Customize your desktop

Customizing your home screen is a pretty individual thing. Some Android users like to flood it with apps and widgets, while others prefer minimalism or live wallpapers. Therefore, it would be more correct to give a few general recommendations on setting up the home screen.


First, Android allows you to create as many desktops as you want, place the necessary widgets and application icons on them, and then switch between them. But you should not do this, many desktops will interfere rather than help. Two or three is enough. Secondly, put on the home screen only those applications and widgets that you will constantly use. Third, try to start sorting apps into folders. If you regularly log into Google Pay and download new applications, then there is a chance that in a couple of months there will simply be no space on your desktops due to the numerous icons.

Set up notifications


In new versions of Android, developers have done a good job on the notification system. Now they can be configured very finely, for example, move down or completely disable certain notifications from one application, while leaving others or even increase their priority. Such parameters can be useful in instant messengers: remove notifications of some channels completely, mute the sound of others, and put private messages at the top of the list and notify about it with sound.

Practice cleaning your system of junk


In addition to the one-time actions with your smartphone or tablet described above, we recommend that you clean up the memory every couple of weeks. This can be done by simply restarting your smartphone or by using one of the smartphone optimization apps. For example, Clean Master, which is one of the most popular and proven options for cleaning and optimizing the system.

In the application, we recommend that you clean the trash at least once a week. After almost every "heavy" task that your smartphone performed, you need to press "Acceleration". In order not to enter the application, constantly click on the 3 dots in the upper right corner, go to "Settings" — "Widget settings" and turn it on. Now you will constantly see the percentage of filled RAM and, by pulling the widget (circle) that appears down, quickly clear the RAM of your smartphone. Well, or just click on the "Junk" button, after which the programme will quickly scan the smartphone's memory and delete unnecessary ones.

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Many smartphones have pre-installed analogues of Clean Master. You can find them in the smartphone manager or in the service applications menu.

Watch out for resolutions


Usually, when installing a new application, it requests access to some smartphone functions. For example, a dialer app will ask for access to the phone book and the call menu, and a conditional reader will ask permission to view Google account information in order to synchronize the library between multiple devices. Usually, no one reads these requests. But in vain. Indeed, unlike the AppStore, Google Play does not have such strict quality control and you can easily run into a parasite application with a wired spy. Therefore, at least when installing dubious epps, we recommend that you make it a rule to check its requests and track the dubious ones. The flashlight doesn't need access to location tracking, and the note-taking app doesn't need access to your contact list.

Don't skimp on security


Mobile antiviruses are as popular today as social media apps. And this is not surprising, because a smartphone has turned from a simple dialer into a pocket computer that stores a bunch of personal information, bank card data, etc. A frivolous attitude is useless here, especially since there are not so many security rules: do not download applications from dubious sources (use Google Play and other official stores), do not follow suspicious links and do not pay with a smartphone if connected to public Wi-Fi fi. And don't forget your antivirus. The tested options will be Avast, Bitdefender, ESET, F-Secure, Kaspersky Lab, McAfee, Symantec and other antiviruses from the authoritative AV-Test rating. Most importantly, do not install anything, as the vastness of Google Play is full of non-working antiviruses and spies masquerading as them.

Remove unused and power-hungry programs


One day you will have to clean up the memory and remove the applications that you do not use and that drain the battery. A recent study found that of all people who download an app, only 26% use it ten times or more, and another 26 will only open it once and then forget about it. You don't need to uninstall all apps, but chances are you're really using barely ten.

The easiest way is to simply go to the desktop and click on the icon of the desired application for a few seconds. Then a trash can icon or the “Delete” option will appear above the icon. We click. Ready. If a major cleanup is planned, then this method can be somewhat tedious. Then go to the settings and look for the "Applications" menu. It will display a complete list of applications sorted alphabetically and data on the space occupied. We click on the desired application and look for the "Delete" button. If it is a system or pre-installed programme, the “disable” button will appear, which is also not bad. Turning it off reduces the amount of space an app takes up on your phone and hides it from the apps menu.

Change your sync settings


At any time, the phone can synchronize some data with a server or cloud storage. These can be contacts, messages, device settings, or photos. The synchronization process can slow down the phone and drain the battery, so it's worth checking.

All accounts that can be synchronized can be found in the "Settings — Accounts" tab (Accounts). In addition to the list itself, this tab has a menu that allows you to configure auto-sync. You may not want to turn it off completely (it creates backups, after all), but you will probably find something unnecessary in the list. You can also change the time interval between synchronizations.

Enable scheduling for Do Not Disturb


Many scientific works have already been written about the fact that a modern person is dependent on a smartphone and checks notifications 100 times an hour. To break the vicious circle of "online 24 hours a day", the latest versions of Android have added the ability to turn on "Do Not Disturb" mode on a schedule. Turning it on is quite simple: just swipe down from the top of the screen to pop up the notification shade. Then you need to hold down the “Do Not Disturb” icon for a few seconds, after which the menu of the same name will appear. Now we set up a specific time and days when it will turn on automatically. Also here you can add special contacts-exceptions that will be able to get through to you and enable exceptions for SMS notifications.

Activate the "Search for device" function


In order not to regret an accidentally forgotten or lost smartphone, we recommend that you turn on the “Find my device” function. It is not a fact that it will save you from theft or loss, but extra insurance, sorry for the tautology, is never superfluous. To enable it, you need to go to the smartphone settings, select the "Google" menu and go to the "Security" item. Here you need to check the box next to the "Find my device" item. Next, we advise you to go to http://android.com/find and check if your smartphone is displayed correctly on the map. Just don't forget to turn on geolocation.

Enable photo backup in Google Photos


If the iPhone automatically transfers everything from smartphone to smartphone thanks to a hard tie to iCloud, Google has made this option optional. But in vain, because Google Photos is a very convenient and useful application that, under certain conditions, allows you to store an unlimited number of photos on the Google Drive cloud.

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To enable this feature, you just need to launch the Google Photos app. When you open it for the first time, it welcomes you with a menu in which you need to select the desired Google account and do a little configuration. In particular, Google Photos will offer to save photos in their original quality (then the place on the cloud will be limited), or in high quality, but compressed to the application's standards (then the storage will be endless). In the same place, uncheck the box "Use mobile Internet" if you are concerned about the consumption of mobile traffic.

Activate the voice assistant


A very useful thing, which for some reason is still neglected by many. The voice assistant helps you find the right request on the network many times faster, take a call or switch the track when your hands are busy.

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To set up the Assistant, open the main Google app and click on the ellipsis in the lower right corner. An additional menu will open in which you need to find the "Settings" item. Now click on the item "Google Assistant" and in the menu that appears, look for the item "Voice Match". When the smartphone asks you to provide a voice sample, tap Next, say Ok Google four times, and select Done.

Reset your phone to factory settings if it slows down a lot


If the smartphone is no longer new, has seen a lot of installations, downloads and deletions, and simple optimization methods do not help, then our last advice is to do a factory reset. This is a fairly simple process that often helps to breathe life into a smartphone.

Just be sure to make sure that you have backups of all the data you need — no matter on the cloud, memory card or on a computer. Once you've secured your stock of photos and phone book, go to "Settings — Backup and reset" and select "data reset". If you are protecting your device with a password, you will need to enter it to confirm that you did not click on this item by accident. After that, the device will erase all unnecessary data, and then reboot and run the installation wizard so that you can set up the device like the first time.