Technology

Important Features to Use on Your Smartphone

Important Features to Use on Your Smartphone

Whether you’ve had a smartphone for longer than you can remember, or you are only just getting one, there are going to be more things you can do with it than you can even imagine. With how much stuff you can do, it can be overwhelming. Yet, there are some key features you should make sure to use on your smartphone that will make your experience that much more enjoyable.

Text Messaging

Text messaging is one of the best features introduced by cell phones, and for good reason. It’s easy, it’s simple, and it allows for quick and concise conversation, while still being able to choose to walk away and come back to the conversation when you see fit. 2 way sms communication is not the only good way to communicate over your smartphone, but unless you want to have a detailed, personal conversation, this is a good way for fast movers and shakers.

Battery-Saving Features

Being that smartphones are portable devices, battery life is one of the most important factors in picking out a good smartphone. A smartphone with a better battery life will be more expensive than one with a worse one, but it’s typically worth the difference in price. However, there are more things that factor into this, including battery-saving features. There are obvious ways to save the life of your battery; for instance, lowering your phone’s brightness or running fewer apps at one time. Some phones have methods that go even further, such as going monochrome to make apps and phone usage less intensive.

Data-Saving Features

Where battery loss can be a serious issue in case of an emergency, finding your data gobbled up can be downright expensive. Data is convenient, but you have to be careful that you don’t accidentally use it all up because you watched a bunch of videos on YouTube. Whenever you are able, use Wi-Fi rather than data, and make sure your phone automatically connects to trusted networks when they come in range. You can also limit how much data an app can use, set up alerts for when data usage grows bigger than a set data usage, and disable background data usage for certain apps.

However, sometimes an app will still use data despite your best efforts, especially if your Wi-Fi goes down without your knowledge. One of the best ways to deal with this is to get an app that disables data usage for specified apps altogether, such as NetGuard. You also don’t have to worry about if you need to use the app, as you can temporarily allow it.

Expandable Storage Space

One of the biggest downside of a smartphone is when you are limited as far as expandable storage space. Even if you get a phone with a lot of storage space, you may one day find that you need to add on some more storage space. If your phone does not accept additional storage space, your only option is to subscribe to a cloud storage service. When picking a phone, if expandable storage space is important to you, you should make sure it has a spot for a microSD card. With that, you can add up to 1TB of storage space to your smartphone.

Alternate Methods of Unlocking Your Phone

There are different methods you can use to unlock your phone. The most common method to do this is to put in a passcode, though other methods have become significantly more popular. For instance, voice and camera identification is a feature in some phones. You can also get a phone with a fingerprint reader, allowing you to register multiple fingerprints to unlock your phone. Finally, you can also use a gesture unlock function, where you put a custom gesture on your touchscreen instead of a passcode.

The most ideal feature will ultimately come down to how much you care about security. A passcode or a gesture is much more difficult for someone to guess, so these are pretty safe. However, a fingerprint reader is not foolproof, and neither is a camera or a microphone. For example, someone who looks or sounds remarkably like you could trick your phone into unlocking for them.

Important Features to Use on Your Smartphone

Phone Tracking

Phones are quite expensive, and thus, you will inevitably try to avoid ever losing it. However, you can’t be diligent at every moment, and thus, you may lose sight of it. Thankfully, there are ways you can track it down, though in all likelihood you have to make sure the phone still has battery left. Hopefully you used the battery-saving features!

The first method is to use Google’s Find My Phone feature. It will provide an approximate location on Google Maps of where it was last seen online. Another method is to use something like a Tile device. While Tile devices are meant to hang on keys or purses, they can also be used to find the phone they are linked to.