Tip of the Week: How to Better Use Your Smartphone in Five Easy Steps

Your smartphone is an incredible tool, capable of doing so much for you as you go about your personal and professional days. For this week’s tip, we’ve put together some of our favorite ways to squeeze even more function and convenience out of your mobile device.

1. Wireless Hotspot in Your Pocket
Today’s devices make it easier than ever to bring them with you as a means of increasing productivity. However, this is often defeated when there is no Wi-Fi connection available to connect to, as the cloud has brought much of the work that people do online. Your smartphone can help to solve this problem by acting as a wireless hotspot and providing Internet access to your other devices.

In order to make the best use of the phone’s hotspot capabilities, you may want to ensure that your employees have an adequate plan. With a Bring Your Own Device strategy, you can provide them with a stipend to cover the costs, or if you prefer, you can provide them with company devices that already come with sufficient data service.

2. Sort Your Screens
Your smartphone allows you to rearrange the items on the display to pretty much match your personal preferences. Grouping your most-used apps and utilities together to make accessing them easier can help you save time and effort, and will help keep you from ‘misplacing’ a crucial app during a time crunch.

3. Try Out Your Email and Browser Options
You don’t necessarily need to stick to the factory-presets when it comes to your mobile browser and email management applications. The official application stores will have many alternatives for you to experiment and explore. However, make sure you stick to recognizable names to avoid installing any malware that might have slipped past the moderators.

These non-default apps often have functions and capabilities that you just won’t find in the default apps that make your use of them much more smooth and efficient.

4. Use Your Shortcuts
Try to become familiar with the shortcuts available for your device. While these shortcuts may only save you a moment or two when compared to the “typical” way of doing things, these moments can add up to a lot less time spent fiddling with your phone that could be spent accomplishing something based on what you checked on your phone.

Your model of phone will have an impact on how you can activate your shortcuts, due to differences in software. Some experimentation may be necessary, but once you discover your phone’s capabilities, you can use them to save yourself some valuable time.

5. Research Your Insurance
Your mobile device often serves as a key tool for you to use as you go about your business. Therefore, it is important that--should something happen to it--a replacement isn’t too time-consuming to obtain. You should be sure to collect as much information as you can to make the best decision regarding your insurance policy and the coverage you can expect for your devices.

What are your favorite smartphone tips? Which ones do you think should have made our list? Let us know in the comments!