The HTC One M8 comes with a slot for a microSD which is across from the volume rocker. You can put in an SD card up to 128GB and this boosts the storage considerably. Go to settings – storage – settings – update all – SD card storage. This will make sure that any data is saved to SD card. As the HTC One M8 doesn’t come with a file manager you may want to download Astro File Manager or something similar. You can also use Cloud Storage with Google Drive app and Wi-Fi data. You can get 50GB with Google for 2 years when you open up the Google Drive app.
Did you know that you can just pick up the HTC One M8 to answer a phone call. The device makes use of the gyroscope along with light sensors to detect when the handset has been picked up. You can turn this on or off in settings – call – auto answer call.
If you wish to keep a track of the battery power in your device you can go to settings – power – show battery level – check.
The Do not Disturb feature in quick settings is useful as it will block incoming calls, notifications, vibrations from messages and lights and sounds. This is superb for when you are in a business meeting. To turn it on just long press the Do Not Disturb and it will show you options to allow certain contacts to get in touch with you.
If you want to get more battery from the phone you can turn sleep mode on in settings – power – on. This will turn off the cellular data when the device is not active for a long period of time. However this still lets phone calls and messages through, but it doesn’t allow apps to update in the background. You can wake the device up with a simple double tap.
There is a kid’s mode on the device in the event that you let your kids have your phone. To switch to kids mode you should hold the power button down and then select it. This will put the handset into a special mode that only exits when you type in your birth year.
One of the most distinctive cases that has ever been seen is the HTC One M8 dot view case. It provides protection for the handset and shows notification when you double tap on the front. It shows time, weather, incoming calls and contact names. You can answer the phone without having to open the cover.
If you don’t want notification lights on your handset you can go into settings – display and gestures – notification light and then adjust what triggers the light. You can turn on or off calls, messages, voice mail, alarms, mail and calendar.
Emergency alerts can be shown if your carrier allows it. You can go into the app drawer – emergency alerts – press the three dot menu at the top right and the adjust settings. You can then turn on or off the alerts in categories such as extreme, amber and severe.
You can get a close up look at something on the display if you tap the display three times. To take the display back to its normal size just triple tap again. You can toggle this in settings – accessibility – magnification gestures – on. You can hold the magnification and it will follow your finger and close when you let go.
You can use the power button on your handset to end a call. Just go into settings – accessibility – power button ends call.
You can tap the notifications bar to get back to the top of a page. You can see the apps used most by tapping twice on the Home key and then tap to go to that app. You can also swipe on it to close it, long press on the home key to bring up Google Now. You can unlock the handset and do certain things with the gesture below.
a. Swipe down – brings you to Voice Dialing
b. Swipe up – Last Activity
c. Swipe left – Home Screen
d. Swipe right – Blinkfeed
e. Wake screen + swipe dock icons up – Launch directly
f. Hold volume down button – Launch camera (works on enabled lock screen)
if you want to get even more speed from the handset and boost the battery life you can go into settings – developer options – advanced – animation section – turn off animations of your choice. If you cannot see the developer options you should go into settings – about – software information – Android version and then tap several times and it will unlock the developer options.
To make sure that you close off apps so they don’t run in the background you can go to settings – apps – swipe all and go through the list and then tap disable.
