HTC U11 Life Tips and Tricks

Android 8 (Oreo)
Phone: HTC U11 Life
Factory OS: Android 8 (Oreo)

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

Looking to find the IMEI nunber for your Htc U11 Life? Read on.

An IMEI is a unique serial number that is assigned to your phone. Each phone has a unique IMEI, regardless of brand and model. Most insurance companies would ask for your IMEI because this helps them report and block the device once it gets lost or stolen.

If you’ve just bought your Htc U11 Life, it is best to keep its package box and avoid throwing that to the bin. That could be very handy when you do lose your phone and you need to trace it using the IMEI code.

There are several ways to get your IMEI number by just using your phone. The easiest way is to go to the dialer and press *#06#. The IMEI should be displayed on your screen after entering the code.

Now for those who dialled *#06# on their phones, some might be seeing two types of serial numbers. Just take note of the first one, because that is most likely the IMEI.

Aside from that, you can also go to Settings → System → About Device → Status, then scroll down to locate your IMEI number. This could vary a bit depending on your phone model. Some smartphones list the IMEI under the About Device section. So just scroll down in case you don’t see it under System or Status.

The IMEI is also often imprinted on your battery cover. This means that you have to dismantle the back cover of your phone to get a copy of it. This is rather inconvenient. If you can still access your IMEI using the phone itself, then just do so. Except if your Htc U11 Life is locked or has no power for some reason.

To see notifications on your Lock screen, the best option is to download an App called NoLed from the Play Store. This will show notifications such as text messages, emails and missed calls as bright icons on your homescreen.

You can choose between very small squares or small icons and these can assigned by coloured.

If you would like to unmount your SD card for whatever reason, then drag down your notifications menu from the top of the screen and press the Settings icon.

Then find Storage – SD card – Unmount SD card.

While the stock standard keyboard is fine, there are much better keyboards available for the Htc U11 Life.

First, you need to go to the Play Store and download one. Try searching for the word ‘keyboard’ and you will see a number of options.

One of the best keyboards is a keyboard called Swiftkey, which is a top-rated App. This will literally change the way you feel about your phone as the standard keyboard can be quite a frustrating experience.

Download your chosen keyboard and go through any install steps that you are presented with.

If you see a warning saying the keyboard will collect all information (including credit cards) just ignore this. This is just a security feature that Android shows for every third-party keyboard that you install.

Then, go to the App you want to type in. You should now see a little Keyboard icon on the row at the bottom of your screen, towards the bottom-right corner. Press that icon and you can switch between all of the keyboards you have installed.

Some other notable keyboards that work on the Htc U11 Life are GO Keyboard and Gboard (the Google Keyboard). Download and install your keyboard app of choice. Once that’s done, follow these steps to switch your current keyboard to that newly installed one:

  1. You can click on your newly installed keyboard app (icon).
  2. Most of them can assist you on how to switch your keyboard.
  3. Just follow the instructions from the new keyboard app.

How to Switch Your Phone’s Default Keyboard to A New One

You can follow the steps above because most keyboard apps can assist you when it comes to switching the default keyboard to theirs. However, you can also do it manually by going to your Phone Settings. Just follow these steps:

  1. Go to Settings and scroll down or look for the “System” sub-menu.
  2. Under “System,” tap “Language and Keyboard” or “Language and Input.”
  3. Tap “Default Keyboard” and select the new keyboard app.

Depending on your unit and model, this method could vary. For those who can’t find the “Default Keyboard” option, you can follow these steps:

  1. Under “Language and Input,” you need to look for Virtual Keyboards → Manage Keyboards.
  2. Tap your keyboard of choice to activate it.
  3. You will get a message of confirmation. Just tap “OK.”
  4. Open your keyboard. You can do this by trying to write a message, email or search.
  5. Then tap the keyboard icon.
  6. Choose the Input Method (tap on your preferred keyboard).

Done! You can change your Htc U11 Life keyboard’s theme, predictive text, and other settings by opening its menu. You can do this by locating the keyboard icon on your home screen, or by tapping on the settings icon when you open the keyboard for typing.

The fast and easy way to change the wallpaper on the Htc U11 Life is to tap and hold on a blank space on your home screen and then tap “Wallpapers.”

From there, you can choose any image from your gallery or from a preset selection of live wallpapers from your device.

You may also go directly to your Htc U11 Life Gallery then open an image of your choice. Once you open the image, select “More” to look for the “Set as Wallpaper” option.

You can also change your wallpaper from the Settings menu on your phone. Just follow these steps:

  1. Swipe up or unlock your home screen to display all apps.
  2. Look for the Settings icon, tap and then look for “Display.” For some phones, you might want to look for “Home Screen” or “Wallpaper” right away.
  3. Next, tap “Wallpaper” and select which folder or file you want to use.
  4. Find your desired image and tap “Set Wallpaper.”

You can always use your own image as a wallpaper. However, most phones also have a preset selection of wallpapers (or live images) that can be used anytime too.

You may also choose different images each for your wallpaper and lock screen. However, you may also use just one image for both.

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

Open the Play Store App and press the Menu icon in the top left of the App. Then select Settings and in Notification section you can turn Auto-update apps on.

From here you can chose to do this over WiFi only or using your Data connection.?

The most common and effective way to copy photos to your PC (from your Htc U11 Life) is to do it via a USB cable. Just plug your phone to a PC using a USB cable and wait for a notification to pop up on your phone.

This notification usually tells you that your device is charging. For some phones, it prompts the user to choose from several options. Just swipe down the notification and choose either “Transfer Photos” or “Transfer Files.”

For smartphone users who don’t see such notification, you may go to Settings → Developer Options → Networking → USB Configuration then tap on MTP (Media Transfer Protocol).

After that, check “This PC” on your desktop and see if there is a removable drive for your phone. The drive would be named as a Removable Device or it would bear the name of your brand or phone model.

Click on the drive and find the “DCIM” folder. This is where all photos and videos from your camera are stored. You can use the search bar function of the folder to find it quickly.

Using Google Photos to transfer photos on your Htc U11 Life
Alternatively, you can use Google Photos to copy photos from your phone to PC. This can be done when you sync and back up all your photos and videos on Google Photos. To do this, just follow these steps:

  1. Make sure you have set up your Google Account on your smartphone.
  2. Open the Google Photos app on your phone.
  3. Then go to its Menu (you can find this at the top).
  4. Find Settings then look for Back-up & Sync
  5. Tap / check to turn on back-up and sync.

When you do this, all your photos and videos will be saved simultaneously to your Google Photos account (via WiFi). To retrieve these photos on PC, just turn on your PC and go to photos.google.com.

Then sign in with your Google Account, and you will gain access to all your backed-up photos and videos right away! You can click on any photo and download it to save it on your PC. Just click on “More Options” on the upper right corner of the photo, and you will see a download option.

Using Hi Suite to transfer photos
For Huawei phone users, you can use the HI Suite. This program is exclusive for Huawei users, and it provides an easy way to transfer different files from your phone to PC (and other devices). It also functions as a backup device for all data and settings on your phone, and it can be used to retrieve and copy photos to your PC. Just follow the steps below:

  1. Connect your Huawei and PC with the use of a USB cable.
  2. Go to your phone’s Settings and search for “HDB” on the top search bar.
  3. Tap on “Allow HI Suite to use HDB.”
  4. You have to agree on certain terms and policies to make use of the function.
  5. To backup your photos and videos, tap on Backup and select the “DCIM” or “Camera” folder where your images are saved.

You can access all these backed-up files (including photos) on your PC through HI Suite. Just don’t forget to install HI Suite on your PC too!

Transfer Specific Photos Using Google Drive on the Htc U11 Life

  1. Since you are using a Google phone you can transfer your photos first to Google Drive. To do this, tap on the GOOGLE DRIVE app on your phone to open it.
  2. Tap on the plus (+) icon from the homepage of GOOGLE DRIVE
  3. From here, you can start uploading the photos you want by selecting them from your storage device.
  4. To download your photos to GOOGLE DRIVE, open GOOGLE DRIVE on your computer and log in to your account. Choose which photos you want and then from the given options, select to download them into your PC.

Transfer Photos from Google Pixel to a Computer using a third party application

There are also different programs you can use to transfer photos from your Google Pixel phone to a computer. These include Mobile Trans – Backup, Free Syncios Mobile Manager, ApowerManager, and Droid Transfer.

Transfer Photos using MobileTrans

  1. Connect your Pixel phone to your computer using your USB cable.
  2. Open the MobileTrans app on your computer and choose BACKUP.
  3. Once your phone is detected, the snapshot will be shown on the screen.
  4. Enable the PHOTOS option from the list of selected data types.
  5. Finally, click on START and your photos will be moved to your computer.

Transfer Photos using Free Syncios Mobile Manager

  1. Install and launch the Free Syncios Mobile Manager app on your computer. Choose BACKUP mode from the list of choices.
  2. The program should turn to the GOOGLE PIXEL to computer transfer window.
  3. Use your USB cable to connect your phone to the PC. There is a chance that you mey have to enable USB debugging mode on your phone to allow Syncios to connect.
  4. Wait for the selected files to be fully transferred to your PC.

Transfer Photos Using ApowerManager

  1. Download and open the ApowerManager on your PC and phone.
  2. Connect your phone to the PC via the USB cable.
  3. On the desktop version, choose MANAGE found on the top and go to the PHOTOS tab.
  4. Choose the photos you want to transfer then click on EXPORT.
  5. Wait for the photos to be transferred and remove the USB cable.

Transfer Photos Using Droid Transfer

  1. Install the DROID TRANSFER app on your PC and phone.
  2. Connect both devices by scanning the QR CODE found on the app’s interface using the TRANSFER COMPANION app on the phone.
  3. Once both devices are connected, proceed to the PHOTOS tab.
  4. Choose the photos you want to transfer and click COPY PHOTOS.
  5. Wait for the photos to be completely transferred to your computer and remove the USB device.

If you find yourself being stalked or receiving unwanted calls nuisance calls from people or companies then you should use the Call rejection mode.

Open your Dialler App and press More. Then Settings and More settings. Then find Call rejection. From here you can manage your rejection list of numbers.

Sometimes while typing long text or SMS messages you will get a message saying Converting to multimedia message. This won’t normally cause a problem, however some users do not want to send a MMS message.

There are a number of different settings to deal with this, however there isn’t really a way to prevent the phone from converting to an MMS. The reason for this is that any message over 480 characters cannot be sent as an SMS message. They must be sent as an MMS. The is a restriction of SMS messages in general, similar to the original limit of 160 characters.

What you can do however is ensure you get alerted when you have reached 480 characters. Then you can decide to send the message as an SMS and continue your conversation on a second message.

To check this setting is on, open your Message App and press More – Settings and More Settings – Multimedia messages. Then select Set restrictions and choose Warning. You will now be told when your message is being converted to MMS.

You can also change the settings for Creation mode which lets you restrict messages that go over a certain size. If you select Warning or Restricted, you should get further warnings when your message is really large and may not be handled by the network.

Note: This availability of this feature depends on your device.

To quickly close Apps, press the Home key

This will display your currently running Apps. From here you can simply swipe the Apps off the screen by dragging your finger left or right. This is a very quick way to free up some memory.