Tips and Tricks: For Smartphones..!

Well, these are some of the best tricks/tip I know, Please do ignore, if it’s something you already know. Also, don’t hesitate to correct me if I’m wrong somewhere.

Tricks For Android Users:

Make use of the camera API:

This API(for android lollipop and above) helps you to manually control every setting of your camera, like exposure, focus, shutter speed etc. You need a camera app like Manual Camera or L Camera to use this feature. But you need this enabled by your OEM or you should be on a custom ROM.

If you get unknown notifications on your phone:

Long press the notification and it will show you which app it’s from.

Sync your contacts to a google account:

Syncing to a Google account prevents your contacts getting lost during Factory reset or if someone tries a “Select all and Delete”.

Make you phone appear fast:

Go to Settings>Developer Options and change the animation scales to 0.5x.

Ever wanted to score high in the Lollipop Easter egg game?

Go to Settings>Developer Options and change the animator duration scale to 5x or more! Happy Scoring!!

Get more out of your Battery on Android:

Turn off Mobile Data, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, Sync and GPS when you’re not using them. If you have Phones with OLED Displays, Go for Black/Dark themes and wallpapers. Also turn off Vibrate on tap in settings>sounds. And, You surely need to give Greenify a try if you think battery juice is precious…

Never charge your phone when it is hot! Heat is never good for the battery.

Use ES File Explorer:

Ever had Whatsapp audio playing in between your music tracks? Open WhatsApp audio folder using ES File explorer, create a new file and name it as .nomedia . That’s it! Too many apps on your phone that you use less often? Backup them as APK using ES and install them whenever required. Do lots and lots more with ES! I recommend using an older version of ES, the newer version is totally bloated(and also not that safe)!

See what the flash on your phone can do. Double it as a Heart Rate Monitor,

Get a Heart Rate monitor app(I prefer Runtastic, There are other choices too.). I don’t know how much accuracy this has so don’t blame me if you get something wrong!

Ever wondered why the proximity sensor stops WhatAapp audio from playing?

When you start playing a WhatsApp audio, the proximity sensor is turned on so that if you place your phone near your ear the audio will be routed to the earpiece!(and it stops playing when you take your phone away from your ear)

GB Whatsapp or WAMOD for whatsapp gives you lot more customization options.

They allow you to get a toast message when someone is online, freeze your last seen, change the look and feel of the WhatsApp app etc. These apps are from third parties and you can never trust them, I don’t encourage the use of these apps as they are illegal.

Do you wish to have Notifications on your lock screen?

Try AC Display. It’s an awesome app which shows you the time and notification when you turn the screen on. The app is no longer maintained I think, But still seems to be very useful.

Dashdow is an app that lets you have Messenger like chat bubbles for WhatsApp.

Use Parallel Space on your Android to have more than one copy of the same app.

Instagram users, Use a tracker app(like InstaFollow or TrackGram), you don’t need to follow those Unfollowers anymore!

Tricks for ROOTED users:

WARNING: Don’t try this apps unless you know what you’re doing. Installing this apps could lead to your phone becoming inoperable.

(These are not detailed because that will make the answer too long. I do not recommend trying any of the below tricks without just by reading the points below, a clear understanding should be made before trying out these tricks.)

Edit: (Dealing with root access is really a risky business. Do it at your own risk. If something goes wrong there are chances that you sit with a brick at your home!)

Change you LCD Density. Open your build.prop and change ro.sf.lcd_density=xxx dpi to something lower to make things smaller. Google “Build.prop tweaks” to know more.

Change your BootAnimation, Find a bootanimation.zip that suits your phone’s resolution and replace it with the original.

Hack WPS Wi-Fi. Use apps like WPS connect or Andro Dumper to Hack WPS connections.

Install Xposed Framework. Xposed Framework lets you install tons of modules that helps you tweak your phone. Some of the popular Xposed Modules(As of now) are Gravity Box, Android N-ify, Flat Style Bar Indicators.

Flash a custom ROM, if your phone supports any custom ROMs, Flashing one would give you more in terms of User experience functionality and customization.