Near-Field Communication, or NFC, is an incredibly useful technology that gets ignored far too often. While it can be used for advanced automation of things on your Android phone, it can also be used for equally simplistic s…
You get in your car, connect your phone to the Bluetooth head unit, and toss it in the dock. For the next umpteen amount of minutes/hours, this is your source of music, navigation, and everything else. Apple’s CarPlay looks…
Sometimes, group messages just make more sense than sending individual messages. When you’re trying to get a group of people altogether and a conversation needs to happen, putting everyone in the same message is the way to go…
Google Photos is a huge improvement over Android’s old “Gallery” app, but it does a lot more than just keep your stuff organized and synced. You can easily manipulate your photos into some very cool, shareable collages, a…
Typing the same text over and over–email addresses, phone numbers, and so on–can get old. If you find yourself saying the same stuff repeatedly on your iPhone, there’s an easier way. By adding text shortcuts to the system,…
If you find yourself typing the same email addresses, phrases, or sentences over and over again, stop—there’s an easier way! By adding a quick text shortcut to your Android phone’s personal dictionary, you can type a full…
The interactions you have with your phone’s keyboard are easily some of the most intimate relationships that you will have with your mobile device. It is the mouth through which all your texts, emails, and other messages ar…
People love customization, and if there’s one thing Android is really good at, that’s it. And Google’s Messenger is no exception. Every conversation has a specific color, but you can change the color of any conversati…
Over-the-air updates have long been the bane of many rooted Android users’ existences. It’s an endless battle: installing the update breaks root or won’t flash at all, but everyone wants the latest version of their mob…
Android’s launcher is one of the most important parts of the user interface. It’s the first thing you see once the device is unlocked, and it’s the primary way you interact with the home screen. It’s where your widget…
When you have multiple applications that do the same thing—like browsers, for example—Android will ask you which one you want to use every time, at least until you set one as the default with the “always” action. In t…
Android’s user-visible file system is one of its advantages over iOS. It allows you to more easily work with files, opening them in any app of your choice…as long as you know how.
You never know when you’re going to need to reference an old text message with an important bit of info, and the easiest way to make sure you never lose anything is by backing up. Fortunately, pushing all of your Android ph…
Chrome OS has long been more than “just a browser.” Since it essentially requires an active internet connection for most activity, web apps are the backbone of the Chrome OS ecosystem—but did you know that you can actua…
Android’s notification system is easily one of its most powerful features. But with great power comes great responsibility, and some apps choose to abuse this. If you’re sick of constant notifications from specific apps, …
Android 7.0 Nougat made some pretty big improvements to notifications, but there’s one feature that’s gone unsung. Now, you can easily manipulate an app’s ability to generate notifications directly from the notification sh…
They say that the best camera is the one you have with you, and more often than not, that camera is attached to your smartphone. Grabbing quick images and videos is easier than it’s ever been, but sometimes you hit that rec…
Android Nougat brings a host of new changes to the mobile OS, with native split screen being one of the most prominent. The problem is that it requires developers to enable the feature before it’ll work, making some (many!…
If you’re an Android newcomer, printing probably seems like a no brainer: click a menu, tap a command. But if you’re a longtime Android user, you probably remember how printing from your mobile got its start. The good new…
Getting a new phone is rough. You essentially lose everything you had on the old phone, which can be a little be a bit of a shock for the first several days. While some things—like pictures, for example—automatically come…
Many moons ago, Google included both a Gmail app and a stock email app (for non-Gmail accounts) in Android. While many third-party manufacturers still include standalone email applications, Gmail now works with any kind of …
Android has had native screenshots for ages now, and seeing as that’s a pretty important feature, all of the Google-made accessories also support this functionality. While the setting is in an easy place on Android Wear, it…
Google Play’s web interface is a really convenient way to install apps on your Android phone. Unfortunately, it holds on to all of your Android devices—even ones you no longer have. Here’s how to hide them from that ins…
It’s no secret that Google likes to keep developer options hidden away in most of its products—there’s no reason to have casual users tinkering around there, after all. But if you like to tinker (or are, of course, a de…
Starting with Marshmallow, Google included a new hidden settings menu with experimental features. This menu, called the System UI Tuner, is a great way to access tools that may not be quite ready to be called “stable,” bu…