Android Features
How To: Your Samsung Galaxy S20 Has a Built-in Level to Check if Any Surface Is Flat
The next time you need to build some IKEA furniture or assemble a shelf in the bathroom, bring your Samsung Galaxy S20. It has a hidden feature that replaces one tool you will need for the job.
How To: Change the Status Bar Icons on Your Google Pixel
Android's status bar is ever-present. It sits at the top of almost every screen in every app, making it the most prominent part of your Pixel's theme. So it only makes sense that Google would give you a way to change the icons it uses.
How To: Force Apps to Use Android's Transparent System Navigation Bar if They Don't Already Support It
One aspect of Android's interface that remains clunky is its gesture- or button-based navigation bar, mainly because app developers aren't fully utilizing the tools available to them. But a new feature Google is working on may finally make your nav bar more uniform across your apps.
TWRP 101: How to Mount Your SD Card or USB OTG Drive to Flash External ZIPs
With great power comes great responsibility, and when it comes to modding Android, nothing is more powerful than TWRP custom recovery. As easy as it is to replace your phone's entire OS with a custom ROM, when things go awry, you can also be left with no operating system at all.
How To: Use Gestures to Control YouTube's Brightness & Volume on Android
YouTube has a couple of basic gestures: you can double tap each half of the video to skip forward or back ten seconds, and you can swipe down to minimize the video. But wouldn't it be more useful if there were gestures to control brightness and volume? Well, as with all things Android, where there's a will, there's a way.
How To: Change or Replace Your Android's Home Screen App
One of the easiest ways to change up your Android experience is by swapping out the stock launcher with a new one. The word "launcher" is Android lingo for "home screen app," and it's a common term because of how easy it is to switch to a new one. So if you're looking to revamp your home screen, this guide's for you.
How To: Schedule Texts to Send Later with Samsung Messages
Ideas can hit you out nowhere, but texting loved ones in the wee hours of the morning or during work hours isn't always ideal, especially if they've muted their notifications. So you'll want to send a message at a better time to ensure it gets the attention it deserves. Samsung Messages lets you do just that by scheduling messages to send at a later date.
How To: Unlock the Bootloader on Your OnePlus 5 or 5T & Install TWRP Recovery
The OnePlus 5 had been in the hands of the public for a meager twenty hours before developers on XDA released a custom recovery image for it, and the 5T had a similar trajectory. The installation process is simple enough, but it can be somewhat confusing if you're new to modding Android.
How To: The Best Phones for Rooting & Modding in 2020
According to a study done by Kaspersky, 7.6% of Android users root their phones. That may not sound like a lot, but with over 2 billion Android devices out there, the math works out to over 150 million rooted phones — more than the total population of Russia, Mexico, or Japan — so root nation is an important demographic that deserves being catered to.
How To: Completely Remove the Media Controls in Android 11's Quick Settings When You're Done Playing Music
As you test out the new Quick Settings media controls in Android 11 and form an opinion, you'll notice one of the changes they made to the player besides the new location. For example, when you swipe away the mini version of these controls, the music keeps playing and the player still appears in the expanded view.
How To: Unroot & Revert Your OnePlus 5 or 5T to 100% Stock
To please those of us who love to mod and root our Androids, OnePlus has made both the OnePlus 5 and 5T relatively easy to customize — so much so that the 5T topped our list for the best phones for rooting. Unfortunately, unlocking the bootloader and using root to modify the firmware on your OnePlus 5 or 5T makes it hard to update to a new firmware such as Oreo when compared to stock.
How To: Gift Apps & Games to Android Users
The iTunes App Store makes it easy to buy an app or game on someone else's behalf, and it's a great way to send an iPhone user a thoughtful gift. The Google Play Store doesn't have such functionality, but there are still a few workarounds to accomplish the same goal: gifting an app to an Android user.
How To: Turn Your Android Phone into a Universal Remote Control with These Cool Apps
Have you ever seen those super-expensive universal remote controls like the Logitech Harmony and thought to yourself, "Man, I really want one of those, but that's just too much money"?
How To: Disable This Setting if Notifications Are Delayed on Your OnePlus
OnePlus is known for pushing the boundaries of what we thought was possible for a mid-range price. One of the best things about OnePlus phones is that their battery life is fantastic in general, but to achieve this, Oxygen OS will disable or delay notifications by default once your phone goes into deep sleep mode. You will not be notified until you wake the phone up — this could be an issue for some.
How To: Boot Your Galaxy S9 or S9+ into Recovery Mode or Download Mode
From veteran modders to casual tinkerers, booting into either recovery mode or download mode is something every Galaxy S9 owner should know about. These two pre-boot menus serve a very important purpose — recovery mode is the go-to solution for soft bricks, while download mode allows you to flash firmware files using utilities like Odin and Smart Switch, which can truly be a lifesaver.
How To: Set a Charging Limit on Your Android Device to Avoid Excess Battery Wear
There's a lot of conflicting information out there when it comes to the best habits for charging a smartphone's battery, so let's clear some of that up right off the bat. Lithium ion batteries (the type used in most modern electronics) start to lose their ability to hold a charge over time, and the two biggest factors that contribute to this are excess heat and overcharging.
How To: The Ultimate Guide to Using TWRP: The Only Custom Recovery You'll Ever Need
Just the fact that you own an Android device means you're privy to an entire world of third-party development. Many of the mods you'll see here on Gadget Hacks can be performed fresh out of the box, but with root and Xposed, the list grows longer. But to truly be able to take advantage of all that Android's massive development community has to offer, you'll need to have a custom recovery installed.
How To: There's a Handy Shortcut for Typing Fractions on Android
If you're using the default Samsung Keyboard on a Samsung Galaxy smartphone or Gboard on a Google Pixel or any other Android device, here's a cool trick you should know about.
How To: Manually Switch to a Different 5G Band on Your Samsung Galaxy
Thanks to the Snapdragon X55 modem, the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy Note 20 are among the most compatible 5G phones on the market. There are few bands they don't cover, as the modem supports both Sub-6 GHz and mmWave. But even with such broad support, the Galaxy S20 doesn't get the best 5G reception.
How To: Flash ZIPs Without TWRP (Or Any Custom Recovery)
There once was a time in the Android rooting scene where we couldn't rely on using a custom recovery for all of our modding needs. Manual file flashing was very popular in the early days of Android before custom recoveries started taking over. With the rise of TWRP, it seemed like there was almost no need for manual file flashers; however, they appear to be making a welcomed return in a big way.
Android Basics: How to Root with CF Auto Root
The sheer variety of Android devices on the market is staggering—one report suggests there are well over 24,000 distinct phones and tablets floating around out there. When you consider that each manufacturer adds a few tweaks to the Android code base here and there, that makes for a lot of software variations, which in turn means there needs to be many different root methods to match this variety.
How To: Boot Your Galaxy Note 20 into Recovery or Download Mode
If you ever consider modding your Galaxy Note 20 or Note 20 Ultra, you'll need to know about recovery mode and download mode. Even if that isn't your thing, knowing how to how to boot into these modes can help save your phone from a soft brick.
How To: Root Android 11 Using Magisk — The Foolproof Guide
Thanks to Magisk, you don't have to lose root when updating to Android 11. The popular systemless rooting tool already achieved superuser access on Google's latest OS, even before the official release. It's currently in its experimental stages so the process is trickier than usual, but it does work.
How To: Secretly Call & Message Contacts Using an Innocent-Looking Android Calculator
Whether you're a secret spy or just a regular person with a few secrets, you may want to keep certain information on your smartphone private, and it's totally possible on Android to do so.
How To: Replace the Tip of Your S Pen (& Why You Should)
When you were unboxing your Galaxy Note7, you probably wondered why a little metal claw tool was included in the packaging. Then, if you looked closer, you saw there were five plastic sticks included with the claw tool that came in two different colors.
How To: Hide Photos in the Gallery App on Your OnePlus Phone for Extra Privacy
Smartphones have so much sensitive information attached to them. If you share your home with others, then you know the pains of trying to keep anything private. Photos are surely among the things you'd prefer to keep to yourself, so OnePlus has you covered.
How To: Turn Any Website into a Full-Screen Android App with Ad Blocking, Dark Mode & More
Progressive Web Apps hope to one day bridge the gap between websites and apps by giving the former more access to your phone's features, but they're not very common yet. In the meantime, you can take matters into your own hands with an app that uses your system WebView to render websites in a full-screen, borderless window with a few extra features — a lot like a native Android app.
How To: 5 Ways to Keep Google from Collecting Data on Your Android Phone
Threats to your privacy and security are everywhere, so protecting your data should be the highest priority for anyone with a smartphone. However, one threat many people overlook is the company who supplies the operating system your Android phone runs — Google.
How To: Get Over 100 New & Unique Themes for Gboard on Android
Gboard has come a long way from its roots as the "Google Keyboard" in the earlier days of Android. It's now the most popular, feature-rich, and useful keyboard app on the market. Google even includes quite a few themes right out of the box for Gboard — but what if you could have even more?
How To: Root Your OnePlus 5 Using Magisk
Perhaps you've thought about rooting your OnePlus 5, but thought again when you heard SafetyNet would prevent you from using apps like Google Pay, Pokémon GO, or Netflix. Those are valid struggles when you root using traditional methods. There are no such worries when using Magisk, as it masks the fact that your device has been modified.
How To: Install TWRP Recovery on Your Pixel 4 or 4 XL
It took a while, but the premiere custom recovery for Android is now available for Google's Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL, so it's finally open season on root mods.
How To: Have You Pressed This Little Button in Your Galaxy's Volume Panel Yet?
With Samsung's One UI 3.0 update, the main on-screen volume slider has a little menu button on the top of it. Tapping this will expand the slider into a full-blown volume panel, complete with controls for all of the various types of sounds your Galaxy might make. Standard stuff, really, but there's more to it.
How To: Make Copies of Your Apps to Stay Logged into Multiple Accounts at Once
Whether you're ready to admit it or not, we've all got our alter egos—especially when it comes to the internet. Perhaps you have one Facebook account that you use publicly, while maintaining a second account for more private interactions.
How To: See if Your Phone Has A/B Partitions for Seamless Updates
If your phone has an A/B partition layout, there are two virtual hard drives that each contain a copy of Android. After every restart, it picks a partition to boot from, then the other lays idle. The idle partition can be overwritten with a new copy of the OS and it won't affect the active one. So the next time you reboot, it just switches partitions and it's as if you updated instantly.
How To: Install TWRP Recovery on Your Pixel 3a
TWRP is a name many are familiar with since it allows your Android device to install any custom file of your choosing. You can create a NANDroid backup to keep your data safe or even use Magisk to achieve full root access. In fact, TWRP is often seen as the gateway to modding your system for creating a unique user experience.
How To: See Battery Life for Paired Bluetooth Accessories on Android
The iPhone has a feature that lets you see how much juice is left in your Bluetooth headphones, but most Android phones are lacking this ability. Thankfully, there's a simple app that'll close this gap in functionality.
How To: The Easiest Way to Send ADB Commands to Your Android Device
Android Debug Bridge (or ADB for short) serves as a remote terminal interface for executing shell commands on any Android device. Put simply, ADB lets you send commands from your computer to your phone or tablet, some of which would require root access if they were performed on the Android side of the connection.
How To: Adjust the Perspective of Pictures in Google Photos
Imagine tilting the top of your phone away from you — it becomes a bit of a trapezoid, right? The top will appear smaller since it's further away, and the bottom will appear larger since it's closer to you — in other words, the perspective is all off. The same can be said of the pictures you take with an awkwardly-positioned phone.
How To: Enable LED Flash Alerts for Calls, Texts, & Battery Warnings on Android
When ringtones and vibration alerts miss the mark and fail to grab your attention, causing you to miss an important call or text, LED flash alerts are a great backup plan. While we already showed how to activate this on Samsung devices, the apps shown below make this feature easier to toggle on and off. Plus, they work on devices that don't have flash alerts included in the system settings.
How To: Use Your Android's NFC Reader to Turn Your Computer On
NFC, or near-field communications, is a hardware feature that has been built into most Android phones for the last four years. It's essentially a low-power data connection that can be used to initiate a quick command by bringing your device within range of a compatible receiver, be it tap-and-pay with Google Wallet, a file transfer via Android Beam, or a Tasker profile triggered by a specific NFC tag.