Android 8 (Oreo) Tips and Tricks

If you are running low on phone memory, you can look for your largest applications to uninstall.

Open task manager then you’ll see the runnung apps -tap on the app icon- select app info from the popup options- you can close/uninstall from here.

Alternatively Go to Settings – Apps & Notifications – select see all apps and look for the particular app you want to unistall/close then select Force Stop.

From here you can see which applications are taking up the most memory and close them.

A useful feature of Android Pie is what’s called Screen Pinning. This allows you to lock your phone to one App. Perfect if you have a young child that you don’t want messing with your phone. Or if you want to lend your phone to someone to make a call, but make the call only.

To enable this go to Settings – Security & location – Screen pinning. Then go to the App you want to Pin and press the Multitask key. Then look at the most recent and tap on app icon -pop appears then select Pin.

To un-pin an App just press the Multitask key and the back key together.

Android now comes with a sound Equaliser so you can adjust your bass and treble.

Simply open a music file using the Music Player App.

Then go to Settings – Scroll down for Equalizer.

Then simply drag the sliders up and down to adjust the bass and treble.

Like all previous versions of Android Pie has hidden easter egg. Easter eggs are always fun to check out on newly-named Android builds, and this one is no different. However, this may be the first one that actually might be a little hard to look at for long periods of time. Android P’s first Easter egg features a P with a very colorful animation.

To access this follow these instructions:
Drag down the notifications screen and go to Settings.

Then scroll down to About Phone. Then tap on the Android version and a popup will appear with more options (such as baseband version etc..). From there, tap on the Anroid version option at least 5 times.

You should now see a vector tracing Pie logo for Android 9 Pie. You’ll always get a different pattern from the last, as evidenced from jumping to recent apps and back to the Easter egg. As time goes on, more and more rings will appear. You can also pinch to zoom on it. Just don’t stare at it for too long unless you want to get a headache.

Android now has a way to display your name, phone or email on your lock screen. Perfect if you have lost or misplaced your device.

To enable this go to Settings – Security & Location

Then tap on gear icon under Screen Lock- Lock Screen Message.

Here you can enter any information you want, such as your name or email address.

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 Then find Blocked numbers. From here you can add & manage your rejection list of numbers.

Depending on how your device is setup, sometimes when Apps are installed, a shortcut icon is automatically placed on your homescreens.

This can be annoying for users who want to keep their homescreens clutter-free.

To stop this, Long press on the Home screen. Then choose Home Settings from the popup options and untick Add icon to Home Screen.

Warning: This will remove ALL data on the phone (but not the MicroSD card).

To perform a hard reset, or factory reset, then there are a number of methods to try:

1) Go to Settings – System – Reset Option . It may ask for a password. Then select
Erase all data (factory reset).

If the phone is totally unresponsive, even after a reboot, then try the following methods.

2) While the phone is turned off, press and hold the Volume Up and Volume Down buttons together. Then, while holding these, press and release the Power button (keep holding the volume buttons). The phone should turn on and a menu will appear. Press the Volume down button to navigate to the Recovery option. Press the Volume Up to select (if that doesn’t work, use the Power button to select). A yellow triangle and an Android logo will appear. Press the Volume Down and Volume Up button together and a recovery menu should appear. Use the Volume buttons to move to the Wipe data/Factory reset option and then press Power to select. Again, use the Volume Down key to choose Yes and press the Power button again to select.

3) While the phone is turned off, press and hold the Volume Down button. Then, while holding, press and release the Power button. A menu should appear. Use the Volume down key to go to Clear Storage. Use the Power button to select the option. Then when asked to confirm, press Volume Up for Yes.

4) While the phone is off, press and hold down Volume Up + Home + Power buttons at the same time. Then release the buttons when you see the Logo. Use the Volume Down button to go down and the Home or Power key to select. Choose the Wipe data/Factory reset option. Then Select Yes to delete all user data. Then choose to reboot the phone.

5) A final method is to enter the code into your phone’s dialler: *2767*3855# This method will not give you an option to reverse the process, so be careful! This method will only work if you can boot into your phone.?

Sometimes you will want to prevent your device fro, displaying or indexing folders on your Phone storage or USB storage.

To do this, simply rename the folder and place a . (full top / period) before the file or folder name.

This can be done through the Files App or by plugging your device in to your computer and renaming it there.?

If you find yourself woken up by notifications, text messages or incoming calls, then there are some handy features called Blocking Mode.

1. Pull down the drop down menu and choose Shortcut – Do Not Disturb

2. An alternate way is go to Settings – Device – Sounds – 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.