Have you ever noticed that the factory reset on any phone does only half the job? Yes, it’s true. So, I never immediately start downloading my apps or restoring everything from my backup once it boots up. Instead, I take a few minutes to go through the settings and make my phone feel like mine again. After all, a factory reset is supposed to give you a fresh phone; why bring back all the clutter and defaults you were trying to get rid of in the first place?
Trust me, make these changes the next time you reset your Android phone, and your freshly reset phone will feel less “factory” and a lot more yours.
My first move: ditch buttons
Now I don’t tap, I swipe
Credit: Ismar Hrnjicevic / How-To Geek
First things first, before I start changing any other settings on my phone, I always change the way I move around it. I’ve never been a fan of the three-button navigation bar, especially when I can swipe my way through Android instead. So the first setting I change after a factory reset is gesture navigation.
With gesture navigation enabled, I can simply swipe up from the bottom of the screen to go Home instead of moving my thumb to find the Home button, then swipe up and hold to see my recent apps. When I’m reading my own article, I swipe inward from either edge of the screen to go back to the page I was on before. This comes in handy, especially when I’m holding my phone in one hand. Mastering the bottom-edge swipe is also useful for quickly jumping between recent apps when I’m multitasking. Once these gestures become muscle memory, stretching my thumb down to reach for a button every time I want to navigate around my phone starts to feel like unnecessary work.
Give gestures a try, and I bet you’ll forget those three buttons ever existed.
I make the back do more
Two taps, one handy shortcut
Credit: Cory Gunther / How-To Geek
The next feature I jump into is the one that makes me wonder why Samsung didn’t turn it on by default. It’s the famous Back-Tap action. On my Galaxy Z Fold 6, it turns the back of my phone into a tiny but convenient shortcut. I can double-tap the logo to take screenshots, something I probably do 100 times a day, and it’s much easier than juggling the phone to press the Power and Volume Down buttons. I can also assign a different action to a triple tap, such as opening an app or triggering another shortcut.
Samsung offers this through the RegiStar module in Good Lock: I open Good Lock, install RegiStar, tap Back-tap action, turn it on, and then choose what I want the double-tap or triple-tap to do. I usually keep double-tap for screenshots because I use it constantly. But if screenshots aren’t your thing, assign the double-tap to something that you frequently do. Once you get used to having an invisible button for your everyday tasks, reaching through menus to perform them will feel unnecessarily slow and boring.
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I will stop letting my notifications disappear
One tap before they’re gone
Once I start my phone after a factory reset, I’m bombarded with notifications like there’s no tomorrow. They’re usually alerts about apps I’ve just installed, updates, emails, messages, and so on. When my notification panel starts filling up, I usually start swiping them away without thinking, not realizing that the important ones can easily get buried among all that noise.
That’s why enabling Notification History is one of the first things everyone should do. It keeps a record of recently dismissed notifications, so I can go back and check whether I’ve accidentally missed my mom’s message or a work email from my editor. On most Android phones, I go to Settings -> Notifications -> Advanced settings -> Notification History and turn it on. I don’t have to rely on my memory or hope that the notification pops up again after I dismiss it in a hurry.
It’s a tiny safety net, but now I don’t panic because I can retrace anything I’ve swiped away while I’m half asleep on a Sunday afternoon.
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I give myself more screen time
30 seconds are way too short sometimes
Credit: Sanya Shah/How-To Geek
A 30-second screen timeout is way too short, especially for me, since I’m constantly reading articles or following a recipe my husband sent me. The problem is that I don’t always touch my phone while I’m cooking, so the screen can turn off right when I need to check the next step. I’d rather give myself a few extra minutes than keep waking up my phone every time the screen goes dark.
On my Galaxy, I head to Settings -> Display -> scroll down until you see “Screen timeout” and increase the duration to 10 minutes. If your husband isn’t a foodie, you can choose a shorter duration that works for you. There’s also another handy option called Keep screen on while viewing, which uses the front camera to detect when you’re looking at the screen and keeps it on even if you’re not touching your phone. I turn this on, too. Just keep in mind that this feature may not be available on every Galaxy model or software version.
You’ll realize how useful these settings are when you don’t have them.
A fresh reset, my way
A factory reset gives me a clean slate, but I don’t want to stop there. I’d rather spend a few more minutes tweaking the settings I know I’ll use every day. So, the next time you do a factory reset on your Android phone, don’t rush to restore everything and call it done. Check these settings first, and your future self will thank you.