How to Manage Apps on Android Phone

Having so many choices for apps on the android phone is useful, productive, and fun, but how do you manage your apps on your phone? Fortunately, your phone can be customized and different apps managed by selecting apps and using multiple home-screens to organize your phone for a personalized, productive experience.

Managing App Details

1. Go to “Settings”

2. You will see “Application Settings” menu. There are various ways to organize your apps from this menu. You can use this menu to remove apps (see How to Remove Apps from Android Phone tutorial)

3. The first choice says “Unknown Sources.” Enable this option only if you are certain that you want to install non-Market applications.

4. The second choice says “Quick Launch.” By selecting “Quick Launch” you can assign different applications to different keyboard keys, creating shortcuts to frequently used apps.

5. The third choice says “Manage Applications.” Besides allowing you to remove apps, this choice also allows you to view the storage an app is taking up on your phone, and to share the app via text message or e-mail.

6. The fourth choice says “Running Services.” By selecting this, you can see what applications are currently running on your phone and using your phone’s resources or RAM.

7. The fifth choice says “Storage use” and selecting this option will allow you to view how many mb (megabytes) an app is taking up on your phone. Additionally, it will show, on the bottom of the screen in very small font, the amount of space used and the amount of space remaining for application storage.

8. The “Battery use” option, choice 6, shows you what applications use what percentage of the battery. This is helpful to view if your phone battery is constantly running low and you are not sure why.

9. The “Development” option, choice 7, is for advanced users who may be using the phone for application development. Do not select this option. Leave it alone!

Customizing Apps on the Home Screen(s)

Now that you know how to manage the details of your apps, you may also want to manage the appearance and accessibility of your apps. Some apps automatically appear on your home screen(s), all of which are customizable on an Android phone. In order to manage customization of apps on your home screen(s), follow these instructions:

1. Go to “Apps”

2. Select the app you want to move to the home screen and hold down your finger for two-three seconds.

3. A screen will pop up giving you various options for the app. Select the top option, “Add to Home”

4. The app will appear on your main Home Screen (the center screen of your available screens).

5. To move the location of the app around the main home screen, select and hold your finger on the app for two-three seconds. The screen will “shrink” and a grid will appear.

6. To move the app, keep your finger on the app and drag the app to another place on the home screen grid. When you are satisfied with the placement, let go of your finger. The home screen will go back to normal size.

7. To move your app to another one of the home screens, select the app and hold it down for two to three seconds. Drag the app either to the left or to the right to engage the other home screen. Let go of the app once you are satisfied with the location.

8. Using these techniques, you can organize your apps by category. For example, I like to organize social networking apps on one home screen and location, navigation, and weather services on another screen.

This is part of our Android Basics/Tips and Tricks series. Great for anyone new to Android, or anyone just looking to learn a few tips and tricks! For all our Android Basics, head here.