Do this before you start using your Android Device

It has been a while since I saw someone using a mobile phone that does not come with operating system like Android on it. While almost everyone now a days own a smartphone, not every one is able to setup the phone and get the right accessories for the phone to maximize the phone’s potential and life. In this guide, you will get to see how easy it is to make your phone better to use.

Must have accessories

In the name of premium look,more and more smartphone makers are opting for front and back glass panels. Even if only the front side is glass, the glass is raised above the body which means that the phone, when dropped face down will end up with broken display. I strongly suggest a tempered glass screen protector and a rear cover that is not too thin and raises above the display (eg: Ringke Fusion series). I have strong dislike towards flip covers as one handed operation with the cover on is a headache.

Most of the Android smartphones come with built in support for USB On-The-Go. This is a fancy term for the ability to connect a USB pen drive to your phone. There are lot of hybrid pen drives that come with both micro-USB port and full size USB port. Get one such drive and you can easily carry extra data and when ever you need to access the data, connect the pen drive to the phone.

Few years ago, external power banks used to cost a lot. A 5000mAh bank used to be priced at 3000/- or higher. Thanks to the Xiaomi Mi Bank, a 10000mAh power bank costs under 1500/- and you can even get a Xiaomi Mi Bank 20000mAh for just 1699/-. But do note that efficiency matters a lot when you pick a power bank and OnePlus Bank is one of the best in this. When the OnePlus Bank goes on sale again, grab one without second thought.

1. Tempered glass screen protector
2. Rear protector
3. microUSB memory stick (if phone supports OTA)
4. External Power bank

You can also think of getting a Chromecast or a streaming stick so that if you have a HDTV at home, you can stream movies or games on your phone to your TV and enjoy the big screen gaming/movie experience.  If you have the onscreen keyboard, you can go for Bluetooth keyboard that can switch between multiple devices (like the Logiteh K480). I use this keyboard and it is supremely comfortable (single keyboard for desktop, tablet and keyboard). Android now allows you to unlock your phone using a bluetooth device like a bluetooth fitness band. A Xiaomi Mi Band costs as low as 800/- and when you are wearing the Mi Band, you can unlock your phone without entering any pattern (if you added the Mi Band as a trusted device). The primary function of providing fitness data is priceless.

1. Chromecast or streaming stick
2. Keyboard
3. Smart Band

Applications

GadgetDetail has a mega list of recommended Android applications but here is a much more precise must have list that every Android phone should have:

1. Wallpaper changers : how about having a new wallpaper every day?
2. Astro file manager : The best file manager that also integrates cloud storage accounts
3. CloudMagic email : The best multi e-mail application.
4. DiskUsage : Best way to see what is eating into that phone/microsd storage
5. Lookout : Elegant and simple security application
6. Poweramp : Best music player for Android
7. Flipboard : Best news delivery application.
8. Speedtest : If you have to know what is the internet speed
9. Swiftkey : The best onscreen keyboard is now free
10. Waze : The best offline maps application
11. Flickr : Best for online photo storage

Secure the phone

Android is the new Windows! Due to the huge user base, Android is targeted heavily by hackers and spammers. There are many security applications that provide good protection from attacks but Lookout Security is one among the best. Lookout Security comes with Antivirus Engine, customize App Permissions, Call Blocking, Web Shield, Application Locking etc. Lookout also records the last location of your phone when the battery is very low and you can check the location from lookout.com. Lookout also allows you to map location of device when missing and sound a loud alarm. Head to https://www.lookout.com/android to know full list of features of Lookout.

Link : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lookout&hl=en

Setup up lock and encryption

Gone are those days when we used to carry Digital Camera. Most of the photos that we cake are using a smartphone. We also store lot of senstivie information like contacts, e-mails, social network accounts and you dont want to have a thief get access to all your photos, mails and other sensitive data. The more accounts you use, the bigger headache it is to keep your data safe.

One very easy way for this is to setup a screen lock. Depending on the phone you use, you have basic protection like password, PIN, pattern to bit more secure ways like fingerprint scanner, iris scanner etc.

Go to settings -> Security in your Android phone and you can setup lockscreen security.

Device encryptions is enabled by default on Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 devices. On other devices, its up to the manufacturer or encryption is enabled when you set lock screen security.

Updates

Google released monthly security updates. These are priority updates that are pushed by OEMs to their devices. Do make sure that these updates are installed. Other updates, you can wait a bit to know if the device is reported to be stable after update.

Add trusted places and devices

punching in PIN or drawing pattern every time you try to unlock the phone can be very very irritating. As a work around, you can configure certain places and devices as trusted.For example, you need not input security pin/pattern when you are at home or your smart watch or bluetooth enabled fitness band is connected to the phone. Here is how you can enabled Smart Unlock and add trusted devices/locations:

Enable Smart Lock

1. On your device, open the Settings app .
2. Scroll down to “Personal” and tap Security.
3. Scroll down to “Advanced” and tap Trust agents. Make sure “Smart Lock” is switched on.
4. Scroll up to “Device security” and tap Smart Lock.
5. Enter your screen lock. If you don’t already have one set up, follow the on-screen prompts to set up a password, PIN, or pattern. You need to enter this screen lock any time you want to change your Smart Lock settings.

Add a trusted device

1. On your phone or tablet, make sure that Bluetooth is turned on.
2. In the Smart Lock menu, tap Trusted devices.
3. Tap Add trusted device, then tap Bluetooth.
4. To pick a device from the list of connected devices, tap it. Only paired devices show in this list.

Add a trusted place

1. In the Smart Lock menu, tap Trusted places.
2. Tap Home.
3. Tap Turn on this location.

To turn off trusted location for your home, tap Turn off this location.

You can also add Trusted face, Trusted Voice and some phones can even recognize that you are carrying the phone by analyzing your walk patter and let you use the phone without the need to unlock but note that this one is not perfect and hence not as secure as other options.

Optimize

There are several way to optimized your phone. Here are some key areas that you can optimize to get better performance and make your phone bit more useful

Enable Google Now

Google Now is a powerful personalized digital assistant (like Siri for iOS and Cortana for Windows Phone). Using Google Now, you can use voice to open applications, send e-Mail , sms, identify music that is playing, find out about movies, weather outside etc. Google Now is part of ‘Google Search’ application so you need to have Google Launcher or Google Search application to activate Google Now. What is Google Now doing in ‘optimize’ section? When you can just ask some information instead of opening an application, you are taking far less time for the action than earlier. Google Now indeed reduces time taken to perform an action. For apps that are not on home screen, it is easier to activate Google Now by saying ‘Ok, Google’ and then commanding ‘Open <application>’ than scrolling through apps to get to that rarely used app.

If you are on Android 6.x Marshmallow, there is a new feature known as ‘Google Now On Tap’ where in you can select some text on screen, long press Home key or use voice command to activate On Tap and GOogle with parse through text, get the necessary keywords and generate Google Now cards based on the content. Google Now can also go through your e-mails and setup reminders about your upcoming travel or meetings.

1. Open the Google Settings app .
2. Touch Search & Now > Now cards.
3. Turn “Show cards” on.
4. Follow the on-screen instructions to finish the setup.

Folders and Widgets

I have seen many who use Android as it is without making any changes to the home screen layout. The best way to arrange an Android home screen is by using three screen layout with just enough folders and widgets to make your work faster. Do note that too many widgets or folders will make the homescreen layout confusing and counter productive.

Resource hogging apps

Time and again, it is a good practice to check which applications are eating into battery life and using more resources than they should. Go to settings -> Battery to check which are the applications that use too much of battery and go to settings -> Memory to see which applications have used more RAM in past 24 hours or so.

There are certain applications that reside in memory even though we do not use them. Fox example, I never really used ‘Arrow Launcher’ but this app is using 35MB of RAM, the same goes with few other apps. So, until I start using these applications, I can go ahead and disable these applications (settings -> Apps -> application name -> disable).

3rd party keyboards

While the default keyboard that comes with Android is good, there are 3rd party keyboard that are much better and feature rich. SwiftKey and Swype are the 3rd party keyboards with strong flow type input, voice dictation, multi language support and these come with interesting themes.

There are some phones that come pre-loaded with SwiftKey or Swype so before you decide to make a purchase, make sure that it is not installed on your phone already.

Sync notifications to PC

One of the best features on iOS is that you can sync your messages to your mac and response to calls from your mac. The same functionality can be setup for Android and PC and there are lot of applications available for this. AirDroid is one such application using which you can send/received SMSs, do file transfer, check notification on computer adn reply to messages on whatsapp, telegram etc. While these are basic features of AirDroid, you can do a lot more. The best part is that your PC and phone are connected via your wireless network and you dont have to keep the phone plugged in to your computer.

Conclusion

Android, like Linux is a very powerful and highly customizable operating system. Using Android as it is out-of-the-box is like buying a HDTV and watching video tapes on it. Thanks to Google, customizing Android is extremely easy and you only need to spend just a little bit of time. I will soon publish more in-depth guides on customizing specific part of Android. Till then, Adios!