Android Phone Tips
The Settings and Habits That Make Your Phone Dramatically Easier to Live With
By The Bold & The Wise Editorial Team
Friday, May 29, 2026 · 9 min read
Categories: Technology, Friday
Editor’s note: Android phones vary slightly in their menus from one manufacturer to another. The guidance below uses the most common Android menu paths; if your phone’s menu wording is slightly different, the same setting almost always exists under a similar name.
You bought the Android phone. Or your children bought it for you. Or you switched from an iPhone because the new one cost as much as a used car and you finally decided to push back. Either way, the phone is sitting on your kitchen counter, and you are using roughly twenty percent of what it can do — and you have a vague sense that the other eighty percent might be worth investigating.
This article is going to fix that.
Android is the operating system that runs on the majority of smartphones outside the iPhone universe — Samsung Galaxy phones, Google Pixel phones, Motorola phones, OnePlus phones, and a dozen others. It is, in some ways, more flexible than iOS. It is also, in some ways, slightly more confusing, because each manufacturer puts its own visual layer on top of the base Android system. A Samsung phone and a Pixel phone are both Android, but they do not look exactly alike.
What follows is a practical guide that works on any Android phone. Where manufacturers differ in menu wording, we will note it. The goal is the same one we always have here — to help you spend less time fighting with your device and more time living the life it is supposed to make easier.
First: Make the Phone Work for You, Not the Other Way Around
The single most important thing most new Android users do not know is that almost everything about the phone can be adjusted to suit you. The text can be made larger. The screen can be made brighter. The sounds can be made louder. The buttons can be made more responsive.
Before you learn anything else, spend ten minutes customizing your phone so it actually fits how you want to use it. Here is how.
Making text larger.
Open Settings (the gear icon on your home screen or in your app drawer). Tap Display. Tap Font size and style (Samsung) or Display size and text (Pixel and most others). Drag the text-size slider to the right until the text is comfortable to read. There is also usually a Bold text toggle in the same area — turning it on makes everything noticeably easier to read at any size.
Making everything on screen larger.
In the same Display menu, look for Screen zoom, Display size, or Magnification. This makes not only text but icons, buttons, and all interface elements larger. The setting is separate from text size and stacks with it.
Making the screen brighter.
Swipe down from the top of the screen to reveal the Quick Settings panel. A brightness slider is at the top. You can also enable Auto-brightness so the phone adjusts on its own based on ambient light.
Making sounds louder.
In Settings, tap Sounds and vibration (Samsung) or Sound and vibration (Pixel). Drag the Ringtone, Media, and Notifications sliders to the right. Also check that the physical mute switch or “Do Not Disturb” mode is not active — both will silence sounds you may want to hear.
Take these five steps before anything else. Your phone will immediately feel more comfortable and usable.
The Home Screen and the App Drawer
When you unlock your Android phone, you see the home screen — a grid of icons, each one an app. An app is simply a program that does a specific thing.
Unlike iPhone, which puts every app icon on your home screen by default, most Android phones use an app drawer — a separate, scrollable list of every app installed on the phone. To open the app drawer, swipe up from the bottom of the home screen. To put an app icon on your home screen for easier access, press and hold the app in the drawer, then drag it onto the home screen.
The apps worth knowing immediately:
Phone for making and receiving calls. Exactly what it sounds like.
Messages for text messages. On Android, this app handles both standard SMS texts and Google’s RCS messages (a modern upgrade to texting that supports better photo quality and read receipts).
Google (the colorful G icon) for web searches and voice queries.
Chrome for browsing the internet. Works like any web browser.
Photos (Google Photos) for viewing and managing every photo you take. Backed up automatically to the cloud if you set it up.
Camera for taking photos and videos. Press the white shutter button once for a photo, hold for a video.
Maps (Google Maps) for navigation. Excellent and reliable.
Settings where you control everything about the phone.
Google Assistant and “Hey Google”
One of Android’s best features is Google Assistant — a voice assistant that responds to spoken commands without you touching the phone. Once you enable it, you can say “Hey Google” at any time and ask the phone to do something for you.
To enable it, open Settings, search for “Assistant” or “Voice Match,” and follow the setup. The phone will ask you to record your voice saying “Hey Google” two or three times so it learns to recognize you.
Once set up, you can say:
- “Hey Google, call Sarah.”
- “Hey Google, set a timer for twenty minutes.”
- “Hey Google, what is the weather tomorrow?”
- “Hey Google, text my son, I’m on my way.”
- “Hey Google, what’s the address of the nearest pharmacy?”
For an adult over 55, a competent voice assistant is one of the most underused features in modern technology. Use it. The five minutes you spend setting it up will save you hours over the course of a year.
Your Photos Are More Secure Than You Think
If you allow it, every photo you take with your Android phone is automatically backed up to Google Photos in the cloud. This means if your phone is lost, stolen, dropped in a lake, or run over by a delivery truck, your photographs are still safe and recoverable from any other device by logging into your Google account.
To check that backup is active, open the Photos app, tap your profile picture in the upper right, and tap Photos settings → Backup. Make sure Backup is toggled on. While you are there, set Backup quality to Storage saver (which gives you free unlimited backup at slightly compressed quality, suitable for any normal use) or Original quality (which uses your Google storage allotment but preserves the full resolution).
This single setting has saved more memories from disaster than almost any other feature on modern phones. Turn it on today.
Battery Life: Three Settings That Make a Real Difference
Modern Android phones can last all day on a charge if you manage them well. Three settings make the biggest difference.
Dark mode (also called Dark theme). In Settings → Display, turn on Dark theme. Beyond looking nicer in low light, dark mode meaningfully reduces battery drain on phones with OLED screens (which is most modern Android phones).
Adaptive battery. In Settings → Battery → Adaptive preferences (or similar), turn on Adaptive battery. This lets the phone learn which apps you use most and prioritize them in the background — extending battery life without affecting your experience.
Always-on display — turn it off if it is on. In Settings → Display, find Always-on display or Always show time and info. While the feature is convenient, it is also one of the biggest hidden battery drains on Samsung phones in particular.
Staying Safe Online
A few minutes of attention to security saves a great deal of grief later.
Set a strong screen lock. Settings → Security → Screen lock. Use either a PIN (at least six digits), a pattern, a fingerprint, or face unlock. Avoid the “swipe to unlock” option entirely — it is not security.
Be skeptical of unexpected calls and texts. Scammers calling and claiming to be from Medicare, the IRS, the Social Security Administration, your bank, or Apple are not your bank, your IRS, or Apple. Those agencies do not call you unexpectedly. Hang up. If the call is real, the agency will write you a letter.
Do not tap links in unexpected text messages. If you get a text from “your bank” with a link to “verify your account,” do not tap the link. Open your bank’s app or website directly through a method you already trust.
Update your phone regularly. Settings → Security and privacy → System updates (or similar). When an update is available, install it. Most updates contain security patches that protect you from threats discovered since the last update.
Use a password manager. Google Password Manager is built into Android and free. It generates strong, unique passwords for every site you use and remembers them so you do not have to. Setting it up once and then using it forever is the single biggest security upgrade most readers could make.
Three Features Most People Discover Late and Immediately Love
Live Transcribe. A free Google app that transcribes spoken conversation into text on your screen in real time. Useful in noisy restaurants, in meetings, and for anyone with even mild hearing loss. Download from the Play Store and try it once.
Magnifier. Most Android phones have a built-in magnifier that uses the camera to enlarge anything you point it at — small print on a medicine bottle, a restaurant menu in low light, an electrical part number. Look for Magnifier in Settings → Accessibility, or download the Google Magnifier app from the Play Store.
Emergency information on the lock screen. Settings → Safety and emergency (or Emergency information). You can record your medical conditions, medications, allergies, and emergency contacts. If you are ever injured and unable to speak, first responders can access this information from your locked phone. Worth setting up today, even though you hope to never need it.
A Word on Manufacturer Differences
If your Android phone is a Samsung Galaxy, the menus and app names will sometimes differ from a Google Pixel or a Motorola. The underlying features are almost always the same — they just live under slightly different labels. If you cannot find a setting we describe, type a keyword from this article into the search bar at the top of the Settings app, and the phone will jump you to the matching menu.
Samsung phones also have a separate set of features called One UI — for example, Bixby (Samsung’s voice assistant, parallel to Google Assistant) and Samsung Pay. You can use those features or ignore them. Google Assistant works on Samsung phones just fine if you prefer it.
You Already Know More Than You Think
The phone is a tool. Like every tool, it rewards familiarity. The more you use it for calls, for messages, for photographs, for navigation, for looking things up, the more natural it becomes. Permit yourself to experiment. Tap things. Explore menus. Nothing you tap in the normal course of using an Android phone will break it or cause permanent damage.
The phone is more patient than you think. And you are more capable than you may be giving yourself credit for.
Next Monday on The Bold & The Wise: Homelessness and the 55-and-Better Community — The Quiet Crisis That Almost No One Is Talking About, and What the Rest of Us Can Actually Do About It.
Products That Make Android Easier to Use
- A clear, drop-resistant case that fits your specific phone model
- A wireless charging stand for the bedside table so you can place the phone without fumbling with cables
- A pop-grip phone holder that makes one-handed use more secure
- A high-quality screen protector to prevent cracks on the display
- A pair of basic Bluetooth earbuds for hands-free calls and audio
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