Hot Android How-Tos — Page 27 of 78 « Android

Android Basics: A Series of Tutorials for Beginners

All across the web, you'll find guides on setting up various apps and mods for your Android device—but while these are certainly useful, they all seem to be working under the assumption that the reader has a certain level of knowledge about Android. For someone that's just getting started with the world's most popular mobile operating system, the basics of Android simply aren't covered as well as they should be.

How To: Send & Receive SMS Texts on Your Computer for Free

There's no iMessage app on Android, so unlike the folks who own both an iPhone and a Mac, we have to rely on third-party solutions to send and receive SMS messages from our computers. But on the bright side, this means we don't have to buy an exorbitantly expensive desktop or laptop to respond to texts when our phones are out of reach, because Android is all about cross-platform compatibility instead of chaining you to an ecosystem.

Android Basics: How to Capture a Logcat for Detailed Bug Reports

If you're experiencing issues with an app or custom ROM and would like to report your problem to the developer, there's no better way to do it than by capturing a logcat. Android keeps track of all the commands that have been executed by various apps and services, which means that when something goes wrong, the error is clearly shown in this so-called logcat.

How To: Secretly Record Videos on Android

Past video recording apps we've covered made it easy to turn your Android device into a hidden spy camera, even allowing you to inconspicuously record videos using your volume buttons. While both are viable options that can secretly capture video, today we're going over an additional method that will let you both schedule recordings or discretely trigger them without anyone around you noticing a thing.

How To: Use This Trick to See Only the Best Apps in the Google Play Store

With hordes of games populating the Google Play Store, it's grown increasingly difficult to find trending, non-gaming apps that you might find useful on your Android device. There are a few in the Top Charts pages, peppered in among the various games you'll never play, but other than that you'll have to do some serious searching to discover any new apps.

How To: 11 Android Apps You Should Be Using for Better Grades in School

Smartphones have been a hot button issue around school campuses for several years now—some schools allow them, others confiscate them on sight. But the fact of the matter is, when used correctly, a smartphone can be just as much of a learning tool as a textbook or school-issued laptop.

How To: Take Screenshots on Android Without Pressing Any Buttons

You no longer need two fingers to take screenshots on Android. As long as you have Android 6.0 or higher on your phone or tablet, you can use Now on Tap to take screenshots for you without pressing any hardware buttons.

How To: Tell if Your Android Has Been Hacked (& What You Can Do About It)

Smartphones are almost always connected to the internet, so it stands to reason that they can be hacked remotely. Or perhaps a jealous boyfriend or girlfriend got hold of your device physically, in which case they could've potentially installed a keystroke logger, a virus, or any other type of tracking app to spy on you.

How To: Use Your Android as a Microphone for Your PC

You need a good microphone on your computer in order to make audio recordings, voice chat, or use speech recognition. However, not every computer comes with a built-in mic, and not every built-in mic works great.

How To: Cheat Android's Hidden Flappy Droid Game

With every version bump, Android gets a new Easter egg that can be accessed by tapping the "Android version" entry in Settings. For the most part, these have generally been little animations or live wallpapers that depict the Android code name, but starting with version 5.0 Lollipop, things got a bit more interesting.

How To: Use a Firewall to Keep Data-Hungry Apps in Check

If you exceed your monthly mobile data limit, your cell phone bill can skyrocket pretty quickly. This is why a lot of people vigilantly monitor internet usage and even uninstall apps that use too much background data.

How To: Encrypt Your Calls & Texts on Android

In the digital age, maintaining your privacy is a never-ending battle. All sorts of companies and agencies have access to your data, and quite a few can eavesdrop on almost every method of modern communication.

How To: Add Custom Shortcuts to Your Quick Settings

Android's Quick Settings menu is quite handy—just swipe down with two fingers from the top of your screen and you're ready to toggle several different system settings on or off. It got even better with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, since you can even use the hidden System UI Tuner to rearrange and remove your Quick Settings tiles now.

How To: Download Any SoundCloud or YouTube Song on Android

A growing trend for many artists (most recently Kanye West) is to offer exclusive or experimental tracks on music streaming sites like SoundCloud or YouTube before releasing them anywhere else. On rare occasions, some of these great songs never make their way onto an official album, which can be disappointing for die-hard fans who need to download every song available from their favorite artist or band.

How To: Record Games on Android

Back in August, Google unveiled a new YouTube Gaming service meant to compete with e-sports streaming sites like Twitch. At its launch, the service was capable of broadcasting desktop PC gameplay, but when it came to the mobile segment, users were only capable of viewing streams hosted by others.

How To: Get SwiftKey's All-Black Ninja Themes for Free

Ask around anywhere that Android users gather online, and you'll find that SwiftKey is almost unilaterally the most highly-recommended keyboard for our favorite mobile operating system. It's no surprise either—SwiftKey's combination of insanely accurate word predictions and rapid-fire gesture typing comprise a hard combination to beat.

How To: This Hack Lets You Touch Your Galaxy's Home Key Instead of Pressing It

Samsung's Galaxy series of devices have one common design theme that ties them all together—the physical home button at the bottom of the phone. This button can wake the phone, take you to your home screen, and even scan your fingerprint to securely unlock your device.

How To: Root a Nexus Device Running Android 6.0 Marshmallow

Android Marshmallow was recently released, and as we've grown to expect, a root method was quickly made available to devices running the brand new operating system. Legendary root developer Chainfire has stated that he's working his way towards retiring from the scene, but he still had enough left in the tank to quickly publish an update to his popular SuperSU root method.

Now on Tap: How It Works & Why You Should Use It on Android

You'll have to forgive me if I sound a little overexcited about this, but in my opinion, Google's "Now on Tap" is one of the most innovative™ smartphone features that I've seen in years. Sure, Microsoft heard about the feature being in the works and rushed out a similar Android app so they could say they were first, but that solution pales in comparison to this one.

How To: Screen Too Bright at Night? These Apps Dim Your Display Below '0% Brightness'

At night, no matter how dim my Android's screen gets, it never seems to be enough—especially when I'm in bed. In fact, in pure darkness, the lowest brightness setting on my Android devices end up giving me a headache that keeps me up for hours.

How To: 6 Easy Ways to Increase Battery Life on Your Android Device

Smartphones have otherworldly specs these days, so it's relatively uncommon that you hear someone complaining about display resolution, build quality, or general speed and performance. At best, these are secondary concerns, with the number 1 issue almost unilaterally being battery life.

How To: Fast Search Gives You Quick Access to Everything on Your Android

Google Now is great for looking up movie times or finding your parking spot, but if you need to track down a file you downloaded, you're relegated to using a file explorer and, depending on your organizational skills, this can either be extremely easy or a huge pain in the ass. Unfortunately I land in the latter category, which is why I started using Fast Search by developer Mohamad Amin.

Tasker 101: 5 Useful Profiles to Help Get You Started with Android Automation

When it comes to automation apps on Android, Tasker is still the king of the hill. For a price of $2.99 on the Google Play Store, it's a great buy for any would-be tinkerer that would like to get into automating actions on their Android device. Then, when you consider that there's a free 7-day trial version available, there's almost no reason that you shouldn't at least test the waters with Tasker.

How To: 10 Free Texting Apps for Android That Are Way Better Than Your Stock SMS App

Texting has become the king of communication—gone are the days where everyone called each other. These days, it's down-right weird when someone calls first. Whether it be on a phone or on a computer, SMS and MMS messages are the most common way people keep in contact, so why not make sure your app of choice is the best possible one out there?

How To: 21 Apps You'll Need When Switching from iPhone to Android

So you finally decided to make the switch from iOS to Android, huh? Well first off: welcome to the world of tomorrow. And secondly: good call, mate.

How To: 10 Ways to Trick Your Android Phone into Using Less Data

Ever watched Netflix on your phone only to realize an hour later that you forgot to turn Wi-Fi on? That's a whole lot of data used.

How To: Fix Touchscreen Issues on Your OnePlus One with These Quick & Easy Tips

While the OnePlus One is a great value, you could be plagued with a touchscreen issue or two. The most common problems come in the form of ghost touches and touches not registering with apps.

How To: Share Paid Android Apps for Free (Legally)

Last year, Apple debuted a feature that allows families to share iTunes and App Store purchases across their various accounts. Us Android users, on the other hand, have to buy separate copies of apps for each of our accounts—well, at least from an official standpoint.

How To: Use Samsung's Hidden Video Editor on Any Galaxy Device

Editing a video by trimming or adding audio is fairly simple on Galaxy devices, but if you want to include other clips or transition animations and really get those creative juices flowing, you might find the standard editing tools limited—unless you know how to unlock Samsung's hidden video editor.

How To: Disable Heads-Up (Pop-Up) Notifications in Android Lollipop Without Root

Android Lollipop, introduced an array of new features and aesthetics that pleased many loyal users. One of those additions being the new heads-up notifications. Taking subtle inspiration from iOS, these notifications are visually appealing and can be easily dismissed or expanded, but they do require that you take an action before they go away immediately. Of course, you can always wait 10 seconds for them to disappear, but that can be really annoying if you're in the middle of a game or editi...

How To: Turn Your OnePlus One into an Android/iOS Hybrid

While its hardware may already be a little outdated compared to newer flagship phones, the OnePlus One is still a great value thanks to the dedicated community that continues to develop ROMs for it. Cyanogen 12 and Oxygen OS are the two most popular ones, but neither offers the type of unique experience you get with Xiaomi's MIUI (pronounced "Me You I").

How To: Send ADB Commands to Android Straight from Google Chrome

Google's Chrome browser is evolving into a very powerful platform. Not only can it be used to view your favorite website or mirror tabs to your Chromecast, but now that it has an App Engine, more powerful tools can be run within Chrome.

Xposed 101: How to Activate a Newly-Installed Module

The Xposed Framework is a very powerful platform on top of which smaller modules can run to make changes to the Android system and various other apps. Installing modules is just as easy as sideloading any Android app, but afterwards, you'll need to activate the module and reboot your device.

How To: Root Almost Any Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge Without Tripping KNOX

Both the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge have had root methods available to them before the phones were even released, but the problem with these existing root methods is that they would trip the KNOX counter on your device.

How To: Get Emoji Suggestions with Any Android Keyboard

Some third-party keyboards, like SwiftKey for example, include a convenient feature that suggests emojis as your type based on the content of what you're saying. Unfortunately, many keyboards, including most stock ones, don't include this function.

How To: Disable ANY Bloatware App on Your Android Device (No Root Required)

Due to the way Android works, you normally need to be rooted to uninstall the pre-loaded system apps, aka bloatware, that came with your device. This is because the underlying files for these apps are stored on your system partition, which can only be modified with root-level access.