Samsung Galaxy S3 Tips and Tricks

Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
Phone: Samsung Galaxy S3
Factory OS: Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)

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

There are two ways to bring up Bookmarks while browsing:

1) The quickest way is to simple long press the Back key to bring up your bookmarks

2) Alternatively you can enable the Quick Control panel. Go to Settings – Labs. Then check the option for Full screen. Then when you are browsing slide your finger in from the left or right of the screen. A semi-circular Quick Control panel will appear. Slide your finger to the top icon to see your bookmarks. This also means your browser runs in full screen mode so you maximise your website viewing area.

If you are not happy with your notification light, then you can change and tweak it. Go to the Android Market and download an App called Lightflow.

You might need to enable the notification light before the App works. Go to Settings – Display. Then check Pulse notification.

After entering text a quick way to hide the keyboard is to press the Back key at the bottom of your screen. This saves having to hunt for the hide keyboard icon.

To soft reset your phone press and hold the Power/Lock button for a 2-3 seconds and the phone will restart. Wait about 10 seconds and then press and hold the Power/Lock button again to restart.

If that doesn’t work, then remove the battery (if it has one). Wait 30 seconds and put the battery back in. Then press the Power/Lock button to turn the phone on.

Android has a feature allowing you to update Applications automatically. This is turned off by default, but you can turn it on.

Open the Android market, then Menu – My Apps.

Then you need to open up each installed App and tick Allow Automatic Updating at the bottom. Unfortunately you do need to do this for each App.

If you want to browse in full screen mode, without the URL bar at the top of the browser, then you can enable this..

Open the standard browser and press Menu – Settings – Labs. Then put a check mark under Full Screen .

To get access to the browser options (that are now invisible), there is now a neat hidden menu. Slide your finger in from the left or right of the screen. A circular menu will appear with various options.

To disable the screen lock, go into Settings – Security. Then select Screen lock.

You can then choose None to disable your screen lock.

This is handy because you won’t have to swipe the lock screen away anymore.

To take a screen shot, hold down the Volume Down and Power Buttons together. This will save the current screen to your phone’s memory card.

To put your phone into night mode, go to your Clock application and press the screen once which will dim the screen.

Then press and hold on the screen and the clock will turn blue. This is Night mode.

If you have just purchased an Android device, then you may want to copy (or import) your contacts from your old phone. The easiest way to do this is to Export your old contacts to a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file and save this to your PC. You may need to install the correct software for your phone first in order to do the export.

Then, if you don’t have a Gmail account, sign up for one.

Once that’s done, open Gmail. Go to Contacts, then press More – Import. Then import the CSV to your Gmail contacts.

Then on your phone, open the Contacts App. Press Menu and then Sync Contacts. This will pull the contacts from Gmail to your phone.