Within an app, you can turn your phone to switch the view from portrait to landscape or vice versa. Rotate the home screens Yeah, this doesn’t look weird at all. Note: This setting used to appear in the Play Store app, but starting in Android 8.0, you can now access it from any home screen.

When a menu pops up, choose Home Settings and turn off the Add icon to Home screen option. To disable this default, perform a long press on any blank part of a home screen. This allows you to quickly launch a new app, but it can also clutter up your interface. Stop new apps from creating shortcutsīy default, when you install an app, it automatically appears as a shortcut on one of your phone’s home screens. To switch on this handy feature, open Settings and pick Network & internet, then turn on the toggle switch next to Data Saver. This mode will affect different apps in various ways-for example, in a browser, images might not show up unless you tap on them. Reduce data usageĪndroid includes a built-in system to limit how much data background apps can gobble up (at least when you’re not connected to Wi-Fi). Open the panel, tap the pen icon on the lower left, and you’ll be able to add shortcuts and drag the icons into a new arrangement. These shortcuts are useful, but you can make them even handier by customizing which ones show up and the order in which they appear. Tweak the Quick Settings panelĭrag two fingers down from the top of the screen, and you’ll open Android’s Quick Settings panel, which provides immediate access to Android settings such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and flashlight mode. For more details, check out our guide to finding a lost phone. You’ll be able to view your handset’s location on a the map, among other options, like making the device ring (even if it’s in Do Not Disturb mode), lock it, or erase it. If you’re logged in to your account on Chrome, you can also type “Where’s my phone” on the search bar. After that, should you misplace your phone, head to this page in any browser and log in to your Google account. Open Settings, go to Security and tap Find My Device. To maximize your chances of recovering a missing device, make sure to activate Android’s built-in tracking system. Once you set the Android font size, most apps will apply it. Drag the pointer along the slider to make changes, and check the preview window to see what the end result will look like. Open Settings and choose Display, Advanced, followed by Font size, to make adjustments. You don’t have to squint and strain your eyes when viewing Android screens. However if you own a phone that runs a different version of the operating system, you may still be able to apply these Android settings-you’ll just have to rummage around a little more to find them. Our instructions specifically apply to Android 10 and Android 11, which you’ll find on Google’s latest Pixel phones. In this guide, we collected 24 lesser-known customizations for you to toy with.īefore we start, a quick caveat-although the same Android code runs all of these phones, manufacturers often modify the operating system by slapping a software skin on top. But within, they all run the same basic operating system, that includes settings to let you tailor your smartphone to your needs. It was first published in January 17, 2020.Īndroid phones come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes.

The timing of this is incredibly ironic, as Samsung is basically cutting off its original Android smartwatch possibly days before launching its return to Android with new Wear OS devices.This story has been updated. Samsung has long offered users a permanent switch to Tizen for the smartwatch, and if that action is done, app access will remain on the original Galaxy Gear. This only applies, though, if the watch is still running on top of Android. We will be discontinuing Galaxy Store services for the Galaxy Gear on Android OS on Aug(Korea Standard Time). We have been providing Samsung Galaxy Store (Galaxy Apps) services for the Galaxy Gear since its launch in 2013. Now, as SamMobile reports, Samsung is telling owners of the original Galaxy Gear that access to the Galaxy Store for apps will be cut off on August 5. The Galaxy Gear, though, ended up being a one-off product that sold poorly and was quickly replaced by the Tizen-running Gear S2 that set the standard for Samsung smartwatches over the next few years. In 2013, the product launched with a forked version of Android around the same time that Google launched Android Wear and Samsung also launched the Gear Live using the platform. The original Galaxy Gear has seen a bit of a roller-coaster ride since launch. Now, though, the 2013-released Samsung Galaxy Gear is about to lose access to apps if it’s still running Android. Samsung’s Tizen-based smartwatches are what has brought the company some success, but Android was what first filled that role.

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