Hot Android How-Tos
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While its hardware may already be a little outdated compared to newer flagship phones, the OnePlus One is still a great value thanks to the dedicated community that continues to develop ROMs for it.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: Autocorrect Only Fixes Mistakes, but This Android Keyboard Helps Prevent Them
My reliance on autocorrect has made me a horrible speller. I take it for granted that it'll catch all my mistakes, but it only ends up making matters worse (especially when it inadvertently makes correct words wrong). So instead of relying on autocorrect to fix typos, why not try to completely prevent mistakes from happening in the first place?
How To: Add Custom Widgets to the Lock Screen on Android Lollipop
When Lollipop was released, Android's lock screen got a huge makeover. But most of the changes were made for aesthetic purposes rather than functionality.
How To: Conserve Data Better with a Detailed Report of Your Data Usage on Android
Amazingly enough, some of us still have to worry about exceeding our monthly mobile data limits. You'd figure carriers would have given the customers what they want by now by offering truly unlimited plans, but with two conglomerates sitting atop the U.S. cellular market with fat pocketbooks that make for limitless lobbying, they can basically do whatever they want.
How To: Block Ads in Android Web Browsers (No Root Needed)
Ad blocking on Android usually requires root access, but a pair of new browsers based on the open source Chromium and Firefox builds are looking to change this.
How To: Mute Shutter Sounds, Schedule Texts, Disable Status Bar Icons, & More on Your Galaxy S6
Carriers like to distinguish their Android phones from the competition by making small changes to the interface here and there. This practice is so common that Android now has a built-in system for managing these small tweaks.
How To: Boost Headphones Volume on Your Galaxy S6 Edge
The Galaxy S6 Edge comes with a very nice pair of earbuds, which might possibly be the best set I've ever owned. They're quite comfortable, and they provide clear and robust sound, but they could still use just a little boost in volume.
How To: Take Smooth Time-Lapse Videos with Microsoft's Hyperlapse
Smartphones don't generally play nice with tripods, so videos taken with our handheld devices make terrible source material for time-lapse photography.
How To: Fix Deep Sleep Issues Caused by Rooting Your Galaxy S6
As the developer behind the most popular root methods for hundreds of Android devices, Chainfire knows the ins and outs of Android root procedures. But this doesn't mean he's infallible—occasionally, some of his root utilities can cause minor bugs.
How To: 4 Ways to Clean Up the Status Bar on Your Galaxy S6 (Without Rooting)
The Galaxy S6 might just be the best Android phone on the market right now. From a hardware standpoint, Samsung truly knocked this one out of the park with its finely-crafted build quality and amazing screen.
How To: See How Long Your Android Has Before Automatically Shutting Down from a Low Battery
Even if my phone has only 1% of battery life left, I'll keep using it until I can get to a power source somewhere. Most times I never make it to a charger, and my device eventually powers down on its own.
How To: Get iPhone Emojis on Your HTC or Samsung Device (No Root Needed)
It's hard to not to like the look of iOS emojis. Sure, Samsung and other Android phones have emojis, but they're all kind of goofy-looking. And since iPhone emojis continue to be viewed as the standard, it comes as no surprise that you can actually get them on Android—and without root!
How To: Add Notification Count Badges to the Status Bar on Android
As it stands, Android's notification system is one of its biggest strengths—but that doesn't mean it couldn't use a few tweaks here and there. For one thing, when you receive multiple notifications from the same app, there is no indication as to exactly how many notifications you've received.
How To: Make Incoming Notifications Automatically Wake Your Android's Display
Unlike the Moto X with its Active Display or the Nexus 6 and its Ambient Display, some devices (especially those now running Lollipop) do not include a function that permits the display to turn on upon getting new notifications while the device remains locked or the display inactive.
How To: Get Crowd-Sourced Tech Support for Any App on Android
As with any software, Android apps can occasionally suffer from bugs. But finding the root cause of such issues can often be difficult, and reporting bugs is a cumbersome experience.
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: Remove the S Finder & Quick Connect Buttons from Your Galaxy S6's Notification Panel
Samsung is known for its added features, but occasionally, these can cross the line between functionality and bloat. For many users, this is the case with the "S Finder" and "Quick connect" buttons that are hard-coded into the notification tray on most Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge variants.
How To: Keep from Running into Things When Walking & Using Your Phone
We have all seen videos of people walking off of platforms and into street signs because they were too distracted by their phones to pay attention. This has become such a problem that cities have even considered fining pedestrians for texting and walking.
How To: Install the Latest Google Clock & Calculator Apps on Your Galaxy S6 (Or Other Android)
Many of Google's stock Android apps are some of the best options out there—especially now that they've all been made over with Material Design. But generally, as these are pre-installed system apps, they cannot be used on non-Nexus devices.
How To: Control Music Playback from the Side of Your Galaxy S6 Edge’s Screen
The Galaxy S6 Edge comes with a useful feature called Information stream that allows you to view quick tidbits of info with a quick back-and-forth swipe on the edge of your display while the screen is off. Apparently, Samsung left the door open for third-party plugins to use this feature, and now we're starting to see an influx of useful additions.
How To: Add a Battery Meter & System Stats to the Information Stream on Your Galaxy S6 Edge
Exclusive to the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, "Information stream" is a screen feature that lets you see quick, at-a-glance information with a simple swipe while the screen is off. It also supports plug-ins, or additional streams of information that can come from third-party sources. So developers are starting to come up with nifty little add-ons for Information stream, and the team at 3C has some cool new system feeds that might come in handy.
How To: Listen to YouTube Videos in the Background on Android (No Root Required)
When you think about it, YouTube may actually have one of the largest music collections on the planet. This is why, at $10 per month, Google's new YouTube Music Key subscription is a solid value for many users, especially with its inclusion of Google Play Music.
How To: Get a Feature-Packed, iPhone-Like Lock Screen for Your Galaxy S6 or Other Android Device
With an Android device, you can replace almost any default app with a third-party offering. Don't like your home screen app? Replace it. Tired of the text messaging interface? Upgrade it. The same can be said for Android's lock screen. But while many third-party lock screen apps are available, so far, only one has been designed with the Samsung Galaxy S6 and its fingerprint scanner in mind.
How To: Remove the Boot-Up Sound on Your Galaxy S6
Mobile service providers have an uncomfortably strong grip on the Android platform as a whole. For instance, all four U.S. versions of the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge play their carrier's obnoxious jingle every time they boot up. You don't get any say in the matter—if you buy your phone from one of the big 4, you're a walking audible billboard.
How To: The Easiest Way to Record Your Android's Screen Using a Mac
As a Mac and Sasmsung Galaxy S6 user, I quickly realized that the two devices don't play well with one another out of the box, and using ADB commands to record my Android's screen isn't as simple as it is would be with a Windows PC.
How To: Bored? Have Fun Chatting with a Bot About Anything & Everything on Android
We all have those moments where we're bored or lonely, and in those times, just having anyone to talk to would be awesome. But maybe your friends are all busy, or everyone you know is at work and nobody's responding to your text messages.
How To: Silence Notifications & Shutter Sounds in Your Galaxy S6's Camera
Some variants of the Galaxy S6 will allow you to silence the camera shutter sound with an option in the app's settings menu. But this is not true of all models, plus there's an additional annoyance—when you're filming video and you get a notification, you'll actually hear this tone on the final recording.
How To: Move Any Screen Freely for Easier One-Handed Use on Android
With smartphone screens getting bigger by the generation, one-handed mode mods are becoming rather prevalent. Most of these function by shrinking the screen to a more manageable size, but this is actually kind of boring when you think about it.
How To: Help Loved Ones with Alzheimer's Preserve Fond Memories Using This Android App
Modern medicine utilizes cutting-edge technology more than ever, so it would only make sense that the powerful handheld computers we all carry around these days could play a big role in wellness.
How To: Personalize Sound Quality for Headphones on Your Galaxy S6
Chances are your hearing isn't the same as the person next to you. Personally, I have moderate hearing loss, so I tend to turn the volume nob towards the loud side. For others, it may be that one ear is slightly better or worse than the other, not only in perceiving volume, but tone as well. Considering this, is it possible for smartphone manufacturers to ensure the best sound quality on their devices?
How To: Launch Apps While the Screen Is Off on Your Galaxy S6 Edge
Samsung has a long-standing reputation for packing their devices with lots of added functionality, and the Galaxy S6 Edge is no exception. It comes with a nifty feature called "Information stream," which allows you to get quick, at-a-glance information by swiping the edge of your screen back and forth while the display is off.
How To: Secure Photos, Videos, & More on Your Galaxy S6 Using Private Mode
If you have a smartphone, chances are you have something on it you don't want others seeing. Whether it be photos, videos, or documents, some things are best left private. Not everyone is a saint, after all.
How To: Get Cyanogen OS 12 to Work with Your 5 GHz Wireless Router
No one is perfect, and this goes double for software developers. All of the quality assurance testing in the world does nothing when you put a new OS in the hands of everyday users, since we all use our devices in different places and for different reasons. Recently, Cyanogen released their version of Android Lollipop, Cyanogen OS 12, and with it came a whole lot of great features, but some bugs also slipped in.
How To: Launch Apps from the Side of Your Screen (A Perfect Mod for the Galaxy S6 Edge)
With the Galaxy S6 Edge, the curved display is mainly an aesthetic feature. Unlike the Galaxy Note Edge, Samsung didn't include many software features to take advantage of its unique design, outside of the scrolling tickers and night clock. For instance, with the Note Edge, you can launch apps from the curved portion of the screen—but this isn't true for the S6 Edge.
How To: Make Google Play Music's Interface Better on Android
Google Play Music is an awesome app—even if you don't subscribe to their $9.99/month All Access service, you can still use it to store and stream up to 50,000 of your own songs for free. Add to that the fact that it's a pre-installed app on most Android devices, and there aren't many reasons not to be using Play Music.
How To: Facebook's New Hello App Makes Your Android's Dialer & Contact List Smarter
If a tree falls in the woods and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound? If a person makes calls but doesn't have a Facebook account, are they even really a person? Yes, of course they are, but it just makes life easier when you're part of the world's biggest social network, as proven with Facebook's latest application, Hello - Caller ID & Blocking.
How To: Install Cyanogen OS 12 on Your OnePlus One
They might be a little late to the party, but the Cyanogen team has finally released their newest ROM for the OnePlus One, Cyanogen OS 12. The launch had to be pushed back a few times due to some technical issues, but now we finally get to see what the Cyanogen team has cooked up for Android Lollipop.
How To: Change Backlight Duration for the Back & Recents Keys on the Galaxy S6
For some strange reason, not all variants of the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge have a menu option for changing the backlight timeout for their capacitive keys. According to user reports, only the AT&T variant of these phones has such an option.
How To: Mimic the Galaxy S6's SOS Feature on Any Android Device
Smartphones are great at keeping us busy with games, social media, and messaging apps, but there has been a recent push for them to also help keep us safe (and I'm not talking about from hackers, though that is equally important).
How To: Make Any Android Device Easier to Use with One Hand
Our hands aren't necessarily getting any bigger, but smartphones still seem to be getting larger and larger. With average cell phone display sizes nearly doubling since 2007 (leading to new terminology like "phablet"), reaching all corners of a screen can become nearly impossible with one hand. Granted, most larger devices like the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Note 4 come with a one-handed option to make navigating easier, but other popular devices like the Nexus 6 don't. While it may see...