Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini Tips and Tricks

Android 4.1.1 (Jellybean)
Phone: Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini
Factory OS: Android 4.1.1 (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 speed up your phone, you can turn off screen animations. Go to Settings – Developer options.

Then scroll down to Window animation scale and select that. From here you can choose to turn Animations Off. This will make screen transitions faster.

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.

First you need to enable the Screen Lock from Settings – Security. Then go to Owner Info and set your info there.

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

Most Android phones only come with a fixed amount of homescreens. There is a way to add more however.

Go to Android Play Market and search for ‘launcher’. These are third-party user interfaces that allow you to customize your phone in many ways. Most of them allow multiple homescreens.

A very popular launcher which supports multiple homescreens is GoLauncher EX.

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.

You can speed up the page load speed on your browser by disabling JavaScript.

To do this, open your Browser, then Menu – More – Settings. Scroll down and untick JavaScript

Please note that this may affect the functionality of some sites.

If you want to move a widget from one homescreen to another, simply press and hold on the widget. Then drag it to the edge of the screen. The next homescreen will appear. Then, just drag the item to where you would like.

If you want to remove an entire text message conversation (or thread), go into Messages and look for the thread. Then long press on it and select the Trash icon.

You can also select multiple threads. Before you press the Trash, you can highlight the threads you want deleted. Then press Trash.

To show the Browser History, press the Star in the top right corner of the browser. Then press History.

This will only work in the standard Android browser.

If you want to remove the Google Search bar, then go to Settings – Apps – All – Google search bar – Disable.