How to Configure my Android Device?

You just bought a new android device and you want to configure it, whether it is a mobile or smartphone, a tablet, or any other device.

You have come to the right place where we will facilitate the work to configure my device, you do not miss any important option or feature that you did not know and that can be very useful for you.

Here we leave you the best manual and the best tricks, to configure your android device and the options that if or if you have to configure to get the most out of your new or not so new android device.

In addition to being useful for day to day and to protect them, with functions such as, ok google configure my device nearby.

Find and Set Up Nearby Devices How to Move All Your Data to Your Android Device 

Your Android Device has many useful features that you probably haven’t discovered yet that are within my device settings.

Setting up the nearby device feature is one of these hidden tricks.

The Ok Google set up my device nearby feature, allows you to set up a new Android device, wireless headset, OS watch, tablet and other accessories from your existing Android phone.

Using the same Wi-Fi network. It is especially useful when you need to set up a new phone from your old one, as you can move your settings, apps and data from the old device to the new one.

Here’s how to use Proximity Device Setup to set up a new Android phone and what to do if Proximity Device Setup doesn’t work correctly for your devices.

If you are setting up a proximity device for the first time, you may have difficulty locating the feature.

The Configure Proximity Device option is located in your Settings app > Google Settings. It is available on devices running on Android Marshmallow 6.0 or higher.

To use the Configure Proximity Device option to set up your new phone, you will need:

• Your current Android device that has the Configure Device with Find and Configure Nearby Devices option in Google settings;
• A new Android phone that is not yet configured.

In this part, we’ll walk you through the steps to install everything on a new nearby phone that your old phone had, albeit packed with settings, apps, bookmarks, notes….

You will go through them easily and without wasting hours to do it all over again, with this set up my google device feature.

Step 1: Prepare to set up a nearby device (Old Mobile).

On your old phone, tablet or any Android device, connect to a working Wi-Fi network, turn on Bluetooth and location.

To enable location, go to Settings > Location.

Also, if the notification is turned off on the device, turn the notification on in Settings as well.

You also need to have notifications enabled, if you disabled them go to Settings > Google > Device & Sharing > Devices and enable Show Notifications.

Step 2: Start your new phone or Start Configuring Nearby Device (New Mobile)

Now turn on your brand new, brand new device for the first time and follow the on-screen instructions to set up the device until you get to “Do you have another device?”. Tap “Copy your Google accounts, apps, and data from your other device.” You can also do the process of copying or passing all data after doing the initial setup or two phones in short, whether they are both old, second hand, one new and one old……

That is to say, after a while or two, three or more days after turning it on. In this case in the new mobile we would do the same as Step 3.

Step 3: Start configuring the nearby device (Old or Old Mobile)

On your old or old Android phone, tap Settings > Google > Set up and restore > Set up nearby device.

Or you can also tell your google assistant, Ok Google Set Up My Device, as you see in the following image and start the process.

With both methods it will start searching for a new available device near you, “Searching for Device”. The new phone should be near your current phone. Once you find the new phone, tap on it.

Step 4: Confirm the verification code (On both Devices)

The same verification code will appear on both Android phones (after saying ok google set up my device and hitting next on Let’s get started). Make sure the verification code is exactly the same and hit Next on the old phone.

Step 5: Copy the data from the old Android phone to the new phone

After verifying the code, you will see the “Copy to your other device” screen on your old device.

Hit Copy and enter your Google account password on the new device.

Setting up your Android Tablet or Smartphone device for the first time: Tips and Tricks.

Installation and setup details differ by phone manufacturer and carrier.

It is within the realm of possibility that the people at the phone store helped you through the initial setup process.

If this is not the case, for example because you bought it online, follow the Android device setup process which you can see here.

Note that each Android phone is slightly different from all others, and manufacturers often add their own steps to the setup.

For simplicity, the steps listed here cover stock Android so you can set up my new device.

Don’t be alarmed if your screens look a little different than shown here; just follow the instructions and your phone will walk you through the rest.

Select a language for My Device Setup.

Once you turn on the phone, you will come to a welcome screen where you will be prompted to choose a language.

Touching the default language opens a list of all languages available on the system.

Select your preferred language from the list and tap the arrow to continue.

This will set in my device settings the system language and its menus, but you can choose to add more languages to the keyboard later if you are multilingual.

In the next screen it gives you to choose the region, we do the same as above, choose the corresponding one.

You can look for it in the searcher that you see in the image or screen, to go faster if it is not the first one.

Insert the SIM card and enter your PIN.

Next depending on the Android version and manufacturer, you can either exit or select wifi or you will be prompted to insert a SIM card.

You can actually skip this, but assuming you really want to use this device as a phone, it is an important step in set up my device.

Putting the SIM card in the phone can sometimes be a bit tricky: Sony devices, for example, have flaps that must be opened, while most phones require the insertion of a PIN to open the slot.

If you have an older phone, the SIM card should go under the battery, in which case you will need to carefully open the back of the device.

You will be prompted to enter the PIN number of your SIM card, which usually comes in the SIM card package. This is a different PIN than the one you will be able to set later, which is used to prevent unauthorized access in case someone picks up your devices.

After this step, you will be asked to select whether you want to start as a new user or import data from your previous device. In either case, the next thing you will want is Wi-Fi.

Select a Wi-Fi network to set up my New Device.

If you are within range of a wireless network, you can now connect to it.

Simply select your network from the list and enter the password if necessary. Then tap “Connect”.

We suggest that you connect to Wi-Fi at this stage so that you can download updates and new applications as soon as possible.

Accept the Terms and Conditions.

After entering the password of the wifi network we have chosen, we have to accept the terms and conditions by clicking on the circle next to “I have read and accept the User Agreement and Privacy Policy”.

After this we may be asked to Insert Sim Card (we can omit it), if we had not done it in the previous step.

Do you have another device? Configure My Device.

At this point, you will be asked if you want to copy your data from another Android device. If you are able and willing to do so, do so.

Otherwise, select to set as “new user” or “do not copy” or something similar and continue to the next step, knowing that later you can in google settings configure nearby device.

Backups can be useful if you have a lot of data on your old device.

If you want to transfer from backups on your old phone, it will prompt you to open the Google app on your old phone and ask the assistant “Ok Google, set up my device” or go to Settings > Google > Set up nearby device.

Or, you can sign in with your Google account to back up from the cloud, which is the next step.

You’d be surprised how much you can transfer, from files to text, images and more.

Below we better detail how to search and set up your nearby device at;

Set up/login to Google account (optional).

Whether you skipped the previous step or not, the next step is to set up or sign in to an account to use your smartphone with Google apps and services, such as Gmail or Play Store.

If you already have a Google account, you can enter those details now or create a new account.

After that you enter the password if you already had a gmail email. Next, you will be asked to accept Google’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Read them (if you want to) by tapping on the highlighted phrases and then click “Accept”.

You can choose to create a Gmail account later, sign in with an existing account, or create one.

If you don’t have a Google account yet, but would like to create one, just follow the steps to choose a username and create a password.

You don’t need a Google Account to use or set up my phone, but you will need one to use all of its features, including installing Play Store applications.

To get the most out of your new Android phone, you really should have a Google Account.

Some manufacturers, such as Samsung, ask you during registration if you want to create an extra account. This is only necessary if you want to use some special services from that company.

These services can be useful if you lose your phone or if you want to take advantage of special features unique to your phone manufacturer’s devices. If you wish, you can simply skip this step.

If you wish, you can opt out of Google’s data collection. Google will also ask you which services you would like to opt out of. This includes backing up your device, which is recommended in case something happens to it.

Los demás servicios se pueden evaluar caso por caso. None of them are essential, and they can be enabled or disabled at any time.

Accept Google Services.

This step you simply click More and then Accept, there is no other way.

Depending on the manufacturer and version Android will ask you several more things like choosing applications that you want to be, just hit more – accept and choose according to your preferences.

Choose your search engine from the list, we choose Google, but you can also choose Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, etc.

Protect your phone with “Set Password”.

If you already have an email address that you want to sync with your Android phone, this is where you can add it. As with almost every step on this list, this can be done later.

Next, you will be asked if you want to secure your device. We highly recommend it. In case you lose your device, this security measure is a key step to prevent unwanted access to your device.

This can be done with facial recognition for phones that support it, with fingerprint recognition or with a simple PIN (different from your SIM).

Let’s look at the versions where Set Password gives you a choice between Fingerprint and Screen Lock Only.

If you give “Screen Lock Only” you get the screen you can see, giving you a choice between Pattern, Pin or Fingerprint, you just have to choose how you want to unlock your phone and put your password, pin or pattern according to the choice of each.

If you choose “Fingerprint” the screen you can see will appear, you will have to follow the instructions you are given to record your fingerprint.

Remember that you can record more than one fingerprint, from different hands and fingers or from different people.

Additional Settings and Choose Theme.

To finish the configuration of your initial or basic device you only have to go to Additional settings, select or deselect the settings you think you need. In my case I do not select any, but that is to the consumer’s taste.

We give to the arrow to advance it gives us to choose a theme, that you will choose according to tastes and that later you can change.

We give the arrow again and depending on which Android will tell us Configuration Complete, we give the arrow or ok or something like that and stay a while loading applications mobile.

And finally, you have your mobile or smartphone ready to use, although you still have some configuration recommendations to make the most of your brand new device.

Additional and Highly Recommended Device Settings

These settings below are the most typical and most useful in our experience.

They are not mandatory but they will save you from some scare, some annoyance or annoyance and why not make your life easier and maybe you did not know these settings of most of the devices.

Notifications

Configure your notifications, it is very important. In this section, you configure how the device displays content when the phone is locked. You have three options:

Show all notification content means that when the device is locked, if you receive a message, for example, this message will be displayed on the lock screen. Hide sensitive notification content will show some notification information, such as that you have received a message, but will hide the message content. Not showing notifications at all means you won’t see any notifications on the lock screen, but they will still be in your device’s notification shade.

Disable Bloatware.

Chances are your phone came with some apps pre-installed by the manufacturer or carrier that you didn’t ask for and can’t get rid of (unless you decide to root it).

These apps take up space and can slow down your phone. To maximize your phone’s capabilities, you may want to get rid of these things.

Once the phone is up and running, go to the apps menu in the settings section and look for apps that have been previously loaded on the phone.

You may not be able to uninstall them, but you can disable them and uninstall updates, which will minimize the space they take up. Disabling an app also means you will no longer see it in the app drawer.

A word of caution, however. If this is your first Android device, you may want to keep pre-installed apps until you’re sure you won’t need them, that they won’t break an important part of your phone’s experience, or until you’ve found suitable alternatives in the Play store.

When reviewing your device’s initial setup, it may also ask you to sign up for additional malware protection or other additional services.

Don’t worry about these offerings; you shouldn’t have to sign up for anything beyond your Google account during setup.

Setting up Google Assistant, OK Google.

The next step you might see is an invitation to use the smart Google Assistant. You’ll be prompted to repeat certain phrases so the assistant can recognize your voice.

Which it should do promptly if you have already set up Voice Match on another device. For more information about ok google you may be interested in this article;

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Set up mobile data tracking.

If you don’t have an unlimited plan, it’s imperative to monitor how much data you’ve used in a given billing cycle.

Going over the limit for all those endearing cat videos you’re watching on YouTube can get expensive.

Setting up mobile data tracking is easy. Head to your device’s settings, tap “Data Usage” and then set the billing cycle and the amount of data your plan offers.

The next and final step is to enable a data warning and data limit.

The former will notify you when you have used a predefined amount of data, while the latter will turn off cellular data once it reaches the limit you set.

If you can’t find the data tracking feature on your Android device, fear not, my friend.

There are plenty of dedicated apps available in the Play Store such as My Data Manager.

Insert your microSD card (if you have one).

If your phone has a microSD card slot, the last thing to do is to insert a microSD card, if it has one and you didn’t set it up at first. This will provide additional storage space for your device so you can save more files.

If you don’t have a microSD card, consider purchasing one to save space on your phone’s internal storage.

You may not need the extra storage space at first. But, once you start downloading apps, getting large software updates, and taking pictures and videos, you may need more space.

Other services

Many smartphones come with pre-installed software, such as cloud storage services like Dropbox, Box or Google Drive. Some even come with Facebook or Microsoft Office!

If you already have an account for these services, you will be prompted to sign into them now, or you can sign up for the ones you want.

Download apps from Google Play Store (optional).

The initial smartphone setup is now complete. To see the apps that have already been installed on your device, look in the app drawer.

The app drawer is a list of icons for all the apps on your phone and you will likely find it at the bottom of the home screen (the screen you should currently be on).

The app drawer icon is a gray circle with six dots inside, which you can tap from the home screen.

Now, look at your apps screen. If there’s an app you don’t have yet that you want, you can go to Google’s Play Store to download it.

Don’t worry, the Play Store itself will already be installed on your phone. Installing the apps is a simple process and the phone will guide you through everything you need to do (such as logging in).

If you don’t find an app drawer, it means your phone doesn’t have one. To find your apps in this case, simply swipe left or right on the home screen to see the other home screens where apps can be found.

You can Turn off sounds and vibrations.

New phones like to vibrate, click and beep with every touch. For some reason, the manufacturers think you want to constantly know you’ve touched it and all of these things are annoying and can even slow down the phone.

Once you’ve sorted out some of the basics, tame those unwanted notifications and vibrations. You’ll thank us in the long run.

On a standard Android phone (Pixel, Nokia, Moto, HTC), head to Settings > sound > advanced > other sounds and vibrations. Here you’ll be able to disable screen lock, touch sounds and vibrate on touch.

If you want to edit the keyboard vibrations, go to settings > system > languages and input > virtual keyboard, then select your keyboard and go to preferences and you can disable things like vibration on key press.

Unfortunately, every manufacturer that makes their own operating system moves these things around and changes the location of these settings, as do different versions of Android.

If you don’t have a “sounds” section, try “sounds and notifications.”

How to Get to your settings Faster.

Pulling down the notification bar will give you access to shortcuts for various hardware changes.

Here you can disable or enable things like Bluetooth or Wi-Fi quickly and easily.

Many manufacturers edit this area, so Samsung, LG, HTC and Pixel devices all look different, but they all work the same way.

Swipe down with two fingers and it takes you straight to those buttons, or swipe down twice to open everything.

Usually if you long press the quick setting and you’ll go to the full menu for that area. For example, if Wi-Fi is causing you problems, long press the quick setting icon and you will go to the full Wi-Fi menu.

If you want to go to the full settings menu, tap the cogwheel in the notification area when you swipe down, instead of trying to find the option in the app tray.

What’s the best Android keyboard for your device?

If you have a phone from a manufacturer like LG, HTC, Samsung, Huawei or many others, you may find that you have a keyboard that isn’t great. On Android you can use any keyboard you want and there are many on Google Play.

If you’re looking for more customization and better autocorrection and suggestions, SwiftKey is a great keyboard that learns better from you and offers many settings.

However, if you just want speed and simplicity, then you’ll find that Gboard – the Google Keyboard – is actually one of the best out there. It’s the stock keyboard for Android, so it already comes on many devices. If you don’t have it, then it’s a must-have.

Changing keyboards is pretty simple. In most cases, when you’ve downloaded a new keyboard, just set the top to “open” in Google Play or tap the notification and you’ll launch into the settings.

Customize your Android home pages.

The home page is at the front of the queue when it comes to customization.

Your new Android device will probably come with a number of shortcuts and widgets spread across multiple pages.

If you don’t want them, delete them with a long press and drag them to the trash can. You can also delete the pages they’re on: there’s no need to have seven home pages if they’re all empty.

Different versions of Android and different manufacturers have slightly different approaches to home page customization.

Typically, a long press on the wallpaper or a pinch on the background will get you started, but it differs from device to device.

If you’re just struggling to find wallpaper suggestions, try the Android Wallpapers app, or browse our gallery of wallpapers you could use.

Which Android launcher should I use?

If you are new to Android, the term launcher can be confusing. The launcher is basically the home pages and app tray. It’s the home of your phone.

Your device will come with a launcher instead, the one from the manufacturer. If you don’t like it and want to give your phone a different look, it’s very easy to switch to an alternative and there are many on Google Play.

When you install a new launcher, the original remains on the phone so you don’t lose it, you just tell the phone to use a different launcher instead, meaning you can escape the Samsung One UI look and feel if you don’t like it, for example, and have something a little more unique.

If you want to move closer to Google, the Google Now launcher will give you access to more information at the swipe of a finger and give you, overall, a clean Android look and feel.

If you want more control and customization, as well as the ability to emulate some of the latest features of some of the best Android phones, then there are few launchers as capable as Nova Launcher. The options are almost endless.

What is the best browser for Android?

There are many browsers available for Android, and each offers a range of different options.

The most widely used browser is Chrome and it is the best browser for Android for many people, as it syncs with Chrome on the desktop and allows easy access to Google history.

However, when you go to set up new device, you may have another browser, probably one that has been modified by the device manufacturer. In most cases, you can ignore it and go directly to Chrome.

If you have more than one browser installed, the phone will ask you which one to open until you select a default one. Often you just tap the message that pops up and you’re done. Others that you can use and that are recommended by many are Mozilla, Opera…

Use Android folders.

Folders are a great way to organize your apps on your home page. To be more efficient, you can also place folders in the shortcut bar at the bottom of the screen.

This means you can keep many of your main apps handy without cluttering up your home page, so that your lovely cat wallpaper remains visible.

To create a folder, just drag the shortcut of one app over another and a folder will automatically be created.

Some devices will also allow you to create folders in the app tray (menu), which is a great way to organize everything inside and make it easier to find your app.

That said, if you’ve done a good job with your home page folders, you’ll rarely find yourself using the main app tray.

Copy and Move files from your Android device.

Android is great because it gives you a lot of flexibility to carry and use all kinds of files.

Using the cloud is preferable to using a cable and you have a lot of options to access those PDFs or anything else you want.

You can use Google Drive to move files easily and then you can access them through any browser, or on any Android device, or with apps elsewhere.

Google’s apps will let you edit them easily, and there are free apps for things like Docs and Sheets, great for working on your documents on the go.

Alternatively, Microsoft offers free Office apps for Android, although some features are only available to Office 365 subscribers. It works in conjunction with OneDrive, again, so you can have seamless access to your important files across devices.

Alternatively, Dropbox will do much the same thing. Install the app and you can move files through the cloud to your device.

If you want to use cable, and that’s sometimes better for larger files like video files, then you have several options.

Many manufacturers bundle software with devices, although this tends to focus on syncing photos and music and is often more problematic.

Instead, you can access the device through Windows once connected via USB, so you just drag and drop the files.

On a Mac, you’ll need to install an app called Android File Transfer. Once in place, you can drag and drop directly back to the device’s memory.

Note, however, that there are several settings on the phone to handle USB connections. You’ll have a choice of what you want to do, but these days, using cloud sync is usually the quickest and easiest option.

After the initial setup, you will be taken to the home screen.

You may be asked several questions or prompted to try various tricks when you first start using your phone. Some of those prompts or tricks are helpful, but it’s okay to skip some. The location items relate to how the phone knows its position on planet Earth. You should probably enable all of these items to get the most out of your Android phone. You don’t need to use any specific software provided by the phone manufacturer or your cell phone provider. For example, if you don’t want a Samsung account, you don’t need to sign up for one; skip that step. By setting up your Google account, you coordinate any information you have on the Internet with your new Android phone.

This information includes your emails and contacts in Gmail, your appointments in Google Calendar, and information and data from other Google Internet applications.

Set up “Find my device” right now.

There are several options available to remotely track your phone, but Google’s Find My Device service is one of the best and most convenient.

In addition to locating your phone, Find My Device allows you to call, remotely lock or even wipe data if your phone goes missing or is stolen.

Find My Device is activated immediately on most devices, but it’s a very good idea to see if it’s working on your phone, mobile, smartphone or tablet.

Doing so is simple and takes no more than a few minutes, so let’s get started.

To see if we have it enabled or disabled we can do it in several methods, one is the following, we go to Settings – Security Status and by switching screens we can see if it is disabled or enabled, as you can see in these images it is disabled.

 

Well, we are going to activate “Find My Device” and for this we go to Settings – Google – Security – Find My Device and there we activate it if it was disabled.

The back is useful to know if we have activated or to directly activate the “Find my device” option, now we see how to find your Android device if you can’t find it.

If your phone does not already come with the “Find My Device” application preinstalled, you can download the application from the Play Store.

The service is available for download even on older devices – all phones running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and above have it.

Once the app is installed, you’ll need to sign in with your Google account.

Doing so allows the service to essentially link your phone to your Google account.

Since Find My Device relies on Wi-Fi and GPS to determine the location of your device, it requires access to location services. Once you grant access to location services, you should be able to see a map with your phone’s location highlighted.

If you need to remotely track your phone, all you need to do is go to the Find My Device site and sign in to your Google account (the same one you used when setting up the service).

You can also perform a Google search with the query “Find my device” to start tracking your device.

Once your phone is located, you will be able to ring your device to play a loud sound even if it is in silent mode.

This is useful if you have lost your phone inside your home. If you have ok Google, you can ask the assistant to ring your device by saying “Hey Google, ring my phone”.

It will find the last phone you signed in to with your Google account and ring it.

The Find My Device lock feature is useful if you haven’t secured your phone with a passcode or fingerprint, as it prevents access to the home screen in case someone else comes across your phone.

There is also the option to display a message on the lock screen and add a callback number so that anyone who finds your phone can contact you.

If you’re looking for additional features, there are several third-party apps available that allow you to remotely track and lock your device.

How to find your lost Android phone.

Because Find My Device relies on location services, your phone must be connected to a Wi-Fi network or use smartphone data for the service to accurately track your location.

If you cannot locate your phone or if it has been stolen, the only option is to remotely wipe all data from the device.

The remote wipe command erases all data on your phone as well as connected SD cards. If the phone is offline when the command is issued, it is automatically activated the next time it is connected.

Find My Device is one of those services that you don’t use often, and so it’s easy to forget about it during the initial setup.

If you get a new phone off the hook during the vacations or have not been able to activate it on your current device, now is the time to go ahead and set it up on your phone.

In addition to setting up my device, you may be interested in these settings.