When you buy a new Android smartphone, you can find yourself displaced and disoriented, especially if you come from a rather old phone or have only used an Apple iPhone until now.
If you are new to the Android world and want to learn quickly, we have collected all the tips and things you must know as soon as you get your hands on a new Android smartphone. This guide can also be a valuable help for users who already have phones with Android but who find it difficult to move their apps and data from one phone to another since many of the steps illustrated can be used even if they already have an older Android smartphone.
At the end of the reading, Android will have no more secrets, and you will be able to use it as an expert without asking anyone for help.
1) Associated with Google account
The first step is undoubtedly to immediately associate a Google account with the Android smartphone to be able to install the new apps (from the Google Play Store), synchronize the most important data (such as the phone book), and recover all the data already used. on another Android smartphone.
At first, the phone will ask us for the system language. Then it will ask us to access a Wi-Fi network (make sure there is an exploitable one nearby). Then it will show us the screen where to enter the Google account.
You need to enter the credentials of the account you already have or, if you do not have one, click on Create a new account to be able to create one on the fly. We accept all the conditions that will be indicated to us on the screens, and we enable the synchronization and backup systems, then, we confirm to allow all the features of your new Android smartphone.
If this account was already associated with an old Android phone, you would have all your contacts, your apps, and the data of the other Google apps already synchronized (Gmail and YouTube, for example).
If you used an iPhone before switching to Android, we recommend reading our guide on transferring contacts, photos, and apps from an iPhone to Android on your new smartphone. If, on the other hand, you were using a phone without smart technology.
2) Associate an owner account
On some phones, it is also possible to create another account for synchronization and backup: this account is associated with the phone manufacturer and allows you to save your phonebook, SMS messages, calls, photos, and much more in the cloud.
Suppose you have a Xiaomi, Samsung, Huawei, OPPO, or OnePlus phone. In that case, it is advisable to activate this account as well, so as to have an additional backup tool compared to the one offered only by Google. You can read our article on how to back up a Xiaomi smartphone to learn more.
3) Enable automatic photo backup
All photos taken with the cameras of the old phone are stored in the internal memory or on the microSD (if applicable). In addition to the internal memory, you can save the photos taken on the cloud so that they can be reviewed on the PC or viewed on the new Android smartphone you just purchased.
The best app for automatic photo backup is Google Photos, which can be downloaded from the Google Play Store.
To start the backup, all you have to do is install this app and enable the backup of your shots; the app allows you to upload a limited number of photos (equal to the space on Google Drive) and carries out the operation ultimately automatically every time you connect to a new Wi-Fi network (if necessary, you can also enable the transfer via the cellular data network).
Once the backup has been made, all that remains is to install the Google Photos app also on the new phone or access the photos from the PC by visiting the Google Photos site so that you can view all the previous shots and proceed with the backup of the new images that you will take with the new cameras.
4) Restore WhatsApp chats
If you enable automatic backup on WhatsApp (via Google Drive), you will be able to quickly restore all the chats and multimedia files of the app with a few clicks.
On your old smartphone, make sure that the Google account is up and running, connect to a fast Wi-Fi network, open the WhatsApp app and go to Settings -> Chat -> Chat backup. If you don’t have a recent backup, you can immediately click “Back Up” to upload all the necessary data to Google Drive.
Wait a few minutes (it may take time to load the backup), then let’s go to the new smartphone, log in with the same Google account used on the old device, connect to a Wi-Fi network, and install the WhatsApp app for Android.
In the app just downloaded, you need to enter the phone number already associated with the old phone and, at the appropriate time, confirm the restoration of the backup taken online (the app can check by itself if the backup is present, just log in with your Google account in advance).
To learn more, you can read our guide on how to transfer WhatsApp from one phone to another or another number.
5) Understand how Android works
If it is the first Android smartphone phone (or, in any case, the first with Android updated to the latest version), you need to understand how it works, also given the profound differences compared to old phones or iPhones.
To do this, we recommend reading all the guides we have made on the first steps to take on Android:
- How To Enable Parental Control On Android
- How Do I Download An APK From The Play Store?
- How Do I Backup & Restore SMS And Contacts On Android?
- How to improve the Performance of Android Games
By reading all the guides, you will become a true Android expert without asking anyone for help!
6) Install the essential apps
Some apps must be installed on any Android smartphone, mainly if you’ve never owned one. So let’s open the Google Play Store and install what we consider the best Android apps on your new mobile or tablet.
The apps that absolutely must not be missing on an excellent Android phone are Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, Twitter, TikTok, Livescore, Google Translate, Snapseed, Office, Google Lens, and many others.
7) Update system and app
To have Android updated is sufficient to receive app updates, even better if they are completely automatic when we are on a Wi-Fi network and the phone is charging (for example, at night). The automatic update avoids the hassle of updating the apps manually and allows you to always have a secure mobile phone with the latest features available.
To enable the update, open the Google Play Store app, scroll to the left side menu, then go to Settings and activate the automatic update only when connected to a Wi-Fi network to always have the apps updated with new features, you will avoid running into bugs or security holes that can compromise the security of the Android system.
To update the operating system instead, we refer to our guide on how to check for updates on Huawei, Samsung and Android phones.
8) Activate the anti-theft location system
The new smartphone has great commercial value and great personal value because it stores data and passwords to access personal accounts and all your daily data without saying that if it ends up in foreign hands, it could be a big problem.
On Android, we have an integrated anti-theft feature that allows you to locate the phone’s position at any time and, if necessary, will enable you to remotely delete all data in case of loss. We have written how to activate Find My Device in a dedicated guide. This feature is integrated into all Android phones and is excellent as an anti-theft since it allows you to check its position, make it ring loudly, and delete the data remotely.
9) Enable contactless payments
Another function we must immediately take advantage of on the new Android smartphones is contactless payment, which will avoid us having to take out a credit card or prepaid card to pay in stores with contactless POS. To enable payments with the phone, activate the NFC function from the phone settings or the quick keys of the notification menu and download the Google Pay app on the phone.
After downloading this app, open it and insert a credit card or a prepaid card compatible with Google Pay, provide the security code and confirm its use as a contactless payment system. From now on, just unlock the screen (with PIN, face, or fingerprint) and bring the back of the phone closer to the store POS so that you can pay quickly.
10) Program the night restart
On many newer generation Android phones, it is possible to schedule the phone to turn off and on again to clear the cache generated and keep Android as fast as possible. To use this innovative function, go to the Settings app, open the Energy Saving menu (or the Battery menu), go to the advanced settings, and select Schedule on/off.
Once inside this menu, we set a shutdown time (for example, 4:00 in the morning) and a switch-on time (for example, 4:02 in the morning) so that the phone can restart when we are not using it and may clear the cache, apply pending updates, and clear apps that have remained suspended in memory.
Conclusions
Newcomers to the Android world will greatly appreciate the advice presented in this guide, thus being able to immediately take advantage of all the potential of the phone without having to open too many guides and without having to ask for help from relatives or more experienced friends. In the end, Android is a system that is all-in-all simple to use, and it takes very little to adapt it to any use scenario.
