With each new generation of smartphones, come added features. It becomes tough to keep pace with the latest updates and we often tend to miss out on some important add-ons. In this article, we bring to you a list of basic handy smartphone tips and tricks which you can use to efficiently use your smartphone.
Smartphone Tips and Tricks
1. Control PC with Smartphone
You can control your Windows system with your smartphone. There are many apps such as, Spotify, and YouTube that have built-in remote-control functionality. You can use these apps to control your Windows system. To have a complete control of your desktop or laptop, you can try, Unified Remote and Alfred.
2. Airplane Mode To Speed Up Charging
Want to speed up charging, but don’t know how? Use Airplane mode to charge your phone in a short span of time. Just put your phone in Airplane mode and it will consume less battery, thus charging it quickly.
3. Disable Background Data
Most apps run in background even when not in use and drain phone battery. While email and social media apps need to run in background to auto refresh for updates, we don’t need games, notes, and music players to do the same.
It is advisable to disable background data for certain apps. If you have an iOS, go to settings click on general followed by background app refresh. Choose the apps you want to disable.
On Android, restrict background data usage for each app by opening settings followed by data usage. Tap on the apps for which you want to restrict data usage.
4. Disable Annoying App Notifications
Disturbed by app notifications that pop up intermittently and drain your phone’s battery? If yes, disable them by long pressing on the notification. A message box will appear, in that tap on App Info and uncheck Show Notifications. Click OK, to disable unwanted notifications.
5. Don’t Use your Smartphone While Charging it
Phone manufactures deliberately make phone charging cables short, so that you cannot use them while charging. The idea of simultaneously charging and using it, reduces battery life as most phones run on Li-ion batteries which have limited charge cycle.
6. Use Low Power Mode to Extend Battery Life
Battery drain is a common issue in most of the smartphones. To counter this issue, iOS offers a low power mode. If the iPhone battery is dying and charging is not possible, go to Settings > Battery > Low Power Mode. Low Power Mode disables unwanted tasks and gives extra battery life of up to four hours. You can also ask Siri to activate this mode.
7. Use Gmote to Resolve Storage Issue On your Android
To save all songs on the smartphone becomes a problem over time due to storage limitation. Often, we must let go of our old collection to make room for the new favorites. To retain all your music files, use Gmote an Android app, which allows you to stream music from PC to smartphones via Wi-Fi.
8. Take a Quick Screenshots and Share
To take screenshot on iPhone, press and hold the Home and Wake button simultaneously. When pressed at the same time, you can hear a shutter click. The screenshot is saved under Camera Roll or Saved Photos section.
To take screenshot on Android, hold Power and Volume Down buttons together. The screenshot is saved in the Gallery app. This option works in Android 4.0 and higher.
9. Fix Google Calendar Time Zone
Open Google Calendar app, go to settings and fix the time zone.
10. Get Automatic Weather Alerts with IFTTT
To get automatic weather alerts with IFTTT, set up a feature on your Android or iOS mobile app to get alerts frequently.
11. Turn off Wi-Fi with your Voice
Use Siri, Cortana, and Google Now to turn off your Wi-Fi. Use any of the above-mentioned apps to “Turn off Wi-Fi”, to disable it. It’s one of the best smartphone tips and tricks that works with Bluetooth as well.
12. Turn The Keyboard Into a Trackpad
If you’re running iOS 9 or higher version, just press and hold two fingers on the keyboard to turn it into a makeshift trackpad.
13. Unlock the System UI Tuner
Android Marshmallow has a hidden system UI tuner to use the Quick Settings pane. To enable it, just press and hold the cog icon at the top of Quick Settings and then find it in the Settings app.
14. Email Large Files From your iPhone
Want to send a large file but unable to do so? iOS 9.2 allows you to send large files with the Mail Drop App. Use it to upload the file on iCloud. You get a download link for the same which is valid for 30 days.
15. Take Photos Using Headphone Cord On iPhone
Want to take a selfie but unable to use the camera button? You can use headphone cord to click your pic. Use the volume buttons on your iPhone headphones to click a selfie.
16. Where Is the Battery Power Going
All smartphone operating systems have detailed statistics of battery consumption by each app. To view this information, go to, Settings>Battery Usage.
17. iPhone’s LED Flash Sends Alert
iPhone’s LED flash light alerts the user about receiving notifications. To activate this feature, go to Settings, open General followed by Accessibility. In that, enable LED Flash to get Alerts. Each time a new notification appears the flashlight will blink.
18. Access Android’s Safe Mode
Like Windows, Android has a hidden safe mode, which can be used to disable third-party apps. To access the hidden safe mode on your Android device, go to the Power off menu and long press on the power button. You will get an option to reboot to safe mode.
19. Return To Home With One Tap
Google Maps for Android offers one-icon widget which directs user to go to the selected address. Use it to create a home screen shortcut and return with one finger tap.
