What's hiding in Android 4.4?
Android
4.4 is the most polished and feature-rich iteration of Google's mobile
OS yet, and comes with plenty of new and exciting functions to keep fans
happy. However, not all of them are immediately obvious from the start.
Allow
us to educate you on some of the most interesting and useful tips,
tricks and secrets hiding in the software. Grab yourself a hot beverage,
find a comfortable seat and prepare to taste the future of smartphone
software.
18) Fire up Google Now with just your voice
It's
possible to activate Google Now - Android's answer to Siri - simply by
saying "OK Google". When you're on the home screen, simply utter those
two words and you'll be prompted to speak your next command, which can
be anything from asking for Google to search the web to setting an alarm
for a particular time. Just be wary of any annoying friends shouting
the same phrase when you're trying to do other things on your phone.
17) Switch on Developer Mode
Developer
mode used to be a part of Android's settings menu that was easily
accessible, but recently Google has hidden it away to prevent users from
tinkering too much. However, it's still fairly easy to discover if you
know what you're doing - go to Settings > About Phone and then tap
the "Build Number" section seven times. This will unlock the developer
menu, allowing you to access a whole number of nerdy features.
16) Taste the next generation with ART runtime
Android
uses Dalvik runtime by default, which is described as a "just in time"
compiler. That means it does all of the application processing as and
when it's required. Moving forward, Google is looking to use ART
runtime, which is a "ahead of time" compiler. ART is actually featured
in Android 4.4 already, but it's not enabled by default - you'll need to enter the Developer menu to switch it on.
Your
handset will reboot and it will take a short time to recompile your
apps - you may even notice some stability issues - but on the whole, ART
should be quicker and friendly on your battery. As more apps are
optimised to use ART, you'll find it more beneficial to use.
15) Use Wi-Fi to determine your location to save battery
Previously
with Android, determining your location was based almost solely on GPS,
which consumes a fair amount of battery life. Android 4.4 now comes
with three modes for this functionality.
High accuracy uses GPS,
Wi-Fi and mobile network signal to get a fix on where you are, while
Device Only relies totally on GPS. In the middle there is Battery Saving
mode, which abandons GPS and uses Wi-Fi and your mobile network -
amazingly, this is still pretty precise, and doesn't drink as much
juice. Go to Settings > Location > Mode to pick the one that suits
you.
14) Keep track of your movements each day
Another
cool Android 4.4 feature is the power to track the steps you take each
day, as well as differentiate between walking, running, cycling and
climbing. This ability hasn't been leveraged as much as you might
expect, and only a few apps make use of it right now.
One is the
highly polished Moves app from ProtoGeo, which tracks your movements and
gives you data on how many steps you've taken, as well as a visual
"storyline" of your daily life.
13) Exit immersive mode
One
of the new features of Android 4.4 is the "immersive" mode, which
basically removes all of the on-screen interface to give you an
unimpeded view on your current application. Apps that support immersive
mode should automatically remove UI elements, but if you want to get
them back, simply swipe down from the top of the display - the
notifications bar will magically re-appear.
12) Install an alternative SMS client
Hangouts
replaces the default SMS client in Android 4.4, and while it does the
job perfectly well - integrating instant messaging and text chats - some
people will no doubt long for the old way of doing things.
Thankfully,
it's possible to specify a different app for SMS messages. Find one
that you like on the Google Play market, install it and then go to the
Settings menu within Hangouts. Tap SMS and then SMS Enabled, and you'll
be able to select the app you want to use.
11) Record your phone's screen
Taking
a screenshot in Android used to be like pulling teeth - you had to
connect your phone to your PC in order to grab any kind of on-screen
image. Since Android 4.0, we've had the trusty "Volume down and Power
button" combo, but 4.4 goes to the next level - it features the ability
to record video from your screen as well.
As it is primarily
aimed at developers who want to add video to their app listings, taking
advantage of this native feature is quite tricky - you'll need to follow
these incredibly detailed instructions - but it's a smart bonus nonetheless.
10) Remotely wipe your phone if you lose it
Losing
your phone is a painful experience - especially if it provides your
daily Flappy Bird fix - but the amount of data contained on our handsets
means that having it fall into the wrong hands can have all kinds of
negative ramifications.
Google has your back, however, and
provides the means to remotely locate and wipe your phone should it go
walkabout. You'll need to enable it from the device before you lose it,
though - go to the Google Settings application in your app drawer and
select Android Device Manager, then turn on "Remotely Locate This
Device" and "Allow Remote Lock And Factory Reset".
The latter
option also allows you to remotely change the lockscreen password,
should you be too scared to wipe the entire device. In the event of your
phone going missing, visit the
Android Device Manager page online and you can choose to ring (even if the phone is set to silent), lock or wipe the phone.
9) Get the stock Google UI on your non-Nexus handset
Don't
have a Nexus device but crave that uncluttered stock experience? Fear
not, you don't have to rush out and invest in a brand new blower - you
can get the same result by installing KK Launcher from the Google Play
market.
Alternatively, you can download the APK file of the
Google Experience interface yourself. It’s available from Android
Police. Before you install, make sure third-party apps are switched on
in the Settings menu. Android blocks third-party installs as standard.
8) Switch launchers quickly
One
of Android's big advantages over its rivals is the ability to change
your launcher, which essentially means you can drastically alter the way
your homescreen looks and behaves.
Previously, switching
between launchers was something of a pain, but Google has now added a
quick and easy toggle in the settings menu - so now there's no excuse
not to try the many amazing launcher alternatives available on the
Google Play market.
When you have more than one launcher
installed on your phone, the Settings menu will show a new "Home" option
- tapping this will bring up all of the available launchers on your
device, allowing you to toggle between them quickly and easily.
7) Enable lock screen widgets
Lockscreen
widgets are one of Android's more recent innovations, but in Android
4.4 they're not enabled by default. To turn them on, you'll need to drop
into Settings > Security and tick the "Enable Widgets" box. To add
widgets, simply swipe from left to right on your lockscreen and tap the
"plus" icon. You can choose from Gmail, Calendar and Google Keep,
amongst other things.
6) Print wirelessly
Regardless
of how much we now rely on paperless documents, there comes a time in
everyone's life when a digitally signed PDF just isn't enough and a hard
copy is required.
Android 4.4 thankfully has wireless printing
baked-in, with HP's Cloud Printing application doing the heavy lifting.
You'll need a compatible printer of course, and only certain apps
support the feature at present, but it's unquestionably quite handy to
be able to send a document through the air and transform it into a
physical sheet of paper with nothing but your phone.
5) Gain an easy speed boost by disabling animations
The
animations that occur as you move between applications and screens
might look pretty, but they can slow you down - especially as they
essentially force you to wait a short period before moving to another
page or loading an application.
Thankfully, it's possible to
reduce the time they run for or disable them completely, both of which
will make your handset feel faster. Go to Settings > Developer
Options and scroll down to the Drawing section. Find the options which
refer to animation scale (Window, Transition and Animator) and toggle
them all to "Animation Off". Your UI might not be as pretty in motion,
but it will be so fast you may even struggle to keep up.
4) Keep an eye on your data usage
Most
carriers enforce data allowance limits these days, which means
media-hungry mobile owners with their fingers in all kinds of cloud
storage pies are at risk of running over and incurring prohibitive fees.
Thank goodness then for Android's built-in data usage monitor,
which tells you exactly how much you've been gobbling up via your mobile
network. You can set warnings for when you're close to your limit, or
have a ceiling that disables data traffic the moment it is reached. You
can even specify a day in each month where your allowance renews and
reset the data counter to zero accordingly.
3) Link up your cloud storage accounts with Android's Storage Access Framework
Storage
Access Framework is basically a grander way of saying all of your data
can be accessed from one convenient menu. When you're prompted to locate
files you'll notice that a side-menu has all of your connected cloud
storage accounts - such as Drive, Dropbox and Box - listed, so you can
easily pull content from these sources without having to open multiple
applications. It's one of Android 4.4's most potent features, yet it has
received very little attention.
2) Dismiss an alarm before it bothers you
There
are few social situations more awkward that an alarm that you no longer
need sounding during a meeting or when you're trying to blend in on
public transport. Only appearing in public naked comes close, in our
opinion. You may not think it's quite that extreme, but you'll still be
thankful of Android 4.4's advance alarm notification system.
An
hour before the alarm is due to fire, you'll get a pop-up notification
on your screen which allows you to dismiss it before it has chance to
sound and make everyone on the bus look at you.
1) Get under the hood with Process Stats
Smartphones
are very much like computers in your pocket, and sometimes it's nice to
get super-detailed in order to get a better understanding of how things
are ticking over. In Android 4.4, Google has added a Process Stats
section to the Developer Menu, which contains all kinds of information
about which apps are running, what processing they're using and how long
they've been running since you booted up the phone. It's gloriously
geeky, and ideal for those who want to fine-tune their handset's
performance.
