Samsung Galaxy Note9 Tips and Tricks

Android 8 (Oreo)
Phone: Samsung Galaxy Note9
Factory OS: Android 8 (Oreo)

Have you updated your Operating System?
Then view tips for the most recent OS version(s): Android 9 (Pie)
Or view tips for all Android versions

To quickly hide the on-screen keyboard, press the Back button or simply tap on any empty space on screen.

Android manages your applications so if the phone is running low on memory, it will close the oldest running App.

If you do need to manually close an application go to Settings – Applications – Application manager. Then swipe the screen from right to left until you are on the Running screen.

Then choose the application you want to stop and select Force Stop.

If you call someone regularly this can be useful as you will have a shortcut to them handily placed on your homescreen.

To bookmark a Contact on your Home Screen, then first go into your Contacts App.

Find the Contact you want to add to the Home Screen and press on them.

Then press More or the Menu key and select Add shortcut to home.

Then go to your Home Screens, find the Contact you’ve just added. Press, hold and drag to another position.

Google have hidden a clone of an Octopus inside of the Android Oreo OS.

To access this follow these instructions:
Drag down the notifications screen and go to Settings. Then scroll down to About device. Then tap on the Android version option 5 times.

You should now see a Lollipop on the screen or a double layer Oreo for Android 8.1.

Keep pressing the Lollipop/Oreo and after awhile a flying Octopus will appear.

You may need to long press on the Lollipop if multiple presses doesn’t work.

You can drag and fling that Octopus all around your screen. The eight tentacles represented 8.0

If you want to find your phone’s WiFi MAC address (for improved WiFi security), then go to Settings – System – About device – Status.

Then scroll down until you see WiFi MAC Address. The address should be a series of Hex numbers and letters.

To remove numbers from the call log that you don’t want anyone seeing, then open your Call Log.

This will normally be found on your Apps list or you can also go to your Dialler and find Logs or Call Logs.

Then press and hold on the contact you want to remove. When the Menu appears, press Delete.

Checking Available RAM and CPU utilization on your Samsung Galaxy Note9 is very helpful if you are thinking about removing more Apps.

Looking at which Apps drain your RAM, CPU time, and battery will help you decide which of them should be removed from your phone.

To do this, just follow the simple steps below:

  1. Go to your phone settings. You can do this by swiping down the home screen to reveal the notification bar. From there, tap on the gear icon to open Settings.
  2. Look for Device Maintenance → Memory
  3. Alternately, you can also tap on “Data Usage,” then scroll down to see which apps are taking up CPU power.
  4. You may also look for “Smart Manager.” You will see the status of your RAM and Storage in this area. If you tap RAM, you will see a list of apps that are taking up much of your RAM.
  5. For Huawei users, you can look for “Storage” under Settings.

All methods from 2 to 4 can be accessed on the Phone Settings alone. There are certain variations, depending on your phone or unit.

This section should also show what is taking up valuable CPU time. Useful if you think some Apps are draining your battery.

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.

If you get tired of receiving sales calls or want to block a particular number, then you can set up auto call rejects on your device.

Often you will get calls from unknown numbers. Depending on how cautious or curious you are, then normally it’s good practice to ignore such calls. If you don’t want to answer, but you’d still like to know who the call is from, then you can simply Google the number and there are a number of websites which lists phone numbers with details about the company of the caller. From these sites you can easily see if the call you received is from a dodgy company or not.

Once you have established that you want to block or reject the call in future, then open your normal Dialler App. Then go to Logs and find the number you want to block. Long press on the number and select Add to reject list.

From now on you will see that you received a missed call, however the phone will not ring and you won’t be bothered by the caller.

To manage or manually enter numbers on your reject list, then again open your Dialler App. Press your Menu key and select Call settings. Then Call rejection. Then select Auto reject list to see your reject number list. You can also manually add numbers from here

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 Samsung Galaxy Note9 is the best solution.

Now not all phone models have a Guest Mode feature, but if your Samsung Galaxy Note9 model has this, just follow the steps below to activate it:

  1. On the home screen, swipe down using two fingers.
  2. Look for the User icon (usually located at the top-right portion of the screen).
  3. Tap “Add Guest.”
  4. Fill in the form and follow other instructions to set up the Guest Mode profile.
  5. 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.
  6. 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:

  1. Go to Settings → Users & Accounts → Users
  2. Tap “Add User” then start setting up the User Profile.
  3. 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.