Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus Tips and Tricks

There are a number of ways, as below. The first two of these may be disabled on some networks/carriers or Android versions however.

1) Go to Settings – Apps. Then scroll down to Contacts Storage – Clear Data. This option may not be available on all models.

2) Go to Contacts. Then hold and press on a contact. Then choose the All option at the top of the screen and select Delete. .

3) Go to Settings – Cloud and accounts – Accounts.

Then scroll down and select Google.

Next, change the slider so that Sync Contacts is disabled.

Then go to Gmail and delete all of your Contacts from there. Then re-sync your phone.

4) Download an App called ‘Delete All Contacts’ and use that as a last resort.

The methods above will delete contacts from the Phone only, not the SIM card.

Looking for a replacement battery for your Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus? We explain the available options and list the best battery choices for your device.

IMPORTANT – We take no responsibility for batteries purchased which you cannot use in your phone. Please ensure the following:
1) Check that your phone does actually have a removable battery
2) Check product descriptions before you buy to ensure compatibility with your phone

Short of time? Jump straight to batteries

Battery types
When choosing a battery there are three main types:

1) Replacement Batteries (Genuine / OEM) – OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer and is the battery that the manufacturer has specifically produced for your device. This is normally the best option in terms of quality, time between charges and overall battery lifetime, but these batteries can be a little more expensive, so it depends on your priorities.

2) Replacement Batteries (Non-OEM / Generic) – Another cheaper option is generic or non-OEM batteries which are often mass produced in order to reduce their price. They can also provide longer battery life by having a higher mAh (see information below), so these can be a good alternative to OEM batteries if you want to save money. The quality can vary however, so we recommend that you read the reviews before buying. Another problem with generics is that they may make your device run hot and they can also void your warranty if your phone develops a fault. In general we would always recommend you buy a Genuine/OEM battery if you can afford to do so.

3) External Batteries– These are ideal if you’re going to be away from mains power for a period of time, such as camping, festivals and so on. The idea is that you charge the external battery pack (from the mains) and then charge the phone off that. Often external batteries will only last for one or two full charges, however very large packs (with a high mAh rating) are available if you’re going to be away for a longer time.

Understanding mAh
Before you buy, you should also check the mAh rating. This stands for milliamps delivered per hour rating and essentially tells you how long the battery will last before it needs recharging. A high end phone with a large screen may have a battery above 2500 mAh, whereas a mid-range model (with a smaller screen and less bulk), may only use a 1800 mAh battery. As mentioned above, sometimes generic batteries can have a higher rating than the genuine battery. For example, if your phone comes with a 2200 mAh battery, you can buy a 2400 mAh generic battery which should mean it will last longer between charges. As above, be careful with generics however.

Click to choose your battery
 

Follow this guide if you want to check the data and WiFi usage on your Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus.

In this day and age, staying connected is essential. However, whether we like it or not, most mobile data plans put a limit on our data usage each month.

Browsing through Social Media may be fine, but downloading and streaming content can easily eat up on your monthly data allocation.

Reaching your data cap means that you cannot stay online for the rest of the month. Worse, you may be allowed to go online but it also means a huge bill by month’s end.

1. Go to Settings → Connections → Data Usage
2. From there, you can set a limit or data cap for a certain time period or billing cycle (a week, month, etc).
3. You may also press the Menu option and tap “Restrict Background Data Usage.” This option will help you manage your data usage, especially for apps that run in the background (such as Instagram and Messenger). However, this also means that the apps may stop working properly.

To check WiFi usage on the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus, follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings → Connections → Data Usage
2. From there, tap on the Menu button (3 vertical dots on the upper-right corner of the screen).
3. Tap on “Show WiFi” then “Wi-Fi data usage.”

Alternatively, some Android handsets may need to follow these steps below:

1. Go to Settings → WiFi & Internet → Data Usage
2. Tap WiFi Data Usage to view WiFi stats.
3. From this menu, you can also view data/WiFi usage per app.

The methods above generally work for most Android phone devices. Some handsets may have slight variations, you should just look for something similar Connections, Networks, or Data Usage menus.

Huawei users however have to follow a different process. Below is a short guide to check data and WiFi usage for Huawei phone users:

1. Go to Optimizer → Data Usage
2. From there, you can view your data usage for the month.
3. You also have a Smart Data Saver feature. You may turn that on if you want to.
4. You can also tap on the apps which are shown to be big data consumers and adjust their usage/consumption accordingly.
5. You may also set a limit by tapping “More Data Settings” then “Monthly Data Limit.”

If you want to remove an entire text message thread, go into Messages and look for the thread. Then long press on it and select Delete thread

Having notifications come through on the lock screen can be handy because you don’t have to unlock your phone to see what the notification is about.

The problem with this is that someone may see the content of a notification (a text message for example) which you would like to keep private.

To change this setting to only display that the notification has arrived (rather than the actual content), then go to Settings – Lock screen and security.

Then select Notifications

From here you can enable or disable which apps you can show notifications from or at the top, select to Show or Hide notifications.

When browsing on your phone you may notice images are quite blurry. This is because your telecom provider is compressing the images before they are downloaded on to your phone.

There is no way to prevent this, but if you have a WiFi connection nearby, then you can turn that on. This will mean that all browser downloads come through the WiFi connection, rather than the carrier, and your images will appear normally.

Depending on how your phone is set up, sometimes you will see lag when swiping between home screens or when generally using your phone. There are a number of things you can try to fix this, as follows:

First, try restarting your phone. This will fix many problems.

If that doesn’t work, then remove any Widgets that pull data to the phone, such as Twitter, Weather widgets etc.

If you have Live wallpapers turned on, then try turning them off long pressing on a blank area of the home screens and changing to a different Wallpaper.

Sometimes the problem can be with the phone or operators skin or launcher, so try going to the Play Store and downloading a third party launcher such as Nova launcher or Go LauncherEx. Note: you will need to re-create your home screen shortcuts, but they are both great launchers.

Another tip is to always press the Back key instead of the Home key when leaving Apps. The Back key will often close the App properly, while the Home key can leave it running in the background.

Lastly, there is a great app called DU Speed Booster which can help close Apps that are running in the background and optimise your phone’s memory.

By default, Android will should send you a message when a new version of the firmware is available, however this option may be turned off in the settings.

To manually check and update the firmware at any point, then follow these steps:

Pull down your notifications screen and go to Settings, then Software update.

From this screen you can also switch between Download updates automatically or manually.

You can also schedule updates to so that they occur at a certain time of the day (say, overnight). This saves you having to confirm every update yourself.

By default, your phone will recognise swear words, but insert x’s instead of the word.

To change this, pull down your menu, press General Management – Language and input – On-screen keyboard.

Then you may need to select your voice input system (e.g. Google voice typing).

Then toggle the Block offensive words option.

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.