Android is the most used mobile operating system around the world. Being a free-to-use platform to any qualifying OEM, the OS also allows manufacturers to play around with the code in their favor, something that really pisses some people off.
Nevertheless, new players keep entering the Android ecosystem, be it device manufacturers or users. While the former group makes what they feel will attract more buyers for their devices, the latter group buys what they feel is right for them. Regardless of this, you will find most or all Android devices with common features and settings.
If you are new to the platform or maybe just switching to a newer model, there are quite a number of default settings that you should tweak in order to get the best from the device with respect to things like performance, security, battery life and functionality, among others.
Here’re 4 settings that you must change in order to get the most out of your Android phone.
Prevent creation of app shortcuts on home screen
Just like desktops, installing a new app on your Android phone will create a shortcut to the app on the home screen. While this is a cool thing, it can sometimes mean you have to deal with a lot of clutter on the screen. Rather than manually delete each shortcut, you can opt to disable the creation of these shortcuts whenever a new app is installed.
Open the Google Play Store app and tap on Menu>Settings and uncheck the “Add icon to Home screen” box.
Reduce the phone’s brightness
In case you didn’t know, display screens are among, if not the leading, battery hogs on smartphones. It gets even worse for huge displays, however, bringing down the brightness of the screen can help a lot in prolonging the phone’s battery life.
This setting is quite easy to access by simply swiping down from the top of your screen and adjusting the brightness slider. If not here, it can be found in the Settings>Display and wallpaper and proceed by dragging the slider to 50% or even lower. Remember to keep auto-brightness turned off as this may adjust your current setting depending on the surroundings, hence using more battery power.
Reduce the phone’s whiteness
Other than dragging the brightness slider below the 50% mark, another way of cutting down on the amount of battery power used is to reduce the whiteness of the display. Go for a dark wallpaper to avoid illumination of pixels, hence saving more battery power.
The location of the wallpaper settings will vary depending on the Android version in use. However, for those using Android 5.0 Lollipop, just tap and hold on an empty space on the home screen and proceed by tapping on Wallpapers from the menu that shows up. Keep in mind to apply the settings on both the home and lock screen.
Set up phone locator/finder
Have you ever lost your phone? Well, if you haven’t, there is still time to take some precautions towards such an occurrence. Head to your device’s Google Settings in order to enable Android Device Manager. With this tool enabled, you can be sure of tracking your device with the help of location settings. Just head to the page at android.com/devicemanager using any device that connects to the internet and sign in to your account. As long as your phone is still connected to the internet, its location will be revealed to you via Google Maps. Once you’ve located it, you can make it buzz, go ahead and lock it or even wipe it remotely.