With Google’s Android platform being popular with multiple manufacturers and building up a strong ecosystem of dedicated developers, we are always amazed at the extended capabilities Android smartphones receive after Google releases it. Last week, we wrote a piece on some lesser know features that come built into all Android smartphones. This time around, we are going to be a little more specific and discuss features that may be exclusive to certain devices and ROMs only.
Android tips: Awesome tricks some Android smartphones can do
From the manufacturers side we have UIs like BLUR, TouchWiz and HTC Sense, while developer communities have given us awesome ROMs like MIUI, CM and more. So what are some awesome tricks that have been added into these Android smartphones that we may not know of? Here are a couple, sound off in the comments at the bottom if you know of any others:
Smart Actions on Motorola DROID RAZR: The Smart Actions app first made its debut on the RAZR and has ever since been used for many purposes. While initially a way to save battery life and also carry out normal tasks, we’ve seen it used in many different ways. For instance, if you frequently download torrents then the best time would be when you’re on a charger and on WiFi. So you could set Smart Actions to launch a Torrent app at night when your smartphone is at home on the charger, while just adding the torrents during the day and closing the app so it won’t eat up your battery or data plan.
TouchWiz: While we dislike manufacturer UIs in general over stock Android, Samsung and the Galaxy S2 brand have really shown us how some added features could be handy. For instance, if you happen to have a Samsung Galaxy S2 or any other TouchWiz capable Samsung phone, you can drag your finger from left to right and vice versa over the notifications bar to control screen brightness. This feature also happens to be in CyanogenMod and AOKP. In addition to adjust brightness, you can also swipe right for calling and left for texting on a contact.
Custom ROMs & Launchers: Moving away from manufacturer UIs, popular ROMs and launchers like MIUI ROM or Nova Launcher (ICS version) allow you to long hold the home button on the lockscreen to turn on the flashlight on your smartphone.
If you happen to know of other awesome tricks your Android smartphone can do that you believe not everyone would know about, share them in the comments below.
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