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Guides About Phones

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How to find downloads on your Android phone or tablet

Managing your downloaded files has never been easier

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Throughout the day, we download several photos, videos, and other files on our Android smartphones. While Android does a great job of showing us the file when it finishes downloading, it's hard to find them later if you don't know how to locate downloads on your Android device. Also, while you might want to keep some of the downloaded files for the long term, you should delete most downloads when you no longer need them. But you can't do that if you don't know where Android saves these downloads.

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What is Samsung Care Plus?

Don't carry a busted phone

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If you plan to buy one of the best Samsung phones soon, you may want to safeguard it with a sturdy case and screen protector. While that serves to a great extent, attaining a 100% shield is impossible for the clumsy ones among us. Even if you're not, Samsung Care Plus gives you peace of mind that your pricey phone is protected. While many people skip it due to the extra fees, it's a lifeline if your new Samsung phone suffers damage. It's especially useful for devices like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4, which while practical, has a fragile screen.

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Picking up one of our favorite 5G-compatible phones is a great way to improve your connectivity, but even the best phones can't always maintain a perfect connection. Your location, carrier, or phone plan can affect signal strength, but determining the exact cause can be challenging.

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Bluetooth hearing aid compatibility: Which phones have it

When you buy hearing aids, make sure you have a compatible phone to get the most out of them

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More and more people have some form of hearing impairment in this increasingly loud day and age. Chances are your hearing also isn't the best if you stumbled upon this guide. You may remember hearing aids as bulky devices sitting behind your ears that are barely good enough to make people hear again, but this is far from the truth today. Most hearing aids support some form of audio streaming. Still, for most of them, you must have a compatible phone.

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How to use the secret trackpad on your Android phone

Text editing on a small screen has never been easier!

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The virtual keyboard is one of the essential parts of your smartphone experience. You rely on it for texting, creating to-do lists, drafting long LinkedIn posts and emails, and editing quick documents in Google Docs. While smartphone keyboards have evolved in recent years with auto-predictions, AI features, a clipboard, and more, you can't escape mistakes and errors while typing on a small keyboard on glass.

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How to use your phone's manual camera settings

Got a specific photo look in mind? Manual camera settings might be the way to go

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Mobile photography is generally a simple experience for the user. Just point and shoot. But even the best phones can fail to capture a scene the way you would expect. However, on many Android devices, it's possible to dial in the look of your photos with manual camera settings. Those settings aren't always easy to understand. We compiled this list of common manual camera settings, what they do, and how to use them to get the perfect shot.

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How to turn off data roaming on your Samsung Galaxy phone

Avoid unnecessary charges when traveling

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These days, most high-end and midrange smartphones boast top-notch 4G and 5G wireless data capabilities, providing seamless web browsing at remarkable speeds and eliminating the need for constant Wi-Fi connectivity. Samsung's incredible smartphone lineup is no exception. While your connectivity isn't affected whether you're at home or abroad, your carrier data plan may not cover browsing outside your home country, causing roaming charges to escalate quickly. Preventing your phone from utilizing data on a foreign network becomes crucial to avoid unnecessary expenses.

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How to take a screenshot on your Android phone or tablet

It's easier than you think

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Capturing screenshots can preserve important information, such as concert tickets, flight details, or critical messages. In the past, taking screenshots on Android phones required a separate app, but a built-in option has been available for some time. When Android 12 was released, this feature was enhanced, making it easier to take a screenshot on any device and capture scrolling screenshots. Additionally, many Android manufacturers offer unique shortcuts to simplify the process further. If you're feeling overwhelmed, our guide will help you take screenshots on most Android phones and tablets updated to recent OS versions.

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How to find your Wi-Fi password on your Android phone or tablet

Using a password manager makes this easier

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If you're like most people, you probably kept the random password on the bottom of your home router.While that random password is pretty safe, it's not so easy to remember. If you already have your login details on your Android phone or tablet, there's no need dust off and flip over your gateway.

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How to create custom emoji wallpapers for your Android phone

Create a wallpaper for your phone's homescreen using your favorite emoji

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The list of our favorite Android apps contains plenty of wallpaper apps that can make your homescreen stand out. But if you want something different, you can create your unique emoji wallpaper to personalize your phone's homescreen to your taste. The Google Emoji Workshop app lets you create fun emoji wallpapers that even animate. While the app is exclusive to Google Pixel phones, you can also get it on other Android devices, including the best Samsung phones.

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How to play Netflix Games on your mobile device

Take Netflix Games anywhere on your favorite mobile device

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Upon inception, the Netflix app soared in popularity with its wealth of convenient programming, personalization mechanics, and availability on multiple devices simultaneously. Though the days of password sharing may be drawing to a close, new features and services may endeavor to compensate, Netflix Games being a good example. The Play Store has some exceptional games available for download. Still, Netflix Games stands out by exclusively catering to Netflix subscribers, an added incentive to get the service. Here's how to get this excellent service to run on your mobile devices in a few steps.

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How to turn Android's Always On Display on or off

You can even customize your phone's Always On Display with stickers and GIFs

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Apple introduced Always-On Display with the iPhone 14 Pro series in 2022. But even the best mid-range Android phones have offered similar functionality for years. What's even better is that on many devices, you can customize Always On Display as per your liking with different clock styles, themes, and more. If you are new to the Android world, follow the guide below to learn how to customize and turn your phone's Always On Display on or off.

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How to use your iPhone's secret trackpad

Your iPhone is full of nifty tips and tricks!

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Although the iPhone's default keyboard is no match to Gboard on the top budget Android phones, the iOS keyboard has several tricks up its sleeve to fix typos on the go. You may sometimes run into typos when you write business emails or Twitter threads on your iPhone. Tapping an exact word in a long paragraph can be inconvenient and confusing. Instead, you can turn on your iPhone's secret trackpad and navigate the text cursor like a pro.

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How to disable Discord from opening at startup

Keep a handle on your Discord app's startup in a few simple steps

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We've all been there, you just logged into your Windows PC and want to open Google Chrome, but everything is loading at a snail's pace. If you have Discord installed, this slowdown is likely caused by it opening and updating automatically at startup, which can be infuriating when business needs to get done on A PC away from your favorite Chromebook. This happens due to a couple of sneaky settings both in Discord's properties folder and in the app's settings, opening and updating Discord without your input. Fortunately, we have built a handy guide so you can quickly and easily disable these features, leaving all your existing Discord settings intact and ready to go without the annoying auto start.

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How to remove viruses and malware from an Android phone

Is it really a virus or another type of malware? Let's fix it anyway

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Mobile viruses are unheard of, compared to computer viruses, and internet users have long argued over their existence. While your phone can fall prey to malware, it's unlikely that it's a virus. Android phones are more exposed to malware than iPhones because of their open source operating system (OS). Downloading files from anywhere on the internet is a perk, but just this once, Apple users are lucky not to have it.

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How to listen to Apple Music's lossless tracks on your Android or iPhone

Apple Music supports lossless audio with a bit of work: Here's how to get the best sound around

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Apple Music has introduced seriously high-quality audio for many of its tracks. We're not only talking about Spatial Audio tricks courtesy of Dolby Atmos but also true lossless audio (24-bit/192kHz) that's available through top-tier plans (if audiophiles have the right equipment).

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Here's why Android manufacturers throttle phone perfromance

App throttling exists, and it could be affecting your performance. Here's why it happens

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As consumers, we get a bad taste in our mouths when we hear something is "throttled." That usually means telecom companies are throttling our data and ruining our online experience. It also means that not-so-unlimited data plans get throttled when you go beyond a certain amount of data in a month. Throttling practices like these are widely denounced as unfair and annoying.

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Cracked smartphone display? Here's how much you'll pay to replace it

Using your phone with a cracked screen is never a good idea

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Even though you are extra cautious with your expensive smartphone, an accidental drop may crack its screen in no time. While phone companies go to great lengths to create a shatter-resistant display, it's hard to escape from a broken phone screen during an unfortunate incident. Instead of using your phone with a cracked screen (and further increasing the damage), you should get it fixed by the manufacturer or a third-party service.

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How to change your AirDrop name

Avoid sending files to the wrong person

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AirDrop is a fast and convenient way to transfer files between Apple devices. It works seamlessly on iPhones, iPads, and Macs, allowing you to share files and receive virtually any type of document with almost no prior setup.

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How to use Google Pixel's Call Screen and say goodbye to spam calls

Google can tell you who's calling and will ignore robocalls with Call Screen

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Google's Pixel phones have great hardware, but they set themselves apart with their software. By creating great software features consistent across flagship and budget phones, Google's A-series of phones is a perennial member of our list of the best budget Android phones. One of the best Pixel software features is Call Screen, which automatically answers phone calls on your behalf, saving you time and frustration. This guide discusses what the Call Screen feature is and how to use it so that you'll never answer a spam call again.