Hello!
I just bought a HTC Desire (was using an iPhone 3G until a few days ago).
I haven't rooted (yet?), so I'm running stock 2.1. Didn't install any task manager.
I have a few questions I couldn't find answers to...hope you'll help me!
Maybe they are just differences between Android and IOS, everything is so different from the iPhone...
1. Why doesn't wifi turn off when I turn off the screen? The only option I found is to turn it off after 15 min (I don't see the point).
2. I turned off every autosync in every possible setting/app. (turned it off in all apps such as Newsrob, etc). When I'm out I continue to see the HSDPA icon with blinking arrows, as if something was transferring data. I only have the Astrid todo widget and battery snap. no weather, no mail, nothing else.
3. Do I have to switch off wifi and gps using the power widget? If so, why? On the iPhone if you don't use them they won't drain the battery...if I don't open Maps, why would I want to turn off GPS? Isn't it off by default?
4. Sometimes when I receive a text message and I read it, the 'Messages' icon displays a little '1' for a while, then disappears (don't know exactly when).
5. Since I turned off autosync, I have to open mail, press menu, hit refresh to check if I have new mail. I checked the 'Refresh on open' in the default mail app (not gmail). This works, but once the app is in the background and I switch to it, it won't count as a new 'open', so it won't check for new mail and I have to go through 2 additional keypresses. Frustrating, since mail is my most used app. This happens in both mail apps.
6. Is there a way to enable the clockwise landscape rotation?
7. Is there a way to enable a gesture to perform the 'back' action on the browser via the touchscreen? Maybe I need to get used to it, but for now I really don't like to hit the physical 'back' button.
8. The compass works randomly. Sometimes, using Maps, it's perfectly smooth and accurate. Then I close maps, open it again (i.e. switch to it, since it's in background) and it's a mess, doesn't work with the phone on a flat surface but moves if I hold it up vertically. Weird. Also, do I need gps activated to use it?
9. The auto-brightness is way too bright indoors, way too dim outdoors. I tried to trust it for a few days, but always end up going to the power widget and activate the lowest setting while indoor and the highest while outdoors. Any fixes for it?
Quite a long post, I'm sorry...
Thank you, this forum already helped me figure out a lot of stuff
I haven't had my desire long but here's my n00b point of view...
1. So your listening to streaming music the screen goes off your wifi goes off too personally i just leave wifi on unless i'm on holiday.
2. I have never turned off any auto sync options, If you want to be sure of not incurring extra charges, untick data roaming in mobile network settings.
3. My gps is set to off, If i use maps it switches on unless my desire is magical
4. I have had the 1 stick around before too, I have seen an answer to this before but i have forgotten where.
5. you could use the sync widget, or get a task killer to force close the mail app.
6.
7. Dolphin browser has gestures
8. Its been a while since i used the compass because i know where i am i believe a message popped up about enabling gps otherwise it would use the network to determine position or some such thing.
9.
6. enable rotation in settings/display
9. the auto brightness works off the light sensor so no, i have no problem with it tho works fine for me
1. In Advance Settings of my WiFi I found a sleep policy with 3 options:
a) After 15min. b) Never when plugged in. c) Never. I think that 15th minutes is fine, It wont drain so much power.
2. You could use a program like APNDroid to disable mobile internet, there is a widget for faster ON/OFF switch.
3. In Android programs can't change GPS status and you have to turn off/on manually. But for my personal option if the GPS is turned on it won't drain power if you not using it.
4. It bugs me too, It was the same on Windows Mobile.
5. I don't use mail programs on Desire and I'm sorry that I can't help you.
6. Not found my me - asking same question ?
7. Dolphin browser .
8. For me is working fine, but I don't lose myself often
9. I'm using manually brightness settings, but in sunny days AMOLED screen makes me crazy.
6. For this one you need a custom rom as the default rom only allows anti-clockwise rotation I believe
9. The Auto Brightness is rubbish, The power widget is your best and fastest option, Give Extended Controls a look if you dont want a full 1x4 widget bar
Related
Can't make it through the day on a single charge, and to make matters worse, where my iPhone used to climb 50% in less than an hour, the desire charges at a glacial pace. Screw froyo, do something about the battery life, HTC.
Vlad_M said:
Can't make it through the day on a single charge, and to make matters worse, where my iPhone used to climb 50% in less than an hour, the desire charges at a glacial pace. Screw froyo, do something about the battery life, HTC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so you're using froyo and your desire can't make it through a day?
I think he means he thinks HTC should concentrate on sorting the battery life and not on pushing out Froyo.
But tbh with heavy use my Desire lasts around 24 hours to maybe 36 tops on a full charge and also charges quickly through mains (not throught usb on pc that's slow).
I think he has a bad battery or is using a crap rom. Or has brightness on full, wifi on all day and bluetooth too.
I think "heavy usage" is a relative term. My wife and I both have the same phone, and are experiencing the same problems, so I don't think it's a case of a bad battery. My brightness is on auto, yes, wifi is on all the time however isn't this the point - so that the phone can use wifi for data when in a know network?
The phone is not rooted, therefore using the stock ROM.
Vlad_M said:
I think "heavy usage" is a relative term. My wife and I both have the same phone, and are experiencing the same problems, so I don't think it's a case of a bad battery. My brightness is on auto, yes, wifi is on all the time however isn't this the point - so that the phone can use wifi for data when in a know network?
The phone is not rooted, therefore using the stock ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
*#*#4636#*#* in Phone, goto Battery History, then select Partial Wake Usage in the top drop down box, if anything is going above a very tiny blue bar, check it out.
Android system has quite a significant blue bar representing it. Now what?
Vlad_M said:
Android system has quite a significant blue bar representing it. Now what?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are loads of "tweaks" you can make to improve battery life of your handset... you can try the following and it should make a huge difference for you, and result in longer battery life span:
1. Lower screen brightness. Go to Settings -> Sound & display -> Brightness. Slide the brightness switch to the left to lower it or check the "Automatic brightness" box to let the phone use its sensors to adjust the screen according to the ambient light. You can also find dedicated screen brightness widgets in Android Market.
2. Turn off 3G, WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth when you don't need them. The easiest way to manage these wireless radios is to use the Settings widget preinstalled on your phone. Tap the + button on your home screen -> Widget -> Settings. Once your chosen widgets are on any of your home screens, a simple tap turns each one on/off. You can also use "Power Control" widget found in home screen -> Widget -> Power Control. There are other widgets that do this in Android Market (e.g. SwitchPro), but these are already preinstalled and they're a nice-looking set.
3. Disable WiFi and 3G network notifications. Go to Settings -> Wireless & networks -> Wi-Fi settings. Uncheck the Network notification box so your phone isn't constantly scanning and looking for open networks to tell you about. For 3G, go to Settings -> Wireless & networks -> Mobile Networks.
4. Disable "always on" mobile data. This is one of the biggest battery savers. Go to Settings -> Wireless & networks -> Mobile networks. Tap "Enable always-on mobile data" to uncheck the box. I haven't found a negative consequence of disabling this feature, as Gmail and other apps/functions still work perfectly.
5. Turn off background data. If you're not using Google services, go to Settings -> Accounts & sync and uncheck the Background data box so that applications cannot sync, send, and receive data whenever they want to.
6. Lower the screen timeout interval. The phone's screen can be set to automatically turn off when you don't interact with it for a predetermined amount of time: 15 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes, 10 minutes, or never. Depending on what you're doing, a too-short interval can become annoying (especially if you didn't disable your lock screen), so choose wisely.
7. Manually turn off the screen when not in use. Since the screen timeout function ensures that the phone's screen will turn off (unless you have it set to "never turn off"), it can be tempting to put the phone down when you're done using it and just let the screen turn off by itself. Instead, give the power button at the top of the phone a quick push to turn it off manually.
8. Turn off auto-sync. Go to Settings -> Accounts & sync -> Auto-sync.
9. Change auto-sync frequency (Weather, News, Stocks, Twitter, etc). If you don't want to turn off auto-sync, you can adjust how frequently data is retrieved/updated. The settings vary depending on the app (and some don't offer the setting at all), but it's generally found in the same place: Settings -> Accounts & sync. Select an account from the list and then tap "Account settings" to change the sync frequency.
10. Disable wireless network location services when not needed. Go to Settings -> Location -> Use wireless networks. Note that this (or one of the other options) needs to be enabled if you want to see and/or use your location in apps like Maps.
11. Turn off window animations. To turn it off, go to Settings -> Sound & display -> Animation -> No animations.
12. Don't use a live wallpaper. Use a static wallpaper instead.
13. Use a dark wallpaper. Some say that dark wallpapers are more energy efficient than light wallpapers. Others say it doesn't make any difference. Either way, there's no harm in using a dark wallpaper so you may as well do it.
14. Change WiFi sleep policy. This may sound counter-intuitive, but leaving WiFi on when the phone isn't being used and the screen is off is actually better than letting it sleep. When WiFi sleeps, 3G wakes up to sync, get email, and retrieve other data. 3G will eat up more battery than WiFi, so go to Settings -> Wireless & networks -> Wi-Fi Settings. Press the Menu button and tap Advanced, then Wi-Fi sleep policy. Choose "Never" from the pop-up menu.
15. Monitor your running services (or consider using a task killer). Just because Android 2.1 is supposed to an intelligent operating system that will manage your running apps for you doesn't mean it will always do things the way you want them to be done.
You can take matters into your own hands by going to Settings -> Applications -> Running services, where you can view what your phone is doing and manually stop certain activities. You can also download a third-party task killer from Android Market and kill selected apps to free up some resources and potentially save some power. Task killers are a polarizing topic in the Android community, so tread lightly when looking for recommendations or asking for help with them.
16. Choose your home screen widgets carefully. Widgets that need access to the internet to update information (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Engadget, Slacker Radio, Weather, Stocks, News, Mail) can suck up a lot of juice if not managed well, so choose them carefully and set their sync/update frequencies to a reasonable interval.
17. Disable notification lights. This may not be practical if you're someone who really needs/wants to know when something happens on your phone when you're not looking, but for everyone else, feel free to turn off those notifications. Go to Settings -> Sound & display -> Notification flash and uncheck all the boxes.
18. Turn off phone vibration. If the ringer is on, why do you need the phone to vibrate? You're already in a loud environment that drowns out the ring; answering the call won't quiet your surroundings so you can hear what the person at the end of the line is saying.
And if your phone is set to silent, then an incoming call should be silent. Yes, the buzzing vibration may not be disruptive as your ringtone, but people still hear it.
So go to Settings -> Sound & display -> Phone vibrate and turn it off.
19. Turn off audible touch tones. In Settings -> Sound & display, uncheck Audible selection and turn off Audible touch tones.
20. Turn off haptic feedback. Once you get the hang of typing on the phone's on-screen keyboard, you can turn off the haptic feedback that was turned on by default. Go to Settings -> Language & keyboard -> Touch Input -> Text input -> Vibrate when typing.
You can disable haptics in other areas of the system by going to Settings -> Sound & display -> Haptic feedback.
Hi,
Had major battery problems before.
It seemed media was always running and draining battery.
This weekend i bought a new microsSD card an that somehow solved all my issues.
Migt be that something on my sd card was causing the power drain.
Try formating the sd card with pc and the insert it again in phone.
Peculiar. I have a perfectly standard Desire, nothing modified and get a day easily. I do have Juice Defender enabled (easy mode)
Sometimes I am just wondering ... We need to turn off so much in order to get decent battery life
I am watching the new iPhone 4 announcement ... it has much better hardware and very good battery life (10 hours video playing!).
MasDroid said:
4. Disable "always on" mobile data. This is one of the biggest battery savers. Go to Settings -> Wireless & networks -> Mobile networks. Tap "Enable always-on mobile data" to uncheck the box. I haven't found a negative consequence of disabling this feature, as Gmail and other apps/functions still work perfectly.
5. Turn off background data. If you're not using Google services, go to Settings -> Accounts & sync and uncheck the Background data box so that applications cannot sync, send, and receive data whenever they want to.
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So with these two off, my Exchange and Gmail will still sync?
Vlad_M said:
So with these two off, my Exchange and Gmail will still sync?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, disabling the Background Data will affect the auto sync to Google.
I think Im seeing light at the end of the tunnel...
I hated the batterylife when I first got the Desire. I disabled everything, no live wallpapers, no automatic updates, only couple widgets etc. I barely managed one day.
NOW after several weeks of usage, guess what. I am using automatic brightness, live wallpapers (starfield), News widget and Friends stream updating every hour, GMAIL. I surf some, read emails, play game or two, bit of GPS and Copilot, calls and txts... and I get through about two days!
I think the battery gets better with time!
On the South African forums where we discussed the phone everyone complains that it starts off bad, but after about a week the battery life is much much better....I am but 5 days in, and it's better, but let's see how much it improves.
MasDroid said:
Yes, disabling the Background Data will affect the auto sync to Google.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you elaborate on that? What is auto sync to Google if not gmail?
Vlad_M said:
Can you elaborate on that? What is auto sync to Google if not gmail?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, if you have an unlimited data plan, then you might as well leave auto-sync and background data on.
Autosyncing allows for push e-mail with gmail.
If you try switching off auto-sync and background data, it means that you will not get the notifications in real-time from Facebook, for example, and on the drag down menu, and other similar things.
I have tried turning off background data, and not noticed any ill effects... I still get my push gmail etc....
EDIT: actually, turning off Background Data will stop push email happening as there's no data connection, or a periodic pull of email happening again, because of no background connection.
I guess it's a bit of a tradeoff really - connectivity vs battery life.
so far i have to say the battery is far worse than the HD2 with a good rom and radio but maybe its somthing to do with the fact this is new to me and i am playing more
The above statements read very contradictory.
Vlad_M said:
The above statements read very contradictory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
over all with both phones running with same kind of stuff updating the HD2 useing xanny's evo rom 2.2 with radio 2.11 eats far less battery than the desire even though the HD2 has a 1240 mah battery and desire a 1400 mah but the my desire is new so i playing lots more but i am quite sure at the moment on even terms the HD2 set up i have will last far longer on one charge than my stock desire.
gogol said:
I am watching the new iPhone 4 announcement ... it has much better hardware and very good battery life (10 hours video playing!).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apple says the iPhone 4 is rated at 7 hours of 3G talk.
HTC says the Desire is rated at 6.5 hours of 3G talk.
Not much of a difference in paper.
Still, let's see how thing will go in practical use.
In every day life, I know many people that charge their iPhone (3GS) 2 times every day. Now that sucks even more.
Like I suspect most people, I don’t need my emails downloading while I sleep (or any other data transfer for that matter).
There doesn’t appear to be a ‘night mode’, or whatever you want to call it.
So in the interests of saving the battery, what do people do?
There are three options:
1. Turn off mobile
2. Turn on flight mode
3. Turn off cellular
'Tron said:
Like I suspect most people, I don’t need my emails downloading while I sleep (or any other data transfer for that matter).
There doesn’t appear to be a ‘night mode’, or whatever you want to call it.
So in the interests of saving the battery, what do people do?
There are three options:
1. Turn off mobile
2. Turn on flight mode
3. Turn off cellular
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I leave mine as is, but if I could get into a routine, I would practice the habit of tapping airplane mode.
I let it roll - if I need to be contacted in the middle of the night my phone needs to work (so airplane mode isn't an option). However, what I would like are notification profiles (which I would assume are similar to network profiles in principle, if not in function). I'd like the phone to automatically go into vibrate during a meeting, stop vibration/sound notification for e-mails at 'night,' and change the volume during 'game.'
GProfile
I used to use GProfile when I was using my Fuze with WM 6.5.X and it was great. Still waiting for something like this for WP7.
I suppose the fourth option is to put it on charge? That's what I do but, yeah alright, that doesn't conserve the battery.
The ideal situation would be to allow us to custom define our own profiles and to also differentiate between system (ringtone/notifications) and application (music/games) sound.
Unfortunately, my job dictates that I be on call 24-hrs a day if any of my staff/system crashes need me. So I have to actually turn up the ringer to full every night to assure it wakes me up... ugh...
(no, not in IT)
Hello all. I just decided to retire my Vibrant yesterday and got an S3. I haven't changed much on it. I'll run it stock for quite a while. I am using a custom launcher, etc.
My battery life is horrible though! It's not even noon and I'm already down to 35%. I've made sure S Voice is not set to wake up when I talk to it. My weather was set to update every 15 minutes by default, but I've changed it to every hour. I charged it in the van on the way to take kiddos to school, and it was at 80ish percent. So that's quite a drop in not a long time. Granted, it's new, so I'm playing with it.
What tips can you give me to get the best battery life I can out of it? Besides custom ROMs. I'm not even rooted. Yet.
Well how long has your screen been on? That will be the determining factor in your battery life. Like you said, it is new and you are playing with it so I am willing to bet that probably has something to do with it.
Otherwise, turn data off when you aren't using it and keep the screen brightness as low as possible.
Here's what I do with a freshly flashed rom. I pretty much drill down through every setting turning off what I dont need.
WiFi - turn off network notification.
More Settings - Everything off
Sound - turn off everything below "System"
Display - Auto brightness off. Timeout 1min. Smart Stay off. Touch key always on or off. Auto Adj Screen Tone off. Battery% on.
Power Saving - Off.
Accounts and Sync - Off
Location Svcs - Off
Language and Input - Voice Cmd off. Voice Recognizer (all off for google and Samsung). Voice Search all off. TTS driving mode off.
Backup and Reset - can't remember what its listed under but below carrier data press to open and uncheck collect data (this is carrier iq, so I removed it asap once rooted)
Accessory - all off
Developer Options - set animation scales to 0.5x.
Hope that helps. I keep a lot off and only turn stuff on when I need it. There's some pretty cool features but for me it doesn't hurt my experiance with the phone to not use a lot of them.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
joshnichols189 said:
Well how long has your screen been on? That will be the determining factor in your battery life. Like you said, it is new and you are playing with it so I am willing to bet that probably has something to do with it.
Otherwise, turn data off when you aren't using it and keep the screen brightness as low as possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah. My screen was set to stay on for 10 minutes. That, I would imagine, was a large part of my problem. At least according to my battery stats. Why do they set that as default??
My screen brightness is now set to low. What is this with the data? Doesn't that mean I would not receive email, google talk messages, etc?
DocHoliday77 said:
Here's what I do with a freshly flashed rom. I pretty much drill down through every setting turning off what I dont need.
WiFi - turn off network notification.
More Settings - Everything off
Sound - turn off everything below "System"
Display - Auto brightness off. Timeout 1min. Smart Stay off. Touch key always on or off. Auto Adj Screen Tone off. Battery% on.
Power Saving - Off.
Accounts and Sync - Off
Location Svcs - Off
Language and Input - Voice Cmd off. Voice Recognizer (all off for google and Samsung). Voice Search all off. TTS driving mode off.
Backup and Reset - can't remember what its listed under but below carrier data press to open and uncheck collect data (this is carrier iq, so I removed it asap once rooted)
Accessory - all off
Developer Options - set animation scales to 0.5x.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just did almost all of these. With the WiFi detection off, will I need to manually find my home network each time I get back home?
Also, if I turn Voice Command off, I won't be able to push the button and say "Listen to blah blah blah" or "Navigate to ....." correct?
The_MamaBee said:
Ah. My screen was set to stay on for 10 minutes. That, I would imagine, was a large part of my problem. At least according to my battery stats. Why do they set that as default??
My screen brightness is now set to low. What is this with the data? Doesn't that mean I would not receive email, google talk messages, etc?
I just did almost all of these. With the WiFi detection off, will I need to manually find my home network each time I get back home?
Also, if I turn Voice Command off, I won't be able to push the button and say "Listen to blah blah blah" or "Navigate to ....." correct?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am on CM10 so I am not sure where it is for stock Touchwiz, but I would assume you could go to settings > display > screen timeout and change it there.
Yes, turning off data would mean no push email or Google Talk messages. You could download an app that turns off your data when you turn the screen off, then on when you turn the screen on and your emails and messages would come through then.
joshnichols189 said:
I am on CM10 so I am not sure where it is for stock Touchwiz, but I would assume you could go to settings > display > screen timeout and change it there.
Yes, turning off data would mean no push email or Google Talk messages. You could download an app that turns off your data when you turn the screen off, then on when you turn the screen on and your emails and messages would come through then.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Aah. Okay. Thank you! Yes, I fixed the screen timeout.
The_MamaBee said:
I just did almost all of these. With the WiFi detection off, will I need to manually find my home network each time I get back home?
Also, if I turn Voice Command off, I won't be able to push the button and say "Listen to blah blah blah" or "Navigate to ....." correct?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I should have also mentioned I turn off wifi and data when I don't need it to, which is rare but it happens at times!
By turning off the wifi notification, the only change is it won't give you a notification in status bar that there's an open network nearby that you could connect to. Itll still auto connect to any network you've already got configured.
For voice cmd, it won't let svoice open apps for you. But for example in navigation you can still hit the mic button on keyboard and speak your destination.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
Can you upload a Screenshot of your battery screen... It will make it a lot easier to look at
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
On the Wifi issue. What I do with regards to wifi, is if I know that I am not going to be near an open connection, I turn it off. When I am at work, there is no wifi nearby that I can connect to. So I use Mobile Data instead. Why you ask? It is because when you have your wifi on, in the back ground it is always scanning for a signal. Turn that off and no scan, then no drain for something that you are not using at moment.
I know that this is a bit deeper than you wanted to go, but in the Build.Prop you can put a setting [wifi.supplicant_scan_interval=] and you can set that out. The time in there is the time duration on scanning intervals based on seconds. So the setting wifi.supplicant_scan_interval=180 means that it scans for wifi and doesn't find one, then counts off 180seconds and scans again.<--This is what I have mine set too, btw.
Disable the wifi when your not using it.
Hey everyone! I just got an XZ1C myself a few days ago, and I'd like to share a few of the little quality of life changes I personally use to make the everyday experience with this phone more to how I like it. I figured maybe everyone could contribute a few ideas here and there to help other users deal with things they might be frustrated with, but not know a solution for.
A couple of notes - I gave up the root life a while ago, so all of these solutions are non-root! Also, some of these apps are paid apps (though they might have lite or free versions). Sorry! But as a software developer myself, I have the obligation to pay it forward when I find a nice app.
So here goes!
Making the volume keys default to Media Volume:
Having owned a Samsung phone before, this is one of the things I miss most in almost any other Android phone. But, as they say, there's an app for that! There's a very simple app called Media Volume Only (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=catchpower.gogo.mediavolumeonly&hl=en), which binds your volume keys to Media by default. It asks for Call permissions to see if you're in a call, where it will then bind the volume keys to call volume. Otherwise, it will always be Media, which is great!
However, that means there isn't a super easy way to changing your ring volume, unless you first press the volume key to bring up the sliders and hitting the down arrow to show the rest of the sliders....which brought me to:
Re-adding the missing Ring/Vibrate Mode switch to quick switches:
I am using Central Europe .374 + US oem file to get Fingerprint+VoLTE on T-mobile; I'm not sure if it's because of the CE1 region or whatever else, but I couldn't find any button in the quick settings that would just toggle the phone to ring mode, vibrate mode or silent.
To remedy this, I use Shortcutter (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.leedroid.shortcutter&hl=en). This allows you to enable a ton of different switches in the quick settings dropdown, though some of them may not work properly without root and only with other phones. After installing Shortcutter, swipe over to the "Pull-Down" tab, then hit "System Setting Tiles". In this list, scroll down and you'll find "Ring Mode". Turning this switch on will put the Ring Mode icon into the box of icons you can edit your quick settings with. Finally, pull down your quick settings, click the pencil icon to modify the quick settings and scroll down to find Ring Mode.
This way, it's easy to switch the phone to silent before going into a movie, or a meeting at work.
Fixing the crazy stock backlight control:
The stock backlight is a little crazy right now. It jumps around when the room is dark and it does not transition smoothly. A great app for controlling backlight is Lux (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vito.lux&hl=en). It even allows you to keep different profiles and define exactly how bright you want the screen to be in any lighting situation, and it will keep a map of your selections for you! You can control all sorts of variables, like how quickly it will transition, if it should only transition given what % of lighting change, so on and so forth. It's really very powerful and useful. I haven't had any trouble with the XZ1C display since installing Lux, which I've used on previous phones as well. Highly recommend this one! There's a free version called Lux Lite (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vitocassisi.luxlite&hl=en), but I've never tried it so YMMV.
Alternative for No Double Tap to Wake (or not having Ambient Display):
This is another one I have almost always used on phones that aren't Nexii/Pixel or Motorola. Gravity Screen (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.plexnor.gravityscreenofffree&hl=en) gives you a ton of different ways to automatically wake up the phone to the lockscreen. I find that using ONLY the Proximity Sensor setting to turn ON the screen (and turning everything else off) has negligible effect on the battery, and maintains extreme usefulness. With just that setting, when my phone is on the desk I can poke the phone where the proximity sensor is (as if I one-tap it) and it will wake up. If I take the phone out of my pocket, the phone turns on and is already waiting for me by the time I look at it. Super convenient!
UPDATE: Another user (quack3d) mentioned the app WaveUp(https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jarsilio.android.waveup) which does exactly how I have Gravity Screen set up. If you want just that, this seems to be a great and simpler alternative! Thanks!
If you want more options, it has all sorts of other things like turn on by motion, etc. etc....I personally don't use those though, so I can't vouch for how well they work.
Double Tap to Sleep
I'm pretty sure you have to pay for this one, but Nova Launcher Prime (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teslacoilsw.launcher.prime&hl=en) is an incredible launcher, and it allows you to specify custom gestures on the desktop. The gestures can trigger all sorts of things, one of which is Screen Lock. If you select the Time-Out method of locking the screen, it will work with fingerprint unlocking.
Custom Auto-Rotation Switching:
Normally, I don't like auto-rotation. I use my phone a lot in bed (lying sideways), but I still want to use it in portrait. So, I prefer to have my phone default to NO auto-rotation. That being said, it's annoying when you pull up a funny gif or the photo album or youtube and you want to just flip your phone over to watch a video. Sure, you can drag down the quicksettings and flip that switch, but there's a better way! That's where Automate (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.llamalab.automate&hl=en) comes in! Automate allows you to program your phone to do just about anything (especially if you have root) based on custom triggers.
In Automate, if first select "More flows..." and search for a script called "Auto Enable Rotation" by the author Anthony Beaumont. Once you download this script and run it, it will present you with 2 options, either to "start" the script service, or to "modify" the list of apps. You'll want to "modify" the list of apps and start a new one. To this, you can add apps such as Album, Youtube, Twitch and whatever else you want to watch in landscape mode. Finally, once that's done, stop the script and start it again, but this time select "start". (You can also select in the 3 dot menu to have this script run at start-up. Highly recommended!) Now, when you open Album/Youtube/Twitch etc. the phone should automatically flip to auto-rotation.
Enter all your app and website passwords automatically with fingerprint:
For better or for worse, I keep all of my online passwords saved in Lastpass. It turns out that once you have an account and saved passwords, Lastpass has an incredible app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lastpass.lpandroid&hl=en) that can pop up over Chrome and just about any other app on your phone that can fill in the username/password fields for you using your fingerprint! It doesn't work for all the different browsers out there (I just use Chrome), and there may have been a pay wall for the in-app password filling, I forgot (sorry!). That said, it's super convenient to head to any site and just tap the fingerprint to log in.
Additionally, if you're a Lastpass user already, they also have a Lastpass Authenticator (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lastpass.authenticator&hl=en) that works in place of the Google Authenticator (you can add Google Authenticator 2factor sites to the LastPass one), which is IMHO superior because the keys are linked to your account rather than to the physical phone. Also, if you have LP Authenticator + the Chrome addon on your PC/Mac, on some sites you don't even have to enter the Authenticator number, you can just press "approve" on your phone to get into the website on your PC. Awesome!
Send links from your PC to phone or phone to PC
Ever read something on your PC and wish you could link it to your phone super quickly and not have to go through emailing it to yourself? I use Pushbullet (Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pushbullet.android&hl=en PC: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pushbullet/chlffgpmiacpedhhbkiomidkjlcfhogd?hl=en), which allows you to directly link webpages from PC to phone and vice versa. Additionally, if you give it the permissions, it can hook up your phone's notifications to your Windows notifications (not sure about mac), including allowing you to read and send SMS from your PC. I believe it also has file transfer capabilities, but I don't use it.
I think that's it for now...I'll add more when I think of them. These are just a few of the mods I run which makes using the phone more effortless and enjoyable; please, feel free to add more and I'll add them to the list if there's something you want to share! Hope this helps someone out there!:highfive:
maidguitar said:
Re-adding the missing Ring/Vibrate Mode switch to quick switches:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alternative implementation that I use: Add a toggle on the home screen to quickly switch between Ring/Vibrate/Silent modes
First install Media-Mute [free & ad-free]. What this app does is automatically mute the media volume whenever the ringer volume is also muted, which applies to both Vibrate mode and Silent mode.
For some reason, since Android 4.x Google has decided that Silent mode should only apply to the ringer, instead of silencing everything that can make sounds out of the speaker. Media-Mute fixes that.
Next, install Silent Mode Toggle [free & ad-free], then add the widget on the home screen. Switching modes is now super easy, just tap on the toggle.
What I really appreciate about this app is that it allows customization to the toggle order. For example, I never use the vibrate mode, so I can set it to toggle between Ringer > Silent only.
As a bonus, it also lets you use your own custom icons for the toggle, super cool and makes it possible to perfectly complement your home screen layout.
Hide the annoying "running in the background" notification that comes with Android 8.0
With Android 8.0 Oreo, Google thought it would be a great idea to permanently remind you of any background processing currently running in the form of an impossible to dismiss notification.
While the intention was well meaning, the execution leaves a lot to be desired.
Thankfully, there's an app for that! Just install this cleverly named app Hide "running in the background" Notification [free & ad-free], problem solved!
Vibrate phone when call connects, ends
Yet another app to the rescue! VibCall [free & ad-free] brings this useful feature found on some OEM phones to any compatible Android device.
Basically, your phone will vibrate once to let you know that a call has connected, and twice when a call has ended. It's something that once you've used, you wonder why it's not baked into the Android system as a default option.
Add a fingerprint (Smart Lock) compatible screen lock toggle on the home screen
So Sony has unilaterally decided to remove double tap to sleep feature with no sign of bring it back. But I still want to turn off the screen and lock the device by tapping on the screen instead of waiting for the system to hibernate or hitting the power button.
The OP listed a paid solution which brings back double tap to sleep, but for those looking for a free alternative, this is the solution I'm currently using - Smart Screen Lock Pro [free & ad-free].
It's not a double tap anywhere convenience, but a toggle that is better than nothing, and most importantly it's compatible with fingerprint unlock. I've tried numerous screen off apps in the Play store, and this is the only one that I was satisfied with.
IMPORTANT: Take the time to carefully read and follow setup instructions, it's necessary for it to work properly due to OS restrictions. Once it's setup correctly, simply add a shortcut on the home screen and tap it to lock.
It's worth mentioning that it's not a true "instant" screen off and lock, but without root this is probably the best solution we'll get.
Non-root ad blocking
Ads are a necessary evil for the current economics of the Internet, but aside from the annoyance factor, they eat up precious mobile data, plus there's also very real security risks with ad networks, potentially hogging your phone's resources and draining the battery.
Whatever the argument, if you do decide to block ads, there are quite a lot of ad blockers to choose from.
Personally, I use dns66 [free & ad-free]. In my experience, it's very lightweight, and I haven't seen any ads in my browser or apps.
It does have its quirks though, sometimes downloads fail, such as OTA update or file in browser, for one reason or another (the author says it's a bug with the Android OS itself, see linked post).
But it's easy to workaround, just temporarily disable dns66 by tapping pause on the notification, and download again. After download has completed, tap the notification again to resume.
By the way, this is also the main reason I installed the hide background notification app.
On android devices it was always possible to switch localisation services and GPS separately.
You could keep localisation services turned on (with wifi and phone) and turn off GPS to spare battery.
Now with android pie and new smasung settings it is all or nothing as there is onlys one setting :
I can turn on localisation and it turns on GPS
But if you turn it off, it disables everykind of localisation : GPS but also wiifi ...
Has anyone noticed this and is there a workaround ?
I'm not a fan of the always enabled GPS
I really do not like this at all. I have typically always kept GPS off as far back as Jellybean, favoring Locations battery saving mode, unless I needed navigation or something like that. GPS is power hungry and there's no reason to have to have it always enabled. I know Pie is supposed to help with battery usage and I honestly can't judge whether or not it really does yet as this is day two for me.
Pie is supposed to prevent apps from accessing sensors in the background but I've read that this doesn't apply to GPS so this whole thing is probably part of a marketing thing giving Google as well as app devs the ability to monetize ads based on specific location of us the users. Location is frequently wrong about where I am anyway, showing me a street over and even though I have WiFi and Bluetooth scanning enabled. As a result, my Safe Unlock no longer works when I'm home (only location I have enabled) which sucks. With Oreo I saw this somewhat often and only after I had been home for a while would the Safe Unlock work properly and I accepted this as a consequence of having Location in battery saving mode but now I'm not sure. I just no that with Pie, so far, Safe Unlock hasn't functioned once. My designated home WiFi that I'm on as I type should cause Safe Unlock to do it's thing but it's not. Maybe Location or Safe Unlock are broken. I have seen reports of both regarding Pie so I can't blame it in Samsung. I guess I'll have to try to figure out which of these features is broken.
I'm not sure if this is related to the Location issue but I also noticed that Samsung+ is not working for me. When I first tried to open it I got a notification that I need to have location enabled, I agreed (it was anyway), then I was shown a red screen with error or format codes that force closed faster than I could decipher it. This could be related or could have been broken in an update. Other than for ad purposes, and I don't recall seeing any other than Samsung ads in the Samsung app, I don't know why Samsung+ needs to access location services as it only works in the US and the network tells the app I'm in the US as well as the tower I'm accessing. I suppose it's another attempt to collect user info related to WiFi, Mac address and Bluetooth. I only got the "enable location" request the first couple of times I tried opening the app but the red error screen and FC both still occur. I tried to get a screenshot but I could only manage about half of the screen before it FC'd. I attached the partial pic. It's the bottom half of the screen. When it closes, the app window seems to slide up like when you close apps in the recents view. This brings up another complaint...Screenshot is slow to respond so events like this are next to impossible to capture. I'll have to get a camera out and try.
dronarg said:
On android devices it was always possible to switch localisation services and GPS separately.
You could keep localisation services turned on (with wifi and phone) and turn off GPS to spare battery.
Now with android pie and new smasung settings it is all or nothing as there is onlys one setting :
I can turn on localisation and it turns on GPS
But if you turn it off, it disables everykind of localisation : GPS but also wiifi ...
Has anyone noticed this and is there a workaround ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I noticed this. I use 'Tasker' app as a workaround. I set Location Mode to High Accuracy when using Navigation apps, and set to Battery Saving after closing the Navigation app. You can also just create a widget on home screen to toggle Location Mode to High Accuracy or Battery Saving.
I confirmed this setting by using 'Power Toggles' app widget. When the GPS toggle in widget is highlighted, it means on High Accuracy mode, if not highlighted it's on Battery Saving mode.
dronarg said:
On android devices it was always possible to switch localisation services and GPS separately.
You could keep localisation services turned on (with wifi and phone) and turn off GPS to spare battery.
Now with android pie and new smasung settings it is all or nothing as there is onlys one setting :
I can turn on localisation and it turns on GPS
But if you turn it off, it disables everykind of localisation : GPS but also wiifi ...
Has anyone noticed this and is there a workaround ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have yet to notice any adverse battery performance since I've been on pie and I've been on it since the start of the official betas. I was annoyed at first because I had always used battery save mode but really it's been a non issue for me.