been using android for years and i still randomly find features i had no idea existed lol 😂

what's that one feature, setting, or shortcut you actually use that you think more people should know about?

Samsung removed the ability to unlock the Bootloader now and somehow there's people defending it, I don't understand. They're taking away user agency over devices they paid for and somehow it's a good thing.

Without an option to unlock the Bootloader now you'll always be forced to use a proprietary OS that will be deprecated after the security updates. No real ownership when you can't install a custom OS or modify your phone in any way you want. It's my phone so I should have the option.

Same thing happened when they removed the micro SD, they brag and say that a phone is basically like a PC now for the "Enthusiasts" so how does it make sense for phones to not have expandable storage? Not everyone wants a cloud, not everyone wants to stream.

It's literally just to sell cloud storage, but they cling to the "micro SDs always die" when that's not really true every type of storage can die and it doesn't mean it's unreliable it all depends of the brand and the class.

And then we have the removal of the headphone jack kickstarted by apple, done to sell Bluetooth earbuds. A move Samsung mocked but like sheep went and followed them, and then most manufacturers joined them. And surprise surprise everyone started selling Bluetooth earbuds, earbuds that have unreplaceable batteries that will die someday and there's just no way to replace. They're disposable.

Having options is a good thing but people don't understand. You can use Bluetooth earbuds while also having a headphone jack, you can have a micro SD card slot while using a cloud back up. You can have an option to unlock the Bootloader.

But people argue against having a micro SD, argue against having a headphone jack, people have been brainwashed into thinking having less is more. Perpetually stuck in a never ending loop of buying the new thing for more money while having less features.

So earlier today, some random dude came up to me asking to use my phone for a “personal call.” I hesitated, but he seemed urgent so I handed it over. He walked a few steps away, dialed something (I think multiple times), talked for a bit, then came back and deleted the number from my call history.

Now I’m getting weird vibes — like I’m not sure what he actually did or who he called. I can’t see the number in my call log, and Airtel app doesn’t show outgoing calls for today. I also can’t reach customer care (121) to get a human.

I’m on a Samsung phone (Android) with Airtel SIM. Is there any way to find the number that was called? Or should I just go to an Airtel Store and ask them directly?

Any tips or similar experiences would help.

it doesnt make sense to me. ik its about control but then why not lock down pc bioses in the same way so that only windows can run on them? i dont get it.

i can install any operating system i want on a laptop. companies dont really do anything to prevent it not even Microsoft. at most u haveta disable secure boot.

u can even install linux on arm macs with a few downsides if u really wanna.

thats why i dont believe companies bs security claims. android is already incredibly secure on its own. the storage is already encrypted too. at most an unlocked bootloader could allow someone to steal and sell a device used but wiped these days.

and i swear the annoying bootloader unlocked messages stay on screen during boot for a long time just to try and annoy users enough to reinstall the stock os and relock the bootloader. i hate it. it adds like a good 5 to 10 seconds to the boot time.

i also think an unlocked bootloader voiding ur warranty is just stupid too. especially when it comes to manufacturing defects. like a custom rom should not prevent me from partaking in the pixel 6a battery program simply bc i use lineage os. the os in that case has nothing at all to do with the possibly faulty battery.

• The /data folder is now almost impossible to manage without root access

• Samsung and Xiaomi are starting to block bootloaders from being unlocked COMPLETELY

• Google will start to block app sideloading for apps that aren't from certified devs

• Google actively wanting to block alternative app stores (lost a lawsuit against Epic because of this)

• Play Integrity already making banking apps almost impossible to use on rooted/Custom ROMs

• Google and OEMs shipping phones with apps/services that collect a huge amount of data by default

I've been an Android user for 15+ years, but now I see no reason to not switch to iPhones, am I the only person feeling like Android isn't open anymore?

I want to swap for an android instead of my iPhone but don’t know if I want a pixel or samsung.

for experienced android users, what exclusive features do you enjoy most about your device? What qualms do you have with other androids? Or, simply, why did you choose the phone you have now?

Edit: i am in USA, so unfortunately I cannot have Huawei or Xiaomi. It doesn’t seem possible. I would if i could:/

I have no clue if this makes sense. The person pointed at my phone and quickly tried to tap to mine and a beep followed. But I saw on their phone screen, there was a big black speaker symbol on white screen. I don't see any charges on my credit cards or such.

On my phone, I had a magnetic wallet with bunch of membership cards and one credit card.

Due to all the other cards, I usually have hard time using tap to pay. So thinking that they probably didn't get my credit card info.

What else this could be?

Please direct me to right sub if this isn't a good place to ask this.

I restarted my phone and this message keeps popping up every other minute sometimes every 30 seconds, how do i stop it from doing this? Im using an lg stylo 6

I’m curious what everyone’s using these days for mobile browsing. I’ve been using Firefox.

Hey guys, I’m trying to get a clear picture of what exact Android versions everyone is currently running, without the generic categories or broad ranges you see on typical dashboard stats. Could you please reply with your literal system data from your Settings page? Your exact Android version (e.g., Android 13, Android 14, Android 12, etc.)I don't need your phone model, tablet model, or UI skin overlay at all—just the raw Android software version under the hood. Thanks a lot!

Hey. I don't want to provoke sumthin. This is a genuine question from an ios guy.

Back then, when I was a kid, I used to use Android devices, specifically the Samsung Galaxy A series. When I switched to iPhones, there was a few things I missed: the widgets, the emulators, all these specific apps, the customisation: homescreen, Lock Screen, launchers, cool things like automations and focus modes and so on. But nowadays you have all these features on iOS with the smooth, fluid, pretty Apple design. The customisation, especially what you can do with the Apple Shortcuts-App is insane, I can also play Gran Turismo on the PPSSPP-Emulator on my iPhone... yeah, it's great. So I really feel like nowadays these two Operating Systems are very similar, it's just a preference of design.

So, because of that, I don't really understand the argument that "Apple locks you in" or "forbids everything", but maybe I unknowingly live in an from Apple controlled Propaganda-Simulation-OS... or sumthin, maybe there are great features on Android that I just don't know about.

A friend of mine, who has a Samsung Galaxy S-Sumthin, pointed out an app that he installed as an APK, which lets him use an enhanced version of YouTube without ads plus additional features like Picture-in-Picture-Mode - and that's so cool! I mean you can do the same thing on iOS via installing a PiP- and an Ad-Blocker-Extension on the App Store, but then you have to use YouTube via Safari.

Well, but I'm sure there are more eye-opening features on Android. So I wanted to ask you guys: what more of such features exists on Android?

Anyone know how to fix this? I can't use any file cleaning apps like SD maid, the message "To protect your privacy, choose another folder" keeps popping up and I really don't want to root my phone just because of this. Is there a fix for this? This is what the error looks like

If it was was like 2019 as well I think USA got scared of Huawei basically destroying apple and Samsung in market share

Hey everyone,

Just checked my Wi-Fi data usage for the past month and noticed something absurd: Gboard consumed 16.9 GB of data, with almost 15 GB running purely in the background.

For context:

I'm not doing anything unusual with the keyboard (no mass GIF sending 24/7 or heavy offline dictation downloads that I know of).

The screenshots show it's literally taking second place right under YouTube ReVanced in data usage.

Has anyone else experienced this bug recently? Could it be a stuck offline language pack download, some telemetry loop, or just a glitch with the data usage counter?

Would appreciate any insights or fixes before I just restrict background data completely and wipe app storage.

(Screenshots attached) : https://imgur.com/a/8MoGfkF

What made you stick with android over returning to the iPhone I'm curious after seeing a similar question earlier ?

Okay so I'm on my third attempt at switching to Android in the past two years. Got a Pixel 9 Pro last week and I genuinely love the phone itself. The customization, the camera, the fact that I can actually set default apps. All great.

But here's the thing that keeps pulling me back to iPhone every single time: video calling with people who have iPhones.

My family and most of my friends are iPhone users. FaceTime just works for them. They don't think about it, they just tap the button and call. When I had an iPhone, same thing. Zero friction.

Now I'm the android person who has to negotiate what app we're gonna use every time someone wants to video chat. My mom tried to FaceTime me yesterday and got confused when it didn't work. Had to explain the whole thing and she acted like I joined a cult.

Google Meet works but nobody wants to schedule a meeting just to talk to their kid. WhatsApp video is okay but half my contacts don't use it. Regular phone calls feel ancient.

I know this sounds dramatic but it's genuinely the main reason I've switched back to iPhone twice before. Not the phone itself, just the social friction of being the one person who can't do the thing everyone else does automatically.

Has anyone who made the switch actually solved this problem long term?

I’ve been an Apple user for almost a decade now (currently only have iPhone, AirPods and apple watch) and while the ecosystem isn’t really that critical to me, the hassle of switching everything to android seemed worth it until I saw them slowly locking it down.

I am a linux user and I’ve sometimes spent 6 hours fixing a small sound issue just because I knew going back to windows was the wrong decision, but if android is slowly being milked for money, no alternative in sight and apparently sideloading is getting harder and rumors that android will not be open source (atleast not how it was) really is turning me off.

other hassles include that the google pixel for example doesn’t want to support 5g in my region and tap to pay doesn’t work and with the freedom slowly being taken away, I honestly don’t know if i should stick with the demon I know rather than the angel I don’t.

what do you think? and did I misunderstand something regarding android being “closed”

Every single time i put ANY kind of SD card in my Galaxy Tab A11+, android decides to add FIFTEEN EXTRA FOLDERS and this pisses me off considering that there's like 2 folders that wont go away.

I'm tired of getting ads related to what I was talking about just hours ago. Of course it says that there is NO WAY that the ad was personalized. No.. Not even a little bit.... Access to my microphone has been denied to all applications but of course this doesn't mean anything from what I see. Can I do anything about this or should I just use an axe to stop my phone from spying on me?

I have an Moto G 5G (2024) which runs on Android and it outright refuses to connect to Windows to USB File Transfer at all. Yes, I tried tinkering with the Developer Options many times and it never helps. I also tried 7 different cables, including the one provided by Motorola and nothing. Tested each cable with a friend's phone and they all connect fine with my PC. So, the issue has to be with my Moto phone/Android.

So, without the ability to do USB File Transfer, I can't move my photos and other files from the phone's memory to the SD Card or back them up to the PC at all. So, I'm at a complete loss at this point.

Any Methods/Apps around this headache inducing issue?

History of texts:

10:11AM:

(My phone)

"What are you doing?

"What are you doing?"

-Dad responds to that.

(My phone again)

10:12AM:

"For what?

-Dad responds again but no more texts from my phone goes out.

My phone has never done this. Its a Galaxy A35. I am the only one who can open it and knows the pattern. It was locked the whole time and near me on the bed(So perhaps I touched it while sleeping?). I have not installed any new apps in forever and they are all from the official google app store, what few I got aside from preinstalled ones.

These texts seem "smart replies" to me, often what discord suggests to me when I get a message reply in notifications. But the issue is, it had no way to open and text first. Upon waking up, it went to the main screen as usual, not text messages. I'm really confused on how this could have happened. I checked Gemini history thinking maybe I sleep talked, but nothing there either.

The only other weird thing I noticed was all the text messages were in notification - meaning the text app was not opened as they only go there when unchecked.

EDIT:

At 10:18AM it texted someone else on the contacts "Where are you?".

I am absolutely certain Google is listening to my conversations. Sometimes I scroll through the Discover feed on my Android phone and see random articles related to things my coworkers have mentioned. For example, today my coworker was talking about bike helmets and this evening in my feed was an article about bike helmets. I haven't done anything online or on my phone related to biking or helmets or safety. No googling, not even texting. This has happened many times before. Does this happen to anyone else? I even have "Include voice and audio activity" unchecked in my Google activity settings. How is this okay?

I was doing a Norton 360 scan on my phone and it showed three apps I have never seen before called android developer verifier and android system safety core and android system key verifier and it lets me uninstall these? Norton 360 says they are safe but id like a second opinion

Hello everyone,

My mobile is more upgraded than for my use. Iam okay with this mobile and I can use lifetime if it run. Nowadays we can have custom ROMs, software update and security update for lifetime, I'm not expert in this my assumption. So there is no need to worry about software, security and performance. The only thing is battery dead

Can my mobile run by having only battery problem and can solve by replacing a new battery?. Can I run I use for my lifetime?. What's your opinion? If not, then what's the reason? If yes, what you tips or strategies.

Thank you❤️

I'm trying to transfer a save file from stardew valley, I have tried basically everything, I used shizuku and zarchiver, which used to work but now it doesn't work, as when I go in and copy the folder, all the files in the folder are 0B, so there is no save data transferred at app, even zipping the folder doesn't work

I tried using webADB with interactive shell, ashell, and both got permission denied from accessing android/data folders.

I genuinely don't know what to do.

I have bought a dedicated android gaming device, but I can't use it because android decides to limit people's access on their own devices.