Most Android phones have a Google search bar somewhere on their home screen. But did you know you can replace this with a different widget that actually functions as the address bar in your Chrome browser? To try it out, just long-press any empty space on your home screen and ...more
Phones are getting bigger and taller, so it's increasingly harder to reach the notification tray. But Samsung is here to the rescue, as they've introduced into One UI for Galaxy devices a gesture that makes it easy to access the notification drawer on your home screen. On you ...more
If you've ever tinkered with a phone, you're familiar with booting into recovery mode. You're probably used to using a combination of hardware buttons to get into recovery, which usually includes the power button and one of the volume buttons. The thing is, you don't really ne ...more
Picture it: you wake up in the middle of the night and check your phone. Maybe you want to check the time (your phone is your alarm clock, after all) or see if that person ever replied to your message. You double-tap or lift to wake it, and the screen lights up. You flinch at ...more
One of the Pixel 4's coolest features is a new voice recording app that instantly transcribes speech into text so you can easily search for it later. This is currently a Pixel exclusive, but we're here to present it to you on a silver platter. First, it's worth noting that if ...more
If you want to root, it's step one. If you're a tinkerer, it's vital. It's Android's hidden "Developer options" menu, and it's definitely worth taking 30 seconds to unlock. Open the Settings app on your Pixel 4 or 4 XL and scroll down to the bottom. Tap "About phone," then sc ...more
Gone are the days of needing a specialized app or program to unzip files. In fact, you don't even need a computer. It's 2019 — cars drive themselves, robots take fast food orders, and you can unzip compressed files right on your iPhone. So, what hidden, complicated series of ...more
QR codes are supposed to make life easier, but having to install potentially shady third-party apps just to scan one is more trouble than it's worth. Thankfully, there's a QR code reader built into all Google Pixels, but you wouldn't know it unless you stumbled across the feat ...more
Android is moving away from navigation buttons. Even with the transparent navigation bar on the Galaxy Note 10+, it still takes up space on the screen that could otherwise be used to show content. What's great about the Galaxy Note 10+ is that you can remove it, without instal ...more
Most of us have had a cloud-connected address book for years now. The result of this is an ever-growing contact list that will continue to get harder to navigate and manage. With the increased size of our contact lists, it becomes more important to sort contacts in a way that ...more
Your phone is loaded with contacts you've collected over the years. They're an asset, and you should use your library of connections outside the confines of your mobile device. Luckily, your Pixel uses a standardized medium to store contacts that can be used by the likes of Li ...more
I want my Android device to run how I want, and I want it to be useful and positively contribute to my life. Recently, animations have started appearing on the Pixel's search bar when Google has a seasonal Doodle on their front page. It attracts my attention and distracts me f ...more
Lots of people sleep with their phone close by. When closing our eyes, our phones are often the last thing we see. But with help from Google's Wind Down Mode, we can have an easier transition into our sleepy time. Wind Down Mode gives visual cues that it's time to start prepa ...more
iPhones aren't immune to occasional bugs. But starting with the iPhone X, performing a reboot to fix minor issues has gotten a little more tedious. Thankfully, iOS 13 has a hidden option that makes the process a whole lot simpler. The old ways to restart a "notched" iPhone re ...more
If you rely on WhatsApp as your messaging go-to, you're probably all too familiar with the default background in chats. While its distinctive look definitely sets it apart from other messaging apps, you're free to swap it out for something more appealing. To do so, open Whats ...more
Who needs a pen when you've got an iPhone? If you have a form, agreement, or contract that you need to quickly sign, you do it directly from iOS without the use of a third-party app. Using Markup, which is available in several native Apple apps, you can sign and send important ...more
Chrome has just introduced some new UI elements for web exploration. The new URL bar is not intuitive. But once you get to grips with it, you will be so much more efficient in your address bar editing, pasting, and navigation. I troubleshoot phone software for a living, but I ...more
The Pixel's "Flip to Shhh" feature may not be groundbreaking, but it is useful. Third-party apps are copying it for other phones because it's so convenient. But it's not enabled by default and it's fairly hidden in the settings. So to take full advantage of your Pixel's featur ...more
A few things on Android and iPhone have not been perfected. For instance, selecting and copying text is a task I often find myself fumbling over. But recently, we stumbled across a nifty way to select text that's a huge improvement over how we've been doing it. To best explai ...more
Sharing pictures from Google Photos by sending a link saves time because you don't have to download the image from Google, then reupload it somewhere else. But anyone who has your link can access your pictures, and baked into every file is metadata that you may not want prying ...more
Most of us swipe on Tinder while on the go. With all the pictures, Tinder on Android and iOS uses a decent amount of data. If you know the pain of Tinder triggering overage fees, limit the data-hungry app. There's a little trick you can use to help keep your swiping up and you ...more
Android 10 lets you personalize your device by adding a profile picture to your lock screen. Not only will it add your picture or avatar to your lock screen, but it will also add it to the Quick Settings menu. It's a nice touch of customization that makes your device feel like ...more
Apps can collect a lot of data. Even if they don't have permission to access your GPS or camera, they can still read other sensors and learn a lot more than you'd think. Your gyroscope could be used as a keylogger. The light sensor could read your visited links. But if you're ...more
I'm a notification minimalist. When I get alerts, I want to deal with them ASAP. If the time is not right and I want to reference the notification later, snoozing was always the best course of action. But in Android 10, Google tucked away snoozing, so here's how to get it back ...more
Ever tried using Android's split screen mode only to find the app you wanted to split doesn't support it? Even big-name apps like ESPN still don't support the feature despite the majority of Android devices having split screen. So instead of waiting for the developers, how abo ...more
Microsoft is quickly adding dark mode to its full line of apps. Microsoft To Do is the latest to receive this treatment, and it looks great. Now you can tick items off your to-do list without straining your eyes or draining extra battery life. Some major apps still don't have ...more
Facebook Messenger Lite is an official, de-bloated version of Facebook Messenger for Android. It's snappier and it's a lot more battery-friendly, but this is because there are fewer features complicating everything. One feature they didn't leave out, however, is the ability to ...more
Galley Go is a new lightweight app made by Google that provides a simpler alternative to Google Photos. While it's a lighter app, it still includes dark mode. You just have to turn it on to help boost battery life and save your eyes at night. Google Go has a toggle unlike the ...more
Editing photos on a phone, while not as good as editing on a desktop, is getting better and better with powerful tools to whip photos into shape. But sometimes you just want a simple edit, like making a color photo black and white. Instead of downloading a separate app to fine ...more
Lots of Google apps are getting dark mode. Google Drive has had it on Android 10 for a few months. But it hasn't been accessible to all Android users until now. With the latest update, there's a manual dark mode switch you can turn on regardless of what OS version you have. D ...more
When it comes to filters, Snapchat is no slouch. The chat app's array of effects rivals even the fiercest competition from filter masters like Instagram. Now, the company has a new trick up its sleeve that adds depth to your selfies (and even more new filters), and that featur ...more
As with our desktop browser, our phones often have multiple tabs open at the same time. But phones don't have each tab listed horizontally across the top, so to switch between them, you need to go to the tab switcher page and then find the link you wish to reopen. Well, if you ...more
So you're typing a fairly long sentence to a friend in WhatsApp and you realize five words down you forgot to capitalize their name, what do you do? The lazy way is to delete your way back to the last word. The slightly better approach is to delete the one letter and retype it ...more
Chrome's Incognito Mode gives you a layer of privacy when browsing. While it's enabled, your browsing history, cookies, site data, and information entered in forms is not saved, making it perfect for, cough, more private web usage. With an Android smartphone, you can jump righ ...more
You may note be able to root your Snapdragon-powered Note 10, but thanks to the hidden Developer Options, you can still tweak low-level settings like custom codecs for better audio quality on Bluetooth headphones and faster animations to enhance your experience. Best of all, y ...more
The Galaxy Note 10 is a radical departure from what Samsung has traditionally done with past releases. The most noticeable change is the fact that there are four distinct variants. But Samsung also turned the power button on the Note 10 into a Bixby key, which means powering t ...more
If you have a Chromecast or Android TV, you can mirror your phone's display to the big screen. It's helpful for showing off something you found interesting without having to pass your phone around the living room, but the actual process of casting your screen is a bit clunky. ...more
With Android 10 "Q" right around the corner, now would be a great time to get accustomed to the new system-wide dark mode it's bringing with it. Dark themes not only allow for more comfortable viewing at night, but can also consume less battery at the same time. With a single ...more
Ratings and reviews apply everywhere, from a restaurant you want to try to a new camera you're thinking of buying and games you might want to play. Podcasts are no different. Reading reviews of shows can help determine which are worth listening to, and your opinion is valuable ...more
While smartphones are increasing their built-in storage every year, they're also giving you more features that consume all that extra space quickly, like when you shoot 4K videos. So while you may have a load of gigabytes for all your music, it may get eaten up quickly by apps ...more
Samsung may have beaten Apple to the punch in introducing a system-wide dark theme with One UI, but they left out the ability to schedule night mode to kick in automatically. It's nothing that a little update can't fix, however, and that's exactly what Samsung just did to reme ...more
With both iOS 13 and Android 10 around the corner, system-wide dark mode is moments away from hitting your phone. In preparation, many developers have been adding a dark mode to their apps, including the official Reddit app. Reddit has one of the more robust dark modes out th ...more
Some may find it annoying to get YouTube notifications randomly throughout the day. Every time a YouTube channel uploads a video, every time someone replies to your comments. But at the same time, you don't want to turn off those notifications so you don't miss out. Well thank ...more
Did you know that the YouTube app can tell you how much time you've spent watching videos? If you're like me, you'll be surprised to know exactly how much of your life is spent inside the popular app. You can get a specific breakdown of how much you YouTube you consume. The a ...more
With iOS 13 and Android 10 adding built-in dark modes, app developers are working tirelessly to make their apps match the rest of your phone. Several are ahead of the curve, such as IMDb, who already offers a dark theme in their app. However, unlike other apps, the default th ...more
You can forward your Skype audio calls to your cellphone or landline. This way, you'll still receive calls when you have no Wi-Fi, and you don't have to worry about always being logged into Skype. If you've ever missed a Skype voice call because you weren't on Wi-Fi or becaus ...more
Popular chat apps like Messenger allow us to communicate with friends and family across iOS and Android phones alike. However, that interconnectivity doesn't mean both apps are the same. While Facebook has made strides to close gaps between these two platforms, chat heads rema ...more
We're excited about iOS 13 and its many shiny new features. System-wide Dark Mode, new Messages options, and so much more awaits iPhone users. But if you don't have an iPhone or don't want to update to iOS 13, you can still get its new wallpapers on your device for some Apple- ...more
If you have a modern iPhone, you have an excellent video recorder at your disposal. Every iPhone since the 6S has the ability to shoot in 4K resolution, and each new iteration has brought new capabilities to the table. But even the best mobile shooter can use a little extra he ...more
Thanks to its encrypted messaging, WhatsApp can be a platform for secure communication with friends and family. One drawback, however, is that the app would let anyone add you to a group chat, regardless of if you approved it or not. This lack of control over your own account ...more
Back in 2015, Amazon Prime Video was the first subscription-based streaming service to introduce the ability to download movies and TV shows for offline viewing on mobile devices. For travelers and users with limited data plans that like to watch films and episodes on the go, ...more
After years of user complaints, Samsung is finally letting us remap the Bixby button without the need of a third-party app. The new feature requires One UI a simple app update to Bixby, but there's one major downside: Samsung won't let you remap the button to open other digita ...more
On the surface, Instagram is pretty intuitive, so you might think that you already know everything there is to know about using it on your iPhone or Android phone. But this photo and video-sharing app is constantly adding new features, some of which don't make the press releas ...more
Instagram has extensive tools built in for creating and editing posts and Stories, but there could always be more. Third-party apps can help you add photo and video effects for even more visually stimulating content, as well as create announcements, text-based images, and ever ...more
While we wait patiently for a system-wide dark theme, Google has provided us with the next best thing. The majority of Google-developed apps now have a dark mode, so you can piecemeal the feature together yourself. Google Play Games is a hub for almost all Android games. With ...more
Keeping track of your physical activities can be difficult, especially if you have a hectic lifestyle with responsibilities to constantly stay on top of. Thankfully, Samsung Health is there to help you log your workout routines, leaving you with one less thing to keep track of ...more
Cinemark may not be as big as AMC Theatres, but it also has a subscription if you want cheaper access to movie tickets. There aren't as many theaters, but if there's no AMC around you, there will likely be a Cinemark to save the day. But is the price of its Movie Club plan wor ...more
Samsung's Android Pie update — known as One UI — is bringing major changes to the Galaxy S8, Galaxy S9, and Galaxy Note 9. The main interface has received a visual overhaul, and this is no more evident than it is with notifications. The biggest changes are with the notificati ...more
Thanks to Samsung's One UI, we can now experience firsthand what Android 9.0 Pie has to offer flagship Galaxy devices like the Note 9, S9, and S8. Perhaps one of the best features is something we've all been clamoring for: a system-wide dark theme that gives numerous apps and ...more
Though not as popular as Super Mario or Zelda, Konami's Contra nevertheless remains as one of the greatest titles that helped put Nintendo on the map. This retro shooter is set to make a comeback, and has been soft-launched in select Asian countries ahead of a worldwide releas ...more