Samsung Galaxy S3 Tips and Tricks

Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
Phone: Samsung Galaxy S3
Factory OS: Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)

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

We produce a great list of the best mobile phone accessories and if you have purchased a smartphone, one of the first things you will want to do is accessorise it. Our guide shows you the best accessories and the best places to buy them from.

Simply go to the menu at the top of this page and select: Phone Guides – Best Cell Phone Accessories (for US users) or Best Mobile Phone Accessories (for UK users).

Unlike older versions of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich does not go into USB mode automatically when you connect your phone to your computer with a USB cable.

To enable USB / Mass Storage mode, first go to Settings. Then under Wireless and network, press the More… button.

Then connect your phone to your PC using a USB cable and press USB utilities.

Then click the button that says Turn on USB Storage.

Your phone will now appear as another drive letter on your PC.

To bookmark a contact on your homescreen, long press on the home screen background and select Shortcuts. Then select Direct dial.

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

To check your firmware version, start from the Homescreen and press Menu – Settings – About Phone.

This should list your Android version, Build number and Model Number.

While typing emails or notes, you can simply tap the space key twice and the phone will insert a full stop / period

To change keyboards (if you have additional keyboards installed), you can switch between them by pressing the small keyboard symbol in the top left of your screen. You will need to be in keyboard input mode (i.e. typing something) for this to work.

Note: you need to have more than one keyboard installed for this to work.

There is an Easter egg hidden in the Android operating system. To see it, go to your Homescreen, then press Menu – Settings – About phone.

Then tap on the Android version option 5 times and you will get a surprise.

Sometimes it doesn’t work, so try a couple of times. By the way don’t expect to see an actual Easter Egg. That is just the name given to things hidden inside software or operating systems.

To bookmark a website on your homescreen, go into your browser and find the bookmark of the page you want to create a shortcut for.

Then long press on the bookmark and select Add Shortcut to Home.

If you regularly visit certain websites, this can be handy as you will have a shortcut to the site on your homescreen.

To enable / disable your notification light, go to Settings – Display.

Then check/uncheck Pulse notification.

To lock your screen while you are watching videos, simply press the power button.

This will disable the touchscreen buttons while the video is playing, but it won’t turn the screen off like the lock key normally does.

Note, this will only work on video files that you are playing that are stored on your phone. It won’t work for videos played within websites, such as Youtube videos.