topic Re: Essential PH-1 in Get Support

Essential PH-1

ShawnC13 — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 20:02:14 GMT

More to follow!!! It just arrived and doing some updates. So excited first Android phone so will be asking for tips and tricks from the Android users

Re: Essential PH-1

NDesai — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 00:02:19 GMT

I got this phone just a week ago. Those updates took pretty long as there are about 3 updates you will have to do. So far, it feels too big and heavy for me as i had small screen Nexus 5. I am not sure if i will get used to it or not so i might end up selling it and look for another phone.

But overall, it's a great phone with awesome display and high specs for the price we paid 🙂

Re: Essential PH-1

ShawnC13 — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 00:03:54 GMT

What are the apps I need to have like I said brand new to Android. I see people mention texting apps is there not one standard on the phone?

Re: Essential PH-1

NDesai — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 00:10:27 GMT

@ShawnC13 wrote:
What are the apps I need to have like I said brand new to Android. I see people mention texting apps is there not one standard on the phone?

Google Messages is the default texting app on this phone. It works great as it's simple to use. Other apps based on your needs like NovaLauncher, Outlook, other browsers, etc.

Re: Essential PH-1

stonechucker — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 00:50:55 GMT

I like Textra as my SMS app. The stock programs rarely give me the ability to change colours, size, or even the typeface of fonts to make it more readable for me. Textra does this in spades!

@IWIK’s Data Witness. A must have for quickly looking at your usage on a 30 or 90 day plan, AND totally free! Two different widgets you can put on one of your home screens.

I use LastPass.com as my password manager, and I installed that app also.

Re: Essential PH-1

ShawnC13 — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 02:45:02 GMT

Was just coming on here to ask what the data tracker app was that people are recommending

Re: Essential PH-1

srlawren — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 06:24:36 GMT

Congrats @ShawnC13! Hopefully @will13am's arrives soon, too! 🙂

For apps, it all depends what you're looking for. For me, here's my regular stuff:

EDIT: OMG I forgot probably my two most indispensible apps!!!!!

Security:

- LastPass my favourite password manager

- Authy (Google Authenticator but better because can use on mutliple devices, and back up your tokens to the cloud etc)

IM:

- Textra SMS for texting

- Skype (I like the new Lite verison)

- Skype for Business

- Slack

- BBM (you probabely don't need it)

- WhatsApp

- Facebook Messenger (again, get the Lite veersion)

Social:
- Fenix 2 for twitter (paid app though, but it's awesome)

- Bitmoji

Email:

- Gmail (already installed I'm sure) for my Gmail account

- Nine Mail for my work Exchange (office 365) account

- Outlook for my other accounts (one outlook.com, one hotmail.com, one yahoo.ca, one shaw.ca)

Other:

- Nova Launcher (preferably the Prime version) for all your launcher needs

- I used to use TeslaUnread with Nova, but lately have been using Nova's built in Dynamic Badges instead; your mileage may vary.

- FeedMe (my favourite RSS/Feedly client by far)

- Google Photos (may already be preinstalled)

Food & drink:

- Starbucks 🙂

- OpenTable

Entertainment:

- YouTube (preinstalled of course)

- Netflix

- Crave TV

- Amazon Prime video

- IMDB

Productivity:

- Todoist

- Asana

- Google Keep (probably preinstalled)

- All the Office apps (Word, Excel, etc)

- Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive

Utilities:

- Solid Explorer (file epxlorer)

Public Mobile:

- @IWIK's Data Witness PM (as already disucssed of course)

- Hermit (as I discussed here, for wrapping self-serve and the community into apps)

There's others but these are a good starting point. Let me know if you wnat any details on any of these, how I use them, or why I think they're useful. 🙂

Re: Essential PH-1

srlawren — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 03:33:51 GMT

@ShawnC13 @will13am be sure to get the latest update, too:

https://twitter.com/essential/status/936071457540472832 "We're excited to roll out a new camera update that includes portrait mode, reduced compression to improve image quality, and more."

Re: Essential PH-1

NDesai — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 03:46:05 GMT

@srlawren Great list of apps, but i cannot believe Nova Launcher is not in your list. It's a must have.

Re: Essential PH-1

srlawren — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 03:47:49 GMT

@NDesai wrote:
@srlawren Great list of apps, but i cannot believe Nova Launcher is not in your list. It's a must have.

@NDesai OMG how did I forget Nova Launcher (prime)?!?!! I guess I don't think of it as an app, but as I have literally interacted with it hundreds of times a day every day for about the past 2 years, I guess I should have, eh!?!? Okay, going into my list. I'll edit. 🙂 Oh, I forgot Hermit too. I'll add it as well, since it's handy for the community and self-serve sites (among others).

Re: Essential PH-1

NDesai — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 03:51:14 GMT

@ShawnC13 @will13am For the camera fix, have a look here: http://forums.redflagdeals.com/koodo-essential-phone-0-tab-medium-360-2146352/77/#p28545449

Re: Essential PH-1

kav2001c — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 04:41:01 GMT

Yeah, I gotta call this out

Snapchat useful?

@srlawren wrote:
For apps, it all depends what you're looking for. For me, here's my regular stuff:

- Snapchat
Let me know if you wnat any details on any of these, how I use them, or why I think they're useful. 🙂

Re: Essential PH-1

srlawren — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 04:46:51 GMT

@kav2001c wrote:
Yeah, I gotta call this out
Snapchat useful?

@kav2001c touche, and good call! That one is not as essential as the others.

Re: Essential PH-1

ShawnC13 — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 04:58:43 GMT

Wow so much stuff lol I have a lot of those loaded already. Nova Launcher hmmm I went with the Microsoft Launcher because microsoft is what I know and saw it there

Re: Essential PH-1

srlawren — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 05:53:21 GMT

@ShawnC13 I know you're new to Android, and MS is a familiar face. But, there's a reason you're going to find Nova on literally every list of best Android launchers (really--google it!). Probably the two most popular 3rd party launchers (for people that don't just stick to what came preloaded) are Nova and Action Launcher. Both are really feature-packed.

For me, things that set Nova apart include:

1) Ability to export all my settings to my Google Drive, and then import them into my new phone. I've now done this twice, first from my original Android device (1st gen Moto X) to my OP3 last summer, and a week ago from my OP3 to OP5. Let me tell you, it saves a TON of time setting up your home screens, folders, layouts, wallpaper, etc. It just all comes as-is. You can also back up and restore on the same device if you want to try things out and decide to rollback your changes for more familiar territory.

2) Ability to place items in "sub-grid" layout, so basicall you can place things in between two rows and/or two columns. Gives more flexibility. Example from my current OP5 home screen page 1:

The two veritcal columns are actually a half column over from where the could be on any other launcher (that I'm aware of). You may or may not like this, but flexibility is nice 🙂

3) Customization. There is almost a daunting number of things you can customize to make it your own. Some things you can customize:

- how your folder covers appear--mine are circles as you can see with the first 4 apps shown, but you can have them fan out, stack on top of one another, and other choices

- how many rows and columns to display

- to have a dock at the bottom or not, and if you want muliple dock pages

- dedicated app drawer button (more classic Android style) or swipe up app drawer (more modern style)

- pixel-launcher style Google search bar with various dispaly options (light/dark background, just a bubble like mine is or a full bar, etc etc)

- dark or light theme in your app drawer, folder backgrouns, etc.

- ability to open first app in a folder just by swiping up on the folder. This I use A LOT. Once you get used to it, it's a real time saver. So if I swipe up on my email apps folder it brings up Gmail; if I swipe up on my personal IM apps folder (in the dock) it brings up BBM.

There's just too many things to list. Like I said it's a bit overwhelming at first but once you start to nail down a style that works for you, it's amazing.

https://www.androidcentral.com/nova-launcher-review

https://www.androidcentral.com/nova-settings-guide

https://www.androidcentral.com/first-five-settings-know-when-switching-nova-launcher

https://www.androidauthority.com/become-nova-launcher-power-user-729290/

https://www.androidpit.com/nova-launcher-tips-and-tricks

Re: Essential PH-1

NDesai — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 05:40:03 GMT

@srlawren That's dope home page you got there!

One other best feature Nova Launcher offers is the Gestures. For example, double tapping on home screen can be assigned to anything like Lock the screen or swiping down on home screen would drop down the notifications. This is really helpful for big screen phone as it eliminates you from moving your thumb to the top of the screen. For the essential phone having power and volume keys on the same side or if you are lefty like me, double tapping to lock the screen is a lot helpful.

cc: @ShawnC13

Re: Essential PH-1

srlawren — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 05:57:32 GMT

Thanks @NDesai!

Oh, I forgot to mention Weather Underground, my favourite weather app.

I keep a couple of it's widgets on my 2nd page, along with an LTE discovery widget and a Data Witness widget:

Just to round outmy remaining two pages of home screens, I've got some additional apps I access slightly less frequently on page 3:

And on page 4, I have my Google calendar widget on the left and my Todoist dashboard on the right:

Re: Essential PH-1

NDesai — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 06:13:58 GMT

@srlawren Try the Yahoo Weather app widget. I love how you can have it with minimal transparency.

Re: Essential PH-1

srlawren — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 06:20:38 GMT

@NDesai Weather Underground does that too:

I just find that with my aging eyes, the black background is easier to read usually. 🙂

Re: Essential PH-1

will13am — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 06:24:58 GMT

I have been out of town all week, just got home a few hours ago. So, I am a little behind here. @ShawnC13, get with the program, ditch the windows stuff. Nova launcher is tops on the list of apps to get, it is like the face of android. I like hdwidgets for weather and clock. I can't live with my list of root apps like greenify, amplify, flashify, adway, afwall+, titanium backup, root explorer, xprivacy, kernel adiutor (no mispelling here). Get the paid/donate version, support the devs.

Essential is working hard to fix their own camera. A new edition just came out.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.essential.klik&hl=en