Lenovo A5 Tips and Tricks
Factory OS: Android 8 (Oreo)
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Then view tips for the most recent OS version(s): Android 9 (Pie)
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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 arrive (rather than the actual content), then go to Settings – Sounds and notifications.
Then under the Notifications section, select Notifications on lock screen.
Select Hide content to only show the notification and not the content itself.
You can also select to turn Lock screen notification ‘ON or OFF’ from this menu.
Android has an interesting new feature called Talkback which is designed for blind and low vision users.
The feature is an interesting way to navigate your phone however.
Simply go to Settings – Personal – Accessibility – Talkback to activate it.
Then your phone will give you an ongoing narration of its various functions.
If you have a frield, child, or family member who frequently borrows your phone, but you want to make sure that your personal settings and apps don’t get messed up, using Guest Mode on your Lenovo A5 is the best solution.
Now not all phone models have a Guest Mode feature, but if your Lenovo A5 model has this, just follow the steps below to activate it:
- On the home screen, swipe down using two fingers.
- Look for the User icon (usually located at the top-right portion of the screen).
- Tap “Add Guest.”
- Fill in the form and follow other instructions to set up the Guest Mode profile.
- You may also tweak the settings of each profile by tapping on the Guest or User profile. This includes access to contacts, making calls, sending messages, and even access to images and other files.
- Just tap on a Guest/User name to use that mode. If you want to exit Guest Mode, just tap on your main user profile or remove the guest account entirely.
This method generally works for Android phone users. However, certain brands may have different variations in setting up the Guest profile. For Huawei phone users, you can add up to 3 guest user accounts.
Just follow these steps:
- Go to Settings → Users & Accounts → Users
- Tap “Add User” then start setting up the User Profile.
- Alternatively, you can tap “Add Guest” instead. From there, you can also set up the Guest profile.
You can manually set up the settings and allowable activities per user or guest. Just tap on a guest/user profile and tick certain boxes of which they may be allowed to do. This includes making calls, sending messages, and sharing contact records.
Depending on how your phone is set up, sometimes you will see lag when swiping between homescreens. 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 by going to Settings – Wallpaper, then changing to a different Wallpaper.
Go to Settings – System – Developer options – Window Animation Scale and Transition Animation Scale. Try changing these to 0.5x (or even 0).
(you will need to unlock Developer options if you can’t find this. Use the search form on this site).
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 homescreen 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.
If you would prefer not to be told every time an Application has been updated, open the Play Store and swipe from left to right. Then select Settings and untick the Notifications options.
If you are browsing YouTube videos on your phone and they appear blurry, then this is usually because of your connection speed.
If you are using 3G / 4G and you’re in an area of low signal strength, then YouTube will sometimes automatically reduce the quality of the video. Unfortunately this can make the video very pixelated and of poor quality.
If you are using the standard Android browser, then when the video is in full screen, press the back button. Then press HQ and start playing it again.
If you are using another browser, then press the Settings icon on the bottom right of the YouTube video. Then change the quality.
This may improve the quality, but it may also lead to buffering issues.
Another solution is to use a WiFi connection, if one is available.
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.
The fast and easy way to change the wallpaper on the Lenovo A5 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 Lenovo A5 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.
When using your Calendar App, you will normally be in Month view. To quickly switch to Year view, you can pinch the screen to zoom out.
This is useful if you want to quickly jump backwards or forwards through a few months at a time.
To go from Year to Month, you can do a reverse pinch.
If you find yourself woken up by notifications, text messages or incoming calls, then there is a handy feature called Blocking mode.
To enable this go to Settings – Device – Sounds and notifications – Do not disturb.
From here you can set a From and To time in which to block these notifications.
You can also allow notifications through from certain contacts that you don’t mind bothering you.