If you’re new to Android, Chrome, or anything related to Google, it can sometimes be a little difficult getting yourself familiar with the platforms. That’s why we created Basics!
Whether you’re looking for help changing your wallpaper, adding apps to your home screen, removing apps from your home screen, or just want to know how to set an alarm, we’ve got you covered.
All of our Basics guides can be found below, in the order they were published.
Taking a screenshot on Android can come in handy for a multitude of reasons, and it’s extremely easy to do. You might be surprised to find out that you can take a screenshot on the Google Pixel 6 in a few different ways. Here’s how it works.
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Due to the pandemic, travel has been slow this past year, and you might be a little rusty when it comes to picking up and traveling somewhere to visit friends and family or just planning a getaway. Whatever the case, Google has a few helpful tools in Google Maps and Google’s travel site to help you get started on making those plans and staying safe along the way.
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Earlier this week, Google pushed a feature that could check your heart rate on the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro without the use of a smartwatch. By reading the minute details in your index fingertip using the Pixel’s camera, Google Fit can identify your BPM. This allows anyone with a Pixel 6 or 6 Pro to check their heart rate on the go in seconds without external hardware.
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Android not only offers a lot of new AI-driven processing capabilities, but it also adds a little flare to the quality of life department. With the addition of Material You, wallpapers mesh well with the UI adding a cohesiveness that many people love about their Pixel 6 and 6 Pro. In addition, Google’s widgets play along well and are easy to customize, allowing you to tailor the Android 12 experience even better.
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Android 12 is chock full of useful features. Features like focus mode and digital well-being functions stand out as building blocks of the new iteration of Android. Fortunately, all of these features are accessible with quick settings in Android 12, putting them within reach at any moment.
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Google recently announced that going forward, accounts would need to have 2-Step Verification (2SV) enabled. According to the company, the first wave of accounts are already being transitioned into this security measure. Many companies already employ this feature, though under the name 2-Factor Authentication (2FA). Fortunately, Google’s 2-Step Verification is easy to set up, and just as easy to use.
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Google Drive is a powerhouse of a file storage system. It makes it easy to save documents and other data that can be transferred to other Google apps as well. Fortunately, Google makes it easy to access Drive straight from your desktop – whether Mac or PC.
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The internet is full of incredible photos, and there are endless reasons you’d want to save them to your device. In some cases, you may think you’re looking at your new wallpaper when you realize the image only saves a WebP file. Fortunately, an extension for Google Chrome can be added that will allow you to save any image, including WebP images, as a JPG or PNG file.
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Having a Google Account means customizing it to your heart’s content. That truly becomes the case when choosing a profile picture, since that picture is the face of your account and the thing that everyone sees. Google Illustrations is a tool integrated into Gmail for Android that lets you create custom profile pictures and really spice up your account.
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The Google Pixel 5 and 5a will soon no longer be the latest model in the Pixel family, and that means it’s time to check your trade in values. Whether you’re looking to sell your Pixel 5/5a to upgrade to the upcoming Pixel 6, you’ve come to the right place. First, let’s find out how much it’s worth and how to get the most value for your trade-in.
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With the fall 2021 consumer hardware announcements — read: Pixel 6 — set to arrive sometime in the coming weeks, there are likely some Googley phones coming up that you’re interested in! So what are you to do with all your old Pixel 2? Or Pixel 3? You should trade it in, and we’ve put together all the best trade deals for Google Pixel, Samsung Galaxy, and more below…
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If you have a large display on your smartphone, did you know you can enter split-screen for most of your apps and even some games? The split-screen process changed with Android Pie and has remained the same through to Android 11 now that gestures are the main UI input method.
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You can find just about anything on YouTube. For one reason or another, you may need to download some of that content and, luckily for you, there are a number of ways to download a video from YouTube based on what you need to do with it.
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If you are not content with the most recent Android 11 Beta build on your Google Pixel, it’s probably music to your ears knowing that you can downgrade your OS to a stable version of Android 10 if you encounter any major problems.
Chrome OS tablets aren’t everywhere, but the platform has been preparing for them for quite some time. In one of its latest updates, Google has added a new “Bordered Key” style to the on-screen keyboard in Chrome OS to give it a better style.
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In the age of smartphones, screenshots have become an essential way to quickly share, as they allow others to see exactly what you’re seeing. That said, the way to take screenshots on your Chromebook or Chrome OS tablet isn’t exactly obvious, so here’s a quick how-to.
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These days, you can’t get hardly anything done without a good, working web browser, but what do you do when Google Chrome starts acting up? Here’s a guide for how to clean up some of Google Chrome’s most common issues including slow loading, excess notifications, using the wrong search engine, and more.
Google Play Music is being put out to pasture later this year, which means that you might want to transfer your library over to YouTube Music to keep all of your audio content.
Can you use a USB mic with Android? Using an external microphone with your Android smartphone used to be pretty straightforward. All you had to do was plug one into the headphone jack. Now, however, that very jack is going the way of the Dodo. So if you want to use an external mic with your Android phone, what are your options?
It’s great to stay informed about what’s going on in the world, but it’s also very much possible to be over-informed. As the novel coronavirus wreaks havoc on the world, one of the easiest ways to control your level of information intake is Twitter mute filters. I needed them, so I thought you might too. Here’s how to cut down on coronavirus content on Twitter…
Our smartphones deliver hundreds of notifications and often many phone calls on a daily basis, but always having an audible ringer can sometimes be inappropriate. If you’ve got a Samsung Galaxy S20, you’ve of course got access to a vibrate setting, and here’s how you can adjust the strength of it.
Now seems about the best time to teach you how to properly clean and sanitize your Android smartphone, as the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus heightens our awareness of personal hygiene. While the best way to prevent the spread of germs, bacteria, and viruses is still washing your hands vigorously, it’s not quite as obvious how best to clean your tech.
Android 10 introduced a new system of gestures to the platform, and they’re pretty great! These new gestures can be found on any phone shipping with Android 10, including Samsung’s Galaxy S20. Here’s how to turn them on.
Dark mode is a popular way to ease eye strain, save on battery life, and frankly, it just looks cool, too. If you’ve got a Galaxy S20, you’ve also got access to a system-wide dark mode — here’s how to turn it on.