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What are Android instant apps and how do you use them?

Jason England
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Have you ever wanted to try an app without actually installing it? If so, then instant apps are exactly what you’ve been searching for. Many times even when a service has a website and app, it is often easier and more convenient to use the app interface when on a mobile device.

However, just because you want to use that app, doesn’t mean you want it cluttering up your home screen or app drawer. Instant apps are perfect for these such occasions.

What are instant apps?

Essentially, these are a way for you to use an app or game without installing it or try it out before deciding to install. When an instant app is launched the resources for the app are downloaded and you can begin. Be forewarned, this can take a minute or two as you wait for the resources to be downloaded.

This is perfect for times when you only need an app for one specific task such as searching for a place to stay, checking out local monuments, or comparing airline ticket prices. Unfortunately, instant apps don’t come enabled by default but don’t worry, it’s a simple and easy process to enable access.

Read More: What are Android Go apps?

How do you enable instant apps?

First of all, you’ll need an Android device running Android 5 Marshmallow or greater. Instant apps won’t work on devices running anything below Android Marshmallow. As long as you have Android Marshmallow then follow these steps and you’ll be ready to go in no time.

  1. Open the Settings menu on your phone.
  2. Locate and tap on Google settings
  3. Tap on Google Play Instant
  4. Tap YES, I’M IN to agree to terms

How to use instant apps

Now, that you have them enabled you’ll need some instant apps to use. Not every app has an instant app counterpart. Developers have to specifically create instant versions of their apps or games.

Google has a section on the Play Store where you can find some of the available instant apps or games to try out. However, most times you’ll most likely find them by accident while doing a search on Google or the Play Store. When you find an instant app there will be a try now button, and that’s how you’ll know the app has an instant version available.

There are a couple of ways to tell if you’re currently using an instant app. First off, many of them will have an install button located in the instant app itself. Making it easy to get the full app if you were just trying it out, or need extra features not available in the instant app. Another way to tell is by checking your notification tray, where a permanent notification resides alerting you that one may be running.

Are there any downsides?

As mentioned above, sometimes there are extra features not included in the instant app itself. Most times the basic functionality is available but the full app provides much more. Another downside is, if you leave the app, you won’t be able to return to it. That makes multitasking quite difficult.

In the end, instant apps are great if you’re looking to do one specific task or want to play a quick game without taking up much space on your phone. However, they will never offer the entire experience so you might be better off installing the full app.

Huawei Mate 20 Review

Matt Adams
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Huawei is a company on the periphery for most people. They’ve heard about the company but don’t really know who they are. The vast majority of people I talked to about Huawei only know about them from the recent headlines of corporate spying and the Trump administration’s push to ban them from the US telecom industry.

But what gets lost in the shuffle is that Huawei makes damn good phones. The Mate 10 Pro was one of my favorite phones of 2017 and well into 2018. I still pick it up from time to time because of the build quality and performance even though it’s been about a year and a half since the phone was released.

Now, Huawei is back with another phone that makes me put down all of my other toys. The Huawei Mate 20 is not the true current flagship from Huawei, that honor goes to the Mate 20 Pro, but the Mate 20 has another purpose. At budget-flagship prices, the Mate 20 battles it out with phones like the OnePlus 6T for the best value on the market right now. While it’s not a perfect device, there is a lot to love here.

What we love

Build quality

It’s tough to find a phone that feels amazing in the hand. Instead, we’ve been left with too many curves and not enough edges. And with the addition to glass and metal sandwiches, holding onto to those phones gets even harder as phones get bigger.

But, we find ourselves loving the Huawei Mate 20. Sure, the rear of the device is glass, but it’s been treated so that it just feels… different. The closest thing I can compare it to is denim, but that’s not a great comparison. It’s hard to describe because it’s so unique. The etched design is one of my favorite things about the Mate 20 due to how distinct it feels and how it stands out from other phones on the market.

The rear of the phone also houses the super fast fingerprint scanner. While the Mate 20 Pro has an under-display scanner, the Mate 20 stuck with the rear-mounted scanner. I don’t mind it at all. I do love the scanner on my OnePlus 6T, but using the Mate 20 reminds me just how first-generation these new scanners feel. I’m sure that’ll change in future generations but for right now, the rear-mounted scanner is just fine.

There’s a lot to love about the rear of the phone, but the overall construction is a positive. There’s not going to be any bendgate here due to how strong the body is. There’s absolutely zero flex in the device even when I tried to bend it with everything I had in me. This leads to a really positive user experience because you always feel like you have a premium product in your hand, whether you’re texting, watching a video, or just messing around with the phone because of how cool the back feels.

The display

I’m a bit of a display snob. No, I don’t know everything there is to know about display technology, nor do I discriminate based on pixel counts, color saturation, or white balance. I just love a display that looks good to my eye every time I turn it on. The Mate 20 is the definition of what I love.

While I would normally prefer AMOLED over LCD, Huawei did an excellent job here sourcing a grade A panel. In fact, the only display I’d even say comes close to the Mate 20’s would be that of the LG G7. In case you missed the hype, the LG G7 was widely praised for having one of the best LCD displays ever when it came out in 2018. I’d put the Mate 20 above it.

Peak brightness is fantastic. This is one of the brightest displays out there right now and reading in bright sunlight is effortless. Just be sure to wipe off those smudges because they can interfere. I don’t know what Huawei did here, but I found our review unit picking up more fingerprints than other phones I’ve used in the past.

The elephant in the room is the notch. Look, some people just refuse to use a phone with a notch– and that’s fine. But, the Huawei has the right idea here. The Mate 20 features a “teardrop” notch design for the single front-facing camera. It doesn’t take up too much real estate or ruin the experience.

While Mate 20 Pro users may struggle with a massive notch, the non-Pro owners will have just a small notch that holds a camera that enables face unlock and takes some really nice selfies. You’re not going to get multiple cameras like the Pixel 3 XL or biometric scanning like the iPhone, but I’ll gladly trade those for more screen real estate and a less unsightly notch.

Back to the panel, the colors are vivid but not entirely accurate. But, they look great. If you’re going for the most accurate panel out there, there are other options on the market. If you just want a display that looks great, then the Mate 20 is a very solid option.

Performance

A great build and a nice display don’t mean much if the phone is a laggy mess.

The Mate 20 (and it’s big brother) come with Huawei’s most recent Kirin 980 chipset. It’s the first 7nm chip from the company, and it absolutely flies. I have not once seen a slowdown or any performance issues here. I would take the Kirin 980 over the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 right now, and that’s a pretty big statement.

In addition to fantastic everyday use, hardcore users will be happy. Throwing even the most graphically challenging games at the Mate 20 doesn’t slow it down. Multitasking and running split-screen apps are simply a joy and work without any issues. While the Mate 20 doesn’t have a stylus like the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, I would put it in the same class for those who need a workhorse productivity phone due to how well the SoC handles multiple tasks.

If you’re not quite getting the performance out of the Mate 20 you want, you may want to turn on performance mode. This lets the phone disregard battery and heat and pushes the SoC to its absolute limit.

Honestly, I think it’s pretty amazing that we’re at the point where a throttled SoC can perform as the Kirin 980 does in the Mate 20. I did turn on the performance mode to test it out for the purposes of this review, but I never felt a need to turn it on during daily operation.

Performance Mode does what it implies. It jacks up the power going to the SoC but I didn’t see a lot of improvements. I think that might be because there aren’t really apps or operations that stress the Kirin 980 normally, so why would you need to kick the tires?

Battery life is another standout here. I generally get a day and a half to two full days of usage with the Mate 20. While I haven’t used every phone released in 2018 and 2019, it does stand at the top of my battery life scale along with the OnePlus 6T.

When using the Mate 20, I do miss wireless charging. It has become a staple in flagships from LG, Samsung, and Apple, and I wish Huawei would follow suit. While the Mate 20 Pro does have wireless charging (and reverse wireless charging), the Mate 20 does not. I know that Huawei needs to give people a reason to spend more money on the Pro variant, but wireless charging doesn’t feel like a Pro feature and I feel it should’ve been included here.

Cameras

People love taking pictures. And since we’re hesitant to carry around more than one device, phone manufacturers are taking note and packing in as many cameras as they can into devices. Even budget phones costing under $200 can get you a dual camera setup that takes perfectly good social media pictures.

So, how does a phone stand out at higher price points? More cameras of course.

The Huawei Mate 20 features a rear triple camera setup. It has a main lens, a wide-angle lens, and a lens that supports up to a 2x zoom. These are arranged in a square design along with the dual LED flash. It’s a distinctive layout, but not one we’re entirely sold on.

As for performance, we’re more than happy here. All of the lenses take quality pictures and we find ourselves drawn to wide-angle shots in particular. While the zoom lens is a nice feature, we find that there’s a lot of noise in these shots and colors aren’t represented as accurately.

Needs improvement

Software

Let me preface what I’m about to say with this: Huawei’s software is better than it’s ever been. There’s a real maturing going on here and I feel like we can look to Samsung for the path Huawei is traveling here. It started with terrible TouchWiz, move to a more refined Samsung Experience, and now has refined even more with the new One UI. Each iteration brought a more streamlined experience.

But Samsung still has a terrible reputation when it comes to software because of its rough start. I feel Huawei is going to get stuck with the same stigma if they don’t hurry up and focus its software on a more Western audience.

The focus on an Eastern audience is very apparent. From the color palette to little decisions like not offering an app tray out of the box (you have to turn it on in settings), this just isn’t in line with what most people in the US and Canada want.

And hey, I’m all for trying something new but I think Huawei falls flat here in several instances. First off, despite a few software updates during our review period, the phone feels unstable. I had app crashes almost every day. Sometimes the phone would just restart itself. Going to the homescreen would cause the system to reload the launcher (commonly referred to a homescreen redraw) on occasion. With a powerful processor and an abundance of RAM, these should not be issues, but they are.

Huawei routinely gets panned for trying to bridge the gap between iOS and Android with its software choices. I think that’s a fair assessment and would like the see the world’s second largest phone maker scale back a little bit. You can see the influence in many areas of the OS, especially in the share menu (of which I use a lot). It’s a downright clone of iOS’ share menu. This isn’t a positive thing– iOS’ share menu isn’t good. Android has a clear advantage here and that’s what makes this so frustrating. Why take something superior and nerf it just because your competitor is doing it another way?

I do give the software high marks for all of the software features it has included. From simple features like app cloning, there’s a real added value when you buy a Huawei device.

The trade-off is that you’re stuck with a ton of extra apps. Huawei packed in apps I don’t want and even its own app store, AppGallery. Just… why? There’s zero added value here and I know most people will just skip over the app in their app drawer instead of opening it. Instead of developing your own app store, can we get faster software updates?

I’m not going to talk much more about software because I think you get the picture. A more focused, closer to stock feel would give Huawei a huge advantage here in the US. Let’s make it happen, Huawei.

Conclusion

There’s a ton to love about the Huawei Mate 20. While not the Pro version, it offers a ton of features, fantastic build quality, and top-tier performance and battery life without busting your budget. The OnePlus 6T is normally named the budget flagship champion, but the Mate 20 is at least in the conversation. I think the 6T probably wins out because of software, but I couldn’t blame anyone for picking the Mate 20 over the OnePlus 6T for features alone.

The real question you have to ask yourself is if you want to get in bed with Huawei right now. The United States government is throwing some pretty heavy accusations at Huawei and the President is even considering banning the company from proving US companies with telecommunications equipment.

To be clear, we’ve seen no concrete evidence of spying from Huawei and other countries like Germany and India have come to the company’s defense. But, it does make us worry that a possible ban may be coming. If this happens, will Huawei pull out of the US completely? What does that mean for warranties and software updates?

There’s more here to consider besides what an excellent phone the Mate 20 is. I’ve truly enjoyed my time with it outside of the software issues I experienced. If there was no baggage, I would recommend this device to friends and family no problem. But, there is and that gives me pause.

ActionDash review: A ‘Digital wellbeing’ for all Android phones

Gerson Noboa
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The sheer amount of tasks we can do on our phones today is astounding. With the increasing dependency on our mobile phones, sometimes we find it hard to put it down and experience other aspects of life. To counter this, both Google and Apple announced features dubbed “Digital Wellbeing” for their respective mobile operating systems.

However, unlike Apple, Google’s implementation is not available for all devices, which means that third-party apps have found the need to offer it instead. Action Launcher’s developer brings us ActionDash, which emulates several useful Digital Wellbeing’s features in a free app.

Developer: Action Launcher
Price: Free

Overview

If you have heard about Google’s Digital Wellbeing, then you may already know what ActionDash is. If not, you can read more about it here.

Basically, Google hopes that we can put our phones away and enjoy life a little bit more. It does this by showing statistics about our app usage, number of unlocks, number of notifications, etc.

Unfortunately, Digital Wellbeing is only available for Google and Android One devices only. ActionDash is trying to bring these features to all Android devices running Lollipop onwards.

Setup

In order to start using ActionDash, you need to give it permission to Usage Access. Without it, the app is not able to gather information about other apps. You might be a little bit afraid of granting such a critical permission to a third-party app, but the developer promises that all information is stored on the device only.

The app then prompts the user to get ActionDash Plus. I have never understood the purpose of asking customers to pay for Plus features of an app the outset of installation. Users haven’t even determined if the app is useful in its current form, but whatever – there it is.

Statistics

According to the app’s detail page, it will immediately pull more than a week’s worth of information. Side note: This may be a recent implementation as it only showed information from one day when I installed it.

The first screen, called Dashboard, shows a beautiful graph in which you can see proportionally what apps you are using the most. This graph can display either weekly or daily information.

There’s a screen time view in case you want more detailed data. You can filter this information either by days or by hours; a bar graph displays information about your screen time for the last week (in case of daily filtering) or day (in case of hour filtering).

Then, a list of the apps you have used, along with their screen times, is displayed at the bottom. If you tap a bar in the graph, you can see information for that day (or hour), giving you great insight into how your app usage may increase or decrease over hours or days.

The third screen displays the number of app launches. It looks fairly similar to the screen time view, but this one keeps track of the number of times you open an app.

The fourth screen shows the number of notifications you receive per app. This is one of the most eye-opening screens of the app, since you never realize how many notifications you receive per day until someone counts them for you. The screen is virtually identical to the previous two, but they show the number of notifications instead.

Finally, the last screen shows the number of times you unlocked your phone weekly or hourly. There’s also an additional feature to show the session length of each unlock, but this is reserved for Plus users.

Sadly, some of this functionality is a bit buggy sometimes. For example, when I got the screenshots for this review, some days were missing information, even though I had obviously used my phone on those days. Hopefully, this kind of stuff is fixed soon, especially if you decide to pay for Plus (more about it later).

App details

In each screen where there is app information, you can tap on an app and you will be taken to a page that shows statistics for that app alone.

Here you can see the screen time, app launches, and notifications for particular apps. The screen time view also features a useful graph that shows the app session length (the number of minutes between opening the app and closing it).

Other features

One of the most prominent features is a notification that arrives daily at your preferred time (Default: 9PM). The notification displays information about your usage (think: dashboard screen), and it will compare your screen time with the previous day.

While it is a nice feature to have, the screen time comparison at the time of writing is not reliable. Maybe half of the notifications I have received have displayed erroneous information, like “Today’s screen time was 5 hrs, 15 min. That’s up 5 hrs, 15 min from yesterday.” Apparently this is a hard-to-track bug, but the developer says that he’s working on it.

One of the biggest features of Google’s Digital Wellbeing is the fact that you can configure it to limit your app usage after some time. For example, you can set a limit of one hour of YouTube a day.

Another interesting feature is Wind Down, which turns on Do Not Disturb and fades your screen to grey-scale.

Google is able to do that because Digital Wellbeing is part of Android, giving which gives them unlimited access. Sadly, this means that neither of these features are included in ActionDash.

Settings

There are a handful of options you can change to suit your needs. The aforementioned notification, for instance, can be changed to show at whichever time you prefer.

In the initial versions, all statistics included launcher apps. However, that was addressed very quickly, since it skewed the stats. In case you still want to see launcher information, there’s a toggle for that. Apart from the usefulness of the feature, it is nice to see a developer addressing issues so quickly. Kudos for that.

In case you want to include system apps in the statistics, you can do so too. However, this is turned off by default.

There’s also the possibility to backup all of the data locally, in case you are doing a factory reset or changing phones. This file can then be restored on a new device, albeit only if you have the Plus version of the app.

Plus

While the app is completely free, you can upgrade to ActionDash Plus, a one time $5 in-app purchase. This will give you additional features such as viewing statistics older than the last seven days, dark mode, removing ads, further insights, additional backup locations, and other small features.

Conclusion

With Digital Wellbeing, Google is trying to make us stop using our devices so often, and enjoy the pleasures that life can bring outside of technology. However, since it is not available for all devices at the moment, then ActionDash has done a superb job of trying to replicate it as much as is possible for a third-party.

Some features that are harder (or maybe even impossible) to implement haven’t been included. However, as it is, ActionDash does a superb job in delivering useful insights that will, hopefully, change our usage habits. Once some small bugs have been ironed out, ActionDash will offer a remarkable experience like no other app in the Play Store.

Download and install ActionDash from the Google Play Store.

What’s the difference between Google Pay and Samsung Pay?

Andrew Allen
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Over 80% of Americans now own a smartphone with the number continuing to grow. With this trend towards mobile computing, carrying our entire lives inside a single, pocketable device is also becoming the norm. Something that’s inherently affected by this is how we pay for things. There’s been a race between the big 3 mobile giants to dominate that market as well as the handset you carry.

And since we are an Android site, we will take a shot at shedding some light on the two that apply to our OS of choice: Google Pay and Samsung Pay. Yes, both are a form of mobile payment apps and perform very similarly in their results. However, the underlying technology is actually different.

Google Pay

This one is pretty well known to those of us in the world of Android. The tech behind it is also the more common of the two. Google Pay uses a combination of software and hardware to produce a payment option while using nothing but your smartphone. It uses Near-Field Communication (NFC) to pass the encrypted information of your credit card to a payment reader in the store.

NFC is akin to other technologies such as RFID badges that get many of us inside our workplace on a daily basis. With Google Pay, your credit card is loaded onto the app and is then stored under a virtual number to keep the real number safer. Then, when you prompt it at the cash register, NFC passes the information from the phone to the card reader via electromagnetic induction.

Google Pay is a robust payment platform, but it is hindered by the hardware compatibility. If your local store doesn’t have a card reader with the additional NFC capabilities, then you are simply out of luck.

Samsung Pay

The overall concept for Samsung Pay is almost identical, and its app even supports NFC-powered transactions as well. However, the main reason Samsung has a separate branded version is that they support a different technology called MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission) to power most of its transactions.

This tech was originally born of a company called LoopPay. LoopPay was an independent company that made mobile payment cases with MST built inside of them. Paired with an app the devices would allow for mobile payments on devices and predates other apps like Apple Pay and Google Pay.

So what makes it so different than NFC and Google Pay? MST doesn’t require the card reader at the point of sale to have any additional technology like NFC. It’s magnetic pass off mimics the magnetic strip already found on every debit and credit card on the planet. This gives you instant compatibility with 90% of the world’s credit card machines.

Conclusion

Both payment platforms are more than capable of allowing you to make a payment without the need for a physical card. We’ve come a long way in mobile payments with our phones. However, Google Pay and Samsung Pay simply go about in a slightly different manner. We’d love to hear which one you prefer, and why, in the comments.

 

Blokada review: Thousands of ad blocking and filtering requests per day

Gerson Noboa
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As I try to move away from Facebook, Instagram, and whatever else is owned by Mark Zuckerberg, I find myself reading through Reddit more and more. Browsing the Android subreddit, one comment was stuck in my mind:

In its current state, Android simply cannot be used without either Blokada or AdGuard

I am familiar with AdGuard thanks to its ad blocker for multiple desktop browsers, but Blokada was a new name for me. A search in the Play Store was fruitless, so I googled it.

What kind of service would it provide for someone to believe that Android should not be used without it? Was it someone just stating his/her opinion as facts, or was there some truth behind it?

Turns out, I kind of agree with this redditor. Blokada is an ad blocker that works differently from what AdGuard provides in its browser extension. It not only blocks ads, it has a list of blacklisted URLs, and it creates a local VPN to block any request that is submitted to any domain in said list. The request bounces against the local VPN and dies right away.

However, for this to work, you need to obtain an APK from its website, after enabling your phone to allow for installs from unknown sources. This is already more work than the majority of people is willing to do for an app.

Developer: Blokada
Price: Free

Blacklist and whitelist

In order to provide different “levels” of protection, Blokada provides several different lists of URLs that you can block. Some are lenient, featuring approximately 40k hosts, while others, like the one I use, have more than 400k. It mainly depends on you and your usage habits. I have found that my choice, called Energized Basic, blocks enough while breaking very little.

In my case, Airtable didn’t work because airtable.com was included on the blacklist. For those cases, you can whitelist domains or apps, so that Blokada knows that it does not have to interfere with them.

DNS

Blokada also lets you change the DNS server you are using. There are several choices, from Cloudfare’s recently launched 1.1.1.1 server, to AdGuard’s one, to FreeDNS. I found that turning on this adversely affected my battery life (although it could have been a coincidence), so I decided to turn it off, though.

What about battery life?

When I installed Blokada, my main concern was if it would affect battery life in a significant way. The answer, at least for me, is that it doesn’t.

I don’t notice any significant drain, neither in standby nor in usage. Even if it drains some battery, having a system-wide ad blocker makes everything load faster than it would otherwise, which is a good tradeoff.

Results

So, is it effective? Blokada lets you count how many requests have been blocked (although there’s no way to see a list of recently blocked requests).

During my two-week test, Blokada managed to block 14478 in 15 days. That is a little bit less than a thousand requests per day.

There’s a persistent notification that lets you see which is the last blocked domain, and it just amazes me the random domains that are being accessed by the apps without my consent, using my battery and data.

Some of the domains include:

  • app.adjust.com
  • appsflyer.com
  • app-management.com
  • woodpecker.uc.cn
  • mobilenetworkscoring-pa.googleapis.com
  • h-adashx4ae.ut.taobao.com
  • doubleclick.net
  • graph.accountkit.com
  • http://www.zergnet.com

Do you know what does they all have in common? I didn’t request them. There is a thousand requests per day done by my phone with God knows what information, being sent to services that I have never heard/don’t care about.

Media likes to complain about Facebook’s misbehavior with user data, but this is an industry-wide problem. Why is there a constant need to track every move I make on my phone across different apps? Why are there so many requests to services I have never heard from?

Some apps let you turn off this kind of intrusive analytics and trackers, but most don’t, leaving you with no choice but to agree and trust whatever companies are on the other side.

Unfortunately, that seems to be the case with every service you use. They are just there ready to sell your data to the highest bidder. At least other industries have the decency to not use your own devices to do so.

Conclusion

I acknowledge that in this day and age, ads are needed for the subsistence of publications, developers, and individuals in this industry. We at AndroidGuys try to keep ads at a minimum, without any obtrusion, and getting as little information as possible in order to make decisions about what content to develop and what to avoid.

However, some developers in the Play Store seem to think that we need to accept their obtrusive trackers and analytics just because we are using their apps. To that end, we need help. Blokada is here for that.

Download and install Blokada from their official website.

Nine apps to block spam calls and text messages in Android

AndroidGuys
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Spam calls or messages or even spam emails are some of the things we all hate and wish we never have to handle them or even receive them in the first place. While blocking spam emails is relatively easy and could be avoided by simply keeping our email ids confidential, it is not as easy to avoid spam calls or text messages.

Because you might get spam or an advertising call from anyone ranging from telemarketers, unknown callers, scammers or even from your carrier calling at you at a wrong time or a place. Unfortunately, like email service providers, most Android phones do not come with a built-in option to prevent or block these spam calls or messages.

Thankfully, you can make use of the multiple third-party apps available to download for free from the Google Play Store, which allows you to block all known spam calls and messages, identify unknown calls and messages and even filter the numbers you want. So, here is a list of 9 most popular Android apps to block and prevent spam calls and messages for you to choose from.

Truecaller: Caller ID, spam blocking & call record

If you are someone who receives a lot of calls from unknown numbers on a daily basis regarding your work, then you might have a hard time trying to figure out whether the call you are getting from an unknown is a genuine call you are expecting or just Tranother scammer trying to annoy you and waste your time.

Truecaller is a free app for Android that can help you with this situation. The app automatically identifies the number and will display the name of the contact so you can be sure to know who is calling from the unknown number before picking up the call. The app also warns you if the number has been marked as spam and provides you with options to automatically block such calls or messages.

The app also identifies unknown numbers in social media messaging apps like Whatsapp or your normal text messaging apps. You can also manually enter any number you want to the app to find out the contact details of it. The app also comes with an option to record calls from an unknown number and save them to your device so that you can listen to the recorded call whenever you want or share the file to anyone.

Play Store Link: Truecaller

Whoscall

Just like the Truecaller app, the Whoscall app for Android also detects and blocks spam calls and spam messages in your device. The app displays the information of all the calls or messages you receive in your device in real time thus allowing you to either reject a call without ever having to attend a scam or an advertising call.

The unique feature in the Whoscall app is that it has an offline database of numbers and their contact details, so unlike Truecaller, you need not be connected to the internet to get information of an unknown number in Whoscall. You can subscribe for the premium version to remove ads and extend the list of unknown callers contact information in the offline database.

Play Store Link: Whoscall

Should I Answer

Apps like Truecaller works in a way where they use the information of the contacts stored in your device to update their database and display information about them with the name stored on your device for their number for when they call someone who does not have their number saved.

If you do not want an app to access your contact details but would still like to block spam calls and messages on your device, then you could try using the Should I Answer app for Android. The app basically works based on a rating system and you can set options to either block calls from numbers with a negative rating or display a notification with ratings of all calls you get from unknown numbers.

The Should I Answer does not read the information of the contacts stored in your device nor it adds any ratings for them. You can also use the app to block outgoing calls to specific numbers and it also has an offline database like the Whoscall app.

Play Store Link: Should I Answer

Call Blocker

Just the like name suggests, Call Blocker is a simple spam call blocking app for Android which does not have huge databases or real-time call identification features like Truecaller or Whoscall. However, it can still be used to block calls from unknown numbers and scammers by manually adding them to a blacklist. You can also add specific numbers to the blacklist or even collectively block calls that have numbers starting with a particular prefix.

Play Store Link: Call Blocker

Sync.ME

Apart from identifying and blocking spam calls and messages on your device, and providing you with details of their number, Sync.ME for Android also offers you details such as their usernames in different social media profiles, the pictures they have posted online and many more. It even displays other details the contact has shared online like their address, email id, and their recent status updates.

The app also allows you to create your own block list and automatically blocks well-known scammers and advertisers from calling or texting your number. You can even set the app to automatically update all your contact images to their Facebook or any other social media profile pic and set a unique video ringtone for them.

Play Store Link: Sync.ME

Hiya – Caller ID & Block

Hiya is an app for Android that not only prevents and blocks spam calls and messages in your phone but also detects and warns you about any kind of viruses or links that might contain malware present in any of your text messages. You can also report a call as a scam or a fraudulent call and it will be updated to the database to warn the other users of the app.

The default spam blocker in the app automatically blocks all the scammers and advertisers from contacting you and you can also add any unwanted numbers to the block list to stop receiving calls from certain contacts. The app will warn you whenever you are getting a call from a known scammer and with the live caller ID feature you can identify who is calling you before actually picking up the call.

Play Store Link: Hiya – Caller ID & Block

Call Control

The Call Control has an Area code screener feature which allows you to block calls or messages that are from a particular area. Another unique feature in the Call Control app is that it has an option to create a personal allow list, where you can add the numbers of contacts and set up a scheduled time and the app will block anyone who calls you except those in the allow list for that particular time period.

The app also has a community forum where you can view details about spam calls, read complaints of other users, interact with them and even report about the scam or advertising calls you have received and add them to the database. You can set the app to block calls from the community blacklist which will automatically block spam calls and messages from commonly known scammers or fraudulent numbers.

Play Store Link: Call Control 

Mr. Number-Block calls & spam

Mr. Number has an option to automatically intercept and block calls from private or unknown numbers so they directly get sent to voicemail. You can then later identify the information of these unknown numbers and decide whether to listen to their voicemail or not thus saving you a lot of time by avoiding scammers and advertisers. You also have the option to block calls from particular numbers, area codes and even an entire country.

Play Store Link: Mr. Number-Block calls & spam

Showcaller

Showcaller is a spam calls blocker app and it even works offline by identify calls from unknown numbers and scammers and displaying their caller id information in real time. The app also has a built in call recording function which can be set to either record all calls or only record calls from unknown numbers. The app is also lightweight and as it works offline it might not have a significant impact on your battery life as other apps in the list does.

Play Store Link: Showcaller

PODCAST: ‘Please don’t buy the 5G hype in 2019’

AndroidGuys
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One of the biggest trends in mobile for 2019 is the forthcoming wave of 5G networks and devices. Exciting, right? We’re here to tell you that it’s not the reason you should buy your next device. Don’t punch your ticket for the 5G hype train just yet.

We’re all for the technology and the promises but it’s far too early for us to start recommending anything to anyone. Listen to our latest podcast and find out why we’re not quite ready to hop on the 5G hype train.

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Optical versus ultrasonic: The difference between in-display fingerprint scanners

Jason England
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When it comes to securing your phone using biometrics, we currently have several different options. Face ID, iris scanning, and fingerprint scanning are among some of the most common. with fingerprint scanning the most widely used. Recently, we’ve seen it move from physical buttons and readers to below the glass.

Currently, there are two different technologies used to scan your fingerprint through the display. One, an optical scanner, uses light and the other, ultrasonic, uses inaudible sound waves. While these ultimately achieve the same goal they both do it in very different ways.

Let’s take a look at each.

Optical

For now, this is the most commonly used, having shown up in phones from Oppo, OnePlus, Vivo, and others. In order to scan your fingerprint, an optical scanner must first reflect light off of your finger. This is why you’ll notice the screen light up when you touch your finger to the display to unlock.

There are some inherent drawbacks, though. For one, it is easier to fool which makes it less secure. Optical scanners have been shown to be tricked by high resolution photos of fingerprints. If your finger happens to be wet, a little oily, or dirty, it can interfere with the scanning.

Optical scanners can also be slower than the capacitive fingerprint scanners we have seen over the years. They can also be generally less accurate, sometimes leading to a less than ideal experience.

Ultrasonic

This newer method, first introduced with the Samsung Galaxy S10 family of phones, uses inaudible sound waves instead of light. When you touch your finger to the screen these waves travel through the display and make a 3D map of your fingerprint.

Using sound waves to map the actual ridges of your fingerprint makes this technology much more secure than optical. What’s more, it is also faster and works through dirt, oil, grime, or water.

One apparent drawback to this technology is that you must be careful about what screen protector you buy. In order for it to function, there can be no air gap between the screen protector and the screen.

Plastic screen protectors are supposedly safe but if you want tempered glass there could be an issue. At the moment the only official tempered glass screen protector that is certified to work with the Galaxy S10 is from Whitestone Dome. Otherwise, you’ll have to get a glass screen protector with an unsightly precut hole or forgo the reader altogether.

Whitestone uses a Liquid Optical Clear Adhesive to ensure there is no gap between the screen protector and the display itself. This is both good news and bad news. Personally, I find that Whitestone makes fantastic screen protectors. The bad news is that they are not cheap, starting at $50 for one and $70 for a 2-pack.

Buy from Whitestone Buy from Amazon

Which is better?

As you can see, both in-display fingerprint technologies have their strengths and weaknesses. Optical scanners are more common and will most likely be your first experience with an in display fingerprint scanner. They’re getting increasingly faster and more accurate with each generation and also work with any screen protector.

Save for protecting the screen, Ultrasonic scanners seem to win in most categories. Hopefully, in the future, we will see more affordable tempered glass screen protectors compatible with the faster, more secure technology. Until then you’re going to pay extra for that smooth glass feeling — or use a plastic protector.

Five awesome Android apps you can’t get from the Play Store

AndroidGuys
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As you likely know, the Google Play Store is one of the biggest app markets for smartphones with millions of apps and games. There are countless new ones being added every day.

Not everyone knows it, but there are a lot of Android apps that are available for download outside of the Google Play Store – as APK files. For whatever reason, they can be installed separately. Some may not be allowed to be uploaded while others are purposefully direct-to-user.

While these apps might not have met some policy guidelines of Google Play Store to be uploaded to it, they are still incredibly useful and are worth installing on your device. As these apps generally are not hosted on a common market place, here is a list of five non-Play Store Android apps to download and install on your phone.

YouTube Vanced

YouTube is unarguably one of the most popular Android apps with over a billion downloads by and millions of daily active users. However, there are some things that people prefer that the app doesn’t have like unskippable ads or stopping the video once you leave the app.

While YouTube does offer a premium subscription plan, not everyone might want to pay just to get these features which could be made available for free on the desktop version by using an adblocker.

If you are one among them, then you might be interested in knowing about YouTube Vanced, which is a modded version of the official YouTube app with added features like ad blocking, background and screen off playback, theme options, auto repeat mode and much more. You can even set the default resolution for your videos and add gesture options for controlling the volume and brightness in the videos.

You can download either the APK for rooted or non rooted devices based on your preference and if you install the MicroG plugin APK from the website you would also be able to sign in to your Google account to sync all your subscriptions and playlists to the YouTube Vanced app.

Download Link: YouTube Vanced

GBInsta

Just like YouTube Vanced, GBInsta is a modded version of the official Instagram app for Android and it packs in some of the most requested and useful features that are unavailable in the official app.

You can install the GBInsta app alongside the official Instagram on your device and use both the apps simultaneously as well.

Its features include being able to copy bio of users, copy comments, download photos and videos directly from the app, download stories and much more. You can see the full list of features and download the APK file for the latest version of GBInsta from the official website linked below.

Download Link: GBInsta

Mixplorer

Mixplorer is a fully functional and a feature packed file manager app which also includes additional options for rooted device from XDA Developers.

The app supports almost all kinds of files including packing and unpacking of compressed files. It comes with a built in image viewer and music player and supports over 19 cloud service providers including Google Drive and One Drive to view and access your cloud files as well.

The app is also highly customizable with options for tabbed viewing of folders like the Windows File Explorer and it evens supports encryption and decryption of files. You can post any questions about the app or download the latest version whenever it is released, from the official forums page.

Download Link: Mixplorer

Snaptube

Snaptube is by far the most feature rich media downloading manager app for Android I have come across. It basically allows you to download videos from any popular social media or video hosting service including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Sound Cloud, Vimeo and much more. You can also download the audio versions whenever supported and play these files right from the app.

Snaptube allows you to select the quality of the file before downloading so that you can save your data whenever possible. You can either copy the URL of the video or audio you want to download and paste it to the app to download it, or use the bookmarked page in the app to visit the sites you want and download the videos directly to the app.

Download Link: Snaptube

WiFiKill

WiFiKill is the only app in this list that requires root access to be able to work and it is also one of the most useful apps in the list. The app is completely free and it basically scans your WiFi network and presents you with the list of all devices connected to it. Moreover, it allows you to remove the devices you don’t want to be connected to your network or that you think is suspicious or unknown.

The app displays many useful information about the devices connected to your network like their name, what websites they are currently on, amount of data they are consuming and as well as their IP and MAC addressed.

You can even use these information to permanently disconnect these devices and block them from connecting to your network by adding their IP or MAC addresses to the filtering options of your router configuration settings.

Download Link: WiFiKill 

Best Android backup apps to safely backup your data

AndroidGuys
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Android phones are currently one of the primary places of storage for a lot of people. Rightfully so. It’s here where we have some of our most valuable data, including photos, videos, documents, and messages.

There is a lot of risks involved in storing all your personal and valuable data in your Android phone alone. For instance, you might damage your device, lose it, or sometimes even install a new custom ROM. Indeed, a broken app, ROM, or software update might put your personal data at risk.

It is always advisable to constantly take a complete backup of your device and store it in a safe place so that in times like these you can just restore it and continue using your device.

Here is a list of some of the best Android backup apps for backing up different types of personal data.

Super Backup & Restore

The Super Backup & Restore app for Android is one of the best Android backup apps as it offers a complete backup solution for your device. It allows backing up all kinds of personal data like your contacts, messages, calendar entries, call logs and even your apps. The app has options to either save the backed up files to your device’s internal storage or SD card or move it to a cloud storage of your choice.

Once you have backed up all your data, all you have to do is to move the files to a safe location. So, whenever you get a new device or format your existing one, you can just get back all your personal data by just installing the Super Backup & Restore app on the device and using the restore option.

Play Store Link: Super Backup & Restore

G Cloud Backup

G Cloud Backup might be the app you need if you need to back up large volumes of your personal data with lots of huge files and need to do it in a single go. The app gives you the option to select what kind of data you would like to backup with the app and once you have selected your preference, you just need to click on the run now button at the home page and all your data including your media files, documents, messages and even your Whatsapp data.

The most interesting feature in the G Cloud Backup app is that you can also take a backup of your system settings. This means that if you format your device or get a new one, you can just restore the settings you previously had like your ringtone, wallpaper, connection settings, language settings and so on. You can also enable the automatic backup option and the app will backup whenever new files are added to your device. The app has a web interface http://www.gcloudbackup.com from where you can access all your backed up data.

Play Store Link: G Cloud Backup

My Backup

Apart from having options to backup the common files on your Android phone, My Backup app also allows you to backup your browser bookmarks, your system settings, your personal playlists of local songs on different music apps and even your home screen setup.

This app would be particularly useful if you are someone who installs a lot of custom ROMs on their device or formats it regularly. You just have to install the app and select the restore option and wait for the app to do the rest.

Play Store Link: My Backup

App Backup & Restore

App Backup & Restore is one of the most popular and the easiest apps to backup all the apps installed on your Android device. Just select the apps you want to backup and click on the backup button, it is that simple.

The app allows you to take multiple backups of an app so that you can backup whenever the app is updated allowing you to automatically have the most recent version of the app. You can store the backup files either on your local storage or move it to a cloud and restore them when necessary.

Play Store Link: App Backup & Restore

Backup & Restore

Backup & Restore is another simple and straightforward Android app to backup all the apps installed on your device. The app supports cloud backups to Google Drive so that you can delete the APK files from your internal storage to save more space on your device.

You can also backup your contacts and messages using this app and the app also has options to set automatic backup of your apps. You can transfer the APK files of the backed up apps to anyone you want at high speeds using the built-in WiFi hotspot feature.

Play Store Link: Backup & Restore

SMS Backup & Restore

If you are someone who uses the conventional messaging feature on your Android phone a lot instead of online messaging apps like Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger and are looking for an app to safely backup all your normal text messages, then SMS Backup & Restore app is the one you need to install on your device.

The app supports WiFi direct allowing you to quickly transfer all your messages to any Android device you want, provided the SMS Backup & Restore app is also installed on the device. You have options to backup only particular conversations and set a recurring backup schedule for the app to automatically backup all your conversations in XML format either to your internal storage or to a cloud service provider of your choice.

You can convert the XML format to other supported formats of your choice to be able to view your messages in your PC or your laptop. The app also allows you to back up the call logs from your device along with the messages.

Play Store Link: SMS Backup & Restore

Titanium Backup

While Titanium Backup is definitely one of the best backup apps for Android, it has been mentioned last in this list as it works only on rooted Android devices. However, it is the most powerful app on this list as it has options to backup and restore both the APK files of selected apps as well as their data.

backup apps

This means that once you restore the apps backed up using Titanium Backup on your device, the app will be restored to the same state it was backed up in with all the settings, accounts and configurations in place. Titanium Backup also allows you to backup the system apps on your device along with their data and just like the other apps on this list, you can schedule Titanium Backup to perform automatic backup of your apps in regular intervals.

backup apps

You also have the option to upload all the backed up apps along with their data to Dropbox or Google Drive provided you have enough free storage on these cloud storage providers. Titanium Backup would be of great use for people who frequently install custom ROMs on their devices and don’t want to repeat the process of installing and setting up their apps every time.

Play Store Link: Titanium Backup

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