Is your phone smarter than you? Mobile phones have become more and more powerful in recent years, but few of us make the most of them.
In this article, you’ll find 20 Android tips and tricks to help you do just that. They cover how to tweak and tune your phone, but also what you can do to improve battery life. Most of them are new, but we’ve also included some invaluable classics.
Before you start reading, it’s good to be aware that not all Android phones look the same. There are many different versions of Android, and even if two phones are running the same version, they may not look the same.
There are clear differences even between manufacturers. Some have developed their own solutions that we can’t find on any other phone, which can make guides like this confusing.
Here, we’ve used Android 14 running on a Google Pixel phone. It’s the most stripped-down version you can find, but there may be some things that look a little different on your phone.
However, many times you can find an equivalent solution, even though the appearance may differ. A good tip is to open your phone’s settings menu and enter a keyword in the search box at the top. You will usually find the right setting.
Time to upgrade?
If you have an older phone, it may mean that some functions are missing, and if you have a really old one, there is a good chance that even important services will not work. For example, Google Maps requires Android 8 or later, while it’s Android 9 for Google Wallet.
The cut-off point is usually around six years. If you have a phone younger than that, you can usually use it without problems.
If it’s older, it might be time to buy a new one, but that doesn’t have to be a big deal. Almost all the information on a smartphone is now stored in the cloud, on large Google servers. If you buy a new phone and log in with the same account name as your old one, most of what you have there will come with you.
Internet
Switch on data saving…
Many mobile phone plans have a limit on how much data you can use. To reduce consumption, you can stop apps from using data in the background when you’re browsing on your mobile.
HOW? Swipe your finger from the top edge and switch on the Data Saver feature. If you don’t see it, head to Settings and select Network and Internet.
…and change this setting
Some apps need to use data in the background, for example to notify you of new messages. You can therefore exempt selected apps from data saving.
