HTC U11 Tips and Tricks
Factory OS: Android 7 (Nougat)
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
When entering text into Apps such as your Messaging App, Facebook App and so on, you can tap on the words to start selecting text.
Normally, you would then drag the left and right sliders to select the word, or words you want to highlight.
If you double tap on a word however, it will quickly select that word.
Very handy for quickly copying and one words, name or place.
The fast and easy way to change the wallpaper on the Htc U11 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 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:
- Swipe up or unlock your home screen to display all apps.
- 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.
- Next, tap “Wallpaper” and select which folder or file you want to use.
- 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.
Instead of the simple swipe gesture to unlock your phone, you can set a custom one which can be extremely difficult for a thief to guess.
From your home screen, go to Settings – Lock screen and security – Screen lock type and choose Pattern.
It is also a good idea to untick Use visible pattern. Then if someone is watching over your shoulder while you entering your pattern, it will be harder for them to remember the pattern.
If you have forgotten your unlock pattern, then after 5 unsuccessful tries a button will appear saying ‘Forgot pattern’.
Press this and you will be asked to enter your Gmail username/password. The phone will then ask for a new unlock pattern.
If you don’t have a Gmail account, then you will have to either call your carrier or factory reset your phone.
Normally you can simply insert a SIM card and you will be able to browse the internet using 3G or 4G. Sometimes, this must be setup manually however.
Before you start, you will need to ask your carrier or Telco for your APN settings.
Once you have those, go to Settings – Connections – Mobile networks – Access Point Names.
From here press Add or the Plus sign at the top right and select New APN.
Then fill in the details your carrier gave you. Then press the menu button and press Save.
Follow this guide if you want to check the data and WiFi usage on your Htc U11.
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.
- Go to Settings → Connections → Data Usage
- From there, you can set a limit or data cap for a certain time period or billing cycle (a week, month, etc).
- 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 Htc U11, follow these steps:
- Go to Settings → Connections → Data Usage
- From there, tap on the Menu button (3 vertical dots on the upper-right corner of the screen).
- Tap on “Show WiFi” then “Wi-Fi data usage.”
Alternatively, some Android handsets may need to follow these steps below:
- Go to Settings → WiFi & Internet → Data Usage
- Tap WiFi Data Usage to view WiFi stats.
- 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:
- Go to Optimizer → Data Usage
- From there, you can view your data usage for the month.
- You also have a Smart Data Saver feature. You may turn that on if you want to.
- You can also tap on the apps which are shown to be big data consumers and adjust their usage/consumption accordingly.
- You may also set a limit by tapping “More Data Settings” then “Monthly Data Limit.”
If you don’t like the default A-Z way of viewing your contacts you can change this.
First, go to your Contacts App and press the Menu key or More at the top of the screen.
Then select Settings.
Then choose Sort by.
Here are the top 5 tips to make your phone run faster:
1) Use only essential widgets on your home screen – each widget consumes memory and processing power which can slow your down your phone.
2) Uninstall apps that you don’t use – after a while your phone can get cluttered as some Apps are designed to always run in the background. If you rarely use an App, then uninstall it to free up memory and CPU resource.
3) Install Apps to your phone memory – if you have an SDCard, always install Apps to the phone memory, which can be accessed faster. If you have Apps on the SDCard, then move them back to the phone memory with an App called Move2SD available from the Play Market.
4) Use Static rather than Live wallpapers – Live wallpapers consume processing power and memory. Unless you really must have them, uninstall them.
5) Kill tasks occasionally – Some Apps will run in the background indefinitely unless you kill them. Most of them won’t cause a problem, but it pays to check your running tasks from time to time. Hold down your Home key and check the Task Manager. You can use Apps such as DU Speed Booster for this.
Android has a way to display your owner info (i.e. name, phone, email or a personalised message) on your lock screen. Perfect if you have lost or misplaced your device.
To enable this go to Settings – Lock screen and security – Information and FaceWidgets – Contact information.
Here you can enter any information you want, such as your name, email address or phone number. It’s obviously recommended to use a number other than your mobile if it has been lost!
Hopefully if your phone is lost, then the finder can use this information to get in contact with you.
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 home screen.
You can choose between very small squares or small icons and these can assigned by coloured.
This tip is relatively obvious, but some users overlook it.
Once you go into your Apps screen you should see a row of dots. This indicates which of the 5 App screens you are on. Rather than flick between each screen, you can simply press one of the dots and you will jump to that home screen.
Or alternatively, slide your finger across the dots to move between screens. This won’t work on all devices however.


