0.5x for a more snappy interface experience. Don’t just monitor data usage—control it The trick is to receive a warning before you trip your data limit. In a country like Nigeria where the cost of data plans are highly expensive and carrier fees are ever-increasing, you often need to watch your mobile data consumption closely. Android has a built-in tool that helps you do this, but most users don’t use it to its full potential. The Data Usage menu is usually near the top of your system settings list (though it may be buried under a “More” heading), and can also be accessed via the network signal strength icon in Quick Settings. You can use the sliders on the usage chart to set your data limits for your chosen billing cycle. The default behavior is simply to warn you when you reach your data limit. However, by the time you get that warning, it’s often too late to adjust your behavior and avoid overage charges or automatic throttling. A better use of the data tracking feature is to set your warning a few hundred megabytes below your limit, then enable a data limit with the check box right above the chart. The red line on the chart lets you set a point at which your mobile data will be shut off. Use Wi-Fi Direct for quick file transfers The SuperBeam app facillitates device-to-device file transfers at warp speed—even 45 Mbps. Transferring files between devices has always been a little annoying, but features like Android Beam made it easier: Just hold together two NFC- enabled devices (Android 4.1 or later), and you can transfer files across a Bluetooth link. It’s a neat trick, but transfer speeds are capped by Bluetooth bandwidth, and file type support is limited. Luckily, however, most Android devices also support Wi-Fi Direct, even though Google’s stock apps don’t make use of it. Wi-Fi Direct is exactly what it sounds like: a protocol that can create a direct connection between two devices via Wi-Fi. You just need an app to make use of it, and there are several in Google Play. SuperBeam is probably the most powerful, and it has a free version. To get a transfer going, you just need to share the files to Super Beam (or whatever app you’ve chosen to use) and tap phones. Wi-Fi Direct allows you to queue up multiple files in a single operation and the transfer rate can easily exceed 30 Mbps. It’s fabulous for sharing large videos or images. Restrict background data, app by app Sometimes apps don’t need to be consuming so much data in the background but Android allows apps to wake up in the background and perform activities and because of this there’s always the possibility they’ll send and receive mobile data without your knowledge. When you’re on a low-capped data plan (or you’re just coming up on the cap) this can be an issue. Luckily, the Android Data Usage menu in your phone offers information on what’s using data in the background, and could save you from extra charges. Below the graph of overall data usage mentioned above, you’ll find a list of all your apps organized by how much data they’ve used, starting with the most greedy offenders. Tap on any single app for details on the split between foreground and background data. If you find an app using a lot of bytes in the background, you can scroll down to the bottom of the details page and check the option to restrict background data. Note, however, that this option is only available on devices that hook into mobile data plans. Also keep in mind that some apps won’t work as expected with this option enabled, so only use it for apps and services that aren’t respectful of your mobile data connection. Use Owner Info to make it easier to reclaim a lost device Share your owner information in order to help your lost phone finder return your phone. Having a pattern or PIN lock on your phone or tablet is always a good idea, but what happens if you lose the device, and a good Samaritan finds it and wants to return it? How is he or she supposed to know who it belongs to? Well, hidden inside the Owner Info menu, there’s an easy way to provide your identity. The Owner Info feature will be in the Security section of the main system settings, or under Personal > Lock screen and security on newer Samsung phones. You can add any info here you want, but an email and alternative phone number are safe bets. Just check the option above the text field to have the Owner Info displayed on the lock screen. Be aware, OEMs that heavily customize the lock screen like adding too much crazy widgets and text sometimes do away with this feature. credit:www.geniusvilla.net 27 Likes 6 Shares |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by etiosa97(m): 2:14pm On Jul 19, 2015 |
Tryna summarise 3 Likes |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by Nobody: 2:15pm On Jul 19, 2015 |
NOT NEW 7 Likes 1 Share |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by Sholyzee: 2:23pm On Jul 19, 2015 |
Summary pls 1 Like |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by kossyablaze(m): 2:27pm On Jul 19, 2015 |
TODAYS LESSON
#life #smile #19.07.2015...Smiling through life and
facing each day knowing there's hope.
# The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength
from distress and grows brave by reflection.
# A smile of encouragement at the right moment
may act like sunlight on a closed up flower ;it may
be the turning point for a struggling life. 11 Likes 3 Shares |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by kossyablaze(m): 2:27pm On Jul 19, 2015 |
TODAYS LESSON
#life #smile #19.07.2015...Smiling through life and
facing each day knowing there's hope.
# The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength
from distress and grows brave by reflection.
# A smile of encouragement at the right moment
may act like sunlight on a closed up flower ;it may
be the turning point for a struggling life. 5 Likes 3 Shares |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by encryptjay(m): 2:34pm On Jul 19, 2015 |
Nice piece 1 Like 1 Share |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by Kelklein(m): 7:21pm On Jul 19, 2015 |
I like d animation scale tweak 2 Likes |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by xxx111: 7:28pm On Jul 19, 2015 |
mention me when you write about Iphone 6 1 Like |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by Winna01(m): 8:41pm On Jul 19, 2015 |
NFC NO DEY INNJOO, SO NO NEED |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by Andyblaze: 9:10pm On Jul 19, 2015 |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by donjuviam(m): 11:00pm On Jul 19, 2015 |
sorry i dont need all these 1 Like |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by kekakuz(m): 11:16pm On Jul 19, 2015 |
cool
love the developer ish
also tap on the software version and got a cool animation display |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by lanrefresh(m): 11:54pm On Jul 19, 2015 |
Everything na stale gist |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by Andyblaze: 11:55pm On Jul 19, 2015 |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by Tintinnoty(m): 12:12am On Jul 20, 2015 |
good info. I can sense this headed for the NL headquarters |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by Psalmpy(m): 2:31am On Jul 20, 2015 |
Cool 1 Like |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by josite: 3:26am On May 17, 2018 |
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Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by OkpaAkuEriEri(m): 7:30am On May 17, 2018 |
Okay. My betnaija no dey open again 4 my android.wetin dey cuss am 1 Like |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by cheddahboy(m): 7:32am On May 17, 2018 |
How will I know if not for NL? |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by Christafarian(m): 7:32am On May 17, 2018 |
When I see topics like this, FIRST, I feel like, Yes! this is the topic I've been waiting for. BUT by the time I open it it and see one kain long thread of unbargained explanationssss full of vocabularies, I feel like, which kain wickedness be this? How do you explain words like "screenshots are for CHUMPS" "ZIPPIER", "TWEAKS", for instance? 2 Likes |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by Nobody: 7:34am On May 17, 2018 |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by Alejoc(m): 7:41am On May 17, 2018 |
Lovely! Thanks for sharing!! |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by eezeribe(m): 7:41am On May 17, 2018 |
Since 2015 |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by Sammilisticgee: 7:44am On May 17, 2018 |
hmmm |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by slawomir: 7:45am On May 17, 2018 |
ok |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by owomida1: 7:45am On May 17, 2018 |
2015 thread. Jesus.... A mod just took codeine 3 Likes |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by Nobody: 7:46am On May 17, 2018 |
Op, Learn To Number Your Works. |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by mralincore20: 7:48am On May 17, 2018 |
Hmm...we knw |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by MrHighSea: 7:48am On May 17, 2018 |
Now I'm confused upon se i no read everything |
Re: 7 Cool Android Features You Aren’t Using by Nairalandmentor(m): 7:49am On May 17, 2018 |
How To Program Mtn Sim Cards To Make And Receive Free Mtn To Mtn Calls. / Smartphones You Must Not Buy In 2017. / Twitter To Start Charging Verified Users $20 Monthly
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