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With more digital content than ever, the search feature on smart TVs is essential. But typing is such a terrible experience when you’re forced to use voice dictation or peck around with the remote control. Thankfully, there’s a better way.

Most smart TVs support using your phone’s keyboard as an input method. This makes it so much easier to enter your user name and password or just type in the name of an app or show. Even if your television doesn’t include this feature, thanks to set-top boxes like Apple TV and Roku, you can add this functionality to any TV.

Jump Ahead to Instructions

1. Roku

Whether you’re using a Roku Streaming Stick, Roku Ultra, or have a television that uses Roku software, you can take advantage of the smartphone app to input text.

After installing the app, turn on your phone’s Wi-Fi and connect to the same network as your Roku device. Open the app and follow the instructions to reach the main page. Choose “Control” and select “Connect.” Select your Roku device from the list.

When paired, the Roku’s controls will appear. Select a text box on your television using the app to reveal the keyboard. To manually unveil the keyboard, select the keyboard icon near the bottom of your display.

2. Amazon Fire TV

For any member of the Fire TV family, including Fire TV Stick, Fire TV Cube, and TVs with Amazon’s OS built-in, the Fire TV app is the way to gain access to the keyboard.

• Install Amazon Fire TV: Android (free) | iOS (free)

To set up, first open the app and log into the same Amazon account used to set up your Fire TV device or television. Select your device from the list and input the corresponding four-digit code which appears on your TV. Choose “Remote” along the bottom of the app and select the keyboard icon in the upper right corner to reveal the keyboard.

While you can select text boxes to reveal the keyboard, the keyboard isn’t supported when choosing the search area on the home screen or Prime video app. For these fields, you are limited to voice input.

3. Apple TV

If your smart TV UI of choice is Apple TV, this feature is available to you as long as you also have an iPhone or iPad. If you are using an older iPhone and don’t see the Apple TV app on your home screen, you can download the app using the link below. Either way, open the app and pair your phone with your Apple TV.

Setting up your phone to work as a remote control is pretty straightforward, but if you are having trouble, check out our Apple TV Remote setup guide.

Once your iPhone is set up, make sure your iPhone and Apple TV are using the same Apple ID, both devices are on the same Wi-Fi network, and Bluetooth is enabled on your phone. Select a text field on your Apple TV. A push notification will appear on your phone. Open it, and the keyboard will open, allowing you to input text.

Images by Jake Peterson/Gadget Hacks

4. Nvidia Shield TV

If you are using the Nvidia Shield, you actually have two options: the official Android TV app or the Shield TV app. Since the latter was developed by Nvidia and offers more features and compatibility, we recommending using that one.

• Install Nvidia Shield TV: Android (free) | iOS (free)

Connect your smartphone to the same Wi-Fi network as your Shield TV and open the app. After the initial prompt and permission request, you will be directed to “Pair a new device,” choose your device and input the PIN that appears on your television to complete the process.

Choose the up arrow next to “Remote” in the bottom-left corner of your screen to reveal the remote control. The keyboard can be revealed in two ways — by picking a text box on your TV or by selecting the keyboard icon in the upper right corner of the app.

5. Android TV

If you own a Xiaomi Mi Box S, a Sony TV, or any other Android TV-powered device, the official app from Google will allow you to enter text using your phone.

• Install Android TV Remote Control: Android (free) | iOS (free)

Connect your phone to the same Wi-Fi as your Android TV device, open the app, and choose “Accept & Continue.” Select your television or set-top box from the list and enter the PIN which appears on your TV.

On Android smartphones, whenever you select a text field, the keyboard will automatically appear. However, on iOS, you will need manually reveal the keyboard by selecting the keyboard icon in the upper-right corner.

6. Vizio

For newer Vizio televisions with SmartCast, the corresponding app will allow you to use the phone’s keyboard.

• Install VIZIO SmartCast Mobile: Android (free) | iOS (free)

Connect your phone to the same Wi-Fi network as your television and open the app. If this is your first time using the app, you will need to create an account. Select “Choose A Device to Control” near the bottom of the page and choose your device. When prompted, choose “Pair” to connect your phone.

On the bottom of the main page is the name of your display and an up arrow. Select this to reveal the remote control. Choose the directional pad tab and then select the keyboard button to start typing. Additionally, select any text field to open the keyboard.

Image by AVS Forum/YouTube

7. LG

Download the official LG app on your Android or iPhone to get started.

Make sure your smartphone is on the same Wi-Fi network as your television, then open the app. Provide the app the necessary permission, then select your TV in the popup (make sure your it’s turned on). Once paired, selecting a text field with the app will reveal the keyboard.

8. All Other TVs

If you don’t see your TV or set-top box here, you still have some options. There are few tremendous external keyboards that accomplish the same thing.

First is the iPazzPort Wireless Mini Keyboard ($14.99 on Amazon). It uses a USB dongle for 2.4 GHz wireless connection, so you don’t have to worry if your TV doesn’t include Bluetooth support. It works with most devices and even includes a touchpad and directional buttons to navigation throughout the menus.

Image via Amazon

Buy the iPazzPort Wireless Mini Keyboard for $14.99 on Amazon

For a more traditional design remote, you can opt for the Rii K25 ($18.99 on Amazon). It supports either 2.4 GHz frequency (via a dongle) or IR receiver. It has the usual layout on the front and a full keyboard on its back cover.

Image via Amazon

Buy the Rii K25 for $18.99 on Amazon

For the best typing experience, you can opt for the full-size wireless keyboard like the Logitech K400 Plus($26.99 on Amazon). It comes with a touchpad on the size to replace your remote’s d-pad or touchpad, and pairs using a USB dongle.

Image via Amazon

Buy the Logitech K400 Plus for $26.99 on Amazon

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Android is an open-source and one of the most used operating system in the smartphones. Stock Android also provides 2-year major updates including monthly security patches. However, many smartphones brand use their own custom UI (e.g. MIUI, OxygenOS, etc) over Android OS which adds a few more customization options & functionalities.

Your Android phone contains so many hidden settings, tricks, and hacks which can make your daily tasking much easier and let you interact with your Android deeply. You can use these settings to cast your Android screen, boost Android speed, encrypt your device, etc. So, without wasting our time lets get into the post.

Related: 15 Rooting Tips and Tricks For Android Phone

Here we have discussed 30 Android tricks and hacks along with some Android hidden settings:

1. Cast Screen

DO you know? you can cast your Android smartphone screen to your TV, desktop monitor, projectors, and other big-screen monitors without installing any third-party application. It allows you to watch movies, series, TV shows, games, etc on a bigger screen.

To connect your Android with a monitor, Open your Android Settings > More > Cast > Turn on > Then Find & Connect your Device. The smartphone and monitor should have Wi-Fi to pair with each other.

2. Turn Off Tap Sound & Vibration

I’ve seen many users using a smartphone without turning off tap sound and haptic feedback vibration. It includes keyboard typing sound & vibration, tap feedback, navigation button pressing feedback, etc. If you care about your battery life a little more, you should always keep it turned off. Since, it decreases the battery usage time due to extra hardware use.

To do so, Open device Settings > sound & vibration settings > toggle off tap sound, and turn off vibrate on tap.

3. Encrypt Your Device

Your device contains lots of private things such as gallery photos, videos, document files, phone numbers, etc. If somehow anyone hacked your Android device, can misuse your photos & documents. You can use this setting to encrypt your smartphone’s data to make it a little more secure.

To encrypt your device, go the privacy from the settings, tap encrypt device using lock screen password and turn it on. To know more, about Android encryption read this What is device encryption and what does it do? 

4. Developer Mode Settings

Developer Mode is an Android hidden setting for the developers. This setting contains lots of useful developer settings that a normal user can use too, such options are USB debugging, OEM unblocking, Force 4x MSAA, etc. To enable developer mode setting in your Android phone, go to Settings > About phone > tap 7 times on build number. Now one more developer mode should be added to your settings.

Related: 10 Best Android Launchers | Highly Customizable Launchers

5. OEM Unblocking

OEM unblocking is a process of unlocking the bootloader of your smartphone to install TWRP, to root your device, and other stuff like that. If you are going to perform any of these things, you need to enable it first. To enable OEM unlocking, go to the developer mode setting > toggle on OEM unblocking.

6. USB Debugging

This is the most useful settings for developers. It becomes essential to enable this option for connecting your computer to your Android smartphone. Meanwhile, If you are going to perform any operation into your Android device through a computer or laptop, it must be enabled. You can easily turn it on from the Android developer setting.

7. Send Fake Location

You can use this Android trick to send a fake location to your friend using the mock location feature which is found under the developer settings. To send the fake location, download mock location app from play store then open it and choose a fake location > go to developer options > select mock location app > choose the app. That’s it. To try it send your current location to a person and you will find the fake location.

8. Cellular Data Always Active

While you disconnect the WiFi, the internet connection goes off for a second that can interrupt your downloading process or another internet-related process. To prevent this, you can use the Cellular Data Always Active feature. To enable it, go to settings > developer options > turn on cellular data always active.

Related: 6 Best Ways to Increase Internet speed on Android Phone

9. Force RTL Layout Direction

You can reverse your display layout using the RTL layout direction. In case if your preferred language is Urdu you should use this, turn on this feature.  Force RTL layout direction from developer options.

10. Background Process Limit

If you have a low budget smartphone having low RAM memory. Use this feature to prevent the background process, as a result, it takes less RAM which means now your device will run smoothly. To use this, go to the developer options > Background process limit > choose any number one to four. You can set the limit of background running process apps from one to four (two or three is preferred for laggy smartphones).

11. Increase Smartphone Speed

You can increase your smartphone performance twice faster than before by increasing the animations speed. Go to “Developer Settings” Set Window animation scale, Window transition scale, Animator duration scale to 1x. Now you can see the difference yourself.

12. Improve Gaming Performance

Nowadays, most people have a gaming phone that can handle some powerful games too but not everyone has. However, this Android hack will not improve very much performance as you are expecting but you can feel it. It boosts graphics power, of course! that takes more battery, to improve the gaming performance. To enable it, Goto, the developer options > Force 4x MSAA > Toggle it on.

Related: Top 8 Android Games that You Should Play(Online & Offline)

13. Select To Speak

Not much useful but a feature for verbal lover. It pronounces the word or text or sentence that you select. To enable it, go to accessibility > select to speak > toggle on.  Now click on the message logo from the bottom right corner then select the word.

14. Use Magnification Gesture

You can enable magnification gestures from the Android accessibility settings. To use this feature, quickly tap three times on the screen to zoom in on the text. It can be useful for some people.

15. Use Mono Audio

Sometimes, our earphone gets damaged from one side and As we know, we’re using the stereo sound feature that produces a different sound from both ears, in cause you cannot listen to music from one side earphone properly. There it comes mono audio that divides each sound to both ears. So in case, if your earphone got damaged from one, enable Mono audio from accessibility settings (However, this temporary solution for this type of problem).

16. Track Your Android Smartphone Location

To track your smartphone location, you need an email that already signed in to the device which you want to track. Now, install Google find my device app from the play store then open it and choose your Google account and click find my device. From here you can not only track your smartphone location but also lock the device remotely, erase the data, etc.

Related: How to Enable Dark Mode in Android 10

17. Try RAR Android App

RAR is a very useful Android app for managing archives or compressed files. From this app, you can create archive files into zipping, Tar, Gz, and other formats and extract file back the normal. It is available on play store free of cost.

18. Root Your Android

Rooting your device is a step to get the full control or privilege of the device under you. Although the support from the company may be expired instantly and you may take risks from entering viruses more often. However, after rooting the device, you can do so many things that you can do without rooting. For example, delete system apps, move apps data to the sd card, install custom ROMs, hack WiFi, etc. Here’s How to Root your Android Phone you may like it.

19. Start Codings into Android Phone

Yes. It’s true. You can use your smartphone as a coding machine-like computer by installing the IDEs for different programming languages such as Java, C++, Python, etc. Although you can not perform high-end graphics or data science level operations but you can do some basic coding very easily. To find an IDE for your programming language just search your IDE name on the Play Store and install them.

20. Install Kali Linux On Android Phone Without Root

You can use this Android Hack to install Kali Linux on your Android phone which is a very powerful operating system for hackers, programmers, and used in many organizations for security purposes. Earlier you need to root your Android device to install the Kali Linux in Android devices but now one can install it without rooting the device. Read more from here.

Read More: How to Upgrade your Android OS

21. Safe Mode

Sometimes, your smartphone keeps crashing due to internal/system issues or if you want to boot your smartphone without User apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, or other installed apps, in both cases you can use this Android hack, the “Safe Mode“. To enable safe mode, press & hold the power button and again hold power off option for 9-10 seconds and reboot it to safe mode. That’s it.

22. Use Google Assistant To Perform the Task

Google Assistant may be very useful for performing some basic operations on your smartphone wirelessly. Some operations are, unlock your smartphone with your voice, turn on wifi, torch, Bluetooth, check your current location, etc. Nowadays, every smartphone has already installed Google Assistant so you don’t need to worry about that.

23. Turn Of Unknown Source

If you care about your smartphone than me, go ahead and turn off unknown source right now. It can install pirated apps/third party apps that can harm your device or leak your data very easily, some virus attack may happen too. As you heard you should always install the Android app from the play store only. So it’s better to turn it off, Goto Security option from settings > Privacy > Turn off unknown source.

24. Enable Google Assistant

Through Google Assistant, we can perform such basic operations wirelessly like turn on/off torch, wifi, you can use it communicate too, search your queries, etc. But, I’ve seen some smartphones still don’t have this feature. For those smartphones, you can install the Google Assistant app from the play store.

Related: Android Security: 11 Ways to secure your Android smartphone

25. Share Internet Without Hotspot

Maybe you are using a desktop computer or a laptop, both require to connect with Hotspot or dongle to browse the internet. Since WiFi is an easy and modern way to browse the internet, people prefer WiFi over the dongle. But as you know if you have a WiFi, other users may connect so it’s better to use USB Tethering.

To enable USB tethering, you need to connect your computer or laptop to a smartphone. Once connected, Goto smartphone Settings > More > USB tethering. Turn it on. That’s it.

26. Use VPN

VPN is the only way to hide your identity from the internet, Neither incognito mode or other methods can do this. Incognito mode does not save history on your device but the ISPs (Internet Service Providers) easily can get your history. A VPN hides your identity completely from the ISPs by changing its server to another country.

Use a good VPN like NordVPN that does not sell your browsing data. Don’t be afraid, your ISPs may sell your browsing data too.

27. Reading Mode

If you use smartphones mostly in nights (of course you use), you should force yourself to turn the Reading mode on. It prevents blue lights to reflect in your eyes that can harm your retina by covering them yellow lights. To enable reading mode Goto the settings > Display Settings > Reading Mode > Turn on. steps may vary for different smartphones.

28. SOS Mode

Go to the smartphone’s “Settings” tap “Personal” select “Privacy and Emergency” and choose the “SOS” option and enable it by typing your custom message. Now anytime, when you’re in trouble you can press the volume down button 10 times, it will automatically call on an emergency number.

Related: How to backup & restore apps on Android phone

29. Check Battery Stats

From the battery option from the settings, you can check your all activity related to the battery. You can track which smartphone is taking more battery and eliminate or uninstall that right now. You get a graph preview of 24 hours battery stats.

30. Google Play Protect

Google play protect is a feature of the play store to check malicious files or viruses of the installed apps. As soon as it detects a virus, it removes that app from your device from giving flash warn.   It is enabled by default from the play store. You can check it, open Play Store > Slide left to the menu section > Play Protect > Turn on (if it’s turned off).

Bottom Line

We have talked about 30 Android tricks and hacks with some Android hidden settings. There is much more you can do with your Android smartphone using several that we will talk about in the future.

More Articles on Android:-

1. Top 5 Music Apps For Android
2. VMOS Review: Install Virtual Android on your smartphone
3. Oxygen OS 11: Top Features and Supported OnePlus Devices
4. 10 Best Camera Apps For Android in 2021 (Third-Party Camera Apps)
5. What is Camera2 API? How to Enable Camera2 API in Android?
6. How to Flash Custom ROM on Android
7. All Android 11 Eligible Devices Including Samsung, Xiaomi and Other Devices
8. Top 10 Android Launchers You Must Try
9. Enable WhatsApp Dark Mode On Android and iOS Devices
10. 20+ Best WhatsApp Tricks (+WhatsApp Hidden Settings) in 2021

Source

Nowadays, privacy on your smartphone plays an increasingly important role in our daily life. Large tech companies want to know more about you. This mainly concerns personal information such as your name, age, and place of residence. These companies are also curious about where your interests lie.

Companies such as Google or Facebook obtain this information by tracking your surfing behavior. Fortunately, it is possible to determine how much information these companies receive from you. First, we tell you what these companies really know about you and then we give some tips on how to best deal with this.

What does Google know about me? 

Everyone probably knows or suspects that Google knows a lot about its users, but what exactly do they know? First, we’ll explain where to find exactly what Google knows about you, then we will discuss the settings that you can adjust to increase your privacy. All you need is a Google account, which you automatically have if you have a Gmail account.

• Go to the login page of your Google account via an internet browser.
• Are you logged in? Then go to “Data and Personalization”.
• Scroll down until you see “Ad Personalization”.
• Then click on “Go to ad settings”.
• What you see next is a list of topics that Google thinks you are interested in.

Now you can adjust what Google is allowed to know about you. If you go to the same menu of your Google account settings, “Data and Personalization”, it is possible to adjust a few things. So you have more control over your privacy than you think!

At the top of the page is a bar with “Perform the Privacy check”. With this function, you are guided step-by-step through all privacy settings, which can be adjusted if necessary.

What does Facebook know about me?

Besides Google, it seems that Facebook doesn’t always know the meaning of the word privacy either. Facebook builds up a file for each user with data such as what you liked, followed, which locations you visit, and private messages.

In this way, Facebook can show you ads that are uncomfortably suited to your preferences. Curious what exactly that file looks like with you? This is how you check that:

• Login to your Facebook account
• Click the arrow at the top right and then choose “Settings”.
• Now go to “Your Facebook Information”.
• Then click “View” under “View your data”.
• Scroll down and select “Ads” and then “Advertising interests”.
• You will now see a page with things that Facebook thinks you are interested in. You can view and delete them by category if you wish.

If you go back now and choose “Advertisers and Companies” you can see which companies have uploaded information about you to Facebook. Here you can also delete this list.

Privacy iOS vs. Android

Are there any differences between iOS privacy and Android privacy? The two operating systems differ from each other in many ways, not only in appearance but also in the way of working. In addition, both operating systems have a different way of dealing with security.

Security iOS

In the App Store, Apple likes to keep control when it comes to apps that can be downloaded here. Apple strictly controls developers and checks every app before it goes live. This gives hackers little chance and increases the privacy of your smartphone. Due to the thorough check that Apple performs, it ensures that iOS is a safe platform.

In addition, new software updates are regularly launched, increasing the security and privacy of your smartphone.

Security Android

Google Play Store is useful if you are looking for a specific app because the choice is unlimited. This does mean that the platform is available to everyone, including people with less good intentions.

Consider, for example, hacking your Android smartphone so that the makers of the app can see and know exactly what you are doing. It does not immediately mean that the Google Play Store is unsafe, because it is checked daily for malware. But when downloading an app, take a critical look at the app and the reviews.

12 x Privacy smartphone tips & tricks

It is now time for the ultimate tips & tricks to ensure the privacy of your smartphone as well as possible. Both iOS privacy tips will be discussed below, as well as Android privacy tips.

1. Use automatic passwords in Safari on iPhone.

It often happens that the same password, which is also easy to guess, is used for multiple accounts. If a malicious person finds out about this password, it is immediately possible to break into the other accounts.

To counter this, you can do the following. When creating an account or changing a password, Safari automatically asks if you want to use a strong password. This password is automatically saved in iCloud.

The next time you want to log in to this site, all you have to do is scan your finger or your face. This way you can set a different strong password for each site. These passwords are automatically synced between all devices signed in with the same Apple ID.

Saved passwords can be found on your Mac in the “Keychain Access” program, or “Keychain Access”. On your iPhone or iPad, they can be found under “Settings” and then under “Passwords and accounts”.  

2. See what your apps can access.

For the privacy of your smartphone, it is important to know which sensors and information source your apps use. For example, it is very convenient for a weather app to use GPS, but this app does not necessarily need access to your photos or sound recordings.

Therefore, when installing the app, pay attention to which “permissions” you are asked for. Do you not want this app to be able to view your vacation photos or the addresses of your friends? Then follow the following steps to access your smartphone privacy settings:

Android:

• Since Android 6 you can adjust the permissions of your apps afterward.
• To do this, go to “Settings”, “Apps and notifications”, “Apps permissions”.
• You can now turn off access to, for example, your contacts, location, or calendar.

iOS:

• Navigate to your “Settings”.
• Scroll down and choose the app you want to change permissions for.
• Now adjust which functions you want the app to have access to.

3. Turn off ad tracking.

Apps on both Android and iOS devices can read an advertising ID that is linked to your smartphone. This unique code allows ad systems to continuously track your behavior in a particular app. You can turn off the advertising tracking as follows:

Android:

• Go to “Settings” and tap “Google”.
• Now navigate to “Ads”, “Reset Ad-ID” and click “Ok”.
• Finally, slide the switch button behind “Opt-out of ad personalization” to the right. Now it’s turned off.

iOS:

• Navigate to “Settings” and select “Privacy”.
• Scroll down and click on “Apple Advertising”.
• Now turn on the option “turn off personalized ads”.
• Furthermore, go back to “Privacy” > “Advertising” > turn on “Limit Ad Tracking”. 
• Once you have done that, you can now click on “Reset ad ID …” and reset the ID.
• You will still see advertisements in apps now, but these advertisements are no longer tailored to your interests and previous behavior.

4. Delete your cookies.

Many websites leave cookies on your smartphone, which are often useful because, for example, they keep track of the contents of your shopping cart. However, some cookies come from other companies and these keep track of your surfing behavior. This tracking is not good for your privacy. It is therefore wise to delete your cookies every once in a while. This is how you do it: 

Delete cookies in Chrome on Android:

• Open your Chrome browser and click on the 3 dots at the top right.
• Select “Settings”, “Privacy” and then “Clear browsing data”.
• Now tick in any case “Cookies and site data” and click “Delete data.”

Delete cookies in Safari on iPhone:

• Open “Settings” choose “Safari” scroll down and choose “Clear History and Website Data”.
• Now once more go to “Settings”, “Safari” and scroll down and choose “Advanced”, “Website data” and then press “Delete all website data”. 

5. Always make sure to sign out.

If you have used Facebook (the website) or Google services in your browser (Gmail, but also the search engine) do not forget to log out. If you don’t, they can continue to track the rest of your activity in the browser.

6. Place an ad blocker for more smartphone privacy!

Have you deleted all your cookies and do you want to prevent new tracking cookies from being placed on your smartphone? Then you can prevent this by downloading an ad blocker or ad stopper for your mobile browser. Unfortunately, the adblocker doesn’t stop the ads within an app, but it does within the web browser.

Place an ad blocker on your iPhone or iPad

• Unfortunately, adblockers are only possible on iPhones 5s or newer. For iPad, this applies to iPads air or newer, or iPad Mini3 or newer. IOS 9 or higher must also be installed on the iPhone or iPad.
• Now you can download an ad blocker from the App Store. Good adblockers include 1Blocker Legacy, 1Blocker Premium (in-app purchase $ 5.49), Purify ($ 2.29).
• After installing the adblocker you have to activate it. You do this by going to your “Settings” and click on “Safari”. Select “Material blocks” here, here you will see the installed adblocker. Now turn on the switch button for the adblocker you downloaded.

Place an ad blocker on your Android

• Unfortunately, it is not possible to install an adblocker on the Chrome browser that comes with Android. You can, however, install the mobile browser Firefox for Android. In this browser, you can insert the adblocker Ublock Origin.
• First, install the Firefox browser on your Android smartphone.
• Now open the main menu in Firefox and choose “Add-ons”.
• Now click on “Browse all Firefox add-ons” and search for Ublock Origin using the search function.
• Now tap “Add to Firefox” and then “Add”.

7. Turn off the preview of your notifications (iOS).

In addition to the large tech companies that watch what is happening on your phone, people around you can of course do this, too. For example, someone can pick up your phone and read the messages waiting on your locked screen.

Of course, there is a way to prevent this from happening! iPhones have a setting that determines whether the content of the notification is immediately visible. This means that you can set that the content of the notification is only visible when the phone is unlocked. We explain how to turn this on below:

• Open “Settings” and choose “Notifications”.
• Now click on “Show Preview” and choose “When Unlocked”.

Do you like to see a preview at Whatsapp, but would you rather not see everyone immediately see the message itself? There is also a solution for this:

• Open Whatsapp on your phone and navigate to “Settings”.
• Here, click “Notifications” and turn off “Show Preview”.

Now the preview of your received Whatsapp message does not contain the entire message but only the word “Message”.

8. Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

In order to make secure and privacy-conscious use of a public network, it is advisable to use a reliable VPN (Virtual Private Network).

When you use public Wi-Fi, it is possible for people with some computer knowledge to watch along on your phone. To make this almost impossible, you can use a VPN. An example of a good provider is IPVanish VPN. Please note; this VPN service costs money. When you can find a good deal, it costs around $ 40 per year. An investment that is certainly worthwhile to guarantee your privacy.

In addition to more privacy and responsible internet browsing, with a VPN it is also useful to view content that is not available in a certain country. For example, if you are on holiday and you want to watch a Dutch TV program, there is a chance that this is not possible because you are not in the Netherlands. You can bypass this blocking by letting this website think you are in the Netherlands with the help of a VPN.

9. Make no or as little use as possible of public Wi-Fi.

Public Wi-Fi, such as that offered by some restaurants and cafés, is the breeding ground for some of the most dangerous cyberattacks. People with technical knowledge often use these networks to carry out cyberattacks on people like you and me.

In short, with their cyber wizardry, these people can access your smartphone (if you are connected to a public and unsecured network) and can do many dangerous tricks. Consider, for example, retrieving your passwords or gaining access to your bank account. Of course, sometimes you run out of data and need to use public Wi-Fi. When this happens, just make sure you do not use it for long, or any sensitive information.

10. Turn off your Wi-Fi / Bluetooth when you are not using it.

Many people have their Wi-Fi on all the time. We can imagine that this is nice because when there is an open network in the area you can immediately connect to it and this saves your mobile data use. Just beware, as mentioned above it is not safe to do this! In addition, it is also asking for difficulties if you always have your Bluetooth on.

Hackers can make contact and gain access to your data through an open connection. Therefore, only enable these options when necessary.

11. Don’t use Facebook apps (use the web browser instead).

As discussed before, Facebook knows a lot about you. This means that the Facebook app and the Facebook Messenger app are not good for your privacy. They constantly send information about you to Facebook. Facebook uses this information for targeted advertisements. The apps do offer a privacy option, but with this option, you cannot manage everything as desired.

Do you no longer want these apps to send your data for advertisements? Then it is best not to use the apps anymore. Instead, you can log in to Facebook.com via your web browser, don’t forget to sign out after you are done. 

12. Search more anonymously.

Like everyone else, you probably also use Google as a search engine. This one works perfectly but lives on ads. Google will remember everything you have typed so that it gets to know you and your interests better.

An alternative to Google is, for example, Startpage.com, this website uses the search engine via a detour so that Google cannot track your search behavior. Startpage can be set as the default search page in most mobile browsers.

Other good alternatives are Ecosia (thanks to your searches trees are placed here worldwide) or DuckDuckgo (this search engine does not use tracking).

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Source

For a lot of people, picking the right smartphone is a matter of picking the right operating system. The smartphone’s operating system is the platform it uses to run various programs. While they can all pretty much connect you to the Web, e-mail, phone calls and texts, each has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Four of the most common operating systems for smartphones today are Apple’s iOS, which runs iPhones, Google’s Android system, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and Research in Motion’s Blackberry OS. Unless you’re a technophile, you may not notice differences in how each of these systems operate. What you will notice, however, is the availability of different programs and apps across various platforms.

If you plan on using a lot of apps on your smartphone, you might want to avoid getting a Blackberry. The Blackberry OS is great for using e-mail and Web browsing, but it doesn’t have as many apps as other browsers. If you want a lot of apps, an iPhone is your best bet. The Apple app store is the largest in the world. The downside of Apple OS is that it’s only available on Apple’s iPhones. Android-powered phones are quickly making up ground against Apple where apps are concerned, and the Android operating system is available on a range of phones, making it easier to find one that fits your life exactly. A Windows mobile phone is good to get if you plan on doing a lot of work on your phone. Since it runs a mobile version of Windows, which you may already have running on your computer, it can easily let you see and work on spreadsheets and documents right on your phone.

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