Motorola Droid Ultra Tips and Tricks

Android 4.2 (Jellybean)
Phone: Motorola Droid Ultra
Factory OS: Android 4.2 (Jellybean)

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

To delete or remove homescreen widgets, simply press and hold. Then drag the widget to the top-right corner of the screen and into the Trash icon.

To change the homescreen or lock screen wallpaper, press on a blank part of the homescreen. Next, choose Wallpapers. Then choose Live (animated / moving wallpapers) or standard wallpapers (images) and choose whether you want the wallpaper on the homescreen or the lock screen. Then crop the wallpaper and press Ok in the top-right corner.

You can also use images Gallery images taken with the phone’s camera for your wallpaper.

To enable Face Unlock, go into Settings – Lock screen – Screen lock.

Then select Face unlock. From here you will be required to look at the phone via the front facing camera. It is usually better to do this during the day when the lighting is better, although the phone will guide you through the process.

While viewing your list of Contacts you can swipe from Right to Left to send a text message to the selected contact.

This might not work on all models.

If you would prefer not to be told every time an Application has been updated, open the Play Market – Menu – My Apps. Then Menu again. Then Settings.

Under General settings, untick the Notifications option.

A handy feature of Android is to quickly clear your notifications.

Simply pull down your notifications bar by swiping your finger from the top of your phone downwards.

Then when you see each individual notification, swipe your finger left or right to clear each one. You can do this with your Apps too – press and hold the home button. Then swipe left or right to close Apps.

To add an email or phone number to your contacts from a text message, you can long-press on the email / phone number. Then select Add to contacts

If you’re worried about your sensitive data falling into the wrong hands then Jelly Bean has a great new encryption feature that scrambles every pieces of content on your device.

Go to Settings – Security settings – Encrypt device or Encrypt external SD card.

This tip is relatively obvious, but some users overlook it.

Once you go into your Apps screen you should see a row of 5 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 homescreen.

Or alternatively, slide your finger across the dots to move between screens.

The stock Android browser does not have a privacy or incognito mode, so the best solution is to download Google’s Chrome browser for Android from the Play store. Then open Chrome and go to Settings – New incognito tab.

Another option is to use the popular Dolphin browser whenever you want to browse privately. Then each time you exit, Dolphin asks you whether you want to delete your Cache or History. If you select yes, then your activity will be untraceable.