Android 10 Tips and Tricks
Locking your phone is a great security feature, but when you’re at home it’s normally not necessary.
A featured called Trusted Places enables you to bypass the lock screen when you’re at specific geographic places.
To set it up go to Settings – Lock screen and security – Smart lock – Trusted places. You can also set up the bypass to work when your phone is connected to specific Bluetooth devices such as Smart watches or Audio devices.
You can also override this (i.e. lock your screen when it is at the location). To override, just press and hold the padlock icon on the lock screen.
This may not work on all phones, models or networks.
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 Operating System Android 10 is the best solution.
Now not all phone models have a Guest Mode feature, but if your Operating System Android 10 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.
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 homescreen, go to Settings – Personal – 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.
The phone has the ability to send quick response text messages if your phone is ringing but you can’t answer it.
To change these, go to your Dialler App and press the Menu or More button.
Then select Settings – Quick Responses.
From here you can add or edit your reject messages.
Type a word that is not in the dictionary. The word will show up in the suggestion box to the left. Long press on the word and it will save to the dictionary.
If you have forgotten your custom unlock pattern, then don’t panic.
After 5 unsuccessful tries a button should 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 might have to either call your carrier or factory reset your phone.
If you want to access certain features of your device that are only available to developers, then you want the Developer options setting.
On most devices, this feature is hidden so you will need to pull down your notifications screen go into Settings. Then scroll down to About device.
Then you should see Build Number. This needs to be pressed a total of seven times. You should get a message at the fourth press. On the seventh, you’ll get another message saying that Developer Options are unlocked.
To share or upload a video to services like Facebook or YouTube, simply go to your Video App and long press on a video.
Then select Share via. From here you will be given options to share the video with various services.
While typing emails or notes, you can simply tap the space key twice and the phone will insert a full stop / period.
This option may need to be turned on in the keyboard settings. This can be found in Settings – System – Language and input
To quickly hide the on-screen keyboard, press the Back button or simply tap on any empty space on screen.
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