5 useful Android tips and tricks

In this post, we are featuring 5 useful Android tips and tricks that mayimprove your experience while using your Android device. Do note that the steps may vary a little from one Android phone to another due to the differences in the build and the OS version, but if you play around with it, the next step isn’t too far off.

1. Disable App Notifications

Bugged by annoying app notifications that just keep coming? If you don’t know already, these app notifications also drain your phone’s battery. If you want to turn them off, and you are on Jelly Bean 4.1 and above, here’s how:

1. On any of your unwanted notifications in your notification bar, long press on the notification for a message box to appear.
2. Tap on App Info > Untick Show Notifications > OK.

2. Disable Mobile Data

Whenever you don’t need to stay connected, disabling the Mobile Data can help keep your smartphone battery from draining too quickly. Turning off mobile data is as easy as:

1. Going to Settings > Data Usage.
2. Disable Mobile data by toggling the setting from ON to OFF.

3. Set Mobile Data Limit

Want to keep track of how far your usage is from your monthly mobile data limit? If you have ICS and above, there is a feature which lets you keep track of how much of the quota you have left.

1. Head over to Settings > Data Usage.
2. Set your data limit by dragging the orange line to reflect your monthly quota.
3. Set your data usage cycle based on when your "month" starts and ends, and you’re done.

You will be alerted once you hit the limit you have set. Note that the tracked data usage of your phone may vary slightly than your carrier’s tracking.

4. Add Multiple Google Accounts

You need a Google account to use an Android phone but did you know you canchoose to run more than one Google account on your Android device. This is convenient if you use more than one account for several of your Google services. To add multiple Google accounts:

1. Go to Settings > Add account.
2. Select Google and setup your New or Existing Google account.
3. Once added, choose what you want to sync with the account.

Repeat all the steps above if you want to add more accounts.

5. Disable automatic App Updates

Prefer to read through app permissions and manually pick which app updates to adopt? You can, but first you need to disable your automatic app updates. Here are the steps:

1. Open Play Store and head over toSettings.
2. Tap on Auto-update apps.
3. Choose Do not auto-update apps.
4. If you want to enable the auto updates, follow the same path and choose Auto-update apps at any time or via Wi-Fi (available for certain Android devices only).

To update your apps manually, just openPlay Store, and on the main page swipe in from the left and tap on My apps. You can tap on apps with pending updates and update them manually, or if you like to update them all at once, just tap onUpdate All.