Android 101: Tips On How To Use Your Android Phone

That Android operating system on your phone can carry out numerous tasks but it’s important to know where to start. Unlike iPhone’s cut-and-dried IU, the Android OS affords you ample space to organize and customize. Here’s a guide to getting the most out of your Android phone’s many included features.

The Desktop

Android’s desktop differs slightly compared to other smartphone platforms. With android you command a lot of freedom to customize your Android desktop-and without any limitations to four simple rows of flawlessly aligned square icons. Hence, Android lets you customize your desktop to mirror your likes, including making it as full and dynamic as you’d want it to be.

The Android desktop runs multiple homescreen panels. Although if your handset has a particular overlay such as MotoBlur, or rather a different version of Android, you could have 5-7 home-screen panels.

The first time you power up your phone, what you see is the main homescreen panel. The panel is normally centered, plus you can access extra panels on any side of the main panel through dragging your finger either left or right. You can customize the homescreen according to your preferences. You can make use of the available space with any combination of shortcuts, folders and widgets.

Of course, short-cuts are tiny icons that allow you load apps including other functions on your android phone; they work the same as the ones you’d see on a computer desktop. These shortcut options could do anything (according to your preference settings) from opening a program to connecting to a particular Web page or even initiating a phone call.

To create a shortcut, long press your finger on any open space on your handset’s home screen, and choose Shortcuts from the resulting turn-up menu. This is where you should select Applications, for example (to add an app), Direct message or Direct dial (creating a shortcut for texting or calling a friend), Bookmark (to connect to a Web page), and Directions (to activate navigation to a particular destination).

Widgets include dynamic programs that carry out activities right on your homescreen. They carry out various functions-including giving you the latest weather forecast, or letting you play music from your personal stored collection or streaming from the Internet. If you want to accommodate more, you can download extra widgets available on the Android Market.

To add a widget, press and hold your finger on an open space, similar to creating shortcut (above). Although, this time, choose the Widgets option availed from the pop-up menu. Whether you’ve downloaded anything or not from the Android Market, of course there must be a handful of options included in your phone. Begin by including the Power Control widget; it forms a lovely one-touch toggle management system for you android phone’s Bluetooth, WI-Fi, GPS, screen brightness, and data syncing.

Notifications

Android’s notification panel places real-time incoming information at your fingertips, regardless which activity you may be undertaking at the moment. Notifications come from different places: voicemail, text messaging, e-mail, social network notifications and news apps. As soon as you receive a new notification, an icon will emerge at the top-left of your phone’s screen. Dragging down the panel you’ll be able to see detailed information on the notification received.