After spending a lot of time fiddling around on my smartphone, installing and uninstalling applications, changing and exchanging various options and settings, I think I have reached an optimal configuration point on my Android phone that remains fluid and fast all the time, with excellent battery life that never reaches zero at the end of the day. I therefore like to share the configuration of my Android smartphone, explaining which options I have activated and deactivated and which apps I am using, leaving aside the specific apps that I need, for example, for my work or for other special needs. I state that my smartphone is an LG Nexus 5, with original and pure Android, updated to the latest version (Android 6 Marshmellow).
Other smartphones such as Samsung Galaxy or Asus Zenfone may have different configuration menus and, above all, many pre-installed apps that influence the overall behavior of Android for better or for worse. For this article, I must assume that those who read it already know how to move on Android to change the appearance, access settings and apps, but if not, there will be links to the various guides (and you can start from the basic Android guide )
1) Launcher, Widget and main screen
Let's start with the launcher, i.e. the app chosen to launch applications and display the main phone screen.
The launcher that I use is Nova Launcher Prime, an app that I have already praised in another article, light and very customizable, unfortunately not free.
If you don't want to spend money, you can keep the default phone if you are comfortable or install Google Launcher.
I customized the home screen with 4 screens: the home screen with the Digi Clock clock widget, without weather.
Below I put the Google News widget with weather forecast and news of the day.
I deleted the weather and time widget of apps like 1Weather, perhaps the best weather app for Android, because it sometimes consumed too much battery for the update.
Below, in a small space, I keep the cost widget 3, to know the thresholds and how much credit remains to the SIM card.
On the screen on the left I put the Google search bar, which I never use and the energy control bar, which is better not to keep on the home screen to avoid accidental touches that disable functions.
Finally, on one of the screens on the right, I put the widget to know what song is included in the Google app, the Waze app widget, useful for knowing how long it takes me to go home at any time and the Google Fit widget, to find out how many minutes I walked today.
Of course, in the various screens I have arranged the icons of the apps that I use the most, keeping as 4 fixed apps on the dock, the phone, SMS messages, Whatsapp and the camera.
As a background it is obvious that everyone can choose what they want.
I can suggest, however, to try the dynamic background of Google Meter which on my smartphone works very well and is also useful.
Android is the standard screen lock, with tactile sequence protection (finger drawing) and active Smart Lock.
2) Settings
I refer to another article for the options to be changed in the Android settings.
In addition to these, it is important to activate the low power mode in Geolocation and data backup in Backup and restore .
In the Security menu, also set the message on the lock screen useful in case of loss.
In the Google settings menu, activate the backup of Google Photos with upload quality High quality and, in Security, activate the location of the device remotely, useful in case of theft.
In the Battery settings I always check if there are apps that consume too much of it and, in the options, I activated the battery saver when it drops below 5% as well as the battery optimization of Android 6.
If there is a startup manager on the smartphone (called Start Manager or similarly), use it and remove all the apps except the 4 or 5 most used ones such as Whatsapp, SMS, Phone).
The use instead of apps or tools to free up memory (such as Clean Master) is completely useless and not recommended.
If you feel slow on your smartphone or if the internal memory is always full, refer to the article on how to optimize an Android phone with three changes
3) Keyboard
The default keyboard we use on an Android smartphone is definitely not the best there is.
This award undoubtedly goes to SwiftKey, which I recommend everyone to install and use as a keyboard for writing.
4) The apps that I have installed
In other articles I have already indicated:
- The 10 free indispensable Android Apps for each smartphone
. Android app to have on your new mobile phone or tablet absolutely
In general, in addition to the usual, I recommend using:
- Google Messages SMS for messages
- TrueCaller to know who is calling us if we don't have the number in the phone book and to avoid calls from unwanted numbers.
- TuneIn for internet radio
- Google Remote desktop or TeamViewer for remote PC control.
- Google Keep for taking notes (but Onenote is also excellent).
- Google Drive to switch files from PC to mobile, to open PDFs and documents.
- All Goals for football results (if interested)
- Amazon for online purchases
- Authenticator for double password verification.
- Llama, the app to automate Android.
- Opera Max to consume as little internet data as possible, when we are running out of traffic or if we are abroad.
- PushBullet to share files from mobile phone to computer quickly
- The Navigaweb app, which of course should never be missing if you want to read articles like this.
5) Disable unnecessary pre-installed apps
It is not my case because on a Nexus there are no pre-installed apps except those of Google.
Unfortunately, other phone manufacturers like Samsung fill their memory with useless apps that cannot be uninstalled, that take up space and that take up RAM in the background.
It is really worthwhile to disable the pre-installed apps on Android.
6) App specific configurations
Recently, although I still don't know if the choice is definitive, I uninstalled the heavy and big Facebook App, experiencing a marked improvement in battery life. Even without an app, I still don't give up reading and writing on Facebook, but I do it using Chrome, creating a link to the Facebook site placed on the home screen.
The choice is also motivated by the fact that the Facebook site on Chrome Android sends notifications like the app does.
If you prefer to keep the Facebook app, go to the settings and disable any automatic location service (like friends nearby) that consumes battery.
Also disable automatic Facebook video playback
- Twitter and other social applications
On Twitter, in the app options, disable the Location which in my smartphone consumed a lot of battery. Also check in other social applications if there is this option and disable it. Also, unless Twitter is used for special needs, disable synchronization (if anything put it daily) and notifications.
Disable Now and Ok Google cards, unless you use them often.
- Gmail
In your Gmail account settings, go to Manage labels to avoid synchronizing messages that we don't care to read every moment.
Note that the Gmail app also works for other types of accounts
READ ALSO: Configuration and startup of the new Android phone or tablet (Samsung, Google or other brands)
