Android How-Tos
How To: Turn Your Android Phone into a Personal Distress Beacon with Motorola's "Exclusive" Alert App
Loving parents can suffer bouts of insomnia when their children leave the house. Not just when they move out, but when hanging out with friends or during out-of-town weekends. Others may worry about their significant other who has to work late all week and their only option for getting home is that sketchy nighttime bus.
How To: Fix the Yellow Tint on Your Nexus 5's Display
The Nexus 5 has a known issue with its display. Affecting all models from the first manufacturing run and most models thereafter, this display issue is easiest to notice on something with a white background. A yellowish tint, most noticeable when compared to other devices, seems to emanate from the Nexus 5's screen.
How To: 8 Ways to Cool Down & Prevent Your Samsung Galaxy S5 from Overheating
It's one hell of a device, but the Samsung Galaxy S5 is still susceptible to the many hazards that other smartphones are prone to: theft, cracked screens, poor battery life, and particularly, overheating.
How To: Change System Fonts on Your Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (Root & Non-Root Methods)
Samsung has multiple built-in font styles to choose from in TouchWiz, but they're limited to just four types. While there are many font installers available on Google Play, they usually cost money and only replace some of the text on the device, not all of it, creating an inconsistent and erratic user interface.
How To: Get the Exclusive Activity Zone App from the Samsung Galaxy S5 Active on Your Note 3
Last week, I showed you a peek at the not-yet-released Galaxy S5 Active, the more rugged version of Samsung's current flagship. The man behind those leaks, TK Tech News, has now brought another goodie from the device, and it's one we can have on the Galaxy Note 3.
How To: Reduce Lag & Boost Performance for Games on Your Nexus 5
Aside from the newer HTC One M8 and Samsung Galaxy S5, the Nexus 5 still has one of the fastest processors on the market today. However, despite its superpowers, some graphically intensive games can still have a bit of lag to them during gameplay.
How To: Turn Lens Blur Photos from Google Camera into Stunning Live Wallpapers for Your Galaxy S4
If you have Android KitKat, you're fortunate enough to be able to use the new Google Camera, which has tons of great features, including Photo Sphere, Tiny Planet, Panorama, and Fisheye. With so many photo options and no additional hardware needed, it's hard to not to like this camera.
How To: Add "OK Google" Hotword Search to HTC Sense & Other Android Launchers
When I'm showing off my HTC One, the first thing I do is unlock my device and say, "OK Google". It may earn me a weird look or two, but in the end people are amazed by the voice recognition and automation of the Google Now Launcher.
How To: View Your Twitter Feed Faster & Tweet from Anywhere on Your Samsung Galaxy S4
Fact: we live in a world where social media dictates our behaviors and shapes our perceptions. Maybe some of us are addicted more than others, but most of society uses some type of social media, whether it's Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat , or something new that I've never heard of.
How To: Use Headphones to Automatically Launch Apps on Your HTC One
Every morning I walk out the door with my headphones plugged in and music blaring. While it's not be the most difficult thing in the world, unlocking my phone and starting my music manually every time feels like a hassle. Pressing play on my headphone's remote will auto-start music in the HTC Music app, but I prefer Google Play Music instead.
How To: Save Webpages for Offline Viewing in Chrome for Android
You may not always be connected to the internet, but if you're anything like me, your thirst for web content is insatiable. Whether you're on an airplane or stuck in an area with no reception, having some offline content stored on your Nexus can definitely save the day.
Boredom Killer: How to Play a Game of Pool Directly on Your Android Home Screen
We don't typically cover games here on softModder, unless they have some special feature to offer like unlocking your device, but sometimes you've just gotta game. When you've only got a few minutes to do so, you've gotta choose the right game, and I've got just the thing for you.
How To: Change Sound Alerts for Individual Apps on Your HTC One
Normally, your sound settings only let you change up a few of the sounds on your device—generally your ringtone and default notification sound. While some developers include the option to choose custom notification sounds within their app's settings, most of the time you are left with an ambiguous ringer for everything—not very helpful for identifying what app that alert just came from.
How To: Get Weather Forecasts in the Notification Shade on Your Samsung Galaxy S4
When looking at weather applications and widgets, one major characteristic I look for is efficiency; something that will separate it from the rest of the herd. The stock weather widget looks great on my home screen, but I have to exit whatever app or game I'm in when someone asks me about the weather.
How To: Add Menu & Search Soft Keys to the Navigation Bar on Your Nexus 7
Many of our everyday apps include a menu tab or search bar, like Chrome and Twitter. In fact, a lot of times those are the first things we go for, as search is universal in most apps, and app settings are just about always accessible through the menu.
How To: Get iOS-Exclusive Google Hangout Stickers on Your HTC One
The official Google Hangouts app has been around for a while, and is the standard messaging app on Nexus devices, but Google didn't make each version equal. On the iOS version, you get the feature of adding "stickers"—GIF emoticons—but Google left that out of the Android version.
How To: Theme the Nav Bar on Your Nexus 5 for a Fresh Look
The fact that we own a Nexus means we get to experience the Android interface exactly as Google intended it. But that doesn't mean we can't make a UI tweak here and there, does it?
How To: Increase Pattern Lock Screen Security on Your Nexus 5 with Larger Grid Sizes
These days, our smartphones carry some very sensitive data. From banking app passwords to personal photos, there are many things on your Nexus 5 that you might not want other people to have access to.
How To: Bypass the 31-Character Limit in Snapchat Captions on Android
Twitter found a sweet spot with its 160-character limit, but Snapchat sports a social media low of 31 characters, forcing us to condense our ideas into a few short words when typing in picture captions because of their ephemeral nature. While this severely limited amount of words is Snapchat etiquette, I've got so much more to say than 31 characters!
How To: Automate Wi-Fi & Data Connections to Extend Battery Life on Your Galaxy S3
It's been over two whole years since the Samsung Galaxy S3 was released, so let's face it—our beloved GS3, once an iconic heavyweight in the tech arena, is almost as washed up as Sylvester Stallone.
How To: Type Common Phrases Faster with Custom Keyboard Shortcuts on Android
There are a lot of instances where we find ourselves typing virtually the same phrase that we've typed many times before. Whether it's the standard spousal reply of "I'll be home in a few", or a work-related phrase like "I'll have that to you by the end of the day", typing phrases like these can feel very redundant at times.
How To: Sync & Dismiss Notifications Across All Your Android Devices & Computers
We're not always near our phone, so Pushbullet made it easy to get your phone's notifications straight to your computer, like calls and text messages. But with their latest update, you can also sync alerts with other Android devices using their new cross-device mirroring feature.
How To: Enable Autocorrect & Predictions in Any Text Field on Your Galaxy Note 3
Autocorrect, a common feature available on most Android keyboards, helps fix fat-finger typos and even predicts the words you want to write. Without this feature, it'd take me about 5 minutes to write a sentence, and even then, it'd probably still be intelligible.
How To: You Can Easily Hack Instagram for a Crazy Amount of Likes (But You Totally Shouldn't)
Instagram is not only a great platform to easily share some of your favorite moments with friends and family, it's a useful service for peering outside of your physical location. While you share a picture of your dog in Los Angeles, you can almost instantly view and like a picture someone posted of their breakfast in Tokyo.
How To: Save & Search Through Your Entire Notification History on the Samsung Galaxy S4
While viewing notifications, I have a nasty habit of accidentally hitting Clear and getting rid of them all before I actually have a chance to read them. There is an easy way to view the notification history on Android, but if you turn off or reboot your Samsung Galaxy S4, the history is wiped clean.
How To: Customize the Default Landing Screen & Tab for Google Play Music on Your Galaxy Note 3
For the most part, Google Play Music makes it extremely easy to upload and organize your music library, as well as access it quickly using the default settings—but there are a few things it could do better.
How To: Lock the Screen Using a Three-Finger Tap on Your HTC One M8
HTC introduced their version of gesture controls to the masses when they launched the HTC One M8, and while the feature includes gestures to open the camera, start voice dialing, and unlock the device, it does not include one to lock it.
How To: Make Your HTC One’s Battery Last All Day Long Using These Power-Saving Settings
HTC claims to have improved the One M8's battery life by 40% over its predecessor, but there is always room for improvement.
How To: Control Your Nexus 5 Without Touching the Screen
If you've ever seen one of those Samsung commercials from about a year back, you know that the Galaxy S series of phones come with a feature that allows you to do certain things by making gestures in front of your screen. They call this feature Air Gesture, and it enables you to perform certain functions without even touching your phone.
How To: Turn an Old Galaxy S3 or Other Android Device into a Streaming Media Player
Your beloved Samsung Galaxy S3 is nearing the end of its life cycle. Sure, it can do most of what newer devices can, especially if you were lucky enough to receive the KitKat update, but your diminishing battery and scratched up screen have seen better days.
How To: Put App Shortcuts in Your Galaxy S4's Notification Tray for Faster Access from Anywhere
Normally, when you open applications on your Samsung Galaxy device, you do so from one of three places—your home screen, the app drawer, or from the list of recently used apps—but it never seems fast enough when it comes to opening your favorite and/or most-used apps.
How To: Activate the Hidden AOSP Lock Screen on Your HTC One M8
Sense 6 is great, don't get me wrong, but sometimes I start to miss the vanilla Android experience that comes with Nexus devices. You can always convert your M8 to the Google Play Edition, but then you'd have to ditch all the Sense exclusive features, and we wouldn't want that.
How To: Convert Your HTC One M8 into a Google Play Edition
There really isn't any custom manufacturer skin, like Sense, that can match the clean look and fluidity that comes with stock Android. HTC knows this, and they, just like Samsung, include a Google Play Edition version in their flagship lineup.
How To: Prevent Photobombers from Ruining Your Pictures on the HTC One
Whether it's bad timing, or some trying-to-be-funny photobomber, it sucks having a photo ruined by someone or something getting in the way. While you can always retake the photo, it's simply impossible to capture the moment you intended, no matter how much restaging you do. But with an HTC One, there's no need to retake anything, as we have access to built-in features that will remove those photo intruders.
How To: Show Battery Percentage in Your Nexus 6's Status Bar Without Rooting
Keeping track of your phone's battery life can quickly become a chore. Since no one wants to get stuck without a charge, we constantly find ourselves checking to see exactly what percentage remains.
How To: Secretly Save Pics & Videos on the Newest Snapchat with Your Galaxy Note 3
While Snapchat's latest update brought messaging and video chatting, it also ruined something for us softModders—KeepChat. With KeepChat, we were able to save pictures and videos sent to us without the other person being notified. It was pretty slick, and I was beginning to miss it.
How To: Enable Kids Mode on Your Galaxy S5
Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and even older siblings have all likely dealt with handing their smartphones over to young children. No matter if they want to play games or watch cartoons or record funny noises, you're handing over a very personal device to those who can mess up what they don't know.
How To: Type at Guinness World Record Speeds on Your Galaxy S4
In a world where mobile devices are the new norm for interacting and staying in contact with one another, it's important to make the experience as smooth as possible, and typing is the biggest problem for me.
How To: Selectively Enable Immersive Mode for Certain Apps on Your Nexus 7
If you've followed our guide on unlocking KitKat's real full screen capability using the immersive mode mod, then your status and navigation bars will be hidden when not in use, giving you a more expansive full screen experience.
How To: Speed Up & Supercharge Your HTC One
HTC pulled out all the stops when designing the HTC One M8. From it's sleek body, to it's incredible sound quality, this thing just oozes sophistication. While all of these add-ons are great, they can be incredibly taxing on the CPU, in turn causing some serious lag.