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[OFFICIAL] Tips & Tricks thread

This is for random tricks that aren't widely known.
I'll start off...
Missing that search button key on the bottom from the SGSII? Have no fear, just press and hold the menu key, which acts like the search key
Annoyed of the home button lag? turn off double tap to activate S voice within that program and your home key will be much more responsive
Can anyone think of anything else?
Edit: Ironlood has put together a list of tips and tricks. Thanks!
1.Hold menu button for search menu - eyecon82
2.To get rid of home button lag open up S-Voice and navigate to settings and untick the launch with double tap home button -eyecon82
3.Lock screen app settings are listed under security in settings - kegacide
4.you can swipe the screen with the side of your hand to take a screenshot, or hold home and power-kegacide
5.Hold down physical button and you can close all open apps and go to the task manager - hawkeye2188
6.Buttons on the bottom of the lock screen and can be swiped and open that application - hawkeye2188
7.You can also swipe away individual apps after holding down the home button - NA 521"
8.first go to settings>language and input and turn on voice cmd for apps. I had it on early today and said cheese and the camera snapped a photo...pretty cool -s3xda (on a side note it seems as though the variants have different voice cues try snap, cheese, shutter, and go)
9.In settings > sound > device vibration, you can select a different pattern of vibrate, or just make your own by touching create! - Zoidpilot
10.In app drawer > widgets, Sammy added a widget to use flash as a flashlight, and a widget to turn the entire phone into negative colors.-Zoidpilot
11.You can set the brightness in the majority of stock apps (i.e. the browser) to be app specific, instead of just setting a brightness for the entire system. For example: set the brightness to auto in the system settings, then open the stock browser > brightness and colors, and set it to high. Now the system will have auto brightness, but it will always go to high/bright when you are in the browser! -Zoidpilot
12.If you go to Phone > Logs > call logs, you can long-press a number (like that telemarketer you always reject) and select "add to reject list" to have the phone automatically reject the call every time. You can also unblock the number in case you change your mind.-Zoidpilot
13.In the stock messaging app, you can go to settings, and on the top you will find options to change the background and bubble style of the messages.-Zoidpilot
14.Samsung's S-Voice can do complex mathematical equations for you, then show them in different answers. For example, open S-Voice, and ask "how many inches are in a mile?". Or "what's the square root of 543,636?". -Zoidpilot
15.In settings > security > lock screen options > shortcuts, you can change what shortcuts appear on your lockscreen, or take them out altogether.-Zoidpilot
16.On the headphones that came with your device, you will see a single button and the volume controls. One press of the single button will pause the music, two presses in quick succession will skip to the next track. -Zoidpilot
17.In settings > wallpaper > home & lockscreen, if you select a live wallpaper, it will show as your lock screen as well. It will deactivate the ripple effect though if you have it active.-Zoidpilot
18.You can also use pop-up play on streaming online videos as long as they're not YouTube videos, and as long as you use the stock video player to stream them.-Zoidpilot
19.Pictures come out better with the camera if you hold the camera button and let it focus before the shot, rather than just pressing it after touching the focus box.-Zoidpilot
20.The stock browser has "incognito mode" just like Google Chrome! You can access it by opening the browser, the touching the top right corner to see open windows, then touching the incognito icon. While you're incognito, no history/cookies/or form data will be saved.-Zoidpilot
21.While you are on a call, on the screen where the contact picture is displayed, there is a speaker icon in a bubble. Touch it to increase the call volume past the maximum setting. It works on speaker or on headset setting.-Zoidpilot
22.If you're not rooted, but want to get rid of those pesky bloatware apps, go to settings > application manager > all, and select the app. Within those settings you can clear the information the app has, then disable the app with the top right button. You may need to uninstall updates before it says disable app though... you can also go to the app drawer, hit menu, then select "hide apps" to hide the bloatware icons you've disabled. -Zoidpilot
23.With voice cmd turned on, you can snooze your alarm by saying snooze. -s3xda
24.Cover the screen with the palm of your hand to pause media playback. -NA 521"
25.You can use S Voice like a translator,for example: What is the meaning of house in spanish?-TitaniumBarbell
26.I just found out the contents of the clipboard stay there even after a reboot.-kingwp
27.touch wiz scrolling wallpapers fix go Settings > Wallpaper > Home Screen... If you set them independantly you will be able to crop the wallpaper just like any other HC/ICS device-nonmindo
28.you can get your status bar in ANY full screen app, even full screen games. How? Start with your finger touching just outside of the top of the display and drag down, it will fade in and you can check your notifications, it works both in landscape and portrait mode-nonmindo
29.I noticed that any time you send an email in gmail with our new phones (t-mobile version at least), it puts a stupid T-mobile signature at the bottom of the email. I found that you can change it by going to gmail>menu>settings>[email protected]>signature and putting in whatever you want.-moonfire711
30.Also, go into your dialer>menu>settings for more in call goodies.-moonfire711
31.Many probably already know this, but I just found out that you can turn on the screen with the physical home button instead of the power button. Which is nice if it's laying down on a desk or something.-moonfire711
32.If you get tired of re-unlocking your screen when it turns off, you can set it to not lock for a set period of time after the screen turns off... Go to menu>settings>security>Lock automatically and change the timeout.-moonfire711
33.If you go into Settings > Sounds > Auto Haptic It will enable haptic feedback on your games/apps based on sound, pretty neat!! (note: doesnt work on all games/apps, but does on many)-nonmindo
34.In relation to the haptic feedback with sound... Tap on the left side of the toggle (where the text is), and it'll open up a menu to choose which ones to enable/disable. -pizz0wn3d
35.The wiimote controller successfully pairs and works with our SGS3s! -pizz0wn3d
36.For your contacts or logs, slide left to direct call and slide right to direct text.-jaytxvo
37.while in the stock video player press the picture in picture button to pop out the video -s3xda
38.Super video does pic-in-pic -20blks
39.***Sprint Specific*** In order to turn on and off LTE ... Settings >wireless settings>more settings >network mode>lte/cdma -iphony89
40.camera quick access... allows you to touch the lockscreen and rotate the screen to open the camera... Settings > security > lock screen options > camera quick access -Cappurnikus
41.pull down the notification touch the time and it will open the world clock (might be variant specific) -Deputy13
42.I have only tested this with Windows Media Player, but I assume any DLNA equipped TV/media device would work. This is great if you want to quickly show a slideshow of photos or play some media file on your tv/computer.1) Go Settings/More Settings/Nearby Devices 2) Turn on file sharing and change any options you'd like. Since I'm on my own my Wifi network, I just disabled access control, otherwise you have to approve every device.3) Start Windows Media Player. Make sure under Stream "Allow Remote Control" is checked. You should see your phone show up under "Other Libraries" in WMP. Mine shows up as [Mobile]SCH-135.4) Go into Gallery and select a picture. If connected properly, in the upper right hand corner there will be a new little icon with a monitor and some arrows. Touch this and it will allow you to select a playback device. 5) Now the picture should show up in a maximized screen in WMP. Sometimes it takes a good 10-20 seconds. Videos take much longer, but they work and what I got was the first frame, followed by a good 20 seconds of a "Processing" notification on the Galaxy S3. When I browsed from WMP to my phone videos, it buffered for a very long time, so this "processing" notification is the buffering taking place. I don't know why DLNA needs such a long time to buffer over a home Wifi network.6) Whenever you change folders you have to click the DLNA icon again and re-select your playback device. Not sure why this is, seems like a bug...Unfortunately I did a little research and there is no way to physically copy files to your computer through DLNA, you'll have to use other methods.Make sure you turn this stuff off when you connect to public Wifi .-sluzbenik
44.When viewing videos using the stock video player, you can lock the touchscreen by pressing the power button so that the video does not get interrupted by inadvertent touches. This is especially useful if you are using your phone to entertain your baby or toddler. Also works with mx player though haven't tried it with other players -limeaid
45.Do not know if it has been mentioned already, but you can also bring the phone up to your ear and it will call that contact.-ricky babalu
46. if you are in the apps drawer, and you pinch the screen, you will see all pages of your apps and can quickly choose the one you want.-moonfire711
47.Haven't noticed this being addressed but regarding S-Beam it appears that both phones are required to utilize the same app that is involved with the file being transferred. For example, I use "quickpic" as the default image viewer and when I used s-beam to test a pic transfer, the phones connected however my buddy's phone went to the play store and more specifically went to the "quickpic" downlad page. Obviously my buddy's phone required him to dl the app in order to finish the transfer. I then opened the same file via "gallery" and reinitiated the transfer. This time the phones connected and transferred the file without a hitch. -augustorm
48. lock screen shortcuts can be edited on the swipe lock screen go to settings/security/lock screen options/shortcuts click the word shortcuts and not the toggle it will bring up the 4 shortcuts and your allowed to change which app is accessed or what order there displayed in -ironlood
49. Just found a way to substantially increase smoothness. Under Developer Options--> Limit Background Processes. I set mine to 5 and notice a difference -eyecon82

This is great, Thanks!
Currently not being productive on my S3.

23.With voice cmd turned on, you can snooze your alarm by saying snooze. -s3xda
Do I need to have S Voice turned on for this? For example, I completely disabled S Voice (due to the lag it creates) and just set my alarm through ICS/Settings. Will this still work?

Thanks for the list, awesome information

Death&co said:
23.With voice cmd turned on, you can snooze your alarm by saying snooze. -s3xda
Do I need to have S Voice turned on for this? For example, I completely disabled S Voice (due to the lag it creates) and just set my alarm through ICS/Settings. Will this still work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Disabling s-voice by double clicking home button doesn't deactivate s voice, it does help with the home button lag...just create for s voice icon on your homepage...
however if you completely disable it in settings-->manage applicatoins, then im not sure

Hey, my tip about pinch to zoom in/out while using the Calendar app to quickly go from day to week to month to year view and vice versa isn't here! Haha btw, did you guys know you can rotate your phone while using the dialer? It doesn't add any functionality but it's something random I noticed this weekend.
Also, #34 applies to any toggle in Settings (including voice cmd!) except data usage/mobile data:
34.In relation to the haptic feedback with sound... Tap on the left side of the toggle (where the text is), and it'll open up a menu to choose which ones to enable/disable. -pizz0wn3d
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

I would really like to thank eyecon82 for making this thread (and bump it while I'm at it!). This is worth its weight in gold to a technologically impaired guy like me. I would also like to thank those of you that added along the way. Top notch work all

Abandoning GoSMS?

I've had this Samsung S3 for six months now rooted with stock AT&T JB ROM. I'm starting to use the phone in the car more and am perplexed how difficult I'm finding it to do some pretty simple, commonly useful things. Here's what I'm trying to achieve:
- When phone connects to bluetooth in car, to on Car Mode and Driving Mode
I already use Llama and turning on Car Mode is easy. Driving Mode looks like I have to use a custom Android Intention (haven't tried it yet)
1. Replace lock screen (currently using Widget Locker) with Car Dashboard for easy app launch and forwarding of songs being played in Power Amp, Spotify or Pandora. Strange that Llama toggles Car Mode but the toggle on the OS is "Driving mode" Seems Driving Mode controls TTS activation and Car Mode toggles the Car Mode app. I think this is just the problem with Touchwiz not being "Android Standard" functionality?
2. Make it so I don't have to press a button to wake phone but don't eat battery with screen usage. The only Car app I've found that comes close to this is the iBOLT Dock'n Drive app where you set the screen brightness slider all the way down and it just shows a clock jumping around the screen. I don't even want the stupid clock - but I guess it's nice to know the phone is in car mode waiting for me to touch the screen. Unfortunately music controls are not on this dash app and the Car app with Pandora integration (forget the name) doesn't have the blank the screen mode without sleeping.
3. When a text comes in, I want either (a) and auto-response that I'm driving and to call me if its urgent, or BETTER, (b) allow me to speak "reply" and do a voice to text response or "auto response" to send my auto response. S-voice allows you to say 'reply' but only if the text comes in when the S-voice app is the currently opened app. If phone is sleeping and text comes in, all it does is read the text. Disabling widget locker and having no lockscreen slider made no difference.
Sidenote: I've also discovered on the S3, because I don't use S-Voice, (I have home double tap mapped to Google Voice Search), the TTS doesn't work. If I manually launch S Voice once, then TTS works but if I remove it from the background apps list then no TTS. That's sort of a side issue.
4. If car mode is enabled, on GoSMS I don't need a pop-up. Just TTS. But GoSMS still thinks I haven't seen the message. So even though I heard the message GoSMS keeps pinging me with a reminder (which I do want repeat reminders for unread texts when NOT in car/driving mode) Strangely there is no Car/Driving mode settings in GoSMS. Surprising. And the Auto Response has to therefore be manually toggled.
It appears I may have to add some 3rd party apps to achieve what I want and possibly dump GoSMS - I've also found that CloudSMS (to replicate SMS to my tablet) doesn't work with GoSMS running. Boo. Hiss. I GoSMS is such a superior SMS program in most all other respects. Hate to see it go.
Seems what I'm asking to do shouldn't be so complicated. With all Google's resources, I'm surprised this isn't all built-in to Android and easily used.

Getting close. Turned off option on GoSMS to disable other messaging notifications (fixed CloudSMS issue).
Found two promising apps:
SMS+Car - Does the job but the it doesn't use the native Google voice recognition and more importantly doesn't read calendar reminders. What it DOES do is mark the SMS messages it reads as read!
Enhanced SMS + Caller ID+ - This is the better app, it cleaner, more options, used native Google voice recognition. It's missing one thing though, DOESN'T MARK THE SMS AS READ! Dealbreaker.
Search continues...

Samsung s6 ,lock a specific app on lock screen

Hi everyone , I hope someone can help me with this.
I hope there's an app or way to do it.
Basically i want to know whether is possible to lock an app on the lock screen so that it can be used but you can't exit it or use other apps without inserting patter code or lock code.
In this case I would like to be able to have my playlist on the lock scree so that even if some of my friends handles the phone ,they'll be able to scroll through the list of songs and use the music player but won't be able to do anything else unless they unlock the device
is something like this possible?(at the moment there's a small widget at the top of the screen that can be used to pause,next songs etc when the lock screen is on but it doesn't allow to have more access to the app features such as playlist songs etc)
Thank you

any advice ?

Settings > Lockscreen and security > Other security settings > Pin windows.

Thank you so much Giocarro, this is exactly what I am looking for.
However, I have tried to check whether the function is available in tasker and can't seemt o find it.
I would like to aumate this so that when I'm in my car I can automatically get the music player open and pin it to the window using the script.
Are you aware of a way to do this through tasker or by any other method?
Thank you

I don't think it is possible, and I am a Tasker user, too.
The thing you can do is activate Settings app when you launch music app; I use this method to enable GPS when launching Maps.

i turn on gps when I open the map too but opening the setting app doesn't have any relevance here if I'm correct.
The settings to activate pin windows is a one of option.
the way windows are pinned is by pressing the recent button and then press on the pin icon on the bottom right side of the recent window you want to pin
This last stage is a bit annoying if it can't be done without a script, however this option that allows to pin apps is quiet useful.
thank you

Only way I could think of doing what you want would be to use Tasker "Send intent" feature, but I am not a developer so don't know whether there is an 'intent' for pinning the current app or not.

[How To] Turn on your PC using your Android Wear device

[EDIT: The method described in Post #3 is now my favourite, but it requires purchase of an app - the first method described here is free]
[EDIT 2: See Post 5 for Pujie Black method]
I just got my first Smartwatch (Moto 360 2nd Gen 42mm) and had been planning to try this as I thought it would be useful. I frequently turn on my PC (also my media server) using Wake-On-Lan from my phone when I'm about the house or after pulling into the driveway. On an Android phone this is pretty straightforward. Here's how I did it:
1) First of all make sure your PC is set up to allow Wake-On-Lan and it is on the same network as your phone. (Plenty of guides online showing how to do this, for example http://www.howtogeek.com/70374/how-to-geek-explains-what-is-wake-on-lan-and-how-do-i-enable-it/).
2) On your Android device, install 'Wake On LAN' by Reinhard Alischer from the Play Store (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.ralischer.wakeonlan). This can be set up to wake multiple PCs, and you can add a widget or shortcut to your home screen for waking individual computers. All you need to know is your PC's MAC address. (Further instructions using a different app are available at http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile/turn-on-your-pc-with-android-device-via-wifi-network-wowlan -- but I recommend the app mentioned above for this as it allows Widgets and Shortcuts, necessary for the Android Wear instructions below).
3) You can now test this to see if you can successfully wake/turn on your PC using your Android device.
Assuming you've got the above all set up correctly, you can now proceed to get it working on your Android Wear device:
1) On your Android device, install 'Wearable Widgets' by Udell Enterprises from the Play Store (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wearablewidgets). The free version allows you to have one Widget on your Wear device, upgrade to the full version if you want to wake more than one PC or use other widgets.
2) On your Android device, open Wearable Widgets and tap the '+' button to add a Widget. Choose the 'Wake On LAN' widget for the PC you want to turn on.
3) Now on your Android Wear device, wake the screen and say 'OK Google, Start Widgets'. A Wake On LAN button will appear on your smartwatch screen - tap it and your PC should turn on!
Your Wear device does not need to be connected to WiFi, just paired using bluetooth, as it is your phone's WiFi connection that is being used to wake the PC.
This is one very useful aspect of a Wear device for me - no more having to pull out and switch on my phone to wake up the computer, just a simple command and tap of the wrist. Hope this proves helpful to someone else :highfive:
If anyone has a simpler method, I'm all ears

Very cool; thanks for the post.

Just to update on this and provide an alternate method...
First of all, I did purchase the paid version of 'Wearable Widgets', and it does indeed allow me to wake multiple PCs using separate widgets for each one from the Wake-On-Lan app. Another benefit of this is that I can now also add a widget from my 'FTP Server Pro' app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.theolivetree.ftpserverpro&hl=en), which allows me to start the FTP Server on my phone from my watch - so that I can backup my phone over WiFi or transfer files over to it from my PC without having to touch the phone.
An alternate method for the Wake-On-Lan process is to follow the steps as above in post 1, but instead of using 'Wearable Widgets' use the 'Notification Toggle' app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.j4velin.notificationToggle) - and for this method you must purchase the Shortcuts feature from within the app.
This app allows you to have toggles for WiFi, Bluetooth, Silent, Vibration etc on your watch, so that you can control all of these features on your phone without having to take it out. The paid-for Shortcuts feature allows you to add Shortcuts from any app on your phone to your watch. So, as the Wake-On-Lan app mentioned above allows both Widgets and Shortcuts for waking an individual PC, we can add a WOL Shortcut to our watch. You can also add multiple Shortcuts (from any app that supports them) to your watch (for example, I also added a Greenify shortcut).
1) Load Notification Toggle on your phone and navigate to the Premium Features section. Assuming you have purchased this, tap on where it says 'click here' to see shortcuts. Tap on the shortcut you want to add (in our case 'Wake on LAN Shortcut') and configure it.
2) The app will automatically add the Shortcut to your notification drawer on your phone, so if you don't want it there go to the third screen of the app and remove the tick beside the shortcut you don't want on your phone. (Note that you can turn off all other features of the app if you don't want to use the phone end of the Notification Toggles, simply remove the ticks from all toggles on screens 2 and 3).
3) Navigate to the Android Wear section (screen 4, first button).
4) In the list of Toggles for Android Wear you'll see your Shortcut(s), put a tick beside each one you want to appear on your watch. You can also set the order of the toggles by going back one screen and choosing 'Change Toggle Order'.
5) On your watch, go to the app drawer and start Notification Toggle. Swipe to and tap the appropriate Shortcut toggle to turn on the PC.
This is a bit more complicated to set up than the previous method, but has the benefit that you can have a WiFi toggle right next to the WOL Shortcut on your watch. So, for example, if you've been out and about with WiFi off on your phone, you can pull into the driveway, tap the WiFi toggle on your watch to activate WiFi on your phone, and then wake the PC.
If you have Pujie Black or another watch face with shortcut hot spots, you can set one of these up to launch Wearable Widgets or Notification Toggle to make things even quicker. I find that Notification Toggle loads slightly quicker on the watch than Wearable Widgets, but there's not much difference. This method (with Notification Toggles) is probably slightly better, but I still like having Wearable Widgets on my watch as there are some phone widgets which are handy to have on your wrist.

Turn on your PC using your Android Wear device
Turning on PC using Android wear device? I mean with the help of smart watch, isn't it amazing? Thanks a lot for the informative post mate.

The latest version of Pujie Black watch face now allows you to add shortcuts from the phone direct to your watch face. This means you can install the WOL tool from Post#1, and add an invisible 'hot spot' tap action shortcut for waking your PC direct to any Pujie watch face or to the Pujie tap drawer. No other apps needed
If anyone needs more detailed step-by-step, just ask.

Thank you very much for the post

Cool ?

Is there a way to make an app appear as an option for Default Navigation App?

Long story short, I purchased an android radio and the android auto interface works through an app (Autokit).
The Radio has a navigation shortcut button that opens the preferred/default navigation app and also activates a split screen function.
I want to be able to use the android auto interface in the split screen configuration so I need to get the radio to see "Autokit" as an option to use for the default navigation app.