How To Droid tips, tricks, and easter eggs

[SharonW]

Very cool thread. I don't have a Droid yet, but I'm still able to come away with some really, really useful advice for when I get.

I think one of the most useful things to know is the tap and hold if you think of it as the equivalent of a mouse's left click right click. It's the exact same thing. Tap = left click, and hold = right click for a menu. When you think of it like that, it seems much of the phone will easily become second nature.

 

[claytronmeans]

If any one is having problems changing text message ring tones, go through messaging, then settings and change the ring tone. Rather than going through settings, sounds and display then changing notification tone.

 

[kmfdmk]

If any one is having problems changing text message ring tones, go through messaging, then settings and change the ring tone. Rather than going through settings, sounds and display then changing notification tone.

That works well, however so far it looks like there are additional steps required to use custom/mp3 ringtones. Looking into that right now, as I've got some rather dorky Star Trek ones that I've used for a few years now and I'd like to keep on using them.

 

[claytronmeans]

That works well, however so far it looks like there are additional steps required to use custom/mp3 ringtones. Looking into that right now, as I've got some rather dorky Star Trek ones that I've used for a few years now and I'd like to keep on using them.

It's not very hard at all; Go to the app store and download RingDroid. It's a free app and will allow you to crop any song that is on your phone and turn it into an alarm, notification, or ring tone.

What I was referring to was that I assigned a tone to my notifications (for text messages) but when I tried to go back through settings>sounds and display> change notification tone, it wouldn't change my tone when receiving text messages. What you need to do is go through the messaging screen> hit the button that gives more options (second from the left, next to the back button) hit settings there, and then change the ring tone from that screen.

 

[blank]

If someone sends you a phone # or email address in an SMS, you can click and hold on the email or phone # to get options like "add to contacts," "email", "sms" etc etc.

Nice little feature.

i seen that. The facebook app automatically added all my facebook friends to my contacts, but for some reason wont let me update that contact listing with their cell numbers. kinda annoying.

 

[claytronmeans]

It looks to me like it only syncs contacts in your phone to people who have their cell number listed on facebook.

 

[McZippie]

After tethering DROID to Netbook with PDA Net software, ran Google Earth on Netbook. Amazing! The tethered DROID provided both a GPS 'postion' icon and streaming real time Google Earth Satellite maps on Netbook.

 

[kmfdmk]

In the Android Market, Rings Extended is an app. that will provide simple functionality that'll let you set custom ringtones per person via text (I believe) as well as simple integration for using MP3's as ringtones. I just found it after doing some more research. There's no indication in the page that lists icons for all your downloaded apps, however if you go into App Management it will show that it's installed.

Again it's one of those things where you have to go to Messaging, and pull up the Settings once there and Slide down to Select Ringtone, at that point the Droid will prompt you if you want to use the Android System or the "Rings Extended" system to "Complete the action" Also it'll give you the option to always use the Rings Extended instead of the Android System.

 

[gotwillk]

this is how i organized my sound files, all of which are MP3s.

i found out that dumping mp3s into the root directory of the phone after mounting will allow the included music player to read the mp3 files and play them all with no problems. but i also wanted to have ringtones, which are also mp3s. i didn't want the music player to be playing these because they are short music files. so i took a shot in the dark and just organized my mp3s by making 2 folders in the root directory, one named "MP3s" and the other one named "Ringtones".

and it worked! the music player only read the mp3s in the "MP3s" folder and not the "Ringtones" folder. so i went into settings to get to the menu where you can change your ringtones and lo and behold my ringtone files were among the selections. awesome! i think you can also do this for notification mp3s by creating a folder called "notifications" as someone already mentioned it i think.

 

[Prototype]

Go to Home Screen
press and hold in open space
select "shortcuts"
select "direct dial" or "direct message"
= 1 touch dialing or messaging to who you want.

I love this one.

 

[Happenstance]

It looks to me like it only syncs contacts in your phone to people who have their cell number listed on facebook.

Looks like during the first sync it "Join"s your contacts with your Facebook friends. If it misses any or you add someone new you can Join them manually from the Facebook contact. Menu > edit > Menu > Join [edit - you can also find separate the same way - if any contacts get inappropriately joined]

Also from the main contacts Menu you can toggle friends with no phone numbers on and off.

K, back to it - enjoy

 

[russell5]

Looks like during the first sync it "Join"s your contacts with your Facebook friends. If it misses any or you add someone new you can Join them manually from the Facebook contact. Menu > edit > Menu > Join [edit - you can also find separate the same way - if any contacts get inappropriately joined]

Also from the main contacts Menu you can toggle friends with no phone numbers on and off.

K, back to it - enjoy

Great tip. But you need to make sure facebook is set to sync all contact first.

 

[soybot]

Please!

Need to change that camera button to a voice search!

hold down the search button (magnifying glass) for a second and it brings up voice search.

 

[cbdiver]

I found it annoying that you had to go through the settings in order to change your ringer from loud/vibrate/silent. I downloaded this great free widget called Ringer Toggle Widget which can sit on your home page and switches between loud/vibrate/silent with a hit of a button.

You can adjust the ringer level and set to vibrate with the volume button on the (r) side.

 

[eraser]

2 What is the best way to explore files saved on your phone? I downloaded the guide (mentioned earlier) to the phone but closed it... now I can't find it.

You need to download a file manager from the market.

Based on a recommendation I saw in another thread, I downloaded one called Astro and it has been working fine.

 

[syntrix]

I just tried a voice for US Bank, click the pincusion and it showed me the address. HOLD on the address and the menu will give you the navigate option!

 

[Reniassance_Man]

I just tried a voice for US Bank, click the pincusion and it showed me the address. HOLD on the address and the menu will give you the navigate option!

Okay, i finally got it. After i chose the destination, all I have to do is tap on the name, let's say "In n out" and then I get that amazing list of features.

While checking this, I did find it a little odd that if I hold down the search soft key while in maps and do a voice search, it brings up the regular google search results. But, if I'm in maps, and tap the soft key, then tap the microphone, it will do a maps voice search and show the results on the map.

I've noticed this too and am quite annoyed by it. If I'm already in google maps, I should be able to just hold down the search button to do a voice search IN google maps and not google. Instead, I have to tap the search key and then tap the microphone key to do a map voice search. I'd love to see a quicker route.

Still, I can't stress enough how much I love this phone.

 

[OctoMom]

Probably obvious to everyone else but I'm new to smarphones (last one I had was a Windows Mobile one about 6 years ago) so this to me is fantastic.

I did a search on Google for Best Buy with my zipcode using my voice. The phone found the nearest Best Buy, I clicked on the map and held down over the phone number and the phone automatically just called.

Sorry if that's no big deal to everyone else but to me that is badass. It wasn't that long ago I would have had to look up Electronics shops in the yellow pages, find Best Buy under the listings and then try to figure out which was the nearest store and then go to the phone and dial manually.

 

[MicroNix]

Don't know if this has been posted yet, but in the browser if there is a phone number, you can tap and hold it and take you to the dialer with that number ready to call. Very nice!

Does everyone have the 54 page user guide PDF file for the Droid? Judging from some of the posts, many haven't found this yet. There was a story posted here for it.

http://phandroid.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/droidguide.pdf

 

[knock]

You can sync music and videos using Windows Media via the USB cable, mounting as described in previous posts in this thread. I have not done it yet with pictures, but I'll bet it will work just fine.
Videos MUST be sized and formatted properly or it will crash the phone. I have Windows 7 and have connected almost instantly with both 32 & 64 bit computers.
I have also played songs on my PC that were stored on my Motodroid and you can sync mp3's you buy with the included Amazon MP3 app back to the PC.

The pdf manual says the Motodroid does NOT do Digital Rights Management (DRM) so this my be a problem for some people but I'll bet there's some way to get around it.

 

[Thanassi44]

If someone sends you a phone # or email address in an SMS, you can click and hold on the email or phone # to get options like "add to contacts," "email", "sms" etc etc.

Nice little feature.

ALSO, just found this out by accident:

if you're reading an email and the person's signature has a number, obviously you can click and add it to your contacts. However, if the signature also contains an address, you can long click on it and it will automatically launch google maps, and pinpoint the location. SO cool!!!

 

[rbobbydray]

It's a little crazy I know, but it is a mystery that obsesses me. I copied a couple of photos off my flickr account to use as wallpaper and set them. Then, having decided that I actually liked the original wallpapers that came with the phone, I went to change back and they were gone! All I can see are the photos that I downloaded in the "gallery."

It is not life-threatening, but it is driving me crazy! I didn't delete them (that I know of) but where did they go?

Sorry! found it. Press and hold on the background in the home screen and there you can find the "wallpaper gallery." It helps to read the getting started pamphlet!

 

[Barbara]

You can also get there from pressing the menu button (four lines) when you are on the home screen. That menu button in numerous programs including individual contacts really answers a lot of questions (so I've found).

 

[russell5]

The only thing i don't like about this phone is the notifications. I wish it were set up like my blackberry (i cant believe i am saying something on a blackberry is better). I want to set up different profiles with a different option for each event. I cant believe this was left out. I dont really know how to set it up for class and church and work.

But don't get me wrong...this is an awesome phone!

App called locale. Can set that all up

 

[nwgman]

Don't know if this has been posted yet, but in the browser if there is a phone number, you can tap and hold it and take you to the dialer with that number ready to call. Very nice!

This is also the case in the email applications as well. All you have to do is touch the screen where the phone number is listed (i.e. in their signature line) and it brings up the phone dialer with the appropriate number pre-filled.