7 Android Settings You Should Change Right Now

Android comes with a lot of features, but not all of them are enabled out of the box. With the ever-growing feature set, it’s easy to miss those deeply buried Android settings that can enhance your experience.

Whether you are looking to fine-tune your privacy and security or boost performance, here are some changes you should make in the Android settings menu.

1. Hide Sensitive Content From Lock Screen

Since Android 5.0 Lollipop, you can interact with the notifications directly from the lock screen. While this is convenient, it also means that anybody can go through your notifications — even when your phone is locked.

Fortunately, there’s an option to hide sensitive notifications on the lock screen.

First, you need to secure your Android phone with a password, pattern, or a PIN. Once you do, here’s how to hide sensitive notification content.

• Open Settings > Notifications.
• Tap the cog icon on the upper-right of the screen.
• Tap On the lock screen.
• Select Hide sensitive notification content.

Sensitive notifications will show “content hidden” instead of displaying the actual message. You’ll need to unlock your device to view the message.

If you would like to hide sensitive notifications on a per-app basis, select Show all notification content. Hit back and you should find a list of installed apps. Tap on the app you’d like to hide sensitive notifications from, then tap On the lock screen > Hide sensitive notification content.

2. Opt Out of Personalized Ads

There’s a shocking number of things that Google knows about you. Its huge tracking system is the reason why you see such precisely tailored ads. For instance, if you search on your desktop about noise-canceling earphones, you might quickly start seeing ads for them around the web.

If you’re paranoid about your privacy, there’s an easy way to turn it off.

• Open Settings.
• Navigate to Google > Ads.
• Enable Opt out of Ads Personalization.

Note that while you’ll still see ads in ad-supported Android apps, they’ll not be based on your interests.

3. Enable Auto-Lock and Power Button Instant Lock

By default, your Android phone’s screen turns off automatically after a set period of inactivity to save battery. But the lock screen only kicks-in a few seconds later. Mischievous people can potentially access your unlocked device if you leave it unattended during this period.

It’s recommended to lower your screen timeout. To do so, head over to Settings > Display > Sleep. Select the lowest acceptable number of seconds after which your screen would turn off.

Once you’ve lowered the screen timeout, it’s time to force the lock screen to kick in as soon as the screen is turned off.

• To do so, navigate to Settings > Security > Automatically lock.
• Select Immediately.
• On the same page, enable Power button instantly locks.

Note that this setting might be located elsewhere depending on your Android manufacturer. An easy way to find the appropriate setting on any custom Android skin is using the search option in the settings.

4. Disable Doze Mode for Specific Apps

Introduced in Marshmallow, Doze is a nifty feature that helps you save battery on your Android device. The basic idea is that your apps “sleep” while your phone is off, preventing them from running amok in your absence.

While this works great for most apps, you might get delayed notifications from your favorite messaging apps. Also, you might experience issues with VPN apps as they need to run constantly in the background. In such cases, Doze mode can do more harm than good. Fortunately, Android lets you disable Doze mode on a per-app basis.

• To do so, open Settings > Battery.
• Tap the three-dot overflow menu button.
• Select Doze and app hibernation.
• Tap the app you would like to exclude and select Don’t optimize.

Note that you should create exceptions only for the apps that really need it, otherwise they can cause a major battery drain.

5. Enable Persistent Number Row in Gboard

If your job involves dealing with numbers, it can be cumbersome to toggle your keyboard between the number and the alphabet mode.

If you use Gboard, which I guess most of you do, you can enable a persistent number row at the top of your keyboard. It’s a great way to utilize the growing screen real estate on mobile devices.

• To do so, open Gboard.
• Hold the emoji/cog icon and tap on Gboard keyboard settings.
• Tap Preferences.
• Enable Number row.

You should see a persistent number row at the top of your keyboard. This can help you substantially increase your typing speed.

6. Enable Instant Apps

Instant Apps are a pretty innovative idea: you can check out Android apps without having to install them, thus saving time and data. It started out as an Android Oreo-exclusive feature, but Google started rolling it out to devices running Lollipop or later a couple of months ago.

Instant Apps are disabled by default, but enabling them is just a flip away.

• Open Settings > Google.
• Enable Instant Apps.
• Tap Yes, I’m in to confirm.

Once you enable it, simply search for the app on the Play Store. The Play Store listing supports just 5 apps for now: BuzzFeed, NYTimes, RedBull TV, OneFottball, and ShareTheMeal. To try an Instant App, tap Try Now besides the Install button.

To search for other Instant Apps, search for the apps from your mobile browser.

7. Move Chrome’s Address Bar to the Bottom

Reaching the top of the screen, especially with just one hand, can be quite a pain. Chrome’s address bar is placed at the upper-half of the screen, making it harder to reach on larger-sized phones.

Thankfully, there’s a quick way to move Chrome’s address bar to the bottom for easier access.

• Type chrome://flags in Chrome’s address bar and hit Enter.
• Find Chrome Home and enable it.
• Tap Relaunch Chrome.
• Tap the Recent button to open up the multitasking screen. Swipe away Chrome to force close it.
• Re-open Chrome.

You may need to restart Chrome a couple of times to make it work. It’s kind of weird, but this is how it works for now.

That’s it! The address bar should be moved to the bottom, thus making it more accessible than ever.

Make the Most of Your Android Phone

Tweaking these settings will help you get the most of your Android device, without dramatically changing the way you use your favorite operating system. Whether you’re looking to protect your privacy or enhance your everyday Android experience, a few tweaks are all you need.

Which of the above settings have you changed on your Android phone? Do you know of any other settings that can help you level up your Android experience? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

- makeuseof

10 Best Apps to Hide Photos and Videos on Android

Our whole personal life is now wound up in the smartphone we carry along in our pockets. We capture a multitude of photos and videos, which you may want to keep private. But, it’s possible that your phone can accidentally fall prey to someone’s hands or you may just pass it over to a friend unaware of their true intentions. Well, if you are an Android user, you don’t have to worry, as there are several great apps to hide photos and videos on Android. Well, we’ve compiled a list of the 10 best photos and video hider apps on Android:

Best Photos and Video Hiding Apps for Android

1. KeepSafe Photo Vault

If you’ve used an Android app to hide your private photos or videos, you’d surely heard of KeepSafe Photo Vault. It’s been around for quite a while and is still one of the better apps to safeguard your media from others. The app has bagged massive updates over the years, making it cleaner and easy-to-use by all.

It provides you the usual PIN, pattern, and fingerprint authentication options, post which it shows you a clutter-free and categorized folder grid. You can jump into any of these folders to add and protect your private photos, videos or personal IDs. You can create new folders of your own, share them with other KeepSafe users and back up all of them to their private cloud space.

KeepSafe brings along a ton of advanced security features, such as fake login PINs, break-in alerts (where a selfie of the intruder, along with time and date of unsuccessful attempts is logged), and disguising the app with a different front-end via Secret Door. But, all of the features are hidden behind a paywall and I recommend you get it if you’re really looking to protect your private media.

Key Features: easy-to-use, colorful and loaded with extra functionality, most of which have to be enabled with a Premium subscription.

Download (Free, in-app purchases start at $0.99)

2. LockMyPix Photo Vault

Among the whole lot, this was my favorite pick for guarding my photos and videos against the nosy crowd. Called LockMyPix, this aptly-named app is designed to provide the safest photo vault for protecting personal all your media files. It is backed by a military-grade AES encryption standard, locking your files behind a PIN or pattern.

It renders an intuitive user experience, enabling you to encrypt your photos/ videos directly from the homescreen of the app. You can even instantly click pictures and add them to the vault in a jiffy. The add-on features allow you to unlock the app using your fingerprint, shake the device to lock the vault and even hide LockMyPix from the app drawer. The cheery on top being that you cannot screenshot the app when it’s unlocked, which now also adds to the privacy and security of your content.

While the free version offers you a host of functionalities, you also get the option to set up fake login credentials in the Pro variant. This feature will come in handy when someone is pestering you to unlock the app but you can give them access to a secondary vault with a fake PIN. The only drawback of this app is that you cannot backup private photos/ videos to the cloud.

Key Features: ultra-secure photo vault, which uses AES encryption and doesn’t even let you capture screenshots of the contents within.

Download (Free, upgrade to Pro version for $1.99)

3. Hide Pictures & Videos – Vaulty

Vaulty is yet another well-known and reliable photo/ video hiding apps, which may look a tad bit dated but performs its job perfectly fine. You can simply jump into the app, select the media files you want to hide from the gallery and password protect it from the outside world.

The highlight of Vaulty is that it captures “mugshots” of intruders, who try to access your vault but fail to enter the correct password. You will instantly know who tried to intervene in your private space, the moment you unlock the app. This feature is available for free to all users, which is unmistakably a plus.

You also get the functionality to create multiple vaults, with separate passwords, to store different types of photos or videos in each one. You’ll, however, have to upgrade to the Premier subscription if you want to backup your files to the cloud or remove ads from the app.

Key Features: extremely simple to use, there’s almost no learning curve. You can create multiple vaults to hide a variety of media files.

Download (Free, upgrade to Vaulty Premier for $9.99/month)

4. Hide Something

With close to 5 million installs in the bag, Hide Something is one of the most trouble-free apps for hiding photos and videos on your Android device. You can protect your files from inquisitive users via PIN, password, or the fingerprint sensor. The process of transferring new photos or videos to the ‘invisible’ folder is as simple as sharing a file with the Hide Something app.

You also get access to a mini collection of beautiful themes, support for a variety of media file types, an advanced image viewer and fake login mode to further protect your privacy. Hide Something is also particular about not being detected, so it doesn’t show up in the ‘recently used’ list.

But, the feature that takes the cake for me is that the app backs-up all your private media files to Google Drive and makes it possible for you to browse them with the desktop browser. This simplifies the process of sifting through and accessing photos or videos for the end user.

Key Features: uber-simple and secure from the get-go, but adds a cherry on the top with the desktop browsing feature.

Download (Free, get premium license for $2.99)

5. Vault

All aforementioned apps are restricted to hiding just your photos/ videos, but the Vault is an all-around app which helps safeguard more than just media files. It can hide all your phone data, be it SMS, contacts/ call log or even apps, which houses all your private info.

Aptly named Vault, this app brings along all the necessary features you’d expect to find in a privacy-focused app used for hiding personal stuff. You have the ability to create fake or multiple vaults, make the app’s icon disappear from your home screen, or record break-in alerts. You also get free cloud backup support.

But, my favorite feature of Vault will have to be the incognito browser that has been baked right into the app. You can browse the Internet without leaving any trace of all your expeditions on the web. This functionality can be seen as being similar to Firefox Focus (which was one of our best app picks for 2017), which does not record what you’re surfing on the Internet.

Key Features: an all-in-one privacy app, which enables you to hide almost anything. You also get an in-app incognito browser.

Download (Free, in-app purchases start at $0.99)

6. Private Zone

If you’re looking for an app that does a lot (I mean, a whole lot) more than simply being able to hide your photos or videos, then Private Zone should be the perfect pick for you.

This app is definitely useful for guarding your private photos, videos or apps, but has also brought along a variety of features for privacy-obsessed people. Here are a few of the top features of the Private Zone app:

• Free Private VPN service
• Custom Lock screen app
• Phone Anti-theft Features
• Harassment/ Spam Call Intercept
• Boost – RAM Manager
• and other privacy controls.

Though Private Zone is laden with several cool features, it’s at the expense of your peace of mind. The app is filled to the brim with ads, which can get frustrating for users. But, it can be avoided by picking up the premium subscription for the app.

Key Features: packs a whole lot cooler privacy-focused features than you’d expect. It has been designed for privacy fanatics.

Download (Free, in-app purchases start at $0.99)

7. GalleryVault – Hide Pictures And Videos

This is one of the most popular photo and video hiding apps in the Play Store, with more than 10 million downloads. GalleryVault enables you to quickly hide and encrypt your photos, videos and any other files that you do not want others to see. By putting all your private media in a secure vault, the files are encrypted and nobody will know of its existence of the same.

GalleryVault has a simple and elegant interface, which provides you access to all of your hidden photos or videos in a jiffy. It supports all popular features, that you’d find in any decked-out privacy protection apps. This means you get the shake to lock, break-in alerts, fake login, fingerprint authentication, stealth mode, hiding files in SD cards, and more.

In addition to protecting your photos and videos, Gallery Vault also supports GIF playback, private browsing within the app, and a video editor to enable you to piece together a story using your hidden content. Isn’t that a great feature to have when you’re compiling a birthday surprise video for your friend?

Key Features: a decked-out privacy protection app, which hides most of your files and is packing a private browser and video editor as well.

Download (Free, upgrade to Pro version for $5.99)

8. Hide Files – Andrognito

Andrognito, which is an abbreviation for Android + Incognito, is one of the more secure privacy protection apps. It allows you to hide your photos, videos and other files behind strong layers of military-grade AES encryption standards, while storing the files in the cloud to free space on your device.

The free version of this app enables you to hide apps in just a single vault, but you can purchase the PRO version to create more private vaults, access your vaults via the cloud backups on multiple devices and gain access to additional features. It will also remove intrusive ads that annoy me almost instantly.

Unlocking the PRO version of the app will get you the fake vault spoofing, invisible icon, fake force close, and custom theming feature as well. But, the simplistic interface of this app had me attracted to it in the first place.

Key Features: stunning material design UI, with strong AES end-to-end encryption and cloud backup feature, makes it a definite pick.

Download (Free, in-app purchases start at $0.99)

9. Piktures – Beautiful Gallery

Taking a step away from privacy protection apps, I’d now like to suggest you a handful of photo gallery apps that provide you the functionality of hiding photos and videos. Piktures is a sleek-looking app that makes it easy to access all of your device’s media files, but we are interested in the ‘Secret Drive’ feature.

You need to swipe from the left to open the hamburger menu and access the secret drive. The Piktures app lays intense focus on privacy and makes you step through multiple hoops to enable this feature. Once this feature is enabled, you can long-press any picture or video and tap the “Secure” option in the menu bar to shift the file to the secret drive.

The app may not provide the users a variety of add-on features, but you’re free to create multiple vaults to segregate the media you want to hide from others.

Key Features: a stunning photo gallery app, with a secret drive that acts like a photo and video hiding vault.

Download (Free, upgrade to Premium for $5.99)

10. F-Stop Gallery

If you didn’t already know, F-Stop is one of the most well-known image gallery apps that’s available on the Play Store. It has an intuitive and lightweight user interface, which makes it easier to organize all your photos and videos.

The app brings along a lot of features that will improve your gallery browsing, sorting, and tagging experience. You can sort images simply dragging and dropping the files, but we’re here to discuss the privacy features of F-Stop.

The app has two such features, which enable you to exclude (read: hide) folders with your photos or videos from the gallery by adding a .nomedia file to the same. And you can also protect single media files simply by password protecting them. This secure folder is accessible from the hamburger menu on the left.

Key Features: a full-fledged gallery app, with an image editor, filters, privacy protection and a lot more.

Download (Free, upgrade to Pro version for $4.99)

Best Apps to Hide Photos and Videos on Android

If you’ve been concerned about the privacy of your photos/ videos of recent, then I’m sure that at least one of our suggestions will help curb your anxiety. The hiding of private media content in secret vaults will take the weight of someone getting to them off your shoulders. So, do any of these privacy protection apps meet your criterion?

- beebom

Top 5 Best Free to Download and Install Messenger Apps for Android and iOS

Instant messaging is with no doubt the trending way of keeping in touch with friends and relatives from all over the world.

What makes it a top option is due to the fact that it is very easy to use than making a phone call or maybe trying to find someone physically, which can be very expensive.

Despite the fact that 2015 is here, there are still some cell plans that don’t come with unlimited messaging subscriptions. Furthermore, there are numerous cases where the users want to continue a conversation they started on a phone, on a PC. These, among many other reasons, have been at the center of the growth and development of the messaging or messenger applications. In this regard, here is a list of the top 5 best free to download and install messenger apps for the Android smartphones and iPhones that will make your communication life extremely free and incredibly easy.

Google Hangouts

Just like any other Google product, Google Hangouts is a very easy to use app. If you are a member of the Gmail family, you will have a very easy time adapting to Hangouts as it comes with lots of similarities with the chat service of this email client.

Simply download the app on your phone and you will notice lots of similarities with the desktop client. You can add as many contacts as you want, as long as they have a Gmail account. You can start a conversation when on your way to work using your phone and continue it from the PC at your office desk. It is still possible to pick up the conversation from where you left when having lunch, using your phone or tablet. However, there is no support for Google Voice and navigation can get a little tricky if you are not that tech savvy.

Skype

Skype is another great way of keeping in touch with your relatives from all over the world. There is no fee required for signing up for an account on Skype. After signing up, you will be able to make free voice and video calls to any other Skype user as well as make affordable calls to the non-users of the app using SkypeOut. Skype allows the users to attach photos, videos and other media files to messages and share them with friends, whether they are online or not.

As you may have noticed, Skype offers calls to the non-users of the app on landlines and mobile phones, which is one thing that makes it a standout among others in this list.

Viber

Viber makes instant messaging in the 21st century a very simple thing. You can send a text message, voice note, video or even a photo to a friend using the app. Unlike the above mentioned apps which require an email address to sign you up for an account, Viber will ask for your phone number only. This then becomes your identifier as your friends will use it to identify you on the platform.

Viber allows its users to make free voice and video calls as well. Furthermore, it follows in the footsteps of Skype by allowing the users to make affordable calls to the non-users of the app, using the ViberOut feature. The app also includes games, public chats as well as a detailed collection of stickers. It can be used on mobile phones, tablets and PCs and it exhibits one of the best syncing capabilities across all supported devices.

WhatsApp

You can send your friends voice, text, video and photo messages using WhatsApp. The app is free to download and it can be installed on nearly all mobile platforms. Just like Viber, WhatsApp will ask for your phone number to create you an account. The app automatically pulls a list of contacts based on the numbers stored in your phonebook, thus saving you time you’d have wasted on searching for new friends.

WhatsApp recently added a voice calling feature, but there is no news of video calling facility. Unlike all the other apps listed here, WhatsApp will start charging a fee of $0.99 per year after using it for free for the first one year.

LINE

LINE can be termed as a combination of instant messaging and social networking services in a single messenger. You can share videos, photos, sticker as well as texts with any other user of the app. These entire updates can posted to a personal timeline where friends can also comment, share as well as like; just like with the case of the social networking sites Twitter and Facebook.

LINE allows its users to chat in groups as well as make voice and video calls to others. LINE comes with a collection of games that the users can play against one another. Furthermore, the app allows the transfer of funds using LINE Pay. It is also one of the first apps to make its way to the Apple Watch and Android Wear. LINE is free to download and install and it can be used on all major mobile platforms.

-   ordoh

Google Hangouts 5 Tips And Tricks for Windows Phone, Android and iOS

In the race for being the top application to provide access to internet communication for free, Google has not been left behind.

It has jumped on to the bandwagon with the launch of Google Hangouts.

Google hangouts was preceded by Google talk. Although the services provided were same as those of Google hangouts, hangouts has a lot of new features that qualifies it as a good VoIP app – so much so that the application is now also used widely as a business communication tool among professionals.

If you have not had much experience with the application, you can follow the tips and tricks in order to use the application better.

The application can be used more conveniently with the help of keyboard shortcuts. Pressing the question mark can help you activate or deactivate the microphone at your convenience. Keyboard shortcuts make browsing the web easier and older chat messages are more easily accessed.

Google hangouts can be used to send messages and these can be sent with the help of commands. Typing “/to” before the name of the individual can help you send messages across.

Instead of sticking to the laptop microphone and speakers while you are on a voice or video call, the audio output would be much clearer if a user opts for the usage of headphones.

Corporates draw the most benefits from Google Hangout’s screen sharing feature. The application mirrors this feature from the Skype.

Simply by clicking on the share screen offer, you can share the screen with your friend or colleague and make work easier. Choice can be made between choosing either specific windows or the whole screen.

Google Hangouts can also be a very cost effective means of using VoIP by managing the amount of data you use. This can be done by toggling between normal quality voice calls and HD quality voice calls, which generally trend to consume more data.

-   therem

Top 5 Android Music Player Apps for 2015

Music is a very essential part of our lives in the present date.

Thanks to the many powerful devices we carry in our pockets, music has become part and parcel of most people’s life, especially when on the go.

The smartphone, for instance, has made it possible for the users to get rid of dedicated music players that dominated this industry a few years ago. While it is true that most people love listening to their favorite music using their Android smartphones, the need of a sleeker, cooler Android music player cannot be taken for granted.

Android devices come with a stock music player which is also very simple and easy to use; however, there are better options out there and they can be downloaded from the official Google Play Store. Here’s a closer look at the top 5 Android music players that will take your music listening experience to the next level.

Poweramp Android music player

If you are after a feature-rich Android music player, then Poweramp is just what you are missing on your Android smartphone. Together with its attractive interface, you won’t get tired of the features and capabilities this app offers. Among the most notable feature of Poweramp music player re stereo expansion, crossfade, an optimized graphical equalizer, gapless playback, dynamic cue, support for .cue files, as well as theme support, among many others. Poweramp music player will let you customize your listening experience; however, you only get the free 15-day trial period, after which you must purchase the full app.

Shuttle music player

This is a little-known app, but with it you will have one of the most powerful Android music players. Shuttle music player for Android devices is a premium music player that offers a sleek UI that is very simple to use. It’s true to say that Shuttle lacks in features; however, it is also true to say that this lack of features is compensated by the app’s great performance.

Better still, you will come across features like gapless playback, theme and lyrics support as well as sleep timer, among many others. If these features are not enough, you can get the Shuttle Plus premium version, which brings with it a lot of other cooler features such as folder browsing and tag editing.

PlayerPro music player

Over the years, PlayerPro music player has remained to be a top Android music player thanks to its ability to play audio and video files. In essence, PlayerPro music player will give you a two-in-one app for playing both your video and audio music files.

What makes this app a top option for playing music on Android devices is its support for a wide variety of codecs. Furthermore, you will come across great features like tag editing, skin support, mixable audio effects, sleep timer, a graphical equalizer, gestures and many others. PlayerPro comes with a free trial version; however, it is the paid version that will unleash the real monster in this Android music player.

DoubleTwist music player

The DoubleTwist Android music player is not a new name on the Google Play Store and this can be attributed to the fact that the app can easily sync iTunes as well as its podcast managing capabilities. This music player comes with a very simple and easy to use UI, making it one of the most top-rated apps on the Google Play Store.

You won’t miss any of the usual premium features of the Android music players on DoubleTwist music player; however, you will get more on this app. For instance, Magic Radio, which is a new music subscription feature is made available. Even though this music player is free for all Android users, those who want to see the real power of DoubleTwist music player must make some in-app purchases. Alternatively, you can subscribe for the Magic Radio service and still unlock the premium features of this player.

Equalizer + music player

Just like the name of the music player suggests, the selling feature of this player is the equalizer. This app works as a music player as well as a frequency equalizer. You will come across 5 bands and 10-band equalizer presets. The users of Equalizer+ have the opportunity to set their own equalizer preferences. The app also comes with features like professional sound rendering, contextual music search, media bass-volume control, background player mode, visualizer window and many others. The interface you get on the Equalizer+ music player will give you a refreshing and vintage feel.

However, you will have to make some in-app purchases in order to unlock lots of other premium features that include dual screen, fade, bass boost and many others.

Other Android music players worth mentioning

As noted earlier, there are lots of Android music players that you can choose from. While the above list might be representing the top 5 Android music players, the list is not exhaustive. There are other music players that are worth mentioning and in case you find none of the above to be good enough for you, feel free to check out apps like n7player, Neutron, Rocket Player, FlipBeats and Google Play Music.

-  ordoh

5 Must Know Tips to Keep Your Android Device Safe

The threat that people face these days is too high not only because you have a lot of data stored on the cloud but also because of the devices you use.

Securing your Android device before things go out of hand is mandatory and here’s how you can do it.

The amazing and ‘must-know’ security tips do not come from a security analyst or an expert but rather from Google’s own Adrian Ludwig. The chief security officer in the company has taken some time to help people understand the importance of security and to help them secure their phones and tablets to stay within the safe zone.

Immediate Security Measures

Use Lock Screen Password – Most users tend to skip this method because it is a pain to manually draw a design or enter a password every time you unlock your device. But, it is very important and you should set it right away.

Backup data – Using cloud storage to your advantage could help! Start by backing up your data which will allow you to replace content if your device gets corrupt, damaged or stolen. The best backup apps available for Android are Helium, Titanium, My Backup and Ultimate Backup. You can use Google’s own services as well.

Use Encryption–Nexus devices use encryption settings by default so that others cannot readily access the data within. Any phone or tablet running on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean or above can be encrypted by going to settings, encryption page.

Security Tips

Google Play Store – The Play Store is the most trusted way to download your favorite apps and games. There are so many third party Android stores out there but many of them are pure scams designed to rob your data. Unless it is trusted by plenty of users, you should stick to the official store for your needs.

Android Device Manager – The best productive and security app is your Android Device Manager. It will come in handy in a situation where you have lost your device. It allows you to remotely find the location of your phone or tablet. In case you can’t find it, you can even choose to remotely erase and lock the phone so that it becomes useless to everyone else.

Using two factors, authentication on Google is another important step that you should never skip. It not only helps you safeguard your phone but also your important e-mails and contacts, especially if Gmail is your primary e-mail client.

-   ordoh

Nexus Android 5.1.1 Battery Autonomy Fixes – Tricks And Tips

Android 5.1.1 update is rolling out to Google’s Nexus tablets: 9, 7 and 10, and this version is supposed to fix many issues in Lollipop, but we don’t know yet if there are many users affected by the battery life problems which were inherited from the Android 5.1 update, which were reported even by the Nexus 6 users.

Because of the battery life problems, Google released Android 5.1.1, which is rolling out in phases, and will be available for four Nexus devices. Now it’s too early to tell if the users are content or if there are many experiencing the same battery drain. Only a few users complained about this problem, but we’re waiting for the rest of the Nexus owners to receive the update and to leave a feedback.

But, if you’re among the users with a bad Android 5.1.1 battery life, there are solutions for you. These methods work even if you’re running Android 5.0 Lollipop, 5.0.1, 5.0.2 or 5.1.

Identify the applications that drain your battery

When you feel that your device is dying faster than usual, you’re probably running a bunch of applications, most of them eating not only the battery, but the RAM as well. Most likely, you’ve installed graphical or data intense applications, without knowing that they can affect the battery life of your Nexus tablet or smartphone. To track the applications that drain your battery, you can go to the Battery section of Settings. When you find out which app is the battery killer, take the decision to uninstall it and install an alternative. But, if you’re not sure which software is eating your battery, restart your Nexus device and boot into Safe Mode. Turn on the screen, press and hold the Power button, press and hold the Power off option from the dialog box, then tap on OK from the next dialog. Safe Mode disables third-party applications and you can identify the applications that are guilty of killing the battery.

From time to time it’s recommendable to restart your Nexus device, because this way, your cache will be cleared and the battery life can go back to normal.

Clear the cache partition

Since we started talking about the cache partition, this is how you can clear it manually. You will need to press and hold Power + Volume Down buttons in the same time and wait until your screen has something else than Google on it. When you see the large arrow at the top of your screen, tap the Volume Down multiple times until you see Recovery in that arrow. Next, you will tap the Power button and an Android will appear with its chest open and having a red triangle and exclamation mark in the middle. Since you’re holding the Power button, you will have to tap the Volume Up one time, then release the Power button. Immediately, a list of items will appear at the top of the screen. You will tap the Volume Down until the item for wiping the cache partition will be highlighted, then to initiate the clearing process, tap the Power button. You will need to wait between 10 and 15 minutes for the process to complete, then you’ll restart the device.

Disable services that you’re not using

WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS or NFC must be turned off when you’re no longer using them. To do that, go to your Nexus’ quick settings menu or “kill” them from Settings.

-   ordoh

WhatsApp Free Hidden Security Tips for iOS, Android and Windows Phone

It’s been a while since the WhatsApp Voice Calling got released for iOS and Android. The feature was recently released for BlackBerry 10 and according to some new rumors it will soon be released for Windows Phone devices as well.

WhatsApp is a messaging application that is used by over 800 active users to send messages, videos, photos etc. to their loved ones. This means that those messages, videos or photos may be quite personal and you don’t want them to be seen by everyone.

Today we’re going to give you a few hints that will help you improve the privacy settings on your WhatsApp.

Hiding Blue Ticks

One of the features that many people hate on WhatsApp is the “Blue ticks”. This feature allows the recipient to know whether you’ve read or not the message(s) (s)he sent you. This feature can be disabled by going to WhatsApp Settings->Account->Privacy and unchecking the “Read receipts” option.

Backing up the WhatsApp conversations

By default, the WhatsApp application is making a backup of your WhatsApp conversations everyday at 4AM. However, you can do it manually anytime you want by going to WhatsApp Settings->Chat Settings and tapping on “Back up chats”.

Hiding WhatsApp pictures from Photos/Gallery

Whenever you receive or send photos on WhatsApp, those photos are automatically saved in a folder on either the internal storage or microSD card. This means, that if you borrow the device to someone and (s)he takes a look at your Photos/Gallery application will be able to view all the photos you’ve sent/received on WhatsApp.

First of all, download and install a file manager application such as Cabinet Beta or ES File Manager. After that, open the file manager and go to the WhatsApp/Media/WhatsApp Images directory. Here, you will need to create a new file named “.nomedia” and save it. After creating this file, all the WhatsApp images that are stored in here will not be shown in the Photos/Gallery application.

After this, your WhatsApp images will not show up any more in your Gallery/Photos app.

Locking WhatsApp

As you already know, WhatsApp doesn’t come with a password or any type of locker. With other words, in case someone gets his hands on your mobile device, he will be able to open the WhatsApp application and read all the messages you’ve sent to your friends. However, there are a few applications which will add some security to the WhatsApp application by adding a password to it. For example, you can use either LOCX or AppLock. Both of these applications will be able to lock your WhatsApp application and whenever you will try to open it, you will have to enter the password to unlock it.

Hiding the “Last Seen” time

We all have friends that overwhelm us on WhatsApp. As soon as they see that we’re online, they will start bugging us with questions or their problems. However, there are days when you don’t wish to be disturbed by these types of friends. This is when you will want to disable the “Last Seen” status.

Disabling the Last seen time stamp is helpful for those who do not want others to know how often they are online on WhatsApp or, when it’s the last time they used it. Below we’ll show you how to disable it.

Open WhatsApp and go to Settings->Account->Privacy->Last Seen and select “Nobody”. This way, nobody will know when you’ve been last seen on WhatsApp.

Hiding your WhatsApp Profile photo from an Unknown Contact

By default, the WhatsApp profile photo is displayed to anyone that knows your mobile phone number. However, you can hide the profile image by going to WhatsApp Settings->Account->Privacy->Profile Photo and select “My Contacts”. This way, you will share the profile photo only with the persons you have in your contact list.

-   ordoh