Add a custom wallpaper
There are two ways to do this:
1) Press and hold on a blank spot on your home screen. Select Add to Home screen. Then choose the Wallpapers option. Then choose from one of the options, depending on where the wallpapers are
2) Open the Applications launcher. Select Settings - Personalize - Home wallpaper. Then continue choose from the options provided
Dial most recently called number
In your Dialer you can press Call without selecting a contact to call the first person on the list
Send contacts directly to voicemail
If you don't want to receive from calls from a certain person, you can automatically redirect their calls to voicemail. Firstly, go to your People application. Find the Person you would like to screen. Press to open the Contact. Scroll towards the bottom and you will see Send to voicemail. Press this and press OK when asked if you are sure
Quickly put your phone in silent / vibrate / airplane mode
Simply Press and Hold the power button. Then select the mode you want to use
Enable / disable WiFi or Bluetooth
Go into Settings - Wireless & networks. Then press WiFi or Bluetooth to enable or disable
View CPU and battery information
To view information about your battery and CPU go to your phone dialer and type in the following code: *#*#4636#*#*
View all emails with attachments
To view all emails with attachments scroll until you see the Paperclip icon and press it
Use the Android Power Strip
To install this useful widget, long press on the home screen and find the widget. You will then be able to disable battery consuming features like WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS
Turn off predictive text
Go to Settings - Language and Keyboard - Touch Input - Text Input - Prediction. Select On or Off
Turn off photo delete confirmation
If you find yourself wanting to delete a large amount of photos, the delete confirmation can get annoying. To turn this off, go to Gallery, then Menu and switch off the confirmation dialogue
Toggle different numbers for a contact
In your Dialer you can swipe left or right to choose between different numbers for a given caller
Stop Photos or Music files being indexed
To stop the Photo app or the Music player from indexing your files, place a blank text file called .nomedia in the folder
Speed up your browser
You can speed up the page load speed on your browser by disabling Javascript. Some sites may not function properly, but most will be fine
Soft reset
To soft reset your phone press and hold the Power/Lock button for a 2-3 seconds and the phone will restart. Wait about 10 seconds and then press and hold the Power/Lock button again to restart.
If that doesn't work, then remove the battery. Wait 30 seconds and put the battery back in. Then press the Power/Lock button to turn the phone on.
Silent / vibrate mode with the volume buttons
You can use the volume buttons to put the phone in silent or vibrate mode. Keep pressing the Down volume until it reaches 0%. Then press it again to enter Silent mode. Then again to enter Vibrate mode
Send contacts directly to voicemail
If you don't want to receive from calls from a certain person, you can automatically redirect their calls to voicemail. Firstly, go to your Contacts. Find the Contact you would like to screen. Press to open the Contact. Scroll towards the bottom and you will see Send to voicemail. Press this and press OK when asked if you are sure
Save images in browser and email
To save an image in an email or in the browser, long press on the image and a menu will appear allowing you to save it
Remove large applications
If you are running low on phone memory, you can look for your largest applications to uninstall. Go to Settings - Applications - Manage Applications and press Menu. This will then filter your apps by memory use
Remove applications
Aside from using a third party app, there are two standard ways to remove an application.
1) Go to Settings - Applications - Manage Applications, then choose the application you want to close and select Uninstall.
2) Go to Market - Downloads. Choose the application you want to remove and select uninstall
Remove an icon from the home screen
To remove an icon from the home screen, simply press on it, hold and drag to the Trash at the bottom of the screen
Remove a whole text message conversation
If you want to remove an entire text message thread, go into Messages and look for the thread. Then long press on it and select Delete thread
Quickly unlock your phone
While you can slide the unlock bar to bring your phone out of standby, another quicker way is to double press the Home button. This may be disabled on some networks
Quickly turn off screen
Press the power button once. This will sleep or wake the phone
Open web pages in a new tab
If you are viewing a website and you see a URL, you can long press on it and then choose to open the site in a new tab
Move the Word Suggestion Bar
When you enter text a Word Suggestion Bar will appear. You can move this around by pressing, holding and dragging it
Manually close an application
Android manages you applications so if the phone is running low on memory, it will close the oldest running app. If you do need to manually close an application go to Settings - Applications - Manage Applications - Running. Choose the application you want to stop and select Force Stop
Install a new keyboard on your phone
If you want a different keyboard from the default one, go to the Android Marketplace and install one you would like to use.
Then open the Applications Launcher. Press Settings - Language and keyboard - Input method. Then select the keyboard you would like to use
Increase security with a custom unlock pattern
Instead of the simple swipe gesture to unlock your phone, you can set a custom one which can be extremely difficult for a thief to guess. Go to Menu - Settings - Security - Unlock pattern to set one up
Hide on-screen keyboard
To quickly hide the on-screen keyboard, press the Back button
Double tap for a full stop (period)
While typing emails or notes, you can simply tap the space key twice and the phone will insert a full stop / period
Don't use Task Killer
Android handles background applications and memory allocation very well and you shouldn't need to end any tasks. Task Killer can also drain battery life faster than normal, therefore it is recommended you don't use this app
Display currently running applications
To display the most recently used apps, long press the Home key
Dial most recently called number
In your Dialler you can press Call without selecting a contact to call the first person on the list
Delete multiple emails
Press Menu - Delete. Then select the message you want to delete by pressing the X next to the message. Then press Delete
Custom ringtones, alarms, sms notifications
To use custom ringtones for your phone ringtone, your alarm or your text message notification, simple copy an mp3 file to one of the following folders:
/sdcard/media/audio/ringtones
/sdcard/media/audio/alarms
/sdcard/media/audio/notifications
The file will then show up when you want to change your ringtones.
For Ringtones go to Settings - Sound and display > Phone ringtone
For Text Messages go to - Settings - Sound and display - Notification sound
For Alarm, set the sound when you add a new alarm
Copy photos to your PC
To download your photos on to your computer, plug the phone in with a USB cable. Select Disk Drive Mode. The phone will appear as a removable disc. Go to the /dcim/100MEDIA/ folder. Your photos will be stored there
Check the firmware version
Go to Settings - About Phone - Software Information
Change Maps Navigation voice
If you prefer a different voice when listening to the Maps voice navigation, you can select another language or accent. Go to Menu - Settings - Text to speech and select another option
Change keyboards
If you have additional keyboards installed, you can switch between them by long pressing the 123 button while in keyboard mode
Calibrate your keyboard for improved performance
Calibrating your keyboard will significantly improve the experience using your phone. To calibrate go to Settings - Language and Keyboard - Touch Input - Text Input - Calibration Tool
Browser history
To get the Browser History long press the Back key. To add and remove bookmarks from the browser history press the starts on the right
Bookmark a web page on your homescreen
If you regularly visit a website you can add a shortcut to your homescreen. To do this, go into your browser and find the bookmark of the page you want to create a shortcut for. Long press on the bookmark and select Add Shortcut to Home
Bookmark a contact on your homescreen
If you call someone regularly it can be useful to have a shortcut on your homescreen. To do this, long press on the Background, select Shortcuts, then Direct dial
Auto focus the camera
When taking photos or videos, tap the screen where you want to focus on. The phone will automatically adjust the settings to improve the image or video
Activate the speakerphone
When you're on a voice call, you can switch to speaker phone by pressing the Menu key and selecting the option
Access the scientific calculator
When using the standard calculator, rotate the phone to landscape mode. The calculator will change to a scientific one
Accents and special characters
If you want to type non-English letters (eg those with an accent), long-press on the relevant letter. A list of options will appear for you to select
Power searching
The search button can be configured to search the whole phone AND the internet. This can also be changed to search only certain areas. Go to Menu -> Settings -> Search -> Searchable Items
Open application manager
Press and hold the Home button and a pop-up will appear showing all open applications. Click on the application to switch to it
One-touch contact dialing
Long press on an empty part of the home screen. Select Shortcut -> Direct Dial. Then select the contact you want. You can now just press the shortcut on the home screen and the contact will be dialed
Linking contacts together
When you have multiple entries for one contact, use the People application to join them back together
Improve keyboard accuracy
You can improve the accuracy of your keyboard by calibrating it. Press Menu -> Settings -> Languages & keyboard -> Touch input -> Calibration tool
Factory reset
Settings -> Privacy - Factory data reset. Then select Reset Phone -> Erase everything. Make sure you back up your phone first though
Display notifications bar while browsing
When browsing the notifications bar will be hidden. Press Menu and the Browser menu and Notifications menu will appear
Disable 'mobile view' for websites
Open your Browser -> Menu -> More -> Settings -> Untick 'Mobile View'
Disable mobile version of web pages
Open the Internet Browser. Press Menu -> More -> Settings -> Untick Mobile View
Delete multiple emails
Before you select an email, press Menu - Delete. You can then select the emails you wish to delete. You can also press Menu again to Mark All and delete all emails
Custom ringtones for contacts
Go into Contacts and select a contact. Then press Menu - Options. Under Ringtone, choose the ringtone you want to set for that contact
Change alarm default to ringing
The Alarm Clock defaults to vibrate instead of ringing. To fix, press the Clock, then scroll to the bottom for the Alarm Clock. Chose the Alarm you want to change. Under Repeat is an option to change default to vibrate
Bypass unlock
Press the Menu key and you don't need to swipe to unlock the phone
Bypass activation
If you have multiple Android phones you will sometimes not want to activate them all. To bypass the activation screen, use the following pattern:
Press the top left corner
Press the top right corner
Press the bottom right corner (above grey banner)
Press the bottom left corner (above grey banner)
Note: you may have to do this each time you start your phone
Auto focusing on objects
When pointing the camera at an object, press the screen on the object. A white square will appear and when the square turns green, that area is in focus
Adding pauses when dialing
When dialing a number, or storing a number in your contacts, inserting a comma ( , ) will pause the dialing for about 2 seconds
Voice search
Press and hold the Search key
Voice navigation
Press and hold the Search key and say "navigate to"
Use the off-screen area while dragging
Instead of carefully pressing and dragging some screen elements (like the notifications bar), start by moving your finger from off the screen and then over the element. This means you don't have to be so accurate while dragging items
Turn off vibrate when receiving texts
Go to Message, then All Messages - Press Menu - Settings, then select Vibrate under Received Messages
Turn off message vibrate
In Messages, go to All Messages. Press the Menu -> Settings and scroll down to Received Messages and change from Vibrate
Toggle keyboard
Press and hold the Menu key when in a text field to hide / show the keyboard
Store number from email
If you have received an email with a phone number in it, hold down on the number and you will be given the option to call, send an SMS or add the number to your contacts
Show address in Maps
If you have received an email with an address in it, hold down on the address and you will be shown the address on the Maps application
Quickly select from 7 home screens
When on a home screen, press two fingers on opposite corners of the screen and pinch towards the middle of the screen. This will allow you to select from the 7 home screens
Quickly insert a period / full stop
Instead of typing the . (full stop / period) symbol, simply press Space twice
Watch Youtube videos in High Quality
Chose the video you want to watch. When it starts playing, press Settings and then select 'watch in high quality'
Use SWYPE for quick text entry
When any text entry box appears, press and hold the box. Then select Input method: SWYPE
Turn your phone into a 3G HotSpot
Go to the Applications tray. Select 3G Mobile Hotspot. Be careful you don't use your bandwidth allocation.
Terminate applications
Select Settings - Applications - Running services. Select the appropriate application. Select stop
Silence the phone
Slide the Screen Lock from right to left to silence
Set screen timeout
Press Menu -> Settings -> Sound and display -> Screen Timeout and choose a time period
Set MP3 as ringtone
When the song is playing, select Menu -> Set as Ringtone. You can do this for multiple songs, then set different ringtones for each contact in your contacts
Save word to dictionary
Type a word that is not in the dictionary. The word will show up in the suggestion box to the left. Long press on the word and it will save to the dictionary.
Remove onscreen keyboard
Hold and swipe downwards to make it disappear
Tip filed under: Motorola Droid X Tip and Tricks
Power control widget
Press and hold a blank area of the home screen. Select Widgets -> Power Control. This will let you quickly change features like Bluetooth and WiFi
Make phone run faster
By turning off the animations, your phone will run faster and smoother. Press Menu -> Settings -> Sounds & Display -> Animation. Turn this to Off. The Off option works best for quickest performance
Improve audio recording
Go to the Applications tray. Select Camcorder - Scenes. Choose the appropriate scene type
Enable USB Storage
Plug the USB cable into the phone. Then press and drag down the Notifications Bar from the top of the screen. Press where it says USB Connected, then select Mount. Your computer will then show that a new drive is connected
Drag notifications bar down
You can drag the notifications bar down to show more information about each item. You can then drag it back up again when done
Display recently used applications
Press and hold Home
Disabled the screen lock
Go into Settings - Location and security - Uncheck the screen lock
Change battery settings
Press Key Menu -> Settings -> Battery Manager -> select a battery profile
Add a contact to speed dial list
Go to Contacts and press the Star in the top right hand corner. When the Star is illuminated the contact is added to your favourites list
Zoom when using the camera
Use the Volume keys
Use the internal phone memory as a USB drive / memory stick
You can use the 16Gb internal phone memory as a USB drive by going to Settings - Applications - Development. Select USB debugging and then connect the phone to a PC with a USB cable. Press Mount to connect to the PC. The internal memory will then appear as another drive on the PC
Swipe to send message
When in Contacts, swipe a contact from Right to Left to send a message
Swipe to call
When in Contacts, swipe a contact from Left to Right to call
Soft reset phone
Press and hold the Volume Up and the Power Buttons for 5 seconds. The phone will turn off and restart
See Status Notifications
To see the Status Bar, press the top of the screen and swipe downwards. This will display notifications like emails, WiFi, Bluetooth etc. To remove, swipe it upwards to the top of the screen.
Search music on Youtube from Music Player
While in the Music Player, long press on the song title of the music and you can search Youtube for more music
Remove numbers from the call log
If you have made a call to a number that you don't want anyone seeing in your call log, then open your Call Log.
This will normally be found on your Apps list or you can also go to your Dialer and find Logs or Call Logs.
Then press and hold on the contact you want to remove. When the Menu appears, press Delete
Rejecting a call with a message
If you receive a call you cannot take (eg if you're in a meeting) you can send a text reply rather than just reject the call. When you receive the call, scroll up from the bottom and select a reject message
Open task switcher
Long press the Home button and the task switcher will appear
Open link in a new window
When you're in the browser you can open a link in a new window (or bookmark the page) by long pressing on a link
Make Volume Louder
Using the dial pad, enter: *#*#197328640#*#* Press Audio - Handset - Volume - SRC Speech RX Volume. Each line represents the level (from lowest to highest) when you press the volume button on your phone. Choose one that you want to change. Press Menu - Key Input. Enter a value up to 100 (although this is very loud!). Try a low setting to begin with.
Lock camera screen
While in Camera mode, press the Power Button to Lock the screen. Press it again to Unlock
Hard reset the phone
If the phone is on:
When on Homescreen, press Menu - Settings - Privacy - Factory data reset - Reset Phone. Enter password and press Yes to confirm
If the phone is frozen:
Turn phone off, or take the battery out and reinsert it. Hold the Volume Down key. Press and release the Power key. Use the Volume Down key to select Clear Storage. Press and release the Power key. Confirm by pressing Volume Up key
Export / Backup Contacts
Open Contacts - Menu - More - Import / Export - Export to SD Card - OK. Then go to your sdcard folder and a file should appear with the filename 00001.vcs (or similar). Your contacts will be in this file ready to store in your PC, or elsewhere
Engineering Calculator
When using the standard calculator, rotate the phone horizontally and it will change into an engineering calculator
Divert calls from a certain number
If you want to block someone from calling you, go to Menu - Settings - Call Settings - All calls - Auto reject - Enable auto reject - Auto reject list. Then press Create. Enter the phone number/s you want to block and press Save
Delete all contacts
Go to Settings - Applications - Manage Applications - Menu button - Filter - Select 'All' - Scroll down to Contacts Storage - Clear Data. This will delete contacts from the phone only, not the SIM card.
Clear cache and cookies
In your browser go to Menu - More - Settings. Then select Clear Cache / Clear all cookie data / Clear history / Clear form data
Change the background wallpaper
On the Homescreen - press and hold an area of the screen where there are no widgets or applications. A pop up will say Add to Home screen - press the Wallpapers option. Press Select wallpaper and chose from the available options.
Change text message ringtone
Open Messaging - Menu key - Settings. Scroll down to Select Ringtone
Change photo / video save location
In your Camera app, press the small arrow on the left. Press the Gear icon - Then the Spanner icon. Scroll down and press Storage. Then select the location you would like to save photos / videos
Change music player
If you rotate the phone while in the music player, it will display a different way to search and sort songs.
Change input methods
Long press on any text input area
Change contact list order
In Contacts press Menu - More - Settings - Order of display name. Then chose Select First Name Last Name or Last Name First name. Then exit
Boot in recovery mode
To load the phone in recover mode, turn off the phone. Then press and hold the Volume Up + Home + Power buttons. When you see the Samsung logo, release the keys for half a second and then press and hold them again. The phone will then boot in recovery mode
Assign a ringtone to a contact
Open Contacts and chose the contact. Press Menu - Edit. Scroll until Ringtone appears. Press it and select Sound. Then chose any audio file from the phone, or Phone Ringtone to use a built in ringtone
Add your own words to the dictionary
Settings - Locale and Text - Samsung Keypad. Scroll down and chose XT9 - XT9 Advanced Settings. Scroll down to the bottom and press XT9 my words. At the bottom press Add. Then type your word and confirm by pressing Done
Add a contact to the homescreen
You can place your favourite contacts on the homescreen by long pressing on the homescreen then pressing Shortcut - Contact - Select a contact
Web browser shortcuts
Menu + A - Add a bookmark
Menu + B - Open bookmarks
Menu + D - Downloads
Menu + E - Select text
Menu + F - Find text on page
Menu + H - View browser history
Menu + G - Display page info
Menu + J - Browser back
Menu + K - Browser forward
Menu + R - Refresh page
Menu + S - Open social network sharing menu
Menu + S - Open browser settings
Swipe notification bar to change screen brightness
To change the screen brightness, swipe the notification bar. This will only work if your brightness is set manually
Soft reset the phone
Press and hold the Volume Up and Power Key for 5 seconds. The device will turn off and restart
Send certain numbers to voicemail
Open your Contacts - Chose the contact you would like to filter. Towards the bottom, select Send straight to voicemail. Chose OK when it prompts if you are sure
Move applications for the SD Card
Menu - Settings - Applications - Manage Applications. Ensure the Downloaded tab (on the left) is selected. Chose an application and press it. A message saying Move to SD card should appear. If it does give the message, press it. Note: not all applications will allow this option. Also, this may slow down operation of the application.
Lock the Camera screen
When the camera is on, press the Power Key. This will lock or unlock the screen
Keyboard / text shortcuts
Shift + Del - Delete a character to the right of the cursor
Alt + Del - Delete a whole line
Shift Twice - Caps-lock (to remove press shift once)
Alt + Trackball Left - Move cursor to start of line
Alt + Trackball Right - Move cursor to end of line
Alt + Trackball Up - Move cursor to top of page
Alt + Trackball Down - Move cursor to bottom of page
Shift + Trackball - Left / Right - Highlight text (to cut or copy)
Keep Menu / Home / Back Search buttons lit for longer
Menu - Settings - Sounds and Display - Keyboard Timeout
Gmail Android shortcuts
R - Reply to message
A - Reply-all to message
Y - Archive message
Menu + C - Compose new email
Menu + U - Refresh inbox
Enter - Open email
Alt + Trackball Up - Jump to top of inbox
Alt + Trackball Down - Jump to bottom of inbox
Clear the quick search history
Menu - Settings - Search - Clear search shortcuts
Change where to save Photos and Videos
In Camera press the arrow on the left. Press the Gear button. Then Spanner icon. Then scroll down and press Storage. Then select the location you want to use
Backup Contacts
Open Contacts - Menu - More - Import/Export - Export to SD Card - OK to confirm. A file similar to 00001.vcf should appear on your sdcard folder. The contacts will be inside this file (which can be opened with Excel / Notepad etc)
Android Application shortcuts
Search + B - Open Web browser
Search + C - Open contacts
Search + E - Open e-mail
Search + G - Open Gmail
Search + P - Open music
Search + S - Open text messaging
Search + Y - Open YouTube
Change the backlight timeout
Go to Menu - Settings - Sounds & display. Then change the Screen Time Out option
Change the vibrate / haptic feedback when you type
To enable / disable vibrate (haptic feedback) when you type, then try these two methods, depending on which version of Android you are running:
Menu - Settings - Language & keyboard - Touch Input - Text input. Then change the Vibrate when typing option
Menu - Settings - Sound - Haptic feedback
You can also change turn on haptic feedback when you unlock your phone by going to Menu - Settings - Location & security - Use tactile feedback
Lower your screen brightness
Go to Settings - Sound & display - Brightness. Then slide the brightness slider to the left to decrease it. Alternatively you can select Automatic brightness to let the phone automatically adjust brightness level depending on the ambient light level
Quickly silence incoming calls
If your phone is ringing and you want to quickly silence the ringer, simply flip the phone face down
Calibrate your screen
Go to Menu - Settings - Language & Keyboard - Touch Input - Text Input. Then choose either Calibration Tool or Reset calibration
Silence the phone when ringing
While the phone is ringing, slide the Screen Lock from right to left to silence
Use Swype for quick text entry
Most Android devices come with an alternative way of entering text called Swype. Many prefer this method and believe it is quicker.
When any text entry box appears, press and hold the box. Then select Input method: SWYPE. Once enabled, you simply drag your finger around the keyboard moving over the letters in the correct order to spell a word.
Disable 'mobile view' for websites
Open your Browser - Menu - More - Settings - Untick 'Mobile View'
Zoom when using the camera
Use the Volume keys to zoom in and out
Disable the screen lock
Go into Settings - Location and security - Uncheck the screen lock
Adding pauses when dialling
When dialling a number, or storing a number in your contacts, inserting a comma ( , ) will pause the dialling for about 2 seconds
Swipe left to text contact
From the contact swipe left to send a text message to the selected contact
Silence the phone when ringing
While the phone is ringing, slide the Screen Lock from right to left to silence the call
View CPU and battery information
To view information about your battery and CPU go to your phone dialler and type in the following code: *#*#4636#*#*
Swipe right to dial contact
From the contact list or the messaging list, swipe right to dial a contact
How to hard / factory reset
Warning: This will remove ALL data on the phone (but not the MicroSD card). There are two ways to do this:
1) From the home screen, press Menu - Settings - Privacy - Factory data reset - Reset phone. It may ask for a password. Then select Erase everything
2) If you phone has completely frozen and you want to hard reset it, turn the Power off or pull the battery out and put it back in. Then hold down the Volume Down key. Then press and hold the Power key. The phone will turn itself on. When you are presented with a menu, choose Clear Storage by pressing the Volume Down key. Press and release the Power button. To confirm, press Volume Up for Yes or Volume Down for No.
How to hard reset / factory reset
Warning: This will remove ALL data on the phone (but not the MicroSD card). There are two ways to do this:
1) From the home screen, press Menu - Settings - Privacy - Factory data reset - Reset phone. It may ask for a password. Then select Erase everything
2) If you phone has completely frozen and you want to hard reset it, turn the Power off or pull the battery out and put it back in. Then hold down the Volume Down key. Then press and hold the Power key. The phone will turn itself on. When you are presented with a menu, choose Clear Storage by pressing the Volume Down key. Press and release the Power button. To confirm, press Volume Up for Yes or Volume Down for No.