Help First 3 things to do with S4

Mysterio2525 · May 15, 2013

I am switching to GS4 shortly and was wondering what are the top 3 things that people would recommend with the new phone to either install, uninstall, disable or modify once out of the box? (And I don't mean put in battery, turn on, activate).

I have heard to disable S voice was a popular one, any others?

sntaylor · May 15, 2013

Depends on wether you want to root, or have done in the past ;-)

CrimsonPride · May 15, 2013

disable s voice and most of the carrier apps, depending on which carrier you are on it is different. thats the biggest thing. what to do next depends on what you want, i installed a new launcher and theme, then set up all my old apps. it really depends on what all you want to do

Mysterio2525 · May 15, 2013

Any particular bloatware that you think I should avoid? Definitely disabling s voice as I wont use. I usually wait a little while before downloading a launcher. Just recently put Nova launcher on my bionic and it is pretty nice.

CrimsonPride · May 15, 2013

Mysterio2525 said:
Any particular bloatware that you think I should avoid? Definitely disabling s voice as I wont use. I usually wait a little while before downloading a launcher. Just recently put Nova launcher on my bionic and it is pretty nice.

It depends on what carrier you have. on at&t i pretty much disabled any app that had at&t in it (at&t navigator, messages, mobile tv, yahoo finance etc)

rkkeller · May 16, 2013

Mysterio2525 said:
I am switching to GS4 shortly and was wondering what are the top 3 things that people would recommend with the new phone to either install, uninstall, disable or modify once out of the box? (And I don't mean put in battery, turn on, activate).

I have heard to disable S voice was a popular one, any others?

I would not disable or change anything until you have had time to experience it on your own as opinions differ.

My top thing would be to enjoy the phone, try out all the neat features and apps and see what you like and don't for a couple weeks. Then go from there.

james_uk · May 16, 2013

The first things i have done are:

Disabled S voice
Turned off all sensors
Turned off auto adjust screen tone
Enabled developer options and turned off the animation scales to speed up menu's.

crabman · May 16, 2013

Mine was rooted about 1 minute after I got it. First step with every new phone for me as I need to be rooted to run Titanium backup and put my apps with all their data on the phone. This has the added benefit of getting my ad blocking software on the phone which in itself is a must have out of the gate.

I haven't had a carrier phone in quite a long time at this point so I don't face much bloat of the kind that carriers install but that would be my next step if I had a carrier phone, disable all the bloatware.

Step three would be to apply the know fixes to the particular phone. In the case of the S4 you would want to enable developer and go into those settings and turn off the animations as well as opening up S voice and disabling the home button feature. This will pretty much end the annoying lag in the launcher. This lag is already fixed on several of the custom roms I've tried so I would expect a carrier update doing the same at some point in the future.

From there I normally use a phone for a few days to get a feel for the phones goodies and make sure there are no hardware issues.

jds4000 · May 16, 2013

Add to the list 1. Otterbox Defender 2. Spigen Tempered Glass Screen Protector 3. 64 GB MicroSD Card (less than $52 on Amazon).

josborne6 · May 16, 2013

1. Access Developer options (can find out how on youtube) and disable the animations. They don't take away from the look of the UI but I noticed the lag improvement that everyone talked about.
2. Put some sort of security lock on your device as these are sure to be moving up the list of desired phones for thieves.
3. Practice with the camera in different settings to learn all of the new features. This thing takes unbelievable pictures! Took some pictures with the fam. by a waterfall at a resort (with ears) this weekend and our pictures with the S4 were clearer than the ones the resort photographers took.

Enjoy!

Money_Mark · May 16, 2013

Download the SwiftKey app from the Play store.

james_uk · May 16, 2013

Or the Swype app

lotus49 · May 16, 2013

jds4000 said:
Add to the list 1. Otterbox Defender 2. Spigen Tempered Glass Screen Protector 3. 64 GB MicroSD Card (less than $52 on Amazon).

You may spend more time in a hostile environment than I do or may just not be very careful, but putting my lovely slim phone with a screen that is smooth and a delight to the touch in a fat case behind a rubbery screen protector would go down as the last and second to last things I would do.

I agree about the SD card though. 64GB is a lot of space and comes at a very reasonable price (although sadly for us in the UK, not quite that reasonable).

Mysterio2525 · May 16, 2013

james_uk said:
The first things i have done are:

Disabled S voice
Turned off all sensors
Turned off auto adjust screen tone
Enabled developer options and turned off the animation scales to speed up menu's.

These look like some of the ones I thought of. Does the s4 have an ability to limit background processes in developer options? I did this in my bionic after it started to lag and it helped with speed.

james_uk · May 16, 2013

Mysterio2525 said:
These look like some of the ones I thought of. Does the s4 have an ability to limit background processes in developer options? I did this in my bionic after it started to lag and it helped with speed.

Yes in developer options there is options to limit the background processes.

xfengx · May 17, 2013

Does anyone here know how to delete and add all apps into and out of the multi window applications?Cause i cant seem to add whatsapp and etc apps into the multi window.

rudie8125 · May 17, 2013

crabman said:
Step three would be to apply the know fixes to the particular phone. In the case of the S4 you would want to enable developer and go into those settings and turn off the animations as well as opening up S voice and disabling the home button feature. This will pretty much end the annoying lag in the launcher. This lag is already fixed on several of the custom roms I've tried so I would expect a carrier update doing the same at some point in the future.

This is my first time with an android phone. I see three options in the developer screen: window animation scale, transition animation scale, and animator duration scale. I turned off all three, but still see an animated transition when I open a folder of apps. Is there anyway to shut that animation down?

NatGreen · May 19, 2013

james_uk said:
The first things i have done are:

Disabled S voice
Turned off all sensors
Turned off auto adjust screen tone
Enabled developer options and turned off the animation scales to speed up menu's.

I'm curious as to why you and many others are mentioning to remove S Voice. I watched a video of it and it seems to be pretty accurate or is it that it takes up a lot of memory to run it?

Turbodc2 · May 19, 2013

Yeah I find it odd that so many people disable S voice. I use it pretty regularly. Owell, different strokes for different folks.

Coolhands · May 19, 2013

People are disabling S Voice because it will "some what" speed up the phone, apparently. Some people have noted slight lag when hitting the home button and that is due to S Voice waiting to see if you hit it again to activate S Voice. If you all together disable S Voice there won't be any lag since there won't be anything to look for a second home button hit.

speedlever · May 19, 2013

Good question. I did some research and it appears that Google Search seems to trump S Voice. I saw no need for both apps.

You can always re-enable SVoice if you disable it.

Sylon · May 19, 2013

I've had my S4 for awhile now and just disabled S-Voice, so much nicer. I wish I had done it sooner.

I'm one of those people that try to enjoy what the phone comes with. So I'm still using TW and the stock build on the phone. No root, no flash, nothing. I try to enjoy it how it is. I also do a lot of research before I buy, to see if I'll like it or not. But that doesn't mean I didn't make any changes.

First things I did were disable/uninstall any of the bloatware that would allow it. Coming from the iPhone and Nexus 4, it's been awhile since I've had to deal with AT&T bloatware.

I then turned off some of the gestures and air view features I wasn't going to use, along with turning smart screen off completely. I also turned off the multi-window feature. I didn't care for it.

I then cleared off the entire homescreen. All the widgets, apps, etc, and then organized it how I wanted. I have 5 panels turned on, but I only use 3 of them. Haven't quite figured out what to do with the other 2, lol.

gbiggie · May 19, 2013

Having just switched from a single core/GB phone I dont see the lag

Just got the phone yesterday and figure I will experience the beast "out of the box" for at least a few days as previous posts stated.
Nightlies are calling me though:rofl:

Mysterio2525 · May 19, 2013

Sylon said:
I've had my S4 for awhile now and just disabled S-Voice, so much nicer. I wish I had done it sooner.

I'm one of those people that try to enjoy what the phone comes with. So I'm still using TW and the stock build on the phone. No root, no flash, nothing. I try to enjoy it how it is. I also do a lot of research before I buy, to see if I'll like it or not. But that doesn't mean I didn't make any changes.

First things I did were disable/uninstall any of the bloatware that would allow it. Coming from the iPhone and Nexus 4, it's been awhile since I've had to deal with AT&T bloatware.

I then turned off some of the gestures and air view features I wasn't going to use, along with turning smart screen off completely. I also turned off the multi-window feature. I didn't care for it.

I then cleared off the entire homescreen. All the widgets, apps, etc, and then organized it how I wanted. I have 5 panels turned on, but I only use 3 of them. Haven't quite figured out what to do with the other 2, lol.

I tend to be the sane way. I will see how touchwiz treats me before making too many changes but do like to know which functions slow the phone down that i know i wont use. Mi will eventually download a launcher if tw bugs me. i like nova launcher on my bionic but that may change depending on how long i stick with tw.

GatorfanDroid · May 19, 2013

Make sweet love to the sexy s4 in many ways other then 3 ha.

Help First 3 things to do with S4

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