Six Tips to Make Your Android Phone Unique to You

“We take into consideration the cellphone as your digital front room,” says Trystan Upstill, vice chairman of engineering at Google’s Android. “You’re assembling the furnishings. You’re placing issues on the partitions.”

Android’s flexibility—and license to run on an unlimited assortment of telephones—has helped it grow to be the most-used cellular software program world-wide. Google tends to launch the most recent software program and options on its Pixel telephones, although fashions from

Samsung

and some Chinese language tech giants dominate the market.

Whether or not you bought a brand new Pixel 6 or Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 3 or simply up to date your older cellphone’s software program, there are many methods to make your gadget distinctive. You simply have to know the place to seek out them. Listed here are some methods to strive:

Personalize the colours

In case your cellphone is working Android 12, you could find Materials You, which modifications the accent colours of your gadget to match your wallpaper. To entry it, long-press a clean house on your property display, faucet “Wallpaper & type” and scroll to “Themed icons.” Then, flip it on.

As soon as lively, you’ll see your keyboard, house display icons and different components mechanically change tone to pair together with your background photograph.

Tinker with default apps

On an iPhone, SMS textual content messages will solely go to the Messages app, even if you want they may very well be centralized in your Fb Messenger app, as an illustration. Android customers, in the meantime, have lengthy had the liberty to vary which apps mechanically open for textual content messages, net looking and cellphone calls and might swap out their default digital assistant, caller ID and residential display apps.

You’ll should obtain your most well-liked new app first. Then, go to your gadget Settings > Apps > Default apps. Faucet the app class you need to change, after which faucet the app you need as your default. That is helpful if you wish to use

Amazon’s

Alexa as your predominant voice assistant or customise your name display with a calling app like Drupe.

Change your launcher

One of many best methods to customise your Android is to vary your launcher, or house display app, which alters how your cellphone seems to be and behaves.

There are numerous launcher choices within the Play Retailer, permitting you to set a smartphone house theme to replicate your wants and private type.

The Microsoft Launcher app, for instance, rearranges your property display to emphasise productiveness by including your Calendar, Sticky Notes and To-Do Lists on one web page. Different launchers, like Nova Launcher, permit for artistic results and animations.

Seek for Launchers within the Play Retailer, obtain choices that appear like they’d match what you’re going for, and set one as your default app.

Swap up the lock display

Android customers can personalize what they expertise when their gadgets energy on.

The lock display, the place you normally enter a PIN or fingerprint to unlock your gadget, may be overhauled completely with widgets, photos and new options.

Downloading the LockScreen Calendar – Schedule app, as an illustration, permits you to handle lists and schedules out of your lock display. The DIY Locker allows Android customers so as to add images of associates or household to their sample code.

When you open the app, it ought to stroll you thru how one can set up it and what permissions are wanted for it to run.

Use one hand

Smartphone screens are getting larger, not smaller, and also you typically want two arms for what looks like a one-handed activity. Apple and Samsung have constructed options that allow you to extra simply attain issues throughout the display, and now Android 12 provides that capability to extra telephones.

When the mode is enabled, in the event you swipe down in an app, the usable display space slides down nearer to your thumb. You’ll be able to swipe again as much as put issues again the place they have been. To allow it, go to Settings > System > and toggle on One-Handed mode.

Add visitor customers

In contrast to on iPhones and iPads, you’ll be able to even add different customers to your Android gadget, they usually could make their very own customized areas as properly.

To create new customers, open your gadget settings and seek for “customers.” Search for the A number of Customers possibility, toggle the setting on, then select whether or not to permit your visitor to ship textual content messages or make cellphone calls or to limit these actions.

From there, let your visitor arrange a profile utilizing their Google account. Doing so permits the individual to obtain apps and regulate settings. You may as well select a extra restricted Visitor profile, if somebody doesn’t have a Google account.

And when the individual arms the cellphone again to you, you’ll be able to swap again into your admin account on the lock display and enter your password. Consider it like switching profiles on

Netflix.

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Write to Dalvin Brown at Dalvin.Brown@wsj.com