Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini Tips and Tricks

Android 4.1.1 (Jellybean)
Phone: Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini
Factory OS: Android 4.1.1 (Jellybean)

Have you updated your Operating System?
Then view tips for the most recent OS version(s): Android 9 (Pie) & Android 8 (Oreo)
Or view tips for all Android versions

If you would prefer not to be told every time an Application has been updated, open the Play Market – Menu – My Apps. Then Menu again. Then Settings. Under General settings, untick the Notifications option.

To use your phone as a WiFi hotspot, tether it via USB or via Bluetooth, then go to Settings – Tethering And Portable Hotspot.

You can then choose from three options:

1) USB – connect your phone via a USB cable. The phone should automatically configure the correct settings.

2) WiFi Hotspot – To turn your phone into a WiFi hotspot, press Configure WiFi hotspot. You will then be asked to enter a Network SSID (this is your own name for the WiFi hotspot). Then choose Security and lastly, choose a password (this is password for your WiFi hotspot which you will enter on your computer).

3) Bluetooth – With this option, you will need to pair a Bluetooth device with your phone. On the other device, ensure you search for Bluetooth devices and your phone should show up.

There is a hidden easter egg on the phone. If you go to your Homescreen, then press Menu – Settings – About phone, then tap on the Android version option 5 times you will be surprised.

Sometimes it doesn’t work, so try a couple of times. By the way don’t expect to see an actual Easter Egg. That is just the name given to things hidden inside software or operating systems.

While in your email App, a handy trick is to pinch and zoom out to see a ‘day view’ of your emails. This is handy if you have a lot of emails and want to quickly sort them by recency.

It is best to avoid task killers such as Advanced Task Killer. Android is designed to automatically pre-load certain applications, even if you don’t load them yourself. If it starts to run low on memory, it will smartly unload the oldest running apps automatically.

Manually killing tasks will only mean they get loaded in memory again. Task killers can make the phone slow, laggy, or drain battery life more quickly.

To change keyboards (if you have additional keyboards installed), you can switch between them by pressing the small keyboard symbol in the top left of your screen. You will need to be in keyboard input mode (i.e. typing something) for this to work.

Note: you need to have more than one keyboard installed for this to work.

From the Homescreen press Menu – Settings – Sound.

Then under Feedback you can adjust certain features like Audible touch tones, Haptic feedback and so on.

If you’re worried about your sensitive data falling into the wrong hands then Jelly Bean has a great new encryption feature that scrambles every pieces of content on your device.

Go to Settings – Security settings – Encryption to enable it.

When taking photos or videos, tap the screen where you want to focus on. The phone will automatically adjust the settings to improve the image or video

If you prefer a different voice when listening to the Google Maps voice navigation, you can select another language or accent.

From the Homescreen press Menu – Settings – Voice input and output – Text-to-speech settings. Then under the Default settings section, press Default engine.

To change the language, go through the same process, but instead of Default engine, select Language.