3 Android Smartphone Button Tricks for Convenience

Most Android smartphones and tablets share a few common features, and hardware Power and Volume buttons fall into this category. Let’s see how they can be useful beyond their most obvious features:

1. To ignore unwanted calls: if you can’t or don’t want to receive a certain incoming call, you don’t have to wait for your phone to stop ringing. Unmute the call immediately by fully pressing the decrease button volume .

2. To print the active screen: Want to take a screenshot of your phone’s current screen to share with someone? It’s easy to do. Keep that particular screen in the foreground and press the buttons at the same time Power+Volume Down . You will find the screenshot saved in the Screenshots section of the gallery.

Note that if you press the power or volume down button too soon, you will end up turning off the display or turning down the ringer volume.

3. Unfreeze the phone. When the phone is working, rebooting it usually returns it to normal. In the case of a frozen phone, you may have to go one step further and force it to reboot. For this, first press and hold the power + volume up buttons, to turn off the phone. Once the screen goes blank, turn it back on as usual.

These instructions apply to a wide range of Android devices, but the hardware buttons on your smartphone may work differently depending on its brand and model. For example, on the Samsung Galaxy S6, you will need to press the Power and Home buttons at the same time to take a screenshot take a picture take a picture In the event of such changes, refer to your phone’s manual for instructions.