Got a New Android Phone? A Setup Checklist for Day One

Why so many new phones

The post began with holiday numbers: 3.7 million Android activations, a combined 6.8 million for Android and iOS (a rise of 353 per cent), and Canadians downloading 41 million apps. Many were upgrades, but plenty of people were using a new Android phone for the first time.

Eight steps

1. Sign in with a Google Account. It links your apps, contacts and calendar. Add new contacts to that account so they back up automatically.
2. Clear the screens. Manufacturers and carriers often pre-fill them. Long-press an icon, drag it to the trash, then plan your own layout.
3. Try a launcher (optional). The author had covered several launchers, preferred Go Launcher and was warming to ADW.
4. Change the wallpaper. Long-press the home screen and choose Wallpaper, or long-press a web image and pick “Set as Wallpaper”. Use a high-resolution image, because a tiny one looks bad.
5. Restore your apps. Open the Market, then My Apps, to find apps installed on earlier devices. Check for updates too. Some apps, such as Schemer and Currents, were not available in Canada because of regional limits.
6. Set up cloud sync. A smartphone is more useful when it can reach your files.
7. Add apps, folders and widgets. Long-press an icon in the app drawer to drop it on a screen. Long-press the home screen to add a folder or a widget. On Android 4.0 and later, drag one icon onto another to form a folder.
8. Pick your tones. Under Settings, then Sound, choose a phone ringtone and a notification tone. To use your own music, find the file and use “set as” for the ringtone. A trimming app such as RingDroid can cut a long intro. One favourite trick is recording a spoken word, such as “text message”, as the alert.