Settings now has its own dedicated search bar. While this may seem
like a very minor addition, it’s actually a great timesaver when you
know exactly what you’re after. For example, let’s say you want to
change your network settings, but you don’t know where to look. Just
head to settings and search for “network” and you’ll find what you need
almost instantly. This is one of many neat little features in Lollipop
that really helps to increase efficiency in a simple and intuitive way. 2. Swipe Twice For New Notification Bar
Lollipop comes with a new notification bar - simply swipe down once
from the top of your screen to look at your notifications and swipe down
once more to access your quick settings. As in previous versions, it’s
still possible to access your quick settings with a little more speed by
swiping down with two fingers instead of one. From here you can access
all the usual and familiar Android features, with a few new options introduced with the new OS, such as flashlight. 3. Flashlight
Android finally has its own built in flashlight button, which can be
found in your notification screen. This feature, which has been on iOS
and Windows Phone for some time now, uses your phone’s LED flash as a
torch at the touch of a button. Previously, Android owners were forced
to download a separate flashlight app, which if you’re upgrading, you
can probably go ahead and delete now unless you’re after specific third
party features, such as strobe lighting or timed flash effects.
4. Data Usage Notification
This is a handy feature if you’re on a strict data plan and you have a
tendency to go a bit overboard. Use the two fingered downward swipe to
access your quick settings before tapping on your phone’s signal symbol.
A new screen will appear displaying the amount of mobile data you’ve
used. Tap More Settings and you can set a specific data warning as well
as a data limit, making it almost impossible to veer outside of your
contract and saving you from racking up some unsightly bills. For
instance, if you have 5GB of data a month, you can set the warning at
4GB and the limit at 5GB. Once you reach 5GB of data usage, your phone
will turn off all data.
5. Hide Or Disable Sensitive Notifications Notifications have received a lot of special attention in Lollipop.
Not only do you have more control over them (such as double tapping to
open the app associated with the notification), but they’re now also
displayed on your lock screen, allowing you to see what’s happening on
your phone at a glance. The downside to this however is that so can
anyone else. If you’re receiving notifications that display sensitive
content, you can make sure this is kept hidden until you enter your
passcode. Just head to Settings > Sound and Notifications and under
the setting that says ‘When device is locked’ select ‘Hide sensitive
notification content’. You can also hide all notifications if you wish.
6. Long Press To Remove Notification Spam
With a lot of apps come a lot of notifications. Sometimes these are
helpful, such as weather updates or chat notifications, but other times
they’re a pain in the neck, such as software updates or intrusive games
urging you to buy upgrades. Next time you receive a notification you
don’t want, tap and hold it until a small ‘i’ appears on the right hand
side. Tap the ‘i’ button and you can either block the app from sending
notifications in the future, or set it as a priority, so that it’s
always at the top of your list and will come through even when your
phone is set to silent.
7. Do Not Disturb
Lollipop’s do not disturb features are incredibly easy to set up.
Turn your volume up or down using the rocker switch on the side of your
device and a small window will pop up with the options None, Priority
and All. Tap None and no notifications will wake up your phone, this
includes calls, texts, updates and even alarms. Tap Priority and only
specific interruptions will be allowed through - to set these up, tap
the little cog wheel on the top right hand corner. Finally, All will
allow all notifications to come through. Each of these setting can be
assigned to work for a specific amount of time or indefinitely.
8. Create Profiles, Limit Functionality
You can now create custom and guest profiles in the latest Android
update. Swipe down on your notifications bar and tap the profile icon in
the top right hand corner to view the user profiles currently
available. If you haven’t used this before, you will see your own
profile and the option to log in as a guest or create a new profile.
Logging in as a guest is a quick way to share your device with limited
functionality - perhaps if you’re loaning your phone to a friend or a
co-worker for a few hours. Creating a new profile however will provide
the user with their own space, which can be customised with more
features that are not available in a guest profile.
9. Pin Your Screen
While separate user and guest profiles are great for loaning your
phone to friends, it’s possible to limit the functionality of your
device further by pinning your screen. Go to Settings > Security and
turn Screen Pinning on to activate this feature. Now you can pin a
single app to your screen by switching to the multi-task view and
selecting the green pin button on the bottom right corner of your
selected app. The specified app will stay open while all other
functionality on your phone will be disabled unless you type in your
passcode. This is great if you wish to lend your phone to someone who
wants to make a quick phone call or search for something online, but you
don’t want them nosing through your device.
10. High Contrast Text
A number of experimental features have been added to Lollipop. One of
these includes the introduction of high contrast text. Head to Settings
> Accessibility and you’ll find it under the System sub-heading. The
effect is actually quite subtle, but if you’re struggling to read some
of the text on your Android device, it could make all the difference. At
the time of writing, it doesn’t seem like all of the text is affected.
However, this is marked as experimental, so various inconsistencies
should be expected.
11. Colour Inversion And Colour Correction
If you’re colour blind or your vision is impaired then these features
could improve your experience with Android’s new OS. Go to Settings
> Accessibility and scroll to the Display sub-heading at the bottom.
Turning Colour Inversion on will dramatically change the look of your
device and may be more soothing on the eye for some people. Selecting
Colour Correction will allow you to choose from three different colour
modes - Deuteranomaly (red-green), Protanomaly (red-green), Tritanomaly
(blue-yellow) - which may be beneficial to some colour blind users. As
with the high contrast text, this is an experimental feature and may
slow down your system.
12. New Lock Screen Swipe Options
The lock screen has undergone some small but pleasing changes with
the introduction of Lollipop. You’ll notice there are now three icons at
the bottom of your screen when you wake up your phone. These include a
phone, a padlock and a camera. Swipe directly upwards and you’ll unlock
your phone just as you normally would. However, swipe from left to right
and you’ll not only unlock your phone, but you’ll be taken to your
contacts list. Swipe from right to left and you’ll go straight to your
default camera app. These features are fairly minor and hardly
ground-breaking, but they’re a nice addition that can really help to
increase overall efficiency.
13. Battery Saver
The battery screen will not only give you the usual handy breakdown
of what’s draining the most juice from your system - complete with a
swanky looking graph and an approximation of how long you have left
until your phone dies - but it now has a very effective battery save
feature. You can get there by swiping downwards from the top of your
screen with two fingers and tapping the battery icon before tapping the
three dots in the right hand corner and selecting Battery Saver. Turn
this on and it will attempt to reduce your device’s battery usage by
limiting vibrations and most background data. Additionally, apps that
rely on syncing may not update unless you open them. This feature turns
off automatically when you charge your phone.
14. Unlock Your Phone With Your Face
This is not a new feature and frankly, a bit stupid. However, it
seems to be more reliable than in previous versions of Android, it’s a
lot of fun and opening anything with your face feels very cool and
futurey, so to hell with practicality. Go to System > Settings >
Smart Lock and select Trusted Face. Go through the on screen
instructions and before you know it you’ll be accessing your phone with
your gorgeous looks. Please keep in mind however that this is a bit of a
gimmick. Face matching is less secure than a password, pattern or four
digit PIN and if anyone looks like you, they can potentially unlock your
phone.
15. Cast Your Screen Via Chromecast If you’ve been using Google’s simple but brilliant Chromecast - a
small media streaming device that plugs into the HDMI port on your TV,
essentially turning it into a (slightly) smart TV - then you’ll be
pleased to know Android has made it even easier to operate. Previously
you’d have to download an app in order to cast your device to your TV,
however this functionality is now built into Lollipop. Just double swipe
down to access your notifications bar and select the Cast button. Your
device will automatically detect your Chromecast and you can begin
casting instantly.
16. Access Alarm Quickly
Once you’ve set your alarm, you can now access it from the
notifications bar. Drag down from the top of your screen twice (or use
the two finger method) after you’ve set your alarm and you’ll notice a
new clock icon, which will display the time at which your alarm is set
to go off. Not only does this mean you won’t have to go back into your
clock app to make sure you set the correct time, but if you tap it, it
will take you directly to the app, where you can change any settings as
you normally would.
17. Wake Your Phone With Your Voice
From your home screen swipe left into Google Now, tap the three bars
in the top left hand corner and head to Settings > Voice > “OK
Google” Detection. From here you can turn voice detection on, which will
work even when your device is locked and the screen is off, allowing
you wake your phone or tablet by simple shouting “OK Google”. However, a
word of warning - according to Google, when using voice activation
commands or touching a microphone icon, a recording of the next thing
you say, plus a few seconds before, may be used and stored by the search
giant and associated with your Google
account to help recognise your voice and improve speech recognition. If
that makes you uncomfortable, you might want to make sure this is
turned off.
18. Tap and Go
Transferring your contacts and details from one phone to another can
be incredibly tedious, but if you’ve bought yourself a new Nexus 6 this
year, there’s a quick and easy solution. On booting up your phone for
the first time, it will ask if you would like to take advantage of Tap
and Go. Tap yes and hold your old Android phone against the back of your
new one. All of your data will be transferred across to your new phone
via Bluetooth, saving you the hassle of potentially manually installing
large swathes of apps and typing in missing contact details.
19. Apps Remain After Reboot
Here’s another small feature from Lollipop that’s so useful, you’ll
wonder how you lived without it. Ordinarily, any apps you have open will
be completely closed and shut down when you reboot your phone, which is
particularly annoying if you’re working on a lot of different things at
once. However, Lollipop now solves this issue with their new Overview
screen (this used to be called Recent Apps), which retains all of the
apps you were using, even after a reboot. You can access the Overview
screen by tapping the square button on the bottom right hand corner of
your device.
20. Surround Sound
To get the best available sound quality from your device open Google
Play Movies & TV, tap the three bars on the top left hand side of
the screen, select Settings and tick Enable Surround Sound. This will
now activate 5.1 surround sound whenever it’s available. If you’re
dubious, there’s even a demo you can play to test the quality, which is
just below the Surround Sound setting.
21. Remove Download Clutter Whenever you download an app on Android, it will automatically place
it on your home screen. A lot of people don’t like this as it can cause a
lot of unnecessary and extremely disorganised clutter. To disable this,
open the Play Store, tap the three bars in the top left hand corner,
select settings and uncheck the ‘Add icon to Home screen’ setting.
22. Lollipop Easter Egg
This is completely pointless but a lot of fun. Head to Settings >
About Phone and tap Android Version four times in quick succession. You
will be presented with a small coloured dot. Tap the dot and it will
grow into a lollipop. Keep tapping and it will change colours. If you
hold your finger down on the lollipop, the entire screen will change.
Tap the screen once more and you’ll be able to play Android’s version of
Flappy Bird, which is just as rage-inducing as the original and just as
pointless.
This code can be used for a factory data reset. It'll remove following things:
Google account settings stored in your phone
System and application data and settings
Downloaded applications
It'll NOT remove:
Current system software and bundled applications
SD card files e.g. photos, music files, etc.
PS: Once you give this code, you get a prompt screen
asking you to click on "Reset phone" button. So you get a chance to
cancel your operation. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*2767*3855#
Think before you give this code. This code is used for factory format. It'll remove all files and settings including the internal memory storage. It'll also reinstall the phone firmware. PS: Once you give this code, there is no way to
cancel the operation unless you remove the battery from the phone. So
think twice before giving this code. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*#*#34971539#*#*
This code is used to get information about phone camera. It shows following 4 menus:
Update camera firmware in image (Don't try this option)
Update camera firmware in SD card
Get camera firmware version
Get firmware update count
WARNING: Never use the first option otherwise your
phone camera will stop working and you'll need to take your phone to
service center to reinstall camera firmware. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*#*#7594#*#*
This one is my favorite one. This code can be used to change the "End Call / Power"
button action in your phone. Be default, if you long press the button,
it shows a screen asking you to select any option from Silent mode,
Airplane mode and Power off. You can change this action using this code. You can enable direct
power off on this button so you don't need to waste your time in
selecting the option. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*#*#273283*255*663282*#*#*
This code opens a File copy screen where you can backup your media files e.g. Images, Sound, Video and Voice memo. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*#*#197328640#*#*
This code can be used to enter into Service mode. You can run various tests and change settings in the service mode. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WLAN, GPS and Bluetooth Test Codes:
*#*#232339#*#* OR *#*#526#*#* OR *#*#528#*#* - WLAN test (Use "Menu" button to start various tests) *#*#232338#*#* - Shows WiFi MAC address *#*#1472365#*#* - GPS test *#*#1575#*#* - Another GPS test *#*#232331#*#* - Bluetooth test *#*#232337#*# - Shows Bluetooth device address -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*#*#8255#*#*
This code can be used to launch GTalk Service Monitor.
Codes to get Firmware version information:
*#*#4986*2650468#*#* - PDA, Phone, H/W, RFCallDate *#*#1234#*#* - PDA and Phone *#*#1111#*#* - FTA SW Version *#*#2222#*#* - FTA HW Version *#*#44336#*#* - PDA, Phone, CSC, Build Time, Changelist number
Codes to launch various Factory Tests:
*#*#0283#*#* - Packet Loopback *#*#0*#*#* - LCD test *#*#0673#*#* OR *#*#0289#*#* - Melody test *#*#0842#*#* - Device test (Vibration test and BackLight test) *#*#2663#*#* - Touch screen version *#*#2664#*#* - Touch screen test *#*#0588#*#* - Proximity sensor test *#*#3264#*#* - RAM version
