5 things you didn’t know you could do in Android
You know your phone like the back of your hand: at least you think so. We think we know a number of things that you may not know about Android at all.
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1. Easy search
Android phones have a handy way to search, but not everyone knows how to find it. People think this particular search bar is only for in-phone searching, but it isn’t (at least not if you’re using a Pixel phone from Google). You can search apps, as well as the web, all with one search bar. Do you want to use it? You only need to do very little for this:
- Swipe up on your home screen
- You will then see all your apps with a search bar at the top
2. One-handed typing
You know it: shopping bag in one hand, but you see on your phone in the other hand that you get an app that you absolutely have to read. Only your thumb is not long enough to reach the furthest part of your keyboard. No problem: you don’t have to wait to reply, because you can set up one-handed typing. You do that as follows.
- Open the Gboard keyboard
- Tap the left icon at the top of the keyboard
- Tap ‘One hand’
- You can tap the left or right arrow to move the keyboard left or right, depending on which hand you have free
3. Search for an object
Would you like to find something in your photos? For example, pictures of your cat, or pictures of roses? That’s no problem for Google Photos. Without tagging a photo, you can simply search for cat or cat (or rose or rose) and Google Photos’ smart system will find photos that show that. Sometimes there is even a snapshot that makes you think: ‘How did you get to that?’ But in general, the AI behind Google Photos knows very well, and shows a lot of different objects.
Set up chain reactions
Would you like your smartphone to do certain things based on your location? Which can. Just like in Google Home, you can set routines, a kind of chain reactions. For this you need to do the following:
- Go to Institutions
- Select Modes and Routines
- Tap at the bottom Routines
- Tap the plus sign at the top
- Tap the If tab and enter what you want to happen.
- Tap Finished if you have done that
Scan documents with Google Drive
You know it: you have printed and signed a contract, but you don’t have a scanner. You can take photos, there are also phones that automatically see that you are photographing a document and immediately make it a nice format, but it can also be done differently. You can just use Google Drive.
- Open the Google Drive app
- Tap the plus sign
- Select Scan
- Select the document and tap the big button
- Tap on OK
- Select how to cut
- Tap on ‘Finished‘
These were 5 handy Android lifehacks to make your life a little easier. There’s more, keep our tip page keep an eye on it and the comments under our articles, because our community also often comes up with good tips!